Interview] Atlanger is back! Aoshima Bunka Kyozai-sha asks about the "New Combined Series" that will be launched on the 96th anniversary of the company's founding!

Aoshima Bunka Kyozai's "Combined Series" of plastic models was a huge hit from the 1970s to the mid-1980s, and was one of the first to incorporate specifications that are commonplace today, such as the use of replacement parts, the use of colorful plastic molding colors, and snap-fit models that do not use glue.

In the 1970s, when it was commonplace to commercialize characters and robots from anime and special effects movies, Aoshima was one of the first to invent the original "Atlanger" robot from a kit, and the "Gattai Series," which attracted kids from all over Japan, will return in 2020 as the "New Gattai Series.

What kind of products will the "New Combination Series," which will be revived in the memorial year of the 96th anniversary of Aoshima Bunka Kyozai Co. And what kind of people are working on it? We asked Mr. Masahiro Kubota of Aoshima Bunka Kyozai-sha, and Mr. Kei Shimizu and Mr. Keita Yagyu of the hobby manufacturer Rampage, which is involved in the planning and design of the series.

--Please tell us how the "New Combination Series" came to be started.

Shimizu: I was originally in charge of plastic models such as "Dougram" at Max Factory, but when I left the company, Mr. Kubota of Aoshima (Aoshima Cultural Materials Co., Ltd.) asked me, "If you quit, why don't we work together on robot models? Mr. Kubota asked me, "If you quit, would you like to work on a robot project with us? Mr. Kubota asked me if I would like to work on Sunrise's 80's robots like "Dougram". But Aoshima had a good robot called Atlanger, so I asked him, "Since we're here, why don't we do Atlanger? That was the beginning of the idea. I said, "Well, copyrighted material is fine, but if we have our own IP, why not make the most of it?

Yagyu: From there, Rampage wrote a new proposal for the "Combined Series." At first, we started with the pure idea of reviving the Atlanger, but then we realized that we wanted something unique to Aoshima.

The old "Combined Series" had a history of taking what was popular at the time - supercars, the Zero fighter, the "Yamato" and so on - and turning them into a series. Then I thought, what if we combined the hottest items of the moment, plastic models of girls and Atlantis, and that's how it came to be what it is today.

Besides, I thought it would be better from a business standpoint to use the highly recognized Atlanger again than to start an original IP from scratch with Rampage and Aoshima.

This is the original! The Combined Robot Atlanger

--Rampage: Did you both grow up playing with the Atlanger and other plastic models of the "Combined Robot Series"?

Shimizu: As a generation, we are slightly different. I started to get into plastic models when the Gunpla subgenre was at its peak, so my own impression was that Atlanger was something that had become popular a while ago. It wasn't until I became an adult that I learned that the Atlanger had established an era. (*Note: Atlanger appeared in 1975.)

Yagyu: I am two years younger than Shimizu, so I am of the generation that came along a little after the boom. Since I am not from the Atlanger generation, I actually bought only one plastic model. However, I remember that they were color plastic models that could be assembled by fitting together, and that they were very unconventional.

Nowadays, the gimmicks of replacing, reassembling, and combining are more common, but I had the feeling that "Aoshima originally paved the way 40 years ago," and in that sense, I wanted to do the Atlanger again.

--Kubota: What was Atlanger's position in Aoshima's mind when the project came up?

Kubota: Atlanger itself is a special IP for Aoshima, and it is an important character and product in the company's history. I was the youngest member of the project team and did not have much knowledge about Atlanger before joining Aoshima, but it was a special character that everyone in the company, young and old, male and female, knew. I also talked to the members of the Atlanger development team who were still with the company at the time, so I asked them about it.

We also received many requests from users, such as "Can you make a new Atlanger product? We also received many requests from users such as "Can you make new Atlanger products?" and inquiries from other companies and One Festival dealers. ...... Aoshima is not a company that owns a lot of IP, but Atlanger is the only one that we consistently receive inquiries about game and anime adaptations every few years.

