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Agent Aika: Naked Missions

Agent Aika: Naked Missions

List Price: $29.99
Your Price: $26.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lots of action, babes and undies!
Review: Agent Aika is about a drop-dead gorgeous salvager (someone who finds stuff for a fee) who gets into a mission that pits her against a would-be world conqueror and his army of sexy (but quite weak) french maid-dressed soldiers. The animation is excellent, the character designs are cool and the art is really sexy, but what really stands out in this anime is that in almost every scene you see gratuitous panty shots of every female in the game! This is a voyeur's fantasy anime; the first fight scene alone is worth the tape. Keep it away from easily offendable people like parents, kids and your girlfriends. Heheh.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The others were right about this anime
Review: Agent Aika quickly got my intrest.
It's worth your time.
This is funny and sexy at the same time.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: So many...panties *disoriented*
Review: First of all, I do NOT have a panty fetish. Secondly, viewing countless amounts of panty shots are more distracting than anything else. Lastly, gazing blankly at white panties every-I don't know-two seconds makes you look like a pervert. (...) Well, at least hot anime women are wearing them, not some, uh, ugly women-*shrugs*-nevermind.
Did I mention the hot women? I did? Good. The anime is permeated with them. And if you can't find a REAL great-looking woman to look at, first, I feel sorry for you, then I say, "look no further." Aika herself is jaw-dropping (at least in anime standards), and the rest of the female cast don't slouch on the looks department at all. There's simply alot of eye-candy here.
Being distracted by all the fan service in anime title, I couldn't exactly hone onto the story. I can recall the main plot of the story of the Delmo soldiers plotting to kill Aika to avenge their fallen leader Hargen (from the last volume). Then, alot of overexaggerated fights ensue between the Delmo soldiers and Aika. Well, uh, that's basically it. I could state one more sentence to summarize the story, but I don't want to spoil anything for you (if you can't tell, the plot is as shallow as your sibling's kiddy pool). It's mostly mindless fare. Hmm, either the panty shots are for "innocent" viewer enjoyment, or possibly a creative scheme by the creator to distract us to ensconce the (...) story. I'm leaning more towards the latter.
This anime is obviously for the panty-loving guy in MOST of us. Besides, I think females would find it VERY offensive, especially-God forbid-feminists. I can't recommend it, but it does have a certain place in the anime market. Hell, I bought it, for some strange reason. I just can't recommend this to a broad audience. If you're interested, borrow someone's copy. If you don't have that option, buy a used one. It's just too mundane and superficial to really commit to a serious purchase. Story means a lot to me in anime, but the boring plot just doesn't do it for me. However, if you prefer flash over substance, simply ignore my review and go for it. Don't tell me I didn't warn you.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Blatant satire. Blatant fan service. Blatant fun.
Review: First off it's worth mentioning that this DVD includes Naked Mission and Lace in Space and is 120 mins long, not 60 mins as stated in the technical details on this site.

Okay...where should I start? Well, let's get this over and done with. Panties. Yes, there's lots of them, and as other reviewers have mentioned, if you are likely to be offended by (or feel uncomfortable viewing) a seemingly endless number of shots of white panty covered crotches, skip this and move on. There's a lot. More than a lot, actually. There's tons of them. Trust me.

However, it's worth saying that all this gratuity doesn't spoil Aika in any way. It's not a randomly tacked on interest grabbing ploy. It's an fundamental part of the whole deal. If you're going to view it as a full-on action based story, and that alone, then you will probably be quite disappointed. But, if you accept it for what it really is - a pervy, sleazed-up, cheesy parody with a Bond style plot skimming along behind it all - then you'll be just fine.

You're certainly not going to be buying this for just the story. You buy it for the whole package. Panties and all...

Oh, there is also some nudity as well, but it's nothing to get flustered about. All pretty basic really. And anyway, the impact of what little there is gets pretty much overridden by a continual stream of white-knickered nether regions; and that's far more rude.

