Overview
Soukou Musume (tl. Armored Girls) was a spinoff of the Little Battlers Experience (Danball Senki) series of video games released in 2018. Encompassing a browser RPG, an anime released in 2021, a manga published in CoroCoro and, of course, model kits released by Kotobukiya, Soukou Musume was planned to be a fairly large multimedia franchise, based around the titular Musume, who are themselves based on the LBX robots, similarly to Frame Arms Girl being anthropomorphized versions of the Frame Arms mecha.
To this end, a manga was released in 2019 by Kawamoto Hiroshi (only known for a few other obscure works like Tenku Senki Shurato and Kensaku Hands), a gacha game was released in 2020 (only to reach end of service in 2021 as a result of the pandemic), with a TCG the following year alongside the anime.
It was not to be. Like many of the multimedia projects listed here, Soukou Musume came out to only modest success, and the project to this day seems to have petered out some time in 2022, with only three of the line’s kits being released; Karina Mikazuki and Sophia Katakura releasing in late 2020 and Tsugumi Kozakura, a collaboration kit with Yokai Watch releasing in 2022.
As an aside, though not girlpla and therefore not listed in this guide, Bandai actually has a line of LBX kits, including of Achilles (the base for Karina) and the Emperor (the base for Sophia).
Construction and Engineering
Rather uniquely among model kit lines, especially for one so small and short-lived, Soukou Musume has a gulf in quality between kits. Karina and Sophia are fairly subpar by Kotobukiya standards; while the plastic quality is as expected, their faces and designs are not as good as their counterparts in Megami Device, being more reminiscent of early Frame Arms Girl designs. Tsugumi, coming out two years later, on the other hand, is a fairly high quality kit, with good proportions, quality and aesthetics.
Overall, however, the line is as expected from Kotobukiya, design jankness aside, and so one can reasonably expect it to be of high quality in engineering and construction. However, one gets the sense that, after the lukewarm reception of everything involved with Soukou Musume, Kotobukiya wasn’t too invested in doing their best.
Aesthetics:
Aesthetics-wise, the kits that exist benefit from being fantasy-influenced despite being based initially on a mecha series, which makes them stand out on a shelf. However, Karina and Sophia are, as mentioned above, infamously janky kits appearance-wise, which can be a demerit. Once again, the absolute standout is Tsugumi, whose cute catgirl design based on Jibanyan makes her pretty unique-looking against other catgirl kits on the market.
Ease of Acquisition:
While Tsugumi is fairly cheap to acquire on the secondhand market, usually going for about ¥4000 (£19/$25) at the cheapest, the same cannot be said for Karina and Sophia, who usually start around ¥6800 (£32/$43) and command prices as high as ¥8000 (£40/$53) if you can find them at all.
Personal Verdict?
A quirky line to be sure, Soukou Musume is ultimately nothing to write home about. While possessing the same quality builds – faceplates aside – as the rest of Kotobukiya’s lineup, the line was not particularly successful. Still, they’re good kits for what they are, and you won’t regret buying one should you be so fortunate as to run into one on the secondhand market.
Personal Recommendations:
Tsugumi by far – while Karina has a far more striking silhouette and design, Tsugumi is an all-around solid kit with a cute aesthetic worthy of being homed on any shelf.
Official Site: https://www.kotobukiya.co.jp/en/title/soukoumusume/ (for kit information)
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