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Project A-Ko

Project A-Ko

List Price: $29.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A true anime fan's movie and a brilliant satire!
Review: Forget Akira, this sugar-high story of girls A, B, C and an alien invasion is the ultimate in anime fan entertainment. It's been available in the US for a comparatively long time; hence it has been surpassed in name-recognition by more popular action series. Its sales were probably boosted in the early 90s by the ominous CONTAINS NUDITY (for it was the era when anime was still 'cartoons') branded on the cover; its harmless five seconds are nothing in the tentacle era. Yet dedicated anime fans still grin when Project A-ko is mentioned, for it is a wonderful and whimsical foray into the real of animated satire and slapstick humor.

For this reason, casual fans or newbies might be confused by Project A-ko. About the only broad appeal the movie has lies with its high quality animation, dynamic character designs, and wild machines. But while these contribute greatly to the film, Project A-ko's true attraction is as a satire of the anime of the 1980s.

Macross/Robotech, Captain Harlock, Fist of the North Star, Yamato/StarBlazers, and many other series too numerous to mention are targets in Project A-Ko; I notice some new reference every time I watch it. For fans aware of the significance of these, A-Ko is side-splitting, although one need not be informed to be entertained. The characters in themselves are great: A-Ko, B-Ko, and C-ko were so named by creator Yuji Moriyama, who was basing his story around three girls. He couldn't decide what to name them, hence the names Girls A, B, and C. They are stereotypical anime girls in many ways (A-Ko is always late to school, B-Ko is a super-rich zaibatsu daughter with an evil laugh and an old score to settle, and C-Ko is a nauseatingly cute brat with no attention span), but are crazy enough to be some of the most memorable characters of the genre.

Finally, true weirdness is what really makes Project A-Ko a classic. From Dirty Pair levels of destruction and cross-dressing alcoholic aliens to deadly Pepsi cans and Colonel Sanders to B-Ko clad in a revealing battlesuit (the infamous Agakiyama 23 M-Class) firing unlimited reserves of mini-missiles at everything, Project A-Ko was rightly described as "The Holy Grail of Anime" by Antarctic Press. Moriyama's whimsical rollercoaster and satire of all Japanese things on acetate belongs in any true anime fan's collection.

Then you too can wonder exactly *why* B-Ko 'wants' C-Ko, and you too can meet A-Ko's father, which explains a hell of a lot... ^^

(Skip the sequels and the dubbed version, though, they are particular letdowns.)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A timeless, classical anime for most ages
Review: This is a movie for everyone who likes to see mindless destruction, girls in cute "sailor outfits," or Superhuman battles between a girl and mechas (big robots designed to destroy). You've just gotta see the sceens where she's late for school and takes "short-cuts" through buildings and at one point runs so fast a sonic boom tears the road up (.looks \(^o^)/ cool.)

I gave it 4 stars because although it isn't a breakthrough in any way it's got something for everybody. And compared to lots of other things it's really quite good. (Beware of it's sequils though!)

(Warnings: B-ko, the villan, is a bit off... and in her attempts to win C-ko's friendship comes off acting a bit gay (okay alot gay). In fact that is one of the main things people tease about in places like Animerica magazine.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fun anime movie!
Review: A 16 year old redhead babe named " A-Ko" has superhuman powers and has many adventures in the big city including challenging her rival "B-ko" to have "C-Ko" for best friend, battle tough gals and male-like female aliens from space.
A very good, hilarious, action packed and wacky anime spoof with good laughs, neat ideas and parodies of anime such as " Fist of the North Star", it's a leave your brain at the door anime with fine artwork and hot toon chicks.
Also recommended: Fist of the North Star, Dragonball Z Movie Trilogy, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend, The Professional: Golgo 13, Perfect Blue, Ninja Scroll, Millienium Actress, Bio-Hunter, Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, Sailor Moon Movie Trilogy, Ranma 1/2, Kill Bill.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Quite possibly one of the best in anime's slapstick genre
Review: It's a given that this movie may seem odd to some, well most, when they first watch it, but take my word, it will grow on you. The only thing I found particularly disappointing was the very beginning where the city was destroyed(hopefully I'm not spoiling this for those of you who haven't seen it) I saw not where this tied in to the movie, maybe I'm not as sharp as I used to be. Omit this short scene, and you've got one of the best darn anime ever to come from the mind of the genius himself, Yuji Moriyama.

Some wonder where A-ko's superhuman strength comes from, be patient with this movie, and you will see(Hint: Pay close attention to the last few minutes of the movie, when A-ko wakes up for school. Notice the name of the newspaper A-ko's father is reading and rack your brain about what other being with superhuman strength might have to do with said paper.

