I was flipping through my anime folder, looking for a title that was a little more sane than the tide wave of WTF that was Crimson Wolf. One sub-folder caught my eye, and it hypnotized me into looking inside. After seeing what was inside the sub-folder, any desire to review a more normal anime was immediately thrown out of the window...and fell 10 stories onto a concrete sidewalk....and cracking it’s skull wide open. So, I’m delving into madness once again, only this time the madness is a little more lighthearted, not to mention funny. So sit back, relax, and enjoy my review of the goofy & silly Project A-Ko. Hope we don’t go to the mental house after this one!
Story/Setup
A-Ko Magami is an average girl. Despite having immense strength & speed, she leads out her life as a normal girl, attending a local high school with her best friend, C-Ko Kotobuki, the happiest girl you’ll ever meet. Despite their pleasant lives, storm clouds are rolling in on the horizon. Another student, B-ko Daitokuji, hates that C-Ko is with A-Ko, and does everything in her power to get C-Ko to come to her. Coupled with an incoming alien fleet intent of retrieving C-Ko for some reason, and things won’t quite be so ordinary for the two of them.
As you can tell, Project A-Ko doesn’t have the deepest story. However, this movie doesn’t really need a deep story, and this is pretty much a comedy at heart. It’s goofy, silly, and overall pretty funny. I left some things out on purpose, and that would actually ruin a good chunk of the humor in question. Everything from the sight-gags, to the slapstick, and to the few moments of fanservice, you will be flat-out laughing, or at the very least giggling & snickering like a school kid.
I should mention that Project A-Ko was originally going to be part of a hentai series. Cream Lemon, in fact. However, the head animator of this movie wanted to have a more commercial release for the film, and thus took out all the hentai involved. There’s only one point that barely references the original hentai story, but that small reference was all that was needed to move things along.
Animation
Even to a casual anime fan, the apparent age of this movie is readily apparent, and the 80s-ness is very apparent. 1986, to be exact. Everything looks hand drawn, and feels hand drawn as well. This creates something of a problem: on the one hand, the 80s charm is rather pleasant. It’s nice to see something this cheesy looking in this modern age of anime, thanks in part to it’s somewhat recent re-release (See below for details). The style of animation that’s in Project A-Ko is rarely seen nowadays, so it’s rather refreshing to see a movie animated in this fashion. On the other hand, Project A-Ko also looks very dated. There’s plenty of moments where the animation hiccups, and certain character designs are rather.....terrifying to say the least. Animation snobs will definitely be picking the movie apart because of this, but I’m not quite as snobbish.
Voice Acting
If there was ever a weak point in Project A-Ko, it would be the voice acting. Not let me state this: the voice acting isn’t terrible. There are plenty of moments where the voice actors involved give it their best, and it really sounds good! Perhaps it’s just me, but at least 75% of the time it sounds flat, boring, and not at all inspired. Maybe it’s because this was a US Manga Corps release (The company was notorious for dubbing that was...meh, to say the least), maybe I wasn’t in the right mood, or whatever. Bottom line is that it won’t make your ear drums explode, but it might not be pleasant for some of you.
I should mention of the sequel films. The lead voice actor has changed for A-Ko: this movie A-Ko was voiced by Stacey Greeg, who I’ve never heard of until this movie. When it comes to the sequels, A-Ko’s voice received a big boost, thanks to the voice work of Teryl Rothery. You may recognize that name from Stargate SG-1 the TV series, where she acted in one of the major roles of that show. Small world, isn’t it?
Characters
If there was a strength that Project A-Ko uses to the best of it’s ability, it would be it’s characters!
The characters in the movie suffer what I like to call the “Outlaw Star” syndrome. For starters, there isn’t exactly a lot of background for pretty much the entire cast. If anything, most of them are blank slates in regards to their past/background. Only a select few are given some kind of depth, but even then it still isn’t much. On the other hand, you won’t really care as you’re watching this. Everybody in this cast provides something for the comedy that shows up in Project A-Ko, not to mention the action, and trust me when I say that there’s some great action sequences. This results in the characters being incredibly likable, despite not having much in the way of a background.
Availability & Pricing
Although it was a US Manga Corps title, Project A-Ko is actually still available. The original release is rather difficult to locate (I was able to find it on Amazon, but I can’t remember the price for it), but it was re-released as recently as of 2011, so I can be found if you know where to look. Both Best Buy & FYE have it available on their respective websites, where the prices range between 14 dollars to 17 for a new copy, which is quite reasonable. Amazon also has Project A-Ko available as well, with new copies starting at 11 dollars, and used copies being at almost 13 dollars in price.
Overall Impression & Rating
Project A-Ko is a nice turn your brain off movie. Although longer than Crimson Wolf (That movie was an hour in length, while this is 86 minutes long), there’s so much wackiness going on, it’s hard not to get mad at. The humor works, the action works, and even the fan service works, as sparse as it was. Sure, there are some short comings in terms of animation & voice acting, and to a lesser extent the story & characters, but everything else makes up for the faults in this otherwise classic OVA. Give it a go, and enjoy the magic!
Project A-Ko gets a 8 out of 10
See you all next time, when I’ll be defending our Heavy Metal faith against this wave of insanity I’ve run into. Wish me luck!
***
Apologies for the delay. We had pipe trouble at my house (It’s cold as hell right now) today, and coupled with a pleasant Valentine’s Day for me, and a not-so pleasant Valentine’s Day for my folks (More specifically, my Mom), it made working on this review go a little slower than normal. Apologies all around.
***
If you're curious about the movie, click the link below:
Project A-Ko (Full Movie)
No comments:
Post a Comment