However, since we have known Atlanger for such a long time, we are well aware of what is wrong with the character and often ask ourselves, "Will the users be happy if we do that now? There were often comments from within the company, such as, "If we do that now, will the users be happy with it? For Aoshima, Atlantia has both good and bad aspects, good and bad memories.

As Mr. Shimizu of Rampage mentioned earlier, when we received the proposal to do Atlantier, we were very pleased to hear it from within the company. When we received the proposal to do Atlanger, some people in the company said, "Oh, Atlanger?　Shouldn't we do a copyrighted work? (laughs).

Yagyu: When we received the proposal from Aoshima, I thought to myself, "If we are going to do a robot, it should be Atlanger! I remember there was a big difference in temperature. As I mentioned earlier, I think the fact that I know so much about it, even though I am from a different generation, means that it is probably well known to every generation. So, rather than doing a trendy cartoon robot, I decided to go back to basics and re-launch Aoshima's Atlanger.

--Have you received any feedback from Rampage or Aoshima about this announcement?

Shimizu: I thought that the original art exhibition held in March would only be responded to by people of the generation who knew about that time, but when I opened the door, I found that the response was from a wide range of generations, so I thought that the modeler race is subconsciously implanted in our memories, or is widely known as knowledge. I thought that it was widely known as knowledge.

⇒A collection of original drawings of Atlanger, Shired, Red Hawk Yamato, and other romantic combined robots and machines! Aoshima Combined Robot & Machine Box Art Exhibition" report!

--Aoshima: Aoshima's new design silhouettes are still being introduced as "interesting old plastic models" on SNS and other social networking sites, so perhaps that's how many people know about Aoshima.

Shimizu: That's why I was conscious of being "scared" when we released the silhouette of the new design. People have an image of the old "fun plastic models" or 1970s super robots, and I was afraid that they might be allergic to something new, but I was relieved to see that the reaction on SNS was positive. It seems that people have enjoyed and imagined the various aspects of the beautiful girls in the game.

Yagyu: I think the surprise of the combination of Atlanger and a beautiful girl has the same impact as the Zero fighter and Countach in the combined series at that time. I think it is received in a way that is typical of Aoshima. By combining Aoshima's IP with what was popular at the time, such as supercars and the Zero fighter, we have created the current trend of the "Combined Series".

Combined Red Hawk Yamato

Shimizu: Since Aoshima's "Combined Series" was originally based on that concept, it was rather interesting to see how a robot and a plastic model of a beautiful girl would combine. It was interesting to see how many people responded, "How can a beautiful plastic model girl and a robot be combined?

Kubota: When we first received the bishojo proposal, our internal reaction was, "This is the only way to do it. As I mentioned earlier, Aoshima is a company that does not have confidence in Atlantia, and we were very skeptical. Listening to you, I think it is only Aoshima employees who are not brave enough for the Atlanger (laughs).

(Laughs.) Because of this, when you proposed the idea of combining a beautiful girl with Atlantia, I thought, "I'd like to do that," and I thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce the IP of Atlantia to today's young people. I was also excited by the idea of using this as a starting point to propose the backbone of the "Combination Series" and the current mainstream Atlanger, expanding our dreams and pie, and also making it easier to express the entire Combination Series.

--What kind of development do you have in mind for the future?

Yagyu: Since this is a "combined series," there are not many ways to play with the Atlanger by itself. So I can say that there will be several more in the future.

Shimizu: It depends on the response, but I think there will be developments like Aoshima did in the past.

─ ─ I think this is something I have to ask you, but will the traditional "neck-only" and "arm-only" machines be retained?

Shimizu: Basically, we are doing the typical division pattern, but we are designing it in such a way that it can be played with in any way you want to assemble it.

Yagyu: We had originally planned to present the actual product and panels at the Shizuoka Hobby Show to inform people about future developments, but since the show was canceled, we no longer have a place to present an overview.

--That's too bad. ...... By the way, Aoshima has a tradition called "Aoshima Comics".

Kubota: When we propose a project, we would like to create a place for something other than plastic models. It may be a comic book or another media. If we just combine Atlanger and girls, users may say, "Why don't we just leave it the way it was before? "Why don't we just have girls?" It would be boring.

