I am now a shiny stone~
Another trailer arrives :D
edited 8th Mar '17 7:47:31 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
I am now a shiny stone~
TWO MONTHS LATER
Frame Arms Girls is a line of Mecha Musume action figure kits produced by Kotobukiya.
Introduced by Kotobukiya to fill in the Mecha Musume void left in the market after Konami stopped further production of Busou Shinki, the FA Girls are also an attempt to make the original series Frame Arms mechs more accessible and appealing by turning the robots into cuter robot girls.
In a fashion rather like the Shinki, FA Girls have a lot of articulation and a modular pegs/parts system that leverages Kotobukiya's universal Mobile Support Goods (MSG) accessories for their model kits and action figures.
Anime previews for FA Girls were released over the turning of the calendar from 2016 to 2017, as Kotobukiya is working on an OVA series for their girls that will ship in late Q3 2017.
Here's a trailer for the FA Girls OVA.
A manga about these girls, Frame Arms Girls: Lab Days, was also produced starting in early 2017.
Learn about the Girls at their character page.
Compare them to their duelling sister line, Megami Device.
Tropes demonstrated by the Frame Arms Girls:
- Badass Adorable: Well yeah, these girls are sweethearts and are loaded for intense combat.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Just like their Shinki predecessors, they lack certain female attributes.
- Cute Machines: Just like Shinki and the Megami Device girls, they are adorable.
- Dangerously Short Skirt: Several of the FA girls have one.
- Distaff Counterpart: The girls are such for the original Frame Arms mecha.
- Emergency Weapon: All FA girls ship with a simple combat knife and a holster/sheathe for it that plugs into the 3mm sockets on their bodies.
- Fanservice: Some of the FA girls, like Gourai and Stylet, actually come with decals to decorate their underwear and make it look more like panties.
- Mecha Musume: Very much so. Gourai has tank treads in her feet, Stylet bristles with wings and flight control surfaces, and Hresvelgr has a 'visor' built in.
- Powered Armor: Their combat armor and rigging gives the impression of such, and are portrayed accordingly in the OVA and the Lab Days manga.
- Shes Got Legs: As Materia, Baselard, Hresvelgr, and Innocentia demonstrate, without armor FA Girls have long and shapely legs.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: With some of the BFG style weapons the girls come with, they invoke this motif. You can help strengthen it with MSG series weapons.
- Stripperiffic: Materia, Innocentia, and Jinrai, with the "second generation" style hip and waist construction, have very skimpy underpants that are very thonglike. Gourai, Stylet, and Architect have short skirts that don't really hide their panties.
anime.Frame Arms Girls
Frame Arms Girls is an OVA series about the toyline produced by Kotobukiya that is slated to be released in Q3 2017.
Ao Gennai is an ordinary school girl who one day receives the 15cm tall Gourai in the mail one day, thus inducting her into the world of Frame Arms Girls. She quickly acquires a Stylet and a Baselard to round out her 'family' of adopted FA Girls.
Here's a PV trailer for the FA Girls OVA with English subs.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: As shown in the PV on Kotobukiya's Youtube channel, Gourai has an interesting reaction to having her charger plugged into her.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: While Gourai is technically too stoic for this role, nevertheless she joins Stylet and Baselard in introducing Ao Gennai to the joys of taking care of little robot girls.
manga.Frame Arms Girls Lab Days
Frame Arms Girls: Lab Days is an ongoing manga about the FA Girls toyline produced by Kotobukiya, featuring Gourai as one of several FA Girls living in a laboratory and partaking in research with her Meisters. Despite her stoic nature, she quickly makes friends with the energetic Stylet and the girlishly charming Baselard.
More info about the FA Girls can be found on the general FA Girls Character page.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Hresvelgr challenges Gourai to a quick spar in Chapter 1 and overwhelms her with experience, speed and strength.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: In chapter 3, Stylet squeals out loudly when Gourai quietly sticks the charging plug into her back, and tells her "not to jam it in without warning" in a fashion that could be taken out of context.
characters.Frame Arms Girls
These are the characters of the Frame Arms Girls franchise.
The FA Girls
Gourai (and Gourai KAI)
The first Frame Arms Girl, and also one of the protagonists in both the OVA and the Lab Days manga. She has a tanklike armor style.- BFG: Her massive cannon-rifle, which a modular weapon that can be configured either as a handheld cannon or a shoulder-mounted gun.
- Fanservice Pack: Her KAI remodel, which makes her armor more streamlined and flattering to her figure and increases her bust size. Of course, it is also intended to include a technical upgrade to her joints and construction.
