Plawres Sanshiro

Plawres Sanshiro
Genre	Mecha, Shōnen, Sport
Anime
Plawres Sanshiro
Directed by	Kunihiko Yuyama
Studio	Asatsu DK Kaname Production Toho

Plawres Sanshiro (Japanese: プラレス３四郎, Chinese: 数码金钢 微型小金刚, Arabic: سانشيرو) was a popular anime series aired in 1983 in Japan, Hong Kong and the Middle East. The name is a shortened derivative of “Plastic Model Wrestling Sanshiro”. It has also been loosely translated to “PlaWres 3-Shirou” and “Puraresu Sanshiro”.

Overview

The story is about a young boy named Sugata Sanshiro (Cantonese: 3四郎) and his miniature PlaWrestler pocket robot with super LSI circuit named Juohmaru (Cantonese: 柔王丸). Initially, the show was about Sanshiro's battles with Juohmaru against other PlaWrestlers in robot battle tournaments that were a hybrid blend of modern wrestling, hi-tech Robot Wars and Japanese noh theatre. As the series went on, its focus shifted to Sanshiro exploring the possible uses of PlaWrestling technology in medical implants, and those who wished to use it for military purposes instead.

Characters

Sanshiro's group

Sanshiro Sugata

Sanshiro is the series' protagonist and a PlaWres modeler. His PlaWrestler, Juohmaru, is custom-made. Initially, Sanshiro is an ambitious rookie, and his overconfidence and brashness leads to several mistakes that he sometimes does not get out of. As the series, progresses, Sanshiro learns to think more rationally and consider the benefit of others rather than only his own. He is voiced by Satomi Mashima.

Kyoko

Kyoko's is Sanshiro's friend and possible love interest. She is assistant judo instructor at the Sugata family dojo. She is energetic and outspoken and does not hesitate to scold Sanshiro whenever he makes a mistake. She works at her family's eatery business and can drive a motorcycle. She is voiced by Arisa Andō.

Shota

Shota is Sanshiro's best friend, whose job is collecting information of any kind, particularly on rival modelers. Shota is hyperactive and is shown frequently running in a peculiar style of his own invention. He is also flirtatious, a loudmouth and quick to judge on first impressions. However, he takes his duties seriously. He is voiced by Noriko Tsukase.

Tetsuya

Tetsuya is Juohmaru's mechanic, responsible for fine tuning him, upgrading him and repairing it, especially between a battle's rounds. He is shown to be very capable, a quick thinker and an innovator, although at times he has taken offence at Sanshiro overriding him for Juohmaru's maintenance. He is voiced by Naoki Ryuta.

Shinji Murao

Shinji is Juohmaru's programmer. His code, along with Sanshiro's manual control, guide Juohmaru in the battle ring. Like Tetsuya, Shinji is portrayed to be good at his job and a cool thinker compared with Sanshiro and Shota. He is voiced by Kaneto Shiozawa.

Sanshiro's family

Kennosuke Sugata

Sanshiro's grandfather and judo master of the local dojo. For the most part, Kennosuke is critical of Sanshiro's PlaWrestling exploits, preferring him to pracice judo and eventually take his place instead. However, he is also shown secretly watching many of Sanshiro's fights and worrying about the outcome. Eventually, Sanshiro's success and determination convince Kennosuke to let him pursue his own dreams. He is voiced by Hidekatsu Shibata.

Kaoru Sugata

Sanshiro's mother. Kaoru seems to be somewhat aloof, which makes her a foil for Kennosuke when discussing about Sanshiro. Despite her impression of naivete, she occasionally exhibits moments of profound insight in a situation, attributing them to her "maternal instinct". She is voiced by Akiko Inose.

Machiko Sugata

Sanshiro's little sister. Machiko is a lively child who supports Sanshiro in his endeavours. Despite her small age, she is prone to making uncomfortably inconvenient remarks to many of her elders. She is voiced by Chieko Honda.

Kenichiro Sugata

Sanshiro's father. Kenichiro died before the series begins and appears only in his photograph and Sanshiro's imagination. Kenichiro's research created PlaWrestling. His further attempts to use it for the benefit of mankind met with resistance from arms dealers who wished to use it as a means of warfare. Kenichiro ended up dead in a suspicious accident. After learning this, Sanshiro resolved to use PlaWrestling to continue his father's research, which was a pivotal moment in the series.

Antagonists

Jose Garcia

The mastermind behind all the plans directed against Sanshiro. Jose Garcia is a ruthless arms dealer who manipulates the PlaWrestling scene worldwide by funding and essentially bribing its officials. In this way, he hopes to exploit PlaWrestling technology to develop robotic super-soldiers. It is possible that he orchestrated the accident in which Sanshiro's father died. Somewhat atypically, Garcia is not defeated by the end of the series. He manages to develop and market robot soldiers of questionable competence, and Sanshiro believes in allowing the world to judge for itself whether the peaceful or aggressive use of PlaWrestling technology is more useful.

