New Toy] "Bren Powered" Revived for the 24th Time! Interview with the person in charge of ROBOT Soul "Nelly Bren" & "Himebren" release commemoration!

I'll live even if you don't ask me to!

With such a punchy catchphrase, the anime "Bren Powered" aired. The main characters of the anime, "Nellybren" and "Himebren," are now available as products under BANDAI SPIRITS' "ROBOT Soul" toy brand. Pre-orders are now being accepted.

Bren Powered" aired in 1998 and was directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of numerous robot anime such as "Mobile Suit Gundam," "Saint Dunbine," and "Heavy Fighter Elgaim," and was scrambled and broadcast as WOWOW's first paid anime.

This work depicts the battle between the Reclaimer, which is trying to abandon the Earth and take on the Orphan, and the Novice Noah, which was built to stop it, over the Orphan, a mysterious giant life form that wants to take all bio-energy and fly off into space. The story is that the enemy side fights on a gruncher and the ally side fights on a robotic life form called a "blenpowered" anti-body.

However, what is depicted in the film is not intense robot action, but rather the bond between people and people, and between people and antibodies.

Depending on one's point of view, this work was a precursor to "Tribe Gundam," "OVERMAN King Gainer," and other works with a kind of idyllic mood that would later be seen in Tomino's anime.

The main character robots of these unique works are scheduled to be released this fall as "Soul Web Store" items within Premium Bandai.

Mr. Yasunobu Amagasa of BANDAI SPIRITS' Collectors Division spoke to us about the appeal of the product and his passion for "Bren Powered!

We ask him about the behind-the-scenes of the 24th revival of ......!

─ ─ I was as surprised as I was pleased to hear that Nellybren and Himebren from "Bren Powered" would appear in ROBOT Soul this time. At the time of the anime broadcast, Himebren was only available as a plastic model, and then a Yubren plastic model was released by Premium Bandai. ......

Amagasa That's right. There were far fewer goods for this work. Yubren was also released much later.

─ ─ Also, you could get a garage kit of Ubren as a bonus for purchasing all the LD volumes, or something like that. ......

Amagasa You know very well (laughs). I remember that the garage kits were quite sharply modeled, or rather, they were items with distinctive arrangements.

As far as I remember, there were a lot of good garage kits from various places back then, but in terms of so-called mass-produced items, I think the only one that was released was a key chain from Banpresto as a prize (prize).

─ ─ They were SD anti-body goods, weren't they? By the way, can you tell us about your memories of "Bren Powered"?

Amagasa: At first, I remember being puzzled by the mismatch between the characters' conversations and the inability to grasp their emotional movements. After that, I was playing recorded videos as environmental music while doing things like making plastic models as a hobby, and at a certain point, my confusion suddenly cleared up. It was like a Japanese teacher saying, "Read the story over and over again" (laughs). I realized that "this is a great work," and from that point on, I was instantly absorbed in it.

─ ─ It is true that "Blenpowered" is a mysterious work that you can appreciate its charm by rewatching it several times. First of all, as far as you can tell, can you tell us how you came to commercialize it?

Amagasa: I think it's true that the WOWWOW scramble broadcasts set a high hurdle for viewers. Compared to other works broadcast on terrestrial wave, the actual number of viewers was small, and it is understandable that this was a hurdle to commercialization at the time.
However, as I mentioned earlier, the work becomes very attractive after watching it many times over time, and as more than 20 years have passed since its original broadcast, the "organic" messages and events depicted in the play suddenly fit perfectly, and in recent years I have felt a sense that the "times have caught up with the work".

When I contacted Sunrise (now Namco Bandai Filmworks), the copyright holder, about commercialization, and was told that a BD-BOX would be released just in time, I thought, "Now is my chance," and I took it!

───Did you decide to include both Nellybren and Himebren in the lineup this time because they are the two main characters' robots?

Amagasa: Yes, that's right. In the case of Nellybren, it had never been made into a mass-produced figure before, and in the case of Z Gundam, it was as if Gundam Mk-II had been commercialized and Z Gundam had not, so we felt we had to do it. At first, we thought of releasing the Yuubren and then the Himebren, and then the ......, but we didn't want to make the customers wait too long. I thought that the most desired Bren Powered would be Nellie Bren, and the most desired Gruncher would be Baron Zhu.

So, I wanted to respond to the fans' enthusiasm by commercializing Nelly Bren, the first mass-produced figure of Nelly Bren! I thought.