Moving on though, the art is well above average and cleanly and crisply executed. Colours are good and well chosen. The character animation is pretty much without fault, very funny in places (particularly facial expressions) and is generally very slick, especially (as you would expect and hope) during fight scenes. My only concerns lay with some of the English voice acting, and I mean some. Most of it is just fine and well matched. Especially Gusto. The English voice dub really made that character for me. Unexpected and very funny. However, Rion's English voice actor did manage to miss the mark in a few places, and there were a couple of occasions where she really didn't match the emotion of the character's visuals. Saying that though, the original Japanese voice actor missed the mark as well on occasions, so I won't hold that against her too much.

As for the music... Well, I didn't notice a huge amount of it during any of the episodes, but it never seemed absent. So, I guess it worked okay. The opening theme (extended for the included music 'video') rocked though. Very upbeat with enough electric guitar work to keep the whole thing moving along nice and slickly. Good work there. Unlike a lot of anime titles, it actually added to the feel of the whole work, rather than just plodding along with it.

Overall, this is sexy and kooky enough to be a worthwhile purchase with plenty of good set-piece scenes to boost its replay value. Whether you like it or not isn't going to be down to how easily you're offended. Most anime fans, whether they be male or female, accept that fan service, in varying degrees, is pretty much always going to be part of the deal. The deciding factor is going to be your overall expectations of the whole thing.

As it is, it's a cleanly executed, humourous, gratuitous panty shot filled Bond style satire with both serious and fun characters and a reasonably tight plot holding it all together. See it as that and buy it as that and you'll be more than happy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This is NOT Hentai... but close
Review: First off, This isn't Hentai, but its so close it's sickening. (In a funny way) The plot is abolutly horrid, but I bought it for the fan service. You should too. The show starts and ends with a blatent shot of underwear and while watching it, a minute dosen't pass before you catch another few glimpses. It's a fantasy world where all women are beautiful and wear white thongs. It's almost sureal. Lets just say It's almost impossible to sit down and count them all. Of course it's got endless replay value whenever you just want to see some fan service, and it's great to show to your friends. If your looking for a story though, look else where cause that isin't Aika's cup of tea.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AGENT AIKA: NAKED MISSIONS!
Review: From the same creator who brought you "PROJECT A-KO" comes this razzle-dazzle ANIME film about a SEXY and SUPER-SMART secret-Agent named AIKA! In this first adventure AIKA is offered a lot of cash to commit some INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE! Will she risk the DANGER? Hey! She is a MARTIAL-ARTS expert! What do YOU think? Be sure to also check out the THRILLING sequel, "FINAL BATTLE"!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Paper thin plot. Tons of panties. Hurrah for Gusto!
Review: I bought this DVD as a replacement for a much borrowed tape (which was bought primarily to complete my Aika collection and to satisfy my curiosity). Reviewing it again though was just as impactful as the first time around.

Trials 5, 6 & 7 really do redefine 'fan service' way beyond what most of us would consider normal, especially Trial 6. The sheer amount of up-the-skirt camera angles, upturned bums and crotch shots has to be seen to be believed. It's quite ludicrous.

Okay, that doesn't really bother me, as such. I've reached a time in my life where very little shocks me any more. But, as with the first time around, I must admit that I found it a little difficult to justify why I was watching it, other than for the purposes of pure sexual titillation.

Trials 1-4 worked fine for me, even with the incredible amount of panty shots, due to there being a reasonably cohesive plot running in the background, some basic character development and silly visual humour. That kept the whole thing rolling along in a obvious direction, which was good. Also, as a stand-alone concept, this particular mini-series (pun not intended) could even be considered a 'classic', or at least a defining moment in anime history.

However, the plot behind Trials 5-7 really is nothing more than an excuse for an ever increasing number of white knickered bums and crotches. Which is absolutely fine, if you accept it for being just that.