Hopefully, you have, or will enjoy this anime masterpiece as much as I did, and no matter what others may say, the dubbed version is just as good as the subtitled, there's so much to the movie, tht losing a nanospeck to the dubbed version won't spoil your outlook on the movie. But beware, the voice of C-Ko Kotobuki might drive you into hysterics the first time you watch it, consider yourself warned.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: X-Treme Old School High School!
Review: Look on just about any anime fan's list of must-own classics, and this one'll show up on almost every one of them. "Project A-ko" is one of the most well-done anime feature films of all time. While the story is about two high-school girls who end up fighting over the "affections" of another young girl (you think that's weird, wait'll you see the rest of this movie) while their city is in the midst of an alien invasion, this film was made mostly as a spoof of just about every other anime of its time in Japan. Parodies of and references to characters from everything from Captain Harlock to Macross to Space Battleship Yamato (Starblazers) to Fist of the North Star show up in nearly every single scene, and it not only makes for wide grins and pointing fingers from otaku everywhere, but it also fits into this crazy flick like a glove. Some of the rip-offs are pretty blatant (like the alien mothership; when you see it I'll give you three guesses to what it looks like), but hey, that's the point! Aside from all that, this is one of those anime that simply has it all; cute girls in sailor suits, giant robots, aliens, almost-nonstop smash-mouth fighting action, and laughs aplenty. The animation for its time is unparalleled; silky-smooth with theater-quality fluidity. The soundtrack, a rocking set of themes that keeps right up with the action, was put together entirely by Americans (the first of its kind!) and produced by the legendary Ritchie Zito (producer for Cheap Trick). The dubbing's even great, even if it deviates from the original dialogue a bit. Folks, if you haven't seen this film yet for some reason, you don't know what you're missing. It's a wonderful ride.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A timeless, classical anime for most ages
Review: This is a movie for everyone who likes to see mindless destruction, girls in cute "sailor outfits," or Superhuman battles between a girl and mechas (big robots designed to destroy). You've just gotta see the sceens where she's late for school and takes "short-cuts" through buildings and at one point runs so fast a sonic boom tears the road up (.looks \(^o^)/ cool.)

I gave it 4 stars because although it isn't a breakthrough in any way it's got something for everybody. And compared to lots of other things it's really quite good. (Beware of it's sequils though!)

(Warnings: B-ko, the villan, is a bit off... and in her attempts to win C-ko's friendship comes off acting a bit gay (okay alot gay). In fact that is one of the main things people tease about in places like Animerica magazine.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fun anime movie!
Review: A 16 year old redhead babe named " A-Ko" has superhuman powers and has many adventures in the big city including challenging her rival "B-ko" to have "C-Ko" for best friend, battle tough gals and male-like female aliens from space.
A very good, hilarious, action packed and wacky anime spoof with good laughs, neat ideas and parodies of anime such as " Fist of the North Star", it's a leave your brain at the door anime with fine artwork and hot toon chicks.
Also recommended: Fist of the North Star, Dragonball Z Movie Trilogy, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend, The Professional: Golgo 13, Perfect Blue, Ninja Scroll, Millienium Actress, Bio-Hunter, Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, Sailor Moon Movie Trilogy, Ranma 1/2, Kill Bill.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: NOOOOOOOO
Review: WHAT DID THEY DO TO THIS POOR MOVIE?! Is it just me or did the, uh, "remastering" process turn this great film into a nearly unwatchable mess? All the colors in this film are very "washed out" almost "bleached" so that all colors tend towards a white "glare" look. All in all, a pathetic job in touching up one of the better anime satire movies around. This movie shouldn't have been given to some lackluster video company who was obviously indifferent as to the results of their process (just watch the "remastering" part of the DVD - the man seems to take no interest in the film he was paid to touch up). This is one of those few anime classics that deserve a full treatment - ideally, not only a modern video filter but also a conversion to digital that would allow modern animators to touch up the animation directly frame by frame- thus making colors vibrant, smooth, beautiful and characters sharp and distinct. The only reason to buy this is for the free soundtrack that is included. Other than that, expect a seriously marred and flawed version of an anime classic. Ouch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Want a fun animation??
Review: The first animation I've seen...The best animation I've seen. Absolutely great movie without being too serious or too joking. It has almost every thing an Animation fan would want. Robots, Space Ships, Planes, Super Powers and Fighting. Add a little humor and a dose of seriousness and you've got yourself a good time.

The movie is about A-Ko, your average high school gal...with super powers?? Yep!! And her best friend C-Ko who is so nice and ignorant it's down right annoying. And the super genius antagonist B-Ko who is trying to steal C-Ko's affection away from A-Ko. Everything goes screwy when Aliens come to Earth looking for their long lost Princess.

All and all this movie is awesome. If you haven't seen it than you're not a true animation fan! Have Fun with this one!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The English dub audio sucks!!
Review: The anime of Project A-Ko is good, this is just a review on the poorly mastered audio of the English dub. I didn't feel like reading the subtitles to this movie so I put on the English dub and the sound is terrible. I know the audio source is over 10 years old, but come on the Japanese audio (I don't think neither were remastered) which is about 16-17 years old sounds way better. I had to switch over to that and read it with subtitles to watch it. I mean, when they went through all the trouble to remaster the video (which looks amazing on DVD) why didn't they go through the trouble of remastering BOTH tracks. If you watch this on the new CE DVD please watch it in Japanese because I watched it with my new Home Theater DVD system and the sound was terrible for the English dub! The movie is really good though


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