#cosmo gangs

[jammergangyeah]

Part 3 of the concept art related posts: Another manga has arrived

(from: https://www.youtube.com/live/cu-OkPwbvJw?t=3983s )

This is another Cosmo Gang manga that seems to have been made by Mr. Meida, the character designer for the series. It was found with the other concept art as featured for the Arcade Archives release for Cosmo Gang the Video.

Unlike the other comics that were featured in Comic Bom Bom, I don't think this one was ever published anywhere (again, as far as I know.)

NG Namco Community Magazine (Monthly Issue 51) - February 1993 (600DPI) : Namco : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

NG Namco Community Magazine (Monthly Issue 51) - February 1993 scanned in at 600DPI with a Fujitsu fi-7460.Both PDF files are OCR'd and have

On page 25 there is an interview with Hamada Yoshimi, the mangaka for Cosmo Police Untoucher. The top right corner features a picture of this same cover with some text (google translated) describing that this was made as an example to be used for creating the full comic.

The story would have been something about the police fighting the Cosmo Gang but I don't know any details other than that. I did notice something interesting though.

Within the concept art for Cool there is one where he is wearing the standard Cosmo Police uniform and on the cover of this comic he's also wearing it. This implies that this story was taking place sometime before Cool became a member of the Untoucher team. Him being on the cover could mean that he was an important character in the story.

There are now a total of 8 lost episodes of the comic. The one that was found was for April 1993 :D

[meiistheprimarynow]

Frick you, Cosmo Gangs posting

I am going to be talking about Cosmo Gangs and you are going to like it! >:]

The Cosmo Gang is the main group in the series but then there is the Cosmo Police team that fights the gang! The team is called Untoucher and there are 6 members (only 5 are pictured here though...)

The guy in the center is Ottoness and he is the leader of the team. (better picture below)

He is also the player character in Cosmo Gang the Video but he is in the Hyper beat (the player ship) and is only seen in the manual.

I have an entire folder on my computer dedicated to pictures of Ottoness I love him so much

The guy with the shades is Cool (<- that's his name) and he seems to be the best with shooting. He might be the player 2 character in Cosmo Gang the Video.

The guy with the white mustache is Firs(?) (I think that's his name). He seems to be watching over Ottoness and in the comic "Untouchable Cosmo Police" he has a sword. There is a plush of this guy holding a sword so he must have it there.

The purple one is Doricon (?) and he is a different type of alien than the rest of the Untoucher team. He seems chill I like him.

The guy with the glasses is Chanter (?) and he seems to be in charge of fundraising for the team. Seems to be the nerdy type.

There is a 6th member that does not seem to have any official art of her. The only colored art I could find is from a flyer for the arcade version of Cosmo Gang the Puzzle.

This is Pearl (full name Pearl Peirce?) and she is the only girl on the team! She has a larger role in the "Untouchable Cosmo Police" comic but otherwise I can't find much on her. Like even less than the other characters. But she is cute and I like her.

There is a booklet that came with the Namco Game Sound Express vol.8 that showed all the characters in the Cosmo Gangs world but Pearl is not shown here despite her existing at the time.

Pearl as seen in the comic because I like her so much

her 💗

[quirky-vg]

From: COSMO GANGS

[jammergangyeah]

Might have been linked... (it's theory time!)

Continuing from here

The comic and the Untoucher arcade may have released, or were meant to release at around the same time.

The exact year for Untoucher arcade is unknown as there are sources that state 1992 or 1993, but the Namco Elemecha Encyclopedia states the release year as 1992. It could have been out in late '92 and got more media coverage in '93. Where more people would have know of this game's existence.

(link) Page from the book describing the Cosmo Police Untoucher arcade game

This was right around the comic released. '92 was the year that what seems to be a pilot episode of Cosmo Police Untoucher released in the Comic Bom Bom Winter Vacation special issue. Or around the time of the full comic run starting in February of '93.

Now the main thing about this game is that it gave out prizes for anyone that reached the high score. The prizes are figures of all the Cosmo Gang characters.

The thing is though, up to that point only Bakuto, the Jammers, and other enemies seen in the Video were well known. MAYBE Don Cosmo as the final boss was known too. The Untoucher and police characters were only seen in manuals, magazine ads, and some merchandise but never in any starring roles. Even only Ototoness appears in the Puzzle, where the others are only seen as cameos on the arcade flyer, or in the manual of the console version. They are not even described there.

My guess was that the comic was made to expand the universe as part of the Cosmo Gangs World and to get people familiar with the characters.

We never hear about them today though, so I'm guessing the effort never worked out... When Cosmo Gang gets referenced today it's always the Jammers and/or Bakuto, never any of the police characters.

[jammergangyeah]

Cosmo Gangs Show Series (World)

On a early flyer for Cosmo Police Untoucher (the arcade game) the subtitle states that this is the first release of the Cosmo Gangs Show Series. It's also on the concept art for the machine itself. But the final game has Cosmo Gangs World as the series name.

Cosmo Gangs Show looks like it was an early name for the unified series concept that later became Cosmo Gangs World. The Series name didn't seem to last long though.

(the cover of the internal comic, from the Hamster live stream for the Arcade Archives release for Cosmo Gang the Video)

Right on the cover of the internal comic that only Namco insiders would have seen, is the proper Cosmo Gangs World title that would go on to be used for other entries and for merch releases like the plushes.

This would be a place where it's ok to use the Show name and yet it wasn't. This comic had to be made at least before December of 1992 because that is when the test episode debut with the Winter Vacation Special of Comic Bom Bom.

Looks like this comic may have been the first use or proper entry into the World series while the game came out shortly after.

More about that game and how the comic could have been linked to it in the next post.

[jammergangyeah]

The Lost(?) Third Game

Taken from the NG Namco Community Magazine, Issue 52 (no link as of posting, see note*)

This is a developer interview/ question and answer article for Cosmo Gang the Puzzle. All of this is very interesting but there is this final section at the end...

Something about a 3rd Cosmo Gang game!? The names listed here and what type of game they would (or could have been) are

1 Cosmo Gang the Quiz - quiz game

2 Cosmo Gang the Battle - Fighting game(?)

3 Cosmo Gang the Paddle- block breaker

4 Cosmo Gang the Tennis - Tennis game

It's unknown if any third Cosmo Gang video game was in development or if any of these names and concepts were seriously considered.

(Note: This article was found on the Internet Archive but on the original day of posting (October 13, 2024) the archive is down and I could not access the webpage where this issue of NG was found.)

[quirky-vg]

From: COSMO GANGS

[jammergangyeah]

Part 4 of the concept art posts: About Bumpy

In the previous vehicle post I talked about Bumpy, the big combat ship that the Cosmo Police Untoucher team is seen in sometimes. It might have been featured more in the comic but it is never seen in any of the games (video or arcade elemecha).

There is some concept art of it that was shown off during the Arcade Archives stream for Cosmo Gang the Video.

(Concept art for the inside of Bumpy, created by Mr. Meida)

I like how they have plants(?) to the sides lol.

The first time we get to see inside! There is even text showing where each character would be but it's too blurry to read! The only one I was able to read was Doricon to the far right. And the bird Bakamonder since he's pictured.

I made this image based on what I could read from the video on where I think each of the members would be stationed. May not be 100% correct.

There is also some sort of description(?) to the bottom left but I also couldn't read that.