We would like to propose the meaning of combining the girls and get feedback from users, so we would like to ask "Why is it like this? I would like to create a place where we can propose "This is what the team of the new combined series is thinking about. What that will be, we will have to wait and see.

Yagyu: That's right. We are not planning to just release plastic models. You can look forward to that.

--Aoshima has been developing both robot kits and bishojo kits under the ACKS brand in recent years, and I have high hopes that the know-how they have accumulated in this area will be put to use in this new combined series.

Kubota: Aoshima has a corporate culture that allows us to do whatever we want, and I think that our customers see us that way, but I think that our technology has finally caught up with that. I think we are gradually gaining the strength to compete with other companies in the plastic modeling of robots, as we have done for a long time. I think it was good that we were able to create such a trend.

ACKS Series No. 5 1/1000 Gunbuster

Shizuoka is a remote area, so we did not have many opportunities to communicate with manufacturers in Tokyo, but as we worked with various titles and released various products, we had more opportunities to communicate with many people. In the process, we became acquainted with Mr. Rampage, and the various conversations we had with him gave us a lot of energy, so I think it was very good that we were able to announce the new Atlanger at this time.

--What are your future plans and aspirations?

Kubota: We have enjoyed working on this project since it was first proposed to us, and I think we can offer something that users will enjoy as well. In addition, we have received a lot of positive feedback on our past products, so I feel that Aoshima, including the new Atlantia, is blessed to have such a great opportunity.

I don't think we can betray those expectations, and I am determined to keep our spirits up. We have received many playful suggestions from Rampage, and I hope that we can share them with our users as soon as possible and become one of the bright spots in a world depressed by the coronavirus.

I think we will do this as a "new combined series" and not just as a series of Atlange, so please support us in the long run.

Yagyu: On the design side, we are remaking Atlanger, for which fans have high expectations, using modern technology, and we have put a lot of effort into the design, so I hope you can look forward to it. As for future information, we have launched a website dedicated to the combined series, so please take a look there.

Shimizu: When Ryuichi Sadamatsu, who was in charge of this design, drew the illustration, I got the feeling that "Atlanger is cool," and I thought "I can do it. Sadamatsu-san is still energetically drawing many illustrations, from "usable" to "unusable" (laugh), and we would like to release more and more of these in the future.

The "Combination Series" has always been a product with a wide range of possibilities, so I have the feeling that the design stage is expanding to include more and more things that can be done this way and that way, so please look forward to it!

--Lastly, what do you think is the appeal of the Atlanger series, which is still accepted by a wide range of generations?

Yagyu: For better or worse, it's the freedom. Even looking at the Aoshima comics of the time, there are some that say, "What the heck is this? (laugh), and I would say that this is part of Aoshima's corporate culture. (Laughs) I feel that Aoshima is the reason why people love the company so much.

Kubota: Mr. Yagyu may think that "Aoshima has no rules or regulations, and we can do whatever we want, and it's OK to be crazy" (laughs).

In fact, there is no uniformity in the products we make in-house. We have always had a tendency to create new products by combining inconsistent items, such as battleships, cars, miscellaneous goods, blankets, and towels. Conversely, to take it to the extreme, there has always been an aspect that anything goes as long as the user enjoys it and it sells, and I think that is why Atlanger was born.

In the case of the V.F.G. series, the gimmick of transforming a mecha and having a girl ride on it has been called "a combination of the mecha and the girl. I think that's why our employees have the idea of "combining" in their minds. That is how much "GODAI" is in the minds of our employees.

--It's like "GODAI" is etched into their DNA.

Kubota I think it really is at that level. We are developing robot plastic models based on the teachings of the people who have built Aoshima's DNA, so I think we have inherited some of that DNA.

I have a bad habit of adding a sense of fun to a product rather than just making it a robot (laugh), and I am glad that we are able to share that with our users.

Shimizu: Aoshima's old combined machines were flexible and looked like they were doing whatever they wanted, but in fact, when I look at their comics proposals and internal newsletters, they were very serious about their ideas, making sure they were backed up by proper support. That is something I would like to learn from him.