Project A-ko or Akira: Why So Serious

Project A-ko is one of the first animes I've ever heard of, but because I heard that the first movie is the only must buy, I was looking just for this video. Everyone else must have wanted it because it took me a good six months to find it.


This is one of the funniest and surreal titles I've ever seen. I would say very Tenchesque if this wasn't made before Tenchi, so this may have inspired titles like Tenchi Muyo! and El-Hazard(I can definitely draw Fatora and B-ko comparisons). It's laugh out loud funny with its cute humor that makes you wonder why we now resort to toilet humor like South Park and Beavis and Butthead. Of course, I'm not willing to stop drinking from the bowl. If you're looking for a comedic anime unless a lot of unnecesary crying drives you nuts, Project A-Ko is a must own or atleast a rent which might be easier.

A-ko has transferred to Gravitron High School along with her ditzy sidekick C-ko. Maybe A-ko isn't becoming a popular school icon, but C-ko sure is especially by the class's smartest and richest student B-ko. Well its actually gone beyond idolizing for B-ko since she wants to destroy A-ko so she'd be C-ko's best friend. Add in the fact that B-ko has held a grudge with A-ko since kindergarden she'll do anything to succeed. One problem with her plan, A-ko is extremely strong, so she needs to resort to robot warfare to stop her nemesis. While all this is going on, a spaceship is approaching Earth to take back a princess that left for this planet and these aliens seemed to have narrowed the princess down to one overly sensitive blond high schooler.

Personally, I feel the plot is good enough without the aliens, but it does create a kick ass finale. The humor never stops even in the action sequences, and it featured the greatest one-on-one fight until Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie's Chun Li v. Vega. The animation and soundtrack are great, and since I haven't found anyone who sells the dubbed version, nothing is lost in translation which does include the possible homosexual feelings of B-ko towards C-ko (she thinks about the blond's cuteness while she is swimming in the nude if you don't believe me).

This idea of this can slow the film down, but otherwise this is virtually perfect acceptable any audience except for some gratuigious nudity i.e. B-ko's swimming scene. It doesn't exactly seem like I'd continue a movie series with this film, but it would make a great TV series, we could use a change of pace from all this Sailor Moon stuff.

©1986 Soeishinsha/Final-Nishijima

Macross II - What happenes after Macross 7

Episode 1 --- Episode 2 --- Episode 3 --- Episode 4 --- Episode 5 --- Episode 6

Have you ever played the 8-bit Mega Man games, seen any sports film sequal, or to a lesser extent (since the film and series that I will mention is something that I enjoy as much as anime, this is a major lesser extent) The Return of the Jedi. You bring up the same plot premise, the same triumph, and usually people will see it no matter how good it is. Rarely is there improvement (Jedi isn't as good as Empire Strikes Back and Mega Man 3-6 aren't as good 2), but this is a major improvement on the Macross Saga. I mean, the Macross Saga that was on Toonami.


After a few years animation naturally improves (compare this to Macross Plus that was created after this), but there is a lot more to Macross 2 that makes it greater than what I was watching everyday on Cartoon Network at 3:30. These are characters, music, and plot which also are lacking a bit in Robotech.


Emmerich and Devlin could learn from these. Especially in the music category because there is no way I'd put a Bob Dylan impersonater singing David Bowie on a soundtrack. If you like Macross in any form which includes Robotech, you've got to see this. Possible exception to Macross Plus fans who may like the more dramatic less action based show, or just have a thing for Lucy or Sharon. Sorry neither Ishtar or Silvie are as good looking as those two.


*Warning* Macross 2 is packaged in the so called movie form that is actually all 6 episodes of the series just without end or opening credits behind each episode. Hell, they even kept the commercial bumper, maybe just so you know where you can pause to relief yourself.


Contact


Hibiki Kanzaki is a reporter for SNN who has just reported on one of the biggest scandals when he caught U.N. Spacey's Commander Exagram and valkyrie ace Lt. Silvie Gena leaving a hotel together (wink wink nudge nudge). Sure, the approach isn't professional journalism, so he is still forced to apologize to the two, but fortunately an attack occurs from "Transcend Zentradi". Ever the opportunist, Kanzaki voluteers to fly into the danger zone to get the scoop. Unfortunately, he only gets to pilot for his new rival reporter Dennis Lone.


Ishtar


Hibiki along with the help of his transvestite friend, Mosh, are taking care of the girl he and Dennis found on the enemy ship. He acts pretty kind, and basicly tell the girl whose name is Ishtar that he wants to show her to the world through TV. Distracted by his footage of the battle being edited by U.N. Spacey, Ishtar go out to see Macross City as she tries to make her way to see the Alus (the Macross) and survive the culture shock.


