Customer Reviews

Project A-Ko - Love & Robots

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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 pictures, but they are larger .

Trailers and TV Spots - This is the exact same as on CPM's edition, down to the English re-release trailer - for the CPM release! Hilarious!

Making Of - Again, this is the exact same extra from the CPM disc. Warning: this is very, very Eighties with a capital Eight. Part of it was filmed in 80s LA (the music producers and composers for this movie were American) so expect Big Hair.

Interview With Yuji Moriyama - Ditto. (Except for the Big Hair part)

Commentary With Yuji Moriyama - Ditto.

Some of the extras on Central Park Media's Collector's Series edition are not on this disc, namely the fan art section and comic comparison, but these are honestly not missed that much. If I want to see fan art I can look on the Internet, and the CPM comics (by Tim Eldred, I believe) weren't that interesting. Also not included (for obvious reasons) are the feature about CPM's video restoration and the CPM product trailers.

Winding up, the biggest and most pleasant surprise for me on this new release is how nice the *disc* itself is. Let me explain: the previous Central Park Media release of "Project A-Ko" was one of the worst-coded discs of all time. I actually bought it twice (both times used). The first time the copy I bought had a noticeable scratch on it. When I put it into my computer's external drive it didn't want to play at all, and when I put it into my internal drive it barely wanted to play. There was one point in the movie when the audio "hiccuped" (during the scene where we first meet the alien captain - this is the audio exception I was talking about earlier). I figured that this was because of the scratch and returned it. Well, when I got my second copy sans scratches I put it into my external drive and discovered... that the exact same thing happened (it was better on the internal drive though, but then again I had gotten a new computer in the meantime). Therefore the problem wasn't the scratch but the encoding on the disc itself. This new Discotek disc works like a charm - no problems at all playing it in my DVD player or PC, no more audio hiccup. The only downside is that it is region encoded for Region 1 whereas CPM's DVD was All-Region, so I guess anyone outside North America without a Region-Free DVD player is out of luck. Still, a huge improvement. Thanks, Discotek!


Pluses - Better overall image quality (especially sharpness and colors) than older releases, great extra features, better disc encoding, no more audio hiccupping. I even like the new cover art - very nice, very close to the theatrical poster!

Minuses - Higher video contrast may offend some, crushed blacks.

Conclusion - This new Discotek/Eastern Star DVD release of "Project A-Ko" is overall a better product than Central Park Media's 2002 two Disc set. The only thing you miss out on here is the bonus soundtrack CD that came with that release, but the new video quality more than makes up for it. If you own that version, seriously consider upgrading. It's like upgrading from a cheap old paperback copy of a Shakespeare play to the nice hardback complete collection of all his plays. If you *haven't* yet bought "A-Ko", buy this. You will be glad you did.

Wait, did I just compare "Project A-Ko" to the genius works of William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright who ever lived?

Why, yes, yes I -

*THUMP*

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.

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.

Project A-ko centers around our heroine A-ko (naturally), her friend C-Ko and B-ko who wants to be friends with C-ko a bit too much. All the major characters have personality flaws (A-ko's fiery temper comes off as the most normal of all of them) and the end result is a massive battle involving fighters, tanks, a huge alien spaceship, B-ko and A-ko (naturally).

Most of the overused anime cliches get good (meaning humorous) treatment in this film. There's a megalomanic alien commander with a screw loose, transforming mecha with serious design flaws, bungling alien spies, overly heroic fighter pilots and a rather unlikely end to the alien command ship. This is definately the lighter side of anime, and a lot of fun.

The animation isn't quite state-of-the-art anymore and the DVD is very sparse on features (nothing more than a chapter/language select), but I think it's worth it for the story and characters alone.

All that is to be said about A-ko has probably been said already by the 50+ reviews so I just want to chirp in and say if you are an old school anime fan or just a plain or regular anime buff you will appreciate the included Director's notes in the DVD collector's edition.

In the director's notes, Shigeru Morikawa, gives tons of interesting facts and trivia about the creation and dynamics of Project A-ko. What was first planned to be a soft porn cartoon turned a science fiction anime slug fest and acknowledged by Japanese animation industry insiders as a hallmark in the field of Japanese animation.

In fact, I was surprised to find out that tons of famous people in the field of manga (such as Kia Asamiya of Silent Mobious fame) and animation (people who worked on great Sci-Fi series like Macross and Evangelion) were key animators and contributed to the storyline of this movie.

I could go on for ages but I would spoil it too much. So if you are still behind the times and want to update your A-ko to DVD or haven't watched the movie but considering the purchase, I say, go ahead you'll love not only the anime itself but also the tons of extras packed within.

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.

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.

In the future 16 years after a space meteorite destroyed the city of gaviaton, it has rebuilt to a better and new technological city. 17 year old redhead schoolgirl A-Ko has extraordinary powers such as strength and speed as she hangs out with her long time friend C-Ko who is an adorable blonde while sexy bisexual rich schoolmate B-Ko wants to be her friend but trouble is brewing once alien female-male mixed beings kidnap C-Ko as they believe she is the lost princess of their planet. A-Ko and B-ko engage in a battle for C-Ko as they fight each other as well as trying to compete to save the girl.

Excellent animated 1986 Sci-fi comedy spoof from director Yuji Moriyama is a nicely animated and totally funny film that has became a box-office hit in Japan and was released in the US and all over the world in 1992. What makes this a cult classic is due to it's spoofing of the superhero subgenre including to anime like "Fist of the North Star", "Macross" and "Captain Harlock" that are guaranteed to make otakus (anime fans) giggle, 2 cute girls like A-Ko and B-Ko who are total hotties that i adored since i was a young teen, good animation in some parts, action and some originality. I believe this movie was a source to other superhero parody films like "The Incredibles" or "Hancock", i always loved this movie since i was 14 when i saw it 16 years ago on video after being blown by Akira.

This DVD contains excellent remastered picture plus English and Japanese dubs with subtitles, an audio commentary with english subtitles, trailers/TV Spots, Japanese behind the scenes video, itnerview with the director, music videos, outtake and fanart gallery.

This movie was my first introduction to "anime" when I knew to call certain cartoons anime. I originally saw it on the Science Fiction channel in 1992. Though I didn't get all the references to other anime, and I still don't in some cases, it is a very fun movie. Even though now it's several years later, and the animation style's age shows through, I enjoy re-watching it. This may sound weird coming from a man's keyboard, but Project A-ko is my "feel good" movie.

Project A-Ko is a total send-up of the genre, which is no doubt why I enjoyed it (and its sequel) so much. It has the usual giant mechanical paraphernalia, teenage school girls, and crossdressing alcoholic aliens. Err... where did they come from? Never mind: far more than most of the famous and iconic animes it parodies, Project A-Ko is entertaining, intriguing, and often just fall-down laughing funny. It's sort of like Japanese anime directed by an English eccentric. It's still sutiable bewildering in a Japanese sort of way, but with flashes of anglo style satire thrown in.

rated 13 up: brief nudity, occasional profanity, sexual humor, and violence