─ ─ And the second figure is Himebren.

Amagasa: Of course, it's a natural choice, since it's Hima's main character and the face of the work, but another reason is that there are many situations in the movie where Himebren is a good partner for Nellybren. The "ROBOT Soul" brand places importance on reproducing situations in the movie, and the "ROBOT Soul ver. A.N.I.M.E." series, which is currently being developed for the Gundam series, has been well received by users. This time, although the figure does not bear the title "ver. We wanted to reproduce all the scenes depicted in the anime.

If there is a scene in the anime where the character is sitting, I want the product to be able to sit down as well. That is the concept behind this product.

───This time, both products are Premium Bandai exclusive, aren't they?

Amagasa: In the past, when we developed a new series of ROBOT Soul, we would usually sell the first product in hobby stores and mass retailers so that as many customers as possible would see it.

This was a challenge based on our consideration of recent market changes, and we decided to create a situation in which customers can see the information on the website and purchase the product without hesitation.

Design and modeling with special attention to detail.

─ Now, let's take it in our hands and play with it! First of all, it's huge! I don't remember the "Soul of Robot" being this big! (lol) ...... And the range of motion is really wide. It looks like it can be posed in a variety of poses.

Amagasa: The size of the figure was determined to be optimal based on the detailed details and gimmick structure. On the other hand, without this volume, it would not be possible to express the "character" of Bren Powered. The figure was designed to be movable, so that it can be reproduced as it was in the movie. Bren's battle scenes do not involve many difficult actions, so we were able to make them easy. Vital jumps in upright flight are an amazing invention (laughs).

─ ─ I think people who rather like "Bren Powered" will understand that feeling (laugh). Anyway, I have a strong impression of Bren Powered in everyday life, sitting or holding hands, rather than in battle scenes.

Amagasa: There are many scenes that are somewhat idyllic, or have a sense of everyday life that would later lead to the "Tribe Gundam" series, so I tried to recreate those scenes. Whenever I talk with prototype designers in the planning stage, I always try to decide what kind of poses I want to include in this product before starting the project. Normally, we would talk about cool battle poses or special move scenes, but for Bren Powerade, we started by discussing the pose of him on all fours or sitting on his buttocks. It wasn't like, "Oh, this scene in that fight scene! I didn't start with the "this scene" of the battle scene.

─ ─ Of course, there were many cool battle scenes like chakra extensions.

Amagasa: I was also impressed by the scene where the chakra shield stops the missile swarm, and Nellie Bullen fights with Baron Zhu in the last episode. Of course, we made it possible to recreate those scenes as well.

─ ─ The body shape is also balanced and "just like Bren! The balance of the figure has been put together in such a way that it looks exactly like "Bren". What did you pay attention to when sculpting the figure?

Amagasa: To be honest, until I started working on this project, I wasn't sure if the design would work well as a three-dimensional figure. However, it would be nice if he could pose softly like a living creature. It would be nice if it could be posed on all fours like in the movie. I expressed my rough idea of what I wanted to do to the prototype designer, who was also a fan of "Bren," and we started from there.

As you can see on the back of the knee, we made it look like the fins are combined with each other to reproduce Bren's plate-spring structure. Normally, the joints would be made by sandwiching one plate between two plates, but in this case, the structure is a combination of three plates and two plate springs.

It is not possible to reproduce the plate spring structure perfectly, but I tried to reproduce it as "as it should be" in detail.

─ I think that the atmosphere of the model is well reproduced.

Amagasa: To be honest, the amount of information in the original drawings is so large that if we tried to reproduce it completely, we would only be able to create something that doesn't move, like a garage kit, which is a frustrating point. I think the fact that you can move Bren by yourself, rather than just admiring it, is an unprecedented attraction.

───The joints and other parts have been made to match the cross-section of the figure, so there is no sense of discomfort. The color behind the ears is also well done, and the painting is very detailed.

Amagasa: The only thing that was adventurous this time was the use of clear parts. The orange clear parts of the Bren Powerade are drawn as if the inner color of the product is exposed. When we thought about how we could bring out this different feeling, we decided to use clear parts as an interpretation of the toy.

─ ─ This is a nice accent.

Amagasa: Thank you very much. In the movie, when the figure is drawn long, there is a slight orange color on it, so I thought it would not be so strange.

───You have successfully blended the impression of the setting picture with that of the screen, haven't you?

Amagasa: Yes. There are a variety of settings from the initial settings to the final draft. This time, I used them as fertilizer, and while following the settings of the anime, I valued the image depicted in the video.

