Overview
In April 2021, Bandai produced a tokusatsu show called Girl Gun Lady. The show focused on high school student Koharu, whose only hobby was building plastic models (much like ourselves in more ways than one), who after finding a store that wasn’t there yesterday, gets dragged into the Girl Gun Fight in a setup reminiscent of Kamen Rider Ryuki. In our opinion, the show wasn’t very good – it was quite edgy without having either too many goofy moments to lighten the load or taking itself so seriously that it would become awesome again. However, this isn’t a review of TV shows.
The show’s primary purpose was to promote various plastic model products, being as it was produced by Bandai. In addition to featuring kits from Bandai’s 30 Minute Label (then only consisting of Missions with Sisters on the horizon), Girl Gun Lady also came with its own kits, featuring the Lady Commanders from the show and associated weapons – indeed, the Lady Commander kits themselves figure heavily into the story.
Construction and Engineering
Girl Gun Lady comes at a very weird time in Bandai’s history of developing girlpla. At this point, they had already begun turning out 30 Minutes Sisters, which would become the standard girlpla template for them going forward, with Rishetta coming out not 3 months after the final episode of Girl Gun Lady. However, different teams worked on Girl Gun Lady’s toy side and 30 Minutes Sisters and it shows.
Overall, GGL kits are not very difficult. Their architecture is a point of both interest and frustration; while the kits do have a very distinct silhouette, their stability is somewhat off as a result, with a particular sticking point for us being the giant cones installed in the back of their heads. Their knee caps also have a distinct issue of constantly popping out, an issue neatly avoided by Sisters by not having any. Of interest is the fact that the special gun model kits that you can acquire can become vehicles for the Lady Commander kits. In our opinion, the vehicles aren’t fantastic looking, but it gives them another use aside from being cosplay props if you really liked Girl Gun Lady for whatever reason.
One of the annoying parts of building these kits is the foil stickers. Girl Gun Lady came at just the tail end of Bandai insisting on the use of foil stickers instead of the tampo-printed faces that are now industry standard, and thus rely heavily on using foil stickers. While these aren’t necessarily terrible, these aren’t a great experience to put on the face and stick out a like a sore thumb against other faceplates.
Aesthetics:
These kits are very weird in appearance, too, resembling taller Inklings rather than the more typically animesque aesthetics most other plamo lines go for, especially the Sisters that succeeded this line, and most of the kits more-or-less look like each other with swapped colors and faceplates. While not as poor aesthetically as some other lines and definitely a distinct look, people looking for something akin to Megami Device should look elsewhere.
Ease of Acquisition:
The kits are still in wide circulation in secondhand markets and are still being produced, despite the lackluster performance of the entire brand. Furthermore, the kits are fairly cheap being fairly close to the price points for 30 Minutes Sisters, only more for the combined sets that have the gun and the Lady Commander. We lucked out personally and managed to snag the lot in Japan itself for less than ¥1000 (£5/$6) per Lady Commander, but even if you don’t happen to be so lucky, do not fear – Girl Gun Lady kits are everywhere on the secondhand market and can still occasionally be found in sold in stores.
Personal Verdict?
Girl Gun Lady definitely stands out as a weird side tangent in Bandai’s history of girlpla, and if nothing else is an interesting, albeit failed attempt to get more people into the hobby. As a set of model kits, your money is best spent on other things. However, the kits aren’t too expensive, not too difficult, and ultimately, aren’t so horrid-looking as to blight your shelf should you decide to buy one. Ultimately, it’s a middling, but not terrible line, and if you feel like getting one, you will at least not regret it, given the low prices Girl Gun Lady go into.
Personal Recommendations:
Of the five, we liked Bianca and Daisy’s designs the most. We also loved the guns, our personal favorite being Alice’s gun.
Official Site: https://www.mbs.jp/girl_gun_lady/ (contains information on the show and the model kits, in Japanese)
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