- The Stoic: She is consistently shown with a subdued, neutral expression in her boxart, the OVA adaptation, and in the Lab Days manga. The Gourai in Lab Days has a justification for her stoicness, as she is an experimentally modified Gourai made to test if she can develop emergent emotions.
Stylet
The second FA girl, and one of the major characters in the OVA and Lab Days. Her armor is modeled after a jet fighter. In Lab Days, she quickly becomes fast friends with Gourai and Baselard, and is one of the most emotional and expressive FA girls.- Buttmonkey: Her portrayl in the Lab Days manga is shaping up to portray her as such, as she loses to Hresvelgr and ends up having to console her Meister when the researcher ends up crying, and gets spooked when Baselard starts telling spooky stories one night. Gourai even j-j-jams in a charging plug to her when her back is turned without warning, although admittedly she talked about needing to recharge after struggling to carry Gourai and fly over to Baselard's room.
- Gatling Good: She ships with a small but intimidating gatling gun.
- Girlish Pigtails: Her stock hairstyle is long twintails.
- Jetpack: She has one that plugs to her back.
- Katanas Are Just Better: She ships with a katana and a wakizashi.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The Stylet in Lab Days is afraid of scary stories.
Architect
Architect is modeled after the bare frame of the Frame Arms mecha, from which she gets her name.- Pile Bunker: her powered gauntlets can be swapped for these.
- Power Fist: her signature weapons are a massive pair of powered gauntlets.
Materia
Unlike most of the other FA girls, Materia ships with no weapons. She might well represent a 'blank', a FA girl with no advanced combat armor or weapons.Baselard
Baselard is one of the major characters in the OVA, and is introduced in chapter 3 of the Lab Days manga, where she demonstrates the habit of festooning things with stickers.- Beam Spam: Her fighting style as shown in the OVA's PV trailer involves large amounts of beam rifle fire.
- Expy: Her default colour scheme, hairstyle (and construction of her hairstyle's articulation joint), and Hime Cut make her one for the Busou Shinki Oorbellen.
- Frickin' Laser Beams: Her stock weapon loadout features a number of beam rifles that can be attached to her combat rigging.
- Genki Girl : Her portrayl in both the OVA adaption and the Lab Days manga is very cheerful and friendly. Planned future releases for Baselard include a limited-edition smiling faceplate to reflect her cheerful smile in the OVA PV trailer.
- Hime Cut: Her hairstyle is long and straight and even.
- Playboy Bunny: Her body style is modeled as such, with tights, high heels, Opera Gloves with cuffs, and her head crest functioning as her bunny ears.
Jinrai
Jinrai is an oddity in that she does not embody any of the official Frame Arms mechs. Rather, she embodies a heavily customized Gourai.- Blade On A Stick: She has a modular weapon handle that can fit weapons, allowing her to turn her knives into spear heads.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: With her rearranged Gourai armor parts and her bright magenta/fuschia colour scheme, she stands out with her slight ninja-esque look. With her darker alternate colour scheme, she looks more stealthy and has a stronger ninja styling.
- Knife Nut: She comes with a large array of knives and bladed weapons in a variety of shapes and sizes, from a standard combat dagger all FA girls ship with to some wickedly curved blades.
- Sinister Scythe: She comes with a kama and a modular weapon handle that allows her to turn it into a scythe.
Hresvelgr
Hres turns up as a FA girl eager to duel with Gourai as soon as she meets her in the first chapter of the Lab Days manga. She wins their first spar. Her kit comes with a massive amount of parts for her weapons and combat armor.- Blood Knight: In the Lab Days manga, the Hresvelgr who first meets Gourai is extremely eager to duel her.
- Boobs Of Steel: In the Lab Days manga, she has the largest bust and is one of the best FA girls in combat in the lab, being strong enough to do more than half of Gourai's simulated lifebar in damage in a single strike during their spar as her first attack.
- Expy: Her 'Ater' alternate colour scheme makes her resemble Angela Balzac.
- Knife Nut: The Hresvelgr in Lab Days is not too upset by her combat armor requiring maintenance and settles for dual-wielding a pair of intimidating long knives.
- Rapunzel Hair: Her long twintails in her 'Ater' alternate style would extend below her waistline if unravelled.
- School Swimsuit: Her body is modeled with one.
Innocentia
Innocentia has three unique features: She ships with a smaller pair of feet made to fit 1/12 scale doll's shoes (like the ones made by AZONE) and a pair of bare feet with toes, she has a bust not plated over with armor, and she is a catgirl. Oh, and she has a really sly smug smile.- Catgirl: She comes with optional cat-ears for her hairstyle, and her ponytail(s) can be repurposed as a cat tail.
