Power Dolls
or (Power Dolls: Detachment of Limited Line Service) is a series of turn based tactical Video Games, developed by Kogado Studio's Usagi San team.
The plot of the game begins in the year 2535, when planet Omni (Nova Earth in the localized English version of the first game), originally a colony of Earth, fights for its independence after an apocalyptic land dispute. The all-female elite force of Omni helps defend their homeworld against the overwhelming Earth-borne expeditionary force, using a variety of mecha-based weapons. After defeating the Earth forces in the first game, Omni would continue to experience rebellions (supported by Earth forces troops stranded on Omni after the planet gained independence), succession of continents, and all the open warfares these events would entail.
The original game spawned several sequel games including:
- Power Dolls FX
- Power Dolls 2
- Power Dolls 2 Dash
- Advanced Power Dolls 2
- Power R Dolls 3
- Power Dolls 4
- Power Dolls 5
- Power Dolls 5X
- Power Dolls 6
A two episode Anime OVA was also adapted from the games, produced by the joint efforts of Artmic (first episode) Oriental Light and Magic (second episode), Kogado Studio, Shueisha and VAP, under the direction of Masayuki Hidaka. Released in 1996 in Japan and 2003 in North America, it details the actions of the 177th Squadron in their quest to defend Omni against the seemingly endless Earth forces invading the planet.
Tropes found in the games and OVAs include:
- Amazon Brigade: The titular 3rd Company, 177th Special Duty Battalion, known as "DoLLS".
- Animation Bump: Episode 2 of the OVA is much better animated than the first.
- A Mech by Any Other Name: Power Loader, also known by its acronym PLD.
- Fanservice: Victory in a battle gets you an image of one of the girls.
- Fun with Acronyms: Detachment of Limited Line Service; Power LoaDer.
- It's Raining Men: Your troops/Power-Loaders are mostly transported to mission areas by aircraft or, on rare occasions, catapulted from a ballistic missile submarine. See also in the trailer. In addition to the possibility of those Power Loaders sometimes ending up with their automotive system damaged by impact upon landing, in the first two games they must leave the battlefield on foot, requiring the mechas to self-destruct after their pilots are extracted by helicopters or by boat during missions where retreating via any land route is impossible. 2 Dash introduces a large helicopter capable of deploying and recovering the PLDs though.
- Lady Land
- Lady of War: You are commanding an all-female special forces unit.
- More Dakka: It helps, considering your forces are usually pitted against numerically-superior enemies.
- One-Gender Race - According to the English localization of the original game, all of the people on Omni are female, and it is said they reproduce asexually. Averted in the Japanese original, where the reason behind the DoLLS being all-female is its being deliberately advertised by the Omni military as an "idol" unit to further conceal its true role as a special operations unit and the Omni military's practice of segregation between males and females on company level in order to simplify personnel logistics and avoid gender politics.
- Spider Tank: TSR1 reconnaissance Power Loader, one of Earth forces' earliest PLDs. Also shown at 1:16 in the trailer.
- United Nations Is a Superpower: Your enemy.
- World of Badass: Beyond troops directly under your command, allied forces temporarily assigned to you tend to do a good job supporting you in the background (allied air superiority fighters, for example, are generally capable of keeping enemy fixed-wing air supports at bay for the entire duration of a mission). Enemy mooks, despite often being armed with inferior weapons since 2, are directed by a decent AI that would try to use their numbers to spread your firepower thin. And god helps you if you let them call in artillery strike or if you leave an enemy helicopter still flying at the end of a turn...