Ballesteros

Chairman of the World PlaWresting Association (WPWA) and henchman to Jose Garcia. Ballesteros is a self-important man who manipulates the Association, its Japanese branch (JPWA) and the Fighting-type Modeler League to further Garcia's ends. After Garcia develops his robot soldiers, he loses interest in PlaWrestling and cuts funding, leading an enraged Ballesteros to face off against Sanshiro in the series finale. Like Garcia, Ballesteros suffers no consequences besides feeling defeated and humiliated.

Gendou Kurosaki

Kurosaki is Japan's national PlaWrestling champion for three consecutive years. However, he loses from Sanshiro in the first episode, partly due to damage his PlaWrestler, Mad Hurricane, sustained during the championship match. This event makes Kurosaki a fierce rival of Sanshiro, and they clash for most of the series. Later on, Kurosaki becomes more sympathetic after seeing the troubles Sanshiro has to overcome and ends up his ally. Kurosaki is the region's foremost Fighting-Type modeler, following the philosophy of winning at any cost. He is voiced by Takeshi Watabe.

Sheila Misty

An enigmatic and beautiful woman riding a motorbike, Shiela spies on Sanhsiro from the first episode and constantly manipulates events and people to force him to give up PlaWrestling. Eventually it is revealed that she works for Jose Garcia, who has convinced her that he will heal her brother's Mash's legs, who were disabled when Garcia's car crashed into Sheila's motorbike. After she realises Garcia's deception, Sheila becomes an ally of Sanshiro. She also has an unnamed female PlaWrestler. She is voiced by You Inoue.

Other characters

Shinogu Narita

In contrast with Kurosaki, Narita is the region's foremost Hobby-type modeler. Hobby-types generally view PlaWrestling as a contest of skill and place the well-being of their PlaWrestlers above winning. Narita is down-to-earth, collected and has the respect of Sanshiro and his team, but his attitude sometimes makes him take things too seriously and appear cold and distant. Narita's PlaWrestler is called Ikaros Wing. Narita is voiced by Tohru Furuya.

Dr. Warmer

A colleague of Sanshiro's father, Dr. Warmer helped develop PlaWrestling technology. After telling Sanshiro of his father's desire to use PlaWrestling to help the disabled, Sanshiro gathers data from Juohmaru's battles and send them to him. Dr. Warmer analyses this data and eventually comes up with a novel technology that relies on brain wave induction to restore a person's mobility.

Rival Robots

Mad Hurricane, Ikarus Wing, Majin, Rocky, Mosquito, Cherry Bomber, Iron Killer, Blue Hawaii, El Matador, Stardust, Ganchanko, Hiryu, Pretty Rosa, Big Bang, Astroid, Death Trap, Devil, Yoga, Great America, Western Buffalo, Red Arrow, JJ, El Cid, Mad Maximum, Great Simba, Siegfried, Ivan, Jupiter.

Staff

Function	Names
Lead Director	Kunihiko Yuyama
Producer	Isao Onuki, Yoshiro Kataoka
Director for episode 1, 2, 6, 9 and 13	Masahisa Ishida
Director for episode 3	Masamune Ochiai
Director for episode 4, 7, 12	Eikichi Kojika
Director for episode 5, 10, 14	Kimiharu Oguma
Director for episode 8	Osamu Sekita
Composition	Keisuke Fujikawa,
Script	Junki Takegami, Kenji Terada, Kosuke Fujikawa
Original creator	Jirô Gyû, Minoru Kamiya
Music	Yanusori Tsuchuchida, Yasushi Tsuchida
Character Design	Mutsumi Inomata, Shigenori Kageyame
Art director	Junichi Mizuno
Animation director	Hisashi Takai, Kazuhiro Ochi, Masamune Ochiai, Mutsumi Inomata, Shigenori Kageyama, Toshihiro Hirano, Toshio Arata, Yoshiharu Fukushima
Animators	Mutsumi Inomata, Hitoshi Yoshinaga, Kazuhiro Ochi, Hirotoshi Sano, Takashi Sogabe, Satoshi Yamazaki

DVD Release

Six Plawres Sanshiro DVDs are available spanning 37 episodes at 25 minutes each.

