23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Project A-Ko the "Remastered," or, Why It Is Sometimes a Good Thing to Double-Dip, May 25, 2011
All too often in today's video market classic anime films are abandoned and left to wither away when their licenses expire or their domestic licensing company goes belly-up. This happened with "Project A-Ko," an anime classic and fan favorite when Central Park Media went out of business a few years ago. Luckily, Discotek Media has re-released this animated, Japanese gem on their Eastern Star label. Is this new DVD edition worth picking up? Well, first I'll talk about the movie itself for those who have not seen it so they can decide whether or not they want to buy this DVD, then I will discuss the new DVD release itself for the benefit of the "A-Ko" fan who already owns the movie and wants to know whether to spend their hard-earned cash on this or stick to the old CPM two disc edition.
The Movie:
A-Ko and C-Ko are new students at Graviton Academy, an all-girls high school in a city that was destroyed by a mysterious meteor 16 years ago and subsequently rebuilt in the middle of the ensuing crater/lake. Their first day at their new school does not go completely well, though for two reasons: a)C-Ko is a crybaby who talks and acts about half her age and b) rich-girl classmate B-Ko has an inexplicable crush on the annoying little twit and will do anything to win her, which first involves getting the little blonde's best friend A-Ko out of the way. This may be difficult though considering that A-Ko has the physical strength of a thousand men.... Meanwhile, a mysterious alien spy is searching Graviton City for a lost extraterrestrial princess that disappeared on Earth 16 years ago. Hmm....
If you were to tie me up and make me name my favorite anime film of all time, I would - after telling you that I'm not into bondage - probably name this film. I love this movie. It's funny, it's exciting, it's brilliant, it's everything an anime movie should be. This was made by fans for fans, and it shows. Everything an otaku could want - schoolgirls, giant robots, spaceships, panties, endless references to old anime - is here and here in abundance, although it never overdoes it either. Sheer love for the entire animated medium is evident here as well, and is expressed through the animation itself: for its budget this movie is superbly animated (thanks in part to animation director Yuji Moriyama, who is one of the best in the business and later went on to work on the likewise otaku-fueled productions "Wings of Honneamise" and "Gunbuster" for Gainax). The real brilliance of "Project A-Ko" though is that its appeal is not limited to hardcore otaku; any general anime fan or moviegoer will find something to enjoy or laugh at in this film. For example, B-Ko's henchman (henchgirl?), the huge, manly and thuggish schoolgirl character Mari is funny on her own but is even funnier when you realize that she is a parody of Kenshiro from "Fist of the North Star." Yes, a parody of head-explodin' Kenshiro that is a *Japanese Schoolgirl.* That is sheer brilliance, folks. The fight scenes as well will appeal to a general audience along with those into action anime: A-Ko and B-Ko's final battle is the greatest girl-fight in anime, as they thrash each other and then proceed to demolish large chunks of Graviton City in a struggle that will make you both laugh in amusement and gape in amazement. Another interesting facet of this wonderful film that makes it fun to watch is that all of the main characters are female. This is rare in any movie, much less an animated feature from Japan. I doubt that the makers of "Project A-Ko" had any feminist intentions in doing this - I'm sure they just liked animating pretty girls (and, you know, this did start out as a more risqué title) - but the end result is refreshing in a world of movies dominated by male protagonists. Just one more bright spot in an overall stellar film.
Pluses - The comedy, the action, the voice acting, the music, the all-female cast, most of the animation.
Minuses - ....Although there are some animation hiccups. This isn't "Akira," after all. Also the admittedly non-sophisticated humor may not appeal to some.
Conclusion - "Project A-Ko" is an anime classic. This is just a joyful, superb animated movie that never fails to make me happy whenever I watch it. Highly recommended.
The DVD:
Now onto the question on many "A-Ko" fans' minds: what is on this DVD and how does it differ from the previous Central Park Media release from a few years back?
Well, first of all this new Discotek/Eastern Star release has one disc - the film itself - as opposed to the two disc CPM release, which included a soundtrack CD. So no bonus disc with this one.
Secondly, you no longer have to watch a badly animated image of M.D. Geist pollute your screen every time you start the movie. It might seem like a minor quibble to some, but to me this was (and is) the most annoying part of watching any "US Manga Corps" CPM disc. This is especially egregious when watching any actual *good* movies that CPM put out, like this one or "Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer." The effect for me is analogous to being forced to watch the trailer for a Michael Bay crud-fest before viewing "Seven Samurai," or being forced to hear a Pat Boone song before listening to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Wait, did I just compare watching "Project A-Ko" to experiencing Kurosawa or Beethoven? Yes, yes, I did.