- Ms. Fanservice: Compared to other FA girls, her gimmick seems to be "cute smug barefoot catgirl with significant boobs."
Charger-kun/chan
While not exactly a FA Girl, Charger is a mostly-featureless humanoid charger used to recharge the FA Girls. Presumably there's a voltage transformer inside somewhere. Yes, Kotobukiya plans to release a model kit for Charger.- Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the OVA and Lab Days, the FA girls react in interesting ways when Charger's power cable is plugged into their back.
- Gonk: Charger isn't exactly ugly, but its featureless form makes it look odd when juxtaposed with the very human-looking FA girls.
(FA Girl shown at Wonder Festival 2017)
- BFG: Her shoulder gun is massive.
- Expy: Her helm and chestplate vaguely resemble Metal Gear REX's cockpit/face.
The Humans in the media (Under construction, and could use a little Wiki Magic love)
Ao Gennai
An Ordinary High-School Student from the OVA, she receives Gourai in the mail one day. Stylet and Baselard soon join her.(researcher 1)
Gourai's Meister in the Lab Days manga(researcher 2)
Hresvelgr's Meister in the Lab Days manga(Researcher 3)
Stylet's Meister in the Lab Days manga(Researcher 4)
Baselard's Meister in the Lab Days mangaYeah, I'm working on pages for these girls. If they're ready enough, time to snip and publish the pages.
edited 8th Mar '17 7:46:16 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
For Architect, she's based on the Frame Architect, the frame of the Frame Arms unit. Her fists can also be switched into Pile Bunker.
I am now a shiny stone~
Thanks, added to my source file.
(I am mildly alarmed that a couple hours of hammering text into notepad can produce a nearly feature-complete and very tropeable work page plus spinoff work pages and character page. Tropes really flow in my blood now)
UPDATE: Aaaaaaaaaaaand launched :D
edited 11th Mar '17 9:23:51 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
I am now a shiny stone~
ONE MONTH LATER
Oh hey the TV Series Episode 1 is out. (Goes and watches it Elsewhere on the Internet)
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
One episode in and I think this is already slightly better than Busou Shinki, with characters that seem a little more interesting. The CGI battle scene was reasonably good for CGI. Overall this seems to be a relatively fun series.
In most aspects, the anime is better than Busou Shinki. The only problem I have is the clothing designs of the Frame Arms Girls, Gourai in particular. Who in the right mind would design a dress so short that panty shots occur very often? This leads to fanservice moments that really distracts from the otherwise interesting story. Do the girls' makers need to make her moan upon getting plugged as well?
I will admit that although I don't tend to notice fanservice these days, even I thought the panty shots were a little gratuitous in places but that was only a, mostly humorous, minor issue that didn't really distract me.
Another thing I did find amusing was the bird attacks against the drone deliveries, one of the things I have wondered about with real life drone deliveries.
edited 4th Apr '17 3:41:47 AM by SebastianGray
I am now a shiny stone~
The anime artwork bowdlerizes Jinrai and the Materia Twin's thongs into something less scandalous.
Also they gave Materia the MSG wheelblade/whip-chainsword.
Hahahahaha they went all out with the plamo stuff with the Koto inhouse brand nippers, all the runners, and the cutting mat and tools in the credits sequence.
Also in the Lab Days manga Gourai sneakily sticks the charger in Stylet when her back is turned, eliciting a HYAAAAAAH reaction and a demand not to stick it in without warning.
D'aaaaaaw Baselard a best :3 She sleeps so adorably :3
edited 4th Apr '17 4:55:00 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
The first episode was way more fun than a show that's basically an advertisement of a toy line has any right to be. I like the nice, lighthearted tone and the characters are cute and endearing. I don't actually mind the CGI battles here, they look reasonably good.
I always find it funny when such absurdly advanced technology is used for things like children toys. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Oh yeah, the nippers advertising was really on the nose.
edited 4th Apr '17 6:13:46 AM by Shlugo_the_great
I am now a shiny stone~
I like how lazy Ao is, she's totes fine with mothering a growing gaggle of FA girls and sending research data to Kotobukiya for easy money so she doesn't need to go find a real job
That crow being driven off by the drone defending itself with a fun-sized gun was amusing too.
edited 4th Apr '17 6:15:42 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
Dude, Ao is living the dream right now. Keep cute robot girls in her house, watch them do cool battles and get paid for it? Where do I sing up for that?