Plawres Sanshiro Vol.1 – Episode 1,2

Plawres Sanshiro Vol.2 – Episode 3 - 9

Plawres Sanshiro Vol.3 – Episode 10 - 16

Plawres Sanshiro Vol.4 – Episode 17 - 23

Plawres Sanshiro Vol.5 – Episode 24 - 30

Plawres Sanshiro Vol.6 – Episode 31 - 37

Episodes (names translated from Japanese)
1. Juohmaru, This is Plawrestling!!
2. Death Match! Kurosaki VS. Sanshiro
3. The Majin, Power Attack
4. Take That! Fireball Attack!
5. Danger! Sanshiro Is In Big Trouble
6. Finally! Female Plawrestler!
7. Tekkamen, the Assassin Lullaby of the death
8. Beat the rival!! Narita VS. Sanshiro!!
9. Mad Hurricane`s revenge!! Stand up, Juohmaru!!
10. Crash!! Skateboard kid Challenger from Hawaii!!
11. Knock Down Matador! Get Angry, Juohmaru!!
12. Killing Stardust! Targeted Juohmaru!!
13. Plawres Wars! Juohmaru Aims Championship!!
14. Fateful Rivals! Hard Crash, Juohmaru!!
15. Strong Opponent! Kung-Fu Vs. Juohmaru!!
16. Dueling In Georama City! Juohmaru, 2 Vs. 1!!
17. Beautiful Challenger! Juohmaru, Dance of the Beast!!
18. Highway Battle! Desperate Juohmaru!!
19. A New Sunrise! Come back alive, Juohmaru!!
20. Heart & Machine!! Juohmaru! The Long Way!
21. Trap of the Space Shuttle! Fly to the Cosmos, Juohmaru!!
22. Kurosaki, desperate challenge! Survive, Juohmaru!!
23. Plawrestling war! Be the star of Asia, Juohmaru!!
24. A tower of execution! Juohmaru, fight with anger!!
25. The champion from America! Juohmaru, departure for tomorrow!!
26. Juohmaru! A midday western fight!!
27. Juohmaru! Run for tomorrow!!
28. The night of evil! Tear the darkness, Juohmaru!!
29. A stage of death! Awaken, Juohmaru!!
30. Juohmaru! Oath for tomorrow!!
31. Juohmaru! Glowing Plawrestling spirit!!
32. Enemy plane over! Jump over Juohmaru!!
33. This is brain wave induction! Run softly Juohmaru!!
34. Juohmaru! Road to champion!!
35. Juohmaru! It is the day when the world changes!!
36. Juohmaru! Plawrestling Eternally!!
37. Juohmaru! Soldier is wanted! Last time!!

Merchandise

The 1983 Plawres Sanshiro soft vinyl robots are considered extremely rare. Instead of selling giant robots scaled down to toy size, what was sold and marketed to the public was pocket robots at about 30 cm tall claiming to be identical in size to the TV show version. Despite having the rival robots available for sale, the consumer trend at the time was to purchase the protagonist robots, thus most sales were limited to just 1 robot.

In the end, there may have been reissues and re-releases of the toy line, including models that require assembly. But because there were so few Plawres Sanshiro soft vinyl robots in circulation to begin with, the 80s original model is considered an exceptional collectible gem.

Reaction

Plawres Sanshiro came at a time when the Asian late 70s - 80s anime scene was practically dominated by giant robots every year. The show was uniquely different since it mixed genre and featured a lead robot character that did not tower over buildings, grow in size or carried any firearms. Because of its unique substance, contents, and a relatively short episode count of 37, it had a very limited lifespan in the market.

Though the influence of Plawres Sanshiro is visible 12 years later with the arrival of Pokemon. From appearance, Pokemon’s lead character Ash Ketchum wearing the red cap heavily resembles Sanshiro. Even Sanshiro’s style of casting his pocket robot in 1983, is similarly mirrored to Ash’s casting his pocket monster in 1995. Both shows share the same concept of pocket tournaments.

Trivia

• Jomaro / Jumaru was the robot's name in the Arabic version.
• The Arabic version was a big hit amongst Arabic speaking children in GCC countries during the late 1980s.
• In Japan and Hong Kong it was televised Sunday 5:00pm - 5:30pm.
• The Arabic Plawres Sanshiro intro music was very different from its Asian counterparts.
• The concept of tiny robots was used in the game Gotcha Force The main character Kou has a similar last name.
• Plawres Sanshiro was a likely influence on Clamp's Angelic Layer.
• The show has a dedicated fanbase in Greece. Originally released in 1986 as in VHS format (almost alongsides the cult hit Iga no Kabamaru), the show still maintains a following. Notably, most of the fans are well in their late 20s/early 30s and usually refer to the series alongsides Iga no Kabamaru. In the recent past (2004), Greek Hip Hop group Voria Asteria used a sample from the series' OP for their song "Metrimeni sta Dhakhtila" off their sophomore release, "Khalarotera".

Screenshots

• Poster with Rival Robots
  Poster with Rival Robots
• Sanshiro casting Juohmaru
  Sanshiro casting Juohmaru

References

• Chinese References
• Toy info
• Middle East blog comments

External Links

• Plawres Sanshiro at Anime News Network
• Sanshiro casting robot animation
• Episode details in Japanese
• IMdb