On the video side, this "remastered" edition is very good, and better overall than CPM's (which was itself an improvement over the even earlier Image DVD)... with a few exceptions. I ran the two discs at the same time in two different windows side-by-side on my computer to compare them. The Discotek image is a lot sharper than the one on the CPM disc, and has better colors. In the previous release, for example, reds were rendered as more orange than real red. The colors on this DVD are deeper and more vivid. In fact, "more vivid" is a term I would use to describe the video on this release, for better and for worse. It looks like Discotek turned up the contrast on this disc - this is evident in the scene when A-Ko and C-Ko are in the movie theater: the flickering screen creates a strobe effect that that made me uncomfortable when I watched it... I hate to think of what it might do to someone prone to epilepsy. Also, the higher contrast results in crushed blacks, i.e. the condition in which there is less detail in shadows and dark spots. So, you have to take the good with the bad. Overall, though this is an image upgrade, although I don't know if it can be called a true "remaster," as the DVD cover claims. I think the video on this disc was taken from the same video source as the previous CPM release and not the original film negative, for two reasons. First, I believe the original negative does not exist anymore (the Japanese are not known for their awesome film preservation). Secondly, I did spot some "video lines" in this release, just as I did in Central Park Media's. These "video lines" (I don't know the proper technical term) look like the result of transferring an image to DVD from an old analog source - magnetic tape, laserdisc, whatever. Now, they are very minimized and smoothed over in this edition and not as noticeable as in CPM's - but they are still there. This isn't a huge deal for me though as I'm just glad the image was cleaned up and sharpened. So, overall a good effort from Discotek and a nice visual experience, although not really a true "remaster" in my mind, hence the quotes.
"Project A-Ko" is presented in its open matte aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (aka 4:3). This means that the image on your screen is the original negative aspect ratio, which was re-matted (i.e. had the top and bottom chopped off) to a widescreen ratio for its original theatrical release. Interestingly, the original 90s Image DVD release chose to present "A-Ko" in its theatrical aspect ratio on a (non-anamorphic) widescreen DVD . All subsequent releases have gone with the original negative ratio - more picture. This is nothing new - Stanley Kubrick filmed a lot of his movies in open matte but cut them to widescreen for their theatrical showings; later video releases used either version depending on the TVs prevalent at the time. Wait, did I just compare "Project A-Ko" to the films of Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest film-makers ever? Yes, yes, I did.
Audio-wise, this disc is the same as CPM's (with one exception, which I will talk about later). It has the same 2 channel stereo Japanese, English and Commentary tracks as the older disc. The Japanese track sounds great for its age. The English track is not as good, but seeing as how it contains an old Manga Entertainment dub, I don't listen to it a lot anyway (I don't really like Manga dubs). The commentary track is the same. Subtitles are the same as CPM's (they use the same translation) but are white instead of yellow.
And now the biggie: what extras are on this disc? Well, the answer is: Discotek ported over most of the extra goodies from the CPM disc, so this is not a bare-bones release. Yay!
Here is a list of all of the special features on this DVD:
Outtake - This is a short alternate take of a scene in the beginning of the movie where A-Ko's shirt becomes see-though when backlit (this was originally going to be hentai, remember?) that was toned down for the final release. Interestingly this extra was *not* on the previous CPM disc - it was inexplicably on CPM's DVD for one of the later "A-Ko" OVAs.
Music Videos - These are the same music videos from the previous CPM release.
Image Gallery - This is a different image gallery from the Central Park Media disc - there aren't as many...
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Project A-ko Versus OAVs, May 9, 2001
Many people are familiar with Project A-ko because it is classic anime from the 80's. However not many people are aware that there are two different Project A-ko OAV series. There are the original four movies with A-ko and B-ko fighting for the friendship of C-ko. However there is the Versus movies.
This DVD contains both the Versus movies. Project A-ko Versus 1: Gray Side. and Project A-ko Versus 2: Blue side. These series take the same characters and place them in different settings and situations.
The Versus Movies are a space story where the fate of the universe is at stake. The focus of the conflict is C-ko, who is kidnapped by space pirates who crash on a planet while losing C-ko in the process. A-ko and B-ko are firm friends and partners in this series and appear to be some sort of bounty hunters and when they find C-ko, well, you can imagine what happens here. The pirates want to fuse some evil magician's soul into C-ko's body for some dark and tiwsted reason.
The music and the plot are not as great as the original movies but are interesting to say the very least. I found the Project A-ko Versus not as comical as the other movies but very dramatic in some sort of odd love story. Parents be warned, like the rest of the other Project A-kos, there is mild nudity, sexual undertones, and transgenderal themes.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Project A-ko Movies, May 8, 2001
This DVD contains three of the four project A-ko movies. There are also two other movies nicknamed the "Versus movies" which do not really continue on in the plot. This DVD contains the three sequels to the original Prokect A-ko movie.
I did not find the other movies as wonderful as the original but they are definately worth a look.
Plot of Daitokuji Group is the second installment in the series, named after B-ko's family, which involves the aliens asking for A-ko's and B-ko's help during their summer vacation. However B-ko's rich father has other plans for the aliens.
Cinderella Rhapsody is the third movie. A-ko's falls in love with K which upsets C-ko. A-ko gets a job so she can buy the perfect dress she spies in a window display. B-ko becomes obsessed with K as well. C-ko is very distraught by this lack of attention. K however likes C-ko.
Final is the last movie of the project A-ko series. Miss Ayumi, the girl's teacher is lonely so she agrees to an arranged marriage. However Mr. Daitokuji (B-ko's father) is arranging the marriage. Meanwhile a fleet of spaceships is arriving and there is a newly discovered pyramid in Egypt. Quite Odd.
All the movies are really cute and have comical and excellent plots complimented with great music. Be warned there are latent homosexual themes in the movies as well as minor nudity. These three movies are like the first one in the fact that they are all knock-off's of other popular anime and Japanese movie series. I highly recommend this DVD.
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