Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose refers to the original incarnation of the series, as conceptualised by Shinji Tobita in his websites during 2000-2004.
Original Concept[]
Main Article: Papillon Rose ONA
The first version of the concept was revealed through the official website in 2000 as a fanmade ONA parody series, mocking the magical girl series stereotypes. Its primary parodies included series like Sailor Moon, Wedding Peach, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Pretty Cure and Cutey Honey.
The original website included copied images, a promotional movie with traced animations and notes on the story and original authors. Instrumental versions of the anime theme songs were given out and auditions were held for voice actors and singers. In addition to that, a BBS board was opened for the fans of the concept to leave feedback. Amateur voice actors and music producers contributed to the series concepts with vocal samples and theme songs.
By June 2001, the series has grown popular enough to be featured in Comic Market 2001. A booth was held by Papillon Rose Production Comitee and merchandise were sold, including gift cards, CD-Roms with promotional footage, the series OST, screen savers and a mahjong game, as well as the manga-styled doujinshi artbook "Papillon Rose archive". The artbook, published by the fake publishing company "Houmansha" included interviews with the creators and the voice actors, character profiles, manga and anime episode storylines as well.
Between 2001 and 2003, the original website was updated numerous times to include new characters, the complete anime storyline and an updated look in general. The BBS board system was improved to include a system of gifts for the site's members, with gifts including the previously released promotional CD roms and a special card illustrated by Shinji Tobita, the lead of the series' production.
OVA and Papillon Rose R[]
Main Article: OVA
By August 2003, the original concept spawned a one episode OVA produced by Pink company and ECHIGOYA with music by KURI-Zill. The OVA was animated using animation cels instead of digitally traced animations, unlike the original promo videos and used a whole new cast of proffessional voice actors. It was released on VHS and DVD format in Comic Market 2003 together with the first Papillon Rose Original Soundtrack, as well as a resin garage kit figure. The original website was updated to advertise the OVA and the Papillon Rose Original Soundtrack, a music CD with theme songs and background music from the OVA.
Main Article: Papillon Rose R
At the same time, Shinji Tobita attempted to re-create the Papillon Rose concept as Papillon Rose "R", introducing new character designs, new characters and an original storyline altogether. In Comic Market 2003 along with the OVA and the soundtrack, a new doujinshi artbook was released, Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose R Animation archives, focusing on the "anime" version of Papillon rose R. This artbook included updated character profiles, the complete storyline for the "R" incarnation, notes for the original soundtrack by Kuri-Zill and interviews with the leads of the production team.
Papillon Rose G[]
Main Article: Papillon Rose G
On April 2004, The original website was updated once again, this time to advertise an upcoming movie version of the Papillon Rose concept. Members of the original cast of the ONA series returned to reprise their roles and an overseas Papillon Rose fan was cast as a new character. There is no information on whether any progress was made in the movie's production.
Fans dug into the website's hidden archives and found the movie's detailed storyline, complete with preview images.
In Comic market 2004, a second soundtrack was released, titled " OVA and movie final selection Soundtrack" and the official website was updated to announce the end of the original Papillon Rose. The final website included sound bites of all the amateur voice actors that weren't featured in the original website. In February 2005, the website went blank, with only one Papillon Rose sillouette graphic stating that Papillon Rose will return in the future.
The website hasn't been updated ever since. Some of the previous versions' contents still remain in the site's data, being viewable using services like internet archive's Wayback Machine.
Papillon Rose: The New Season[]
Main Article: Papillon Rose New Season
In 2006, Studio Klemadick produced a six episode TV anime series called Papillon Rose: New Season and opened a new official website.
The series takes place one year after the OVA. New staff and cast were introduced, making the drawing style more appealing for a TV series and reducing the obscene content greatly. After the anime aired, DVD versions of the first three episodes were released coming with mini booklets featuring the Papillon Soldiers and the monsters of the day. The remaining three episodes' release dates were mixed with a conflict between the copyright holders of the theme music of the series and the productioncompany, resulting in their release to be cancelled, with only DVD flyers showing how two of the DVD's jackets would have looked.
The DVD versions of the episodes were uncensored and featured some of the obscene scenes cut from the TV airing version.
A DVD box-set was eventually released featuring the TV airing versions of all six episodes, only with the theme music from the OVA and some credits blurred out with mosaics. The box set was eventually localised by Maiden Japan as "Papillon Rose Complete Collection".
2014 rebuild series[]
Main Article : Papillon Rose Rebuild Series
Rebuild Series Theatre brochure "1.0 One more round?"
On November 2014, a blog was opened featuring new artwork for what claimed to be a new version of the Papillon Rose series, a rebuild of the original idea as a film trilogy. A new website was opened a few days afterwards, advertising a Papillon Rose booth in 2015's Comiket. A new doujinshi artbook was released together with two pencil boards, featuring new artwork for the characters and a similar storyline to the original incarnation of the web series.