──There are a lot of hand parts.

Amagasa: Various parts are included. There are two types of flat hands, one normal and one bent at 90 degrees, as well as a hand that holds a blember. Weapons, too, the standard armament that appeared in the play is included in the set. The missile launcher and microwave generator, which are not included this time, should be able to be supplemented in later developments.

──A figure of the pilot looking out of the cockpit is also included, isn't it?

Amagasa: I wanted to reproduce that part. I think that one of the characteristics of Tomino's anime is that the pilots talk directly to each other even though they are riding in the cockpit of a robot. They go out of their way to look out of the cockpit and argue with each other all the time. I have the impression that "Bren Powered" is like that every time (laughs).

(Laughs) That is what makes "Bren Powered" unique. It's a robot story, but it's not a mecha story! It's more like a partner of the main character. People in that world say things like, "You're so majestic," or "You have kind eyes. If I were to use an analogy, it would be the relationship between a horse and a human.

A pilot who listens to and accepts his partner's thoughts and feelings becomes "Bren," so I tried to keep that in mind.

─ ─ Another thing that caught my attention was the treatment of the large fin on the side of Nelly Bren's head.

Amagasa: Originally, the head was designed not to move, no matter how you look at it. When I rewatched the anime to see how it was depicted in the anime, I found that it was bent like a vinyl material. I thought it would have to be made of a soft material, which was impossible, so I made a movable part. We had to be creative with the gimmick.

Aim! Complete anti-body!

─ ─ I'm glad to see that Nellybren and Himebren have arrived this time, so it would be nice to have the enemy side as well. Can we also expect ...... Baronessou and Gruncher?

Amagasa: You can expect as much as you want! (Laughs)

─ ─ I understand that there are various hurdles to overcome. ...... (laughs).

Amagasa: Normally, that's a pretty high hurdle to overcome. So I think it's right to just shake them off. I think it is still better to be told that "the price and specifications are too much" than to be told that the product is easy to buy but poorly made. So, we are still working on the specifications, but the project is underway.

─ Oh, I see! As for Bren, we can have a certain amount of color variation.

Amagasa: In my mind, I'm somewhat looking forward to that dream. This time, each Bren has its own hand parts, and if we connect these hand parts, we can recreate the scene shown in the last episode, where the Brens are holding hands. In other words, the more Bren you have, the more you can make them hold hands indefinitely (laughs).

─ ─ Come to think of it, in the last episode, Schiller's gruncher was also holding hands, wasn't he ......?

Amagasa: Now that you mention it, I guess I'll have to bring out the Gruncher as well (laughs). Also, two Brenchilds. Nellie, and Bren, Gruncher, and Barondu. With the two Brenchilds, we can simply make six prototypes to reproduce all the anti-bodies that appear in the work. The same shape of Bren in the setting has slightly different height and body shape, but please turn a blind eye to that. We hope that you will encourage us to create more and more Brens so that we can finally reach the twin Brens. If you do that, I'll add the fighter plane IRAND as an extra bonus!

─ ─ If this happens, I would like to see all the variations that appeared in the anime sculpted.

Amagasa: Personally, I would like to commercialize the U.S. Army Gruncher. It is green and has the mark of the U.S. Army. ...... It's cool, isn't it?

─ ─ As a fan myself, I am looking forward to the release even more. Lastly, please give us your enthusiasm for the completion of the film and a message to your fans.

Amagasa: I think many people noticed how clearly "Bren" looks after seeing it remastered with the latest technology in the recent Blu-ray box set. There is an aspect of this product that is in step with such high resolution.

Nowadays, if there are 10 settings, it is natural to reproduce 10 settings in a product, and the important thing is how to add interpretation. In this case, I think it is something like clear parts.

I only had that image from the beginning, but some people said, "What? For better or worse, I think the low resolution of TVs at the time was a major factor in evoking images in the viewer. While various images exist depending on the viewer, I would be happy if the image is close to the user's image. Nelly Brenn is available for pre-order until June 5, so please pick up a copy!

Product Information

ROBOT Soul ＜SIDE ANTIBODY＞ Nelly Bren

Retail price: 8,800 yen (tax included)

Delivery date: Scheduled to ship in September 2022

Order deadline: June 5, 2022 at 23:00

Click here to purchase

<Company Profile

　 Bren Powered

<Main product contents

　Main body

　4 replacement wrists (left and right)

　Brember (for Nelly Bren)