As it is, the latter I can easily deal with. I'm male and I'm quite happy to admit that I like looking at pretty girls in short skirts, animated or not. Most guys do. Neither do I have any real objections to having numerous shots of tightly fitted panties paraded before me. It's a purely sexual thing. Deal with it. But the singular lack of any really creditable direction (even allowing for the 'revenge' angle) did tend to get a little boring in places. The whole thing is basically just one big glorified cat-fight, and just a little more depth would have gone a long way.

The mildly saving grace of this batch is Trial 7 in which Gusto makes a welcome return, along with secret agent Maypia - although neither of them really do that much this time around. From that moment on, *some* of the silly humour that was present in the first four episodes reappears and manages to lift the whole thing up a notch. Unfortunately, it's minimal and arrives a bit too late in the 'story' to do much else.

Visually though, the artwork and animation retains the good standards of the first four episodes. So no real complaints there. The voice acting is on par with the first batch too and, once again, Gusto's English dub is ridiculously funny. Overall though, the whole thing looks very pretty, and the new theme tune works nicely as well.

So, should you buy it?

Well, if you bought Naked Missions (Trials 1-4), it's probably worth it for the sake of owning them all. If you like nothing more than sitting around for an hour and a quarter looking at gratuitous shots of knicker gussets, go ahead and buy it. You'll adore it. If you want to own a piece of animated ecchi history, again, go buy it. However, if you're looking for a good story and that alone, then forget it. You will be sorely disappointed.

Once more, as with the previous collection, whether you like it or not really depends on what you're expecting. That's what matters. Get that right and you'll be fine.

On a final note though, I'm going to be objective about this. Basically, for what it does, it does it exceptionally well. There's no doubting that. It's patently obvious that the single reason for these extra episodes was to be as outrageous and as gratuitous as possible, and on that note it scores a big fat 12 out of 10. The sheer audacity of the Aika series in general and, in particular, the last three episodes is breathtaking. The producers make no bones about what its purpose is - or maybe they do - and for that you have to admire their gall and the end result.

All in all, I would say that it's an excellent addition to your collection if you either like extreme anime, want to own the widest possible range of anime fare or are just prepared to accept it for what it truly is; animated soft-core porn. If none of those points apply to you, then skip it.

It's your choice though. But if you're new to Aika or anime in general I'd suggest you rent it, watch it alone (unless you really don't give a damn what others think), and then decide.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Aika is Wonder Woman times 500
Review: I bought this DVD based on reviews and I loved it. It has good action, humor and likeable characters. Everyone writes about the notorious 'panty shots' but I think they are hysterical. The director is very creative in terms of how he'll present the next one. This and it's counterpart, The Final Battle, have all the best elements of Anime.
Basically, Aika is a salvager after a huge catastrophe that left a large part of the world underwater. She's a tough chick on her own, but when she really gets in trouble, she is aided by UltraNate, her semi-sentient bustier. Essentially she turns into a super hero that is nearly invinceable. She does all she can to help and protect her dear friends, Rhian, Gusto et al, and bust up that bad guys (or should I say bad girls and guy).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: awesome anime
Review: I just can't say enough for this anime. The characters are likeable and fun and will make you laugh. You probably shouldn't watch with little kids, because there's a lot of fan service. The plot is fairly standard, but it's so fun it doesn't matter. No matter what you like, you need this anime.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The guiltiest pleasure
Review: If the exploitation of women is something you object to, avoid this video at all costs. The makers of this movie have a serious panty fetish, and there is visible women's underwear in virtually every frame. Personally, I liked it. The women are well-drawn and sexy, especially Aika herself. Aika has a magical golden bustier which is actually semi-sentient and gives her offensive and defensive abilities. (This is so similar to the comic book Witchblade that I wonder if one of them plagiarized the other.) The story involves her recovery of a piece of lost technology (she works as an underwater salvager) and a villain's plans for it. It's all pretty silly, but generally funny. If you're a guy who's into anime and likes women in skimpy outfits, this is a good choice.


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