Impressed by the technology to sculpt beautiful girls..! The profound world of “Biplapla,” a new genre sweeping the plastic modeling industry in Reiwa.

The mainstream of plastic models used to be “mechanical” models, such as robots represented by the “Gundam” series. For a long time, mecha models reigned as the king of plastic models, but in the past few years, a major change has occurred.

In the age of Reiwa, plastic models assembled from beautiful girls, known as “Biplapla,” are making great strides.

We asked “Monpuchi,” the manager of the Akiba information site “Moeyo.com,” which provides daily information about the hobby, and an avid Bipla fan, about this trend. What is MIPLA, anyway?

–What is Bipla?

It is a common name for plastic models of beautiful girls, which are three-dimensional plastic models of beautiful girls, in the same way that Gundam plastic models are commonly called “Gunpla. Some people also refer to them as “gal-pla.

–What kind of buyers are you targeting?

I think the main buyers are the light Gunpla users who enjoy building models without painting, as well as collectors of bishojo figures. Prices of hobby items have skyrocketed with the recent price hikes, but among them, the relatively low prices (from 2,000 yen) and large variety of products make it easy for junior high and high school students to get their hands on them. I think they are popular among the younger generation as well.

–What are the leading brands and manufacturers today?

The beauty plastic industry is becoming a battleground, but Kotobukiya’s “Frame Arms Girl” series and “Megami Device” series can be said to be leading the way. The “30MS” series by Bandai, the leader in the plastic model industry, is in hot pursuit of catching up to and surpassing them. Max Factory’s “PLAMAX” series, which introduced the “figma” series of complete movable figures to the market long before the “Biplas” series, is also gaining recognition.

–Please tell us about the history of “Biplapla” from its birth to now.

First of all, around 2010, Kotobukiya released a plastic model called “Ichigeki Hajimushi! The claim at the time was “Hui Hui-san,” which is a plastic model of a small insect. At the time, it was touted as a “plastic kit for beautiful girls. Thereafter, Kotobukiya released several one-off plastic kits of bishojo characters, but they were more of a novelty among plastic models than a genre.

The situation changed drastically when Kotobukiya started the “Frame Arms Girl” series. It became a very popular product that brought bishojo figure users into the fold. As a result, the term “bishojo plastic model” spontaneously came to be used to distinguish it from the already established “bishojo figure,” and the abbreviation “bishojo plastic model” became “bi-pla” in Japanese. I am aware that the term “plastic model” came to be used spontaneously, including as a way to distinguish them from “bishojo figures. However, this is just my interpretation of what I have seen, and may differ from the actual history.