Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose

Tsubomi is a savvy and horny school girl who works at a lingerie club, a gentlemen’s bar where scantily clad young women serve drinks to the patrons. She is useless at her job but is blackmailing her boss so she won’t get fired. One day she runs into a gorgeous young man who she takes to bed. She meets into a perverted talking cat with a butterfly on its forehead, who recruits her to be a magical soldier. She has to fight off a dominatrix elf woman called Beene, a minion of Regina Apis, a matriarch bent on chaos and forming her new Dynasty. Tsubomi is learning of her powers when she is rescued by an oddly familiar masked man, known only as Dandelion. The plot of this anime is completely farcical and parodies the magical girl genre and Sailor Moon in particular.

Directed by Shinji Tobita, Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose leans on a strong ensemble — Shiho Kikuchi, Masahito Yabe, Sachiko Kojima — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about animation titles of 2003.