I am now a shiny stone~
I want that job too ;_;
Also the OP features other FA Girls. Both versions of Materia are appearing as twins, Jinrai's in her black repaint with an eyepatch to differentiate her from Gourai, Architect is mass-produced, and Hresvelgr looks to be the designated antagonist :V
Also the 'dollhouse' Ao looks to be getting her girls looks great. Baselard's is heavily decorated, Gourai got a locker and a mini armory, Jinrai got the attic, and poor Stylet has only got cardboard furniture.
edited 4th Apr '17 6:20:32 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
I feel I'm missing like half the jokes, since I don't know much about the stuff this is based on.
I am now a shiny stone~
What d'ya feel like ya missin' out on?
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
Shocking Gun!
The whole model kit aspect, I assume.
Continue the bloodline, Fujimaru!
The i. one.
Fanservice is really gonna drag this thing down. Those panty shots were just atrocious, and half of them at impossible angles to boot.
What's the point of assembling the armour? They weren't wearing any visible armour pieces stepping into the AR field thing, and it just forms once the fight starts?
Not really an interesting fight. Flying Girl just stops shooting and then lets Wutsherrface jump at her and win in one attack. All right then.
The next few episodes really need to pick up, 'cause whatever good things this episode had was ridiculously overshadowed by forced, horrible fanservice and a pretty bland battle.
Like, I'm pretty sure each girl will have quirks that can only be understood if you know something about the models they are based on, stuff like that.
I am now a shiny stone~
They aren't that heavily based on the original Frame Arms mechs tho. They're just a moe-ified Distaff Counterpart.
Has to be assembled and wearble before it can be registered for battle, duh. It's a plamo thing. Also Stylet got cocky and Gourai git gud.
Still surprised Innocentia isn't in the anime yet, catgirls are popular.
edited 4th Apr '17 8:05:50 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
So battles are done in VR space or something like it, but the girls can also fight in the real world? Or at least that's what it seemed like?
It was all a bit clunky but fun, save for the pantyshots, which didn't add much to this. They seemed to be there just on instinct. Oh, this is some sort of nerd toy advert anime, better stick in some blue striped pantsu.
I am now a shiny stone~
Nah, that's an actual show accuracy to the real FA Girls kits.
Outside of the VR arena their weapons seem to basically be airsoft.
Add: Episode 2 on Monday :V Also I've started the YMMV page for this.
edited 9th Apr '17 12:57:06 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
I am now a shiny stone~
ONE WEEK LATER
Episode 2, episode 2 :D
The one in which Stylet simultaenously has lingering trauma over losing to Gourai and develops feelings for her, and kisses can be OHKO moves.
Also Ao is a clutz and steps on one of Stylet's wings late one night.
edited 10th Apr '17 5:02:05 PM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
The third season of Gundam Build Fighters is looking great. I do have to question the choice of making the design philosophy from that one pervert in the second season a widespread thing, tho.
If this wasn't a cute-girls-do-cute-things show (with some breaks where the girls beat each other up), I would be a little worried about leaving a teenager in charge of a A.I. still in her developmental stage. Just in the second episode we already have one of the girls going through a crisis when she though she could not function properly, with the others trying to solve it via shock therapy.
I am now a shiny stone~
It's funny how Lab Days makes Gourai hilariously outclassed by Hres where in the anime she's basically one-shotting anyone she actually manages to hit.
Mind you, the original Gourai mech she was based on had terrible accuracy.
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
Frame Arms Girls are Kotobukiya's own mecha musume-ization of their in-house Frame Arms modular mech model kitline, utilizing Humida's artwork. Yes, the same Humida who was the lead designer of the Busou Shinki FRONTLINE series shinkis and Sky Girls and Strike Witches.
The three shown girls are GOURAI
(grey/brown armor with tank treads and cannons), STYLET
(Blue flight armor), and BASELARD
(white-and-blue Playboy Bunny with winged armor).
(Yes, I have the kits for all three girls. Yes, there are MORE Frame Arms Girls out there - JINRAI
, the custom-built Gourai variant, ARCHITECT
, who has Big O styled Power Fist weapons, MATERIA
, the 'blank' Frame Arms Girl who has no weapons, HRESVELGR
, an aquatic/winged girl with a School Swimsuit underarmor, and INNOCENTIA
, the twintailed catgirl with an actual breastplate.)
And yes, in what appears to be an attempt to utterly cement their claim on the mecha musume stake in the market that will fill the Busou Shinki-sized void that Konami left, Kotobukiya is working on an anime adaptation for their Frame Arms Girls.
Toy workpage for Frame Arms Girls
Anime workpage for Frame Arms Girls
Todo: get MORE information about the anime and translations of the model kit documentations and lore before attempting to create the pages.
edited 25th Nov '16 12:37:45 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!