電影少女 VIDEO・GIRL・AI

DENEI SHOUJO VIDEO GIRL AI

OVA

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
6
RELEASE
August 28, 1992
LENGTH
29 min

DESCRIPTION

When Yohta is told by the girl he likes, Moemi, that she likes someone else, he rents a video girl tape from a strange video rental shop. When he plays the tape at home, Video Girl Ai emerges from the screen to help him win Moemi's love. But Yohta's VCR had been malfunctioning and now Ai's personality isn't quite what it was designed to be.

(Source: AniDB)

CAST

Ai Amano
Megumi Hayashibara
Youta Moteuchi
Takeshi Kusao
Moemi Hayakawa
Yuri Amano
Takashi Niimai
Kouji Tsujitani
Rolex
Hirotaka Suzuoki
Gokuraku no Aruji
Kenichi Ogata

EPISODES

Dubbed

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Not available on crunchyroll

REVIEWS

sabre
60/100
An above-average romantic drama-comedy with ups and downs and gorgeous eye candy.
Return with me, if you will, to a simpler time. A time before Netflix. A time before DVDs even. A time when watching a movie at home on a Friday night involved the very real risk that the film would be eaten. Assuming, of course, a copy of said-movie still sat on the shelf when you dropped by the store in the first place… Yes, this was the era of video renting. The seeds had been sown by Sony, who created the very first home video player, in 1975. Extraordinary to think that spools of magnetic tape, easily eroded and prone to tangling, were the medium of choice. But so it was. The 70s were nothing if not a decade of convenience, and the video cassette was certainly that.

Enter Video Girl Ai. On the surface, it's pretty much a conventional romantic comedy. The protagonist Youta starts off as an insufferable loser. He is attracted to a classmate Moemi, who is instead attracted to his handsome best friend Takashi. There is plenty of quirkiness and angst admist a story of apparent love triangles. Depressed about his situation, Youta visits a video rental store and receives a copy of "Video Girl Ai." Not certain what he's in for, he pops the tape into the VCR and winds up with a real-live girl in his front room. The series seemingly blends together styles that shouldn't work. And yet it does.

Video girls are supposed to represent every pubescent male's dream girl: well-mannered, great at cooking, and ideal proportions. Except Ai is nothing like that. It turns out that Youta's broken VCR affected Ai in ways that her creator never anticipated. She starts off rude, intimidating, and careless. Her cooking starts off comically bad, and she noticeably complains about her small breasts. In essence, she's the exact opposite of the type of girl that someone should romantically fall for. However, there's more to her than that.

She practices cooking in her spare time in hopes of preparing a nice meal for Youta. She serves as a wingwoman in his attempts to woo his unrequited love Moemi. She sells her toy collection in order to fund his prospective dates with Moemi. She even comforts Youta when he's depressed. In spite of her initial problems, Ai actively attempts to improve herself for the protagonist's sake. Her story is essentially a metaphor for a simple person trying to overcome and persevere through life despite various hardships. She may not be everyone's ideal girl, but she desperately tries to be one for Youta.

The characters are all heavily flawed, yet the beauty of the relationships here draws me in every time. Youta is conflicted between pursuing his love for Moemi or supporting her love for Takashi. Moemi seeks out Youta for advice on winning Takashi's affections despite being unaware of his feelings. Takashi wants Youta to confess to Moemi and feels burdened that Moemi's feelings are pushed onto him by his best friend. And Ai is conflicted between supporting Youta with his unrequited love and her burgeoning feelings for him. The intricate characterizations help give it a sense of believability in the tensions surrounding the relationship developments of the four central characters.

Ultimately, I found this strangely beautful and heartwarming. The characters are all flawed yet likable. They act sensibly and aren't driven by mere impulse. Their feelings also contain a surprising amount of subtlety and nuance. One particular image that stuck out to me was the glass staircase near the end of the series. Traversing is only possible through a series of calculated steps. You need to put an appropriate amount of effort to successfully reach the top. However, if you come off too strongly, then the staircase will shatter and you'll only end up hurt. I found this imagery to be the perfect way to represent the abstract meaning behind love.

Though the series remains far from perfect. The OVA only covers events from the first few volumes of the manga, which at the time of its original release, was still ongoing. As a result, it has a rather open ending and the fate of the newly formed couple is left ambiguous. Moreover, the nature of the antagonist that appears in the final two episodes is left largely unexplored. Though in spite of this, it's still remains a worthwhile classic romance title.
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TakuTaku08
85/100
A short, impactful and unique anime about the dilemma of true love
While I was on the look out for some old anime I came across Video Girl Ai. When I checked out the tags and genre I was pretty sure it's gonna be an old RomCom with nothing special. Well I couldn't have been more wrong. It were one of the wildest 6 episodes I have watched.

Story: 8/10
The story starts of as a basic love triangle but with a unique and creative touch. But ends in an impactful and meaningful way.
The story starts with our protagonist Youta being depressed after his crush tells him that she loves someone else. He decides to visit a Video Rental Shop there he stumbles upon a VCR Tape called "Video Girl Ai".
Not sure what to await he takes the tape home and puts it into his VCR Player. Suddenly a beautiful girl stands in the middle of his room. There is just one catch. Ai is a nice girl that every adolescent guy dreams of she's well mannered, a great cook and is always there to comfort you whenever your down and listens to your problems but a malfunction in Youta's VCR player cause Ai to become the sole opposite of what she's supposed to be. She becomes Tomboyish, full of energy, an terrible cook and even becomes a bit naughty. That's where the fun begins. The anime consists of only 6 episodes but the development of the story in those 6 episodes is more then impressive.

Characters: 9/10
The Characters are all well written for such an short anime. They all harmonize well together even tho they are so different.
The four main characters are pretty much the opposites of each other like for example we have Youta a shy and clumsy looser, Takashi a tall, dark, handsome and popular guy, Ai-chan an energetic, tomboyish and naughty girl and Moemi-chan a timid and shy girl. Yet they all harmonize well together. You could say you don't get anything to know about their backstory but for an 6 episode anime you can't really complain. The development of the characters is very very impressive in just 6 episodes Youta transformed from Dateless looser to an Adult that solved his dilemma of true love by himself.

Art: 9/10
The Art is absolute eye candy. The nice old 90's art style really gives the anime a really nice vibe and makes it really pleasant to watch. The surroundings were maybe not the most detailed but the protagonists and some supporting characters are drawn and designed neatly.

Music: 8/10
The opening was pretty chill it wasn't my taste of music necessarily but it was listenable and relaxing. Same goes for the ending it wasn't necessarily my taste in music but it was also listenable and calming. The soundtrack was fitting to the situations which made it more immersive. The SFX were pretty nice too for the beginning of 90's which also fitted the situation and humor of the anime.

Conclusion:
Video Girl Ai is an enjoyable anime that makes something unique out something basic.
The length of the anime makes it very easy to watch whenever you want to watch it. The story and character development is simply great for such a short anime. Believe me this anime has something for pretty much everyone. You wanna laugh at funny and quirky scenes no problem. You wanna watch something about genuine love and it's meaning this anime has that to offer too. You wanna see some spice if you know what I mean then this anime even got that. It really has something for everyone. The chill vibes make the anime really nice to watch and to get into the anime while not getting overwhelmed by it's fast but good development. The art makes it even better to watch. It simply is eye candy
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