Festival


Ishtar is allowed to stay on Earth, but the only way she can give any knowledge to Hibiki is by going to the Macross. Here we find out that the enemy are the Marduk who uses song to control the Zentran. Their final goal is to destroy all other cultures.


Marduk Disorder


Since there is a threat of contamination in the Marduk fleet, they plan to brain wash Ishtar, so she can continue as an emulator. As a bonus they're going to try to brain wash Hibiki, so he can be used as a spy, but Silvie comes to the rescue.


Station Break


Hibiki and Silvie are arrested after Hibiki shows the footage from the Marduk ship. The U.N., not wanting the people of Earth to panic, disavows any facts in the film despite the Marduk are now pushing pass each defense line.


Sing Along


Exagram allows Silvie to be released to break Hibiki out, so that they can activate the Macross. In the first fleet of the Marduk, Feff allows Ishtar to leave because there is no way he wants to see her die (ain't that cute). Now the question is can the Alus destroy the mothership.


Whatever Robotech did, Macross II did it better. The chararcters aren't totally original, but they are refined. Hibiki is to Rick as Ishar is to Lynn Min Mei as Silvie is to the boring looking chick, Lisa. They're all improvements. It doesn't take much to be better than Min Mei, but by the end they all are out of character. Why have Hibiki end up with ______ instead of ______?


The music is great (nothing compared to Plus), and the plot is better constructed than Robotech which it would have to be since it is only 6 episodes. Its a great title, but there are indeed better ones to choose. Since it's packaged in a weird way maybe you're better off checking some other title before, so you don't make the mistake of watching 6 TV episodes in one night. Even South Park can be boring after 4 episodes depending how much you like or dislike Kenny dying. Also the cuteness of Lovers Again could get under your skin, but it can't be as bad as 6 Dragon Ball Z episodes.

Macross 2: Lovers Again © 1992, 1993 Big West / Macross II Project

Golden Boy: Any Teen's Reason to Enjoy Anime

Golden Boy is another one of the first titles that I had heard about when I first got interested in anime. It did take about a year and a half for me to finally work up the nerve to purchase this tape. When the box has a chick with erect nipples on the front, I didn't want people to thing I got interested in anime for the hentai which this title is not.


Yes, the girls seem to be what the creators want the public to be interested in first, but that is only half of this series's fun. The situations the main character gets into is actually the most important concept about the series. Some of the scenarios don't seem like they'd work well, so I don't plan on getting a few of the episodes (2, 3, 5), but otherwise viewing Golden Boy tape is a must.


As for technical qualities I've seen better animation, music, dubbing (its not that bad, but Kintaro's voice can get annoying), but there are some very effective (and unfortunately some very ineffective) art work. Of course these categories shouldn't be the series biggest draws, the comedy is. If you like the Fahrely Brother's movies, you'll love this humor.


Meet Kintaro Oe. He's a 25 year-old mountain bike riding freeter (a person who only specializes in part time jobs) who dropped out of college despite having enough credits to receive a law degree. As he is heading to his next job at TN Software, he has a bike accident with one of the scariest and sexiest woman he's ever seen. Despite he was in the middle of the road and listening to headphones, the women gives him money to pay for any damage ($10,000). When he finally arrives at the job he gets a chance to meet the president of the company...again, and is immediately put on toilet cleaning duty which he doesn't consider to be that bad since its an all female company. Wanting to learn how to program, he agrees to work for free just to prove what he can do. Now its a race to see who will go nuts first, Madam President or Kintaro.


It does seem to start out slow, but we immediately accept that Kintaro is just a perverted nice guy who we can sympathize with (at least from the male perspective). Once we get to the TN scenes, the real comedy begins to pick up. Maybe I enjoyed it more than others will because of the time I put into computers, but I guarantee that some of the comedy is so funny that you will try not to listen to it because it's so funny it'll hurt.


There isn't to much to the plot, so it fits into 30 minutes pretty well. It lack of emotional depth doesn't hurt it. I guess all the emotional aspects (despite they're very few) that make up Kintaro make up for this. As for a supporting cast there isn't much, but the character of the president works very well with how cold she is, and her dynamic change at the end despite how unlikely it should have been seems to work well. When it comes to animation, the thoughts of Kintaro and the actions of the presidents...I mean president are drawn to their funniest. All and all Golden Boy is a great video to own, and nothing about it will disappoint you.

Goldenboy © 1995 TATSUYA EGAWA / Sheisha - KSS