Project A-Ko

Sixteen years after its destruction by a meteor, Graviton City has been rebuilt into a futuristic metropolis. However, this is of little concern to superpowered high school student Eiko Magami, who only cares about her best friend Shiiko Kotobuki and arriving at school on time. Unfortunately, the incredibly intelligent Biko Daitokuji intends to befriend Shiiko, taking Eiko's place as the Shiiko's best friend using any means she can.

Biko decides that, to accomplish this, she must defeat Eiko in combat. In order to overcome her super strength and speed, Biko creates a mecha and challenges Eiko in front of their school gate. As the two commence their battle, an extremely large spaceship hovers over Earth, searching for something left behind.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Magami, Eiko Main

Itou, Miki Japanese

Kotobuki, Shiiko Main

Tomizawa, Michie Japanese

Daitokuji, Biko Main

Shinohara, Emi Japanese

D Main

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Captain Napolipolita Main

Ikeda, Shuuichi Japanese

Asa Supporting

Hibino, Akari Japanese

Mari Supporting

Gouri, Daisuke Japanese

Ine Supporting

Takamori, Yoshino Japanese

Ume Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Ayumi, Miss Supporting

Mukaidono, Asami Japanese

Nishijima, Katsuhiko Director, Creator, Screenplay

Kou, Yuu Episode Director

Moriyama, Yuuji Script, Character Design, Key Animation, Animation Director

Kimura, Shinji Art Director

Reviews

Jun 1, 2013

Cbubbles

Recommended

Stupid but somehow lovable. Space transvestites, great blink-and-you'll-miss-it animation, bad synthpop, and giant robots every 10 minutes FOR NO REASON. At a brisk 80 minutes, it just flies by and is a lot of fun. As a child of the 80s, everything about how this movie looks and sounds just resonates with me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 8, 2017

literaturenerd

Mixed Feelings

Overview:

Time to review a true blast from the ancient past!


History:

Project A-KO came out in 1986. It was originally supposed to be part of an early hentai anthology called "Cream Lemon" that started in 1984 with "Lolita: the anime". Wow! If you thought Alan Moore's response to Watchmen the movie was bad, Vladimir Nabokov's response to the first Loli anime would have been on a different league of anger. He might have even gone full Super Slav in sheer rage.

Anyways, A-KO was changed at the last moment to be a zany spoof of all the popular anime of the time. However, the nudity and lesbian ... relationships were still left in...because why not? A-Ko spoofs Fist of the North Star, Space Battleship Yamato, Captain Harlock, and many others. Despite being a very goofy and frankly idiotic anime, it left a massive impact on comedy anime for years to come. The whole scene with the schoolgirl running with toast in her mouth has actually become a cliche at this point! That's how many anime ripped off A-KO!

Reception in the West:

Generation X: Loved it
Generation Y or "Millenials": indifferent
Generation Z: What the FUCK is this old piece of shit?!!


Story and characters:

The main characters are the energetic and super powered A-ko, the devious robot inventor B-ko, and the incredibly obnoxious C-ko. To get this out of the way, the suffix Ko is often attached to female characters. The names A-ko, B-ko, C-ko is animator shorthand for unnamed background characters. This was one of the first inside jokes in anime history aimed squarely at fellow anime workers.

The plot is that A-Ko and C-ko must constantly try get to school on time while fighting the robots that B-ko makes each morning. B-ko is the class bully, token rich kid, and also a lesbian who is after C-ko. One day, aliens invade the city to retrieve their long lost princess, who turns out to be C-ko. This means A-ko and B-ko must put aside their rivalry to defeat the aliens and rescue C-ko. The status quo is quickly restored and A-ko is revealed to be the daughter of Superman. The End.


Animation:

Fairly decent for its time. Really nothing spectacular today although it helps if you are a nostalgic sucker for all hand drawn animation.


Music and sound:

The English dub I watched was representative of other Central Park Media titles, which is to say pretty bad. The music is ok, but nothing great.

Overall:

Project A-ko was a monumentally influential anime in its day despite its odd beginnings. It set the standard for spoof anime and its influence can be seen in Excel Saga, Kill la Kill, FLCL, Gintama, and many more. Despite this, A-ko hasn't aged particularly well in my opinion. Most young anime fans wouldn't even understand what shows A-ko was trying to spoof. The comedy that worked for A-ko has been beaten to death by later anime. The random nudity isn't as titillating and awesome as it was in 1986, because nudity is FAR more common in anime these days. It is an interesting series from a historical perspective, but I really wouldn't rank it as one of the funniest anime I've ever seen. I recommend this one only to anime fans very interested in the history of the medium.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 1, 2012

SNchan

Not Recommended

Among the Western fanbase of Japanese cartoons, there is apparently quite a lot of people who like the film Project A-ko. This is probably due to the fact that it was released at a time where most localized anime geared for adults was rather mature and gritty (think Evangelion or Cowboy Bebop,) while this was more immature and lighthearted. Regardless of why other people like it, I did not enjoy it; finding it to be rather boring and uninspiring.

There's nothing particularly good about the story or plot, but that's forgivable seeing how this is a comedy. It's about three highschool girls, A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko, ... (literally “Girl A,” Girl B,” and “Girl C.”) A-Ko and C-ko are best friends–the former of which happens to have super strength and speed. B-ko is A-ko's rival from kindergarten, and has a crush on C-ko, and thus uses her mad scientists skills to constantly challenge A-ko in an attempt to win C-ko's heart. There's also an alien invasion later on.

The biggest problem with this film is that more often than not, it's unfunny and doesn't deliver as a comedy. Supposedly there is a fist full of references parodying various anime from the 1980s, and a large portion of the comedy relies on these references. If this is true, than that would explain why I didn't really find Project A-ko to be very enjoyable. As far as Japanese cartoons go, I'm not exactly well cultured when it comes to anything prior to the '90s, so most of these references were invisible to me. I did catch the jibe they made at Fist of the North Star, which I found pretty hilarious–so had I been able to understand all the other references, maybe I would have liked this more. I doubt it would have much of a difference however.

Perhaps it's not the best idea for me to criticize for not "understanding" it, but I can at least say this: comedies that rely on parodying other stories tend to not age well. As time passes, less and less people will be able to appreciate the work, until eventually only a niche group of people will be able to truly appreciate it. Some more time later and maybe no one will understand it–which is actually kind of depressing, but hey, that's how it is.

As I said, the story and plot is nothing special, and this in part due to the fact that all of the characters are rather shallow and uninteresting. B-ko is your typical one-dimensional villain/rival, who really wants nothing more but to kill A-ko and win the heart of C-ko–which was probably supposed to be funny, but wasn't. C-ko in particular is rather annoying and unlikable, as all she ever does is act like some sort of seven year old, and cries whenever someone calls her out for being a cloudcukoolander. Which again, was probably supposed to be funny, but wasn't. A-ko would be the best of the characters, but only because there's nothing particularly good or bad about her.

The only thing about Project-Ako that's consistently good would be the huge action sequence in the final thirty minutes of the film. It starts with A-ko and B-ko's final duel, and than sort of escalates once the city is attacked by aliens. It's ridiculous and exciting, and actually pretty enjoyable. One scene that stand outs is when A-ko ascends to the floating alien spaceship by hopping on and off missiles that are being shot in her direction.

Since Project A-ko is considered to be one of the classics, you might want to watch it anyways–just don't except anything to be enjoyable apart from the action sequences.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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