PROJECT A-KO

DESCRIPTION

CAST

OVA ComedyPROJECT A-KO 2: Daitokuji Zaibatsu no Inbou
OVA AdventureA-Ko The VS

REVIEWS

• 

  Mazomonogatari

  90/100
  The Underdog Blockbuster of the 80s

  __Once Upon a Time in the 80s__

  After decades of financial fluctuations Japan was blessed by the legendary asset price bubble that lasted form 1986-1992. Although Japan’s fortunes were already looking favourable following their steady navigation of the oil crisis and advancements into dominating technology concentrated markets. Japan was living it up and perhaps nowhere is this more prevalent than in the animation industry. The ultimate symbol of the decade’s precarious prosperity from an Otaku perspective are the unfathomably seismic movie productions that shaped the decade.

  1984 saw the release of three absolutely massive movies starting with Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer. Urusei Yatsura was already the meeting point for the industry’s most talented animators and Beautiful Dreamer was certainly no exception. Under the guidance of visionary director Mamoru Oshii countless innovative, inspired, and ingenious creatives where able to flourish throughout his time on Urusei Yatsura. Shortly following the 2nd Urusei Yatsura film was the 2nd movie of a certain universally loved industry icon named, Hayao Miyazaki. Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa is an essential stepping stone in the formation of one of the most critically and commercially successful animation studios of all time. It also featured the God Warrior sequence which served as Hideaki Anno’s standout landmark statement. The magnitude of these two movies completely shifted the anime landscape, these conceptually creative and amazingly animated masterpieces served as masterclasses of their craft. But as I mentioned earlier these spectacular spectacles were joined by a 3rd absolute phenomenon. In fact, I’m fairly sure this is what “3rd Impact” is a metaphor of because, Macross: Do You Remember Love is a cel-based extravaganza. Released in June 1984 DYRL features the pen work of practically every noteworthy animator and artist of the age. An unprecedented standard was set in 1984, these labours of love saw the industry united.

  Riding the unparalleled momentum, these awe-inspiring assemblies of amazing artist, animators and perhaps most importantly otaku continued forging these behemoth productions out of pen, paint, and paper. But the true spiritual successor to these three titanic testaments of Japanimation wouldn’t come in the form of an avidly awaited adaptation, or some visionary veteran’s latest creation, nor did it receive a resplendent red-carpet rollout. But despite this it has endured and become a defining statement of anime’s defining period featuring many of the excellent and essential staff that would define anime for generations to come. I’m obviously talking about…

  
  JK</span></span>__<center>
  
  __</center><span class='markdown_spoiler'><span>Project A-Ko</span></span><center>__
  </center><img width='220' src='https://projecta-ko.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cream-lemon-cast-1.jpg'><center>
  __Undesirable to Undeniable__
  Although I’m kinda not. Project A-Ko was invented with the intention of being an instalment in the Cream Lemon series. Hilariously it was decided that the story was strong enough for A-Ko to become a theatrical release, the beautiful irony and aforementioned immense hilarity of this comes from the fact that A-Ko didn’t have a script, nor names for the characters and the title was a provisional parody playing on the Jackie Chan movie Project A. Despite all this the visual materials and storyboards where strong enough to get A-ko the greenlight. Many would consider this upscaling of production to be an absolute nightmare scenario, others might consider this as the opportunity of a lifetime but for director Katsuhiko Nishijima it was a chance to buy some new teeth. 
  
  Now Nishijima must have been very popular because joining him would be: 
  
  Original C-Ko character designer and key animator Yoshiharu Fukushima who had worked on Macross as well as serving as animation director for Urusei Yatsura 2: beautiful dreamer. Providing the original designs for B-Ko would be Nishijima himself and constant collaborator Noriyasu Yamauchi would design A-ko. Additional character designs would be handed to Yuuji Moriyama who would also serve as animation director. The unfortunately late and great Shouichi Masuo, who had previously worked on Macross: DYRL, worked as Mechanical Designer alongside Kouji Itou. These two’s involvement is unsurprising given their affiliation with Nishijima as members of Studio Gravitation, what may be surprising though is the secret 4th member of the studio and uncredited key animator for Project A-Ko, Hideaki Anno. Fellow key animators would consist of Nishijima’s fellow Urusei Yatsura animation directors Atsuko Nakajima and Tsukasa Dokite who also provided the character designs for Dirty Pair. The connections are endless including tangential links to some of the finest television series, OVA’s and most importantly movies of the decade especially the aforementioned and heavily praised Urusei Yatsura, Macross: DYRL and Nausicaa. 
  
  Such a fantastic ensemble provided A-Ko with boundless potential, the only thing that could let it down was the script, except A-Ko still didn’t have one. Nishijima had decided that the story would be told entirely through storyboards, meaning everyone and anyone had creative control. This groundbreaking decision is prevalent throughout A-Ko, there’s a sense of unannounced freedom that flows from scene to scene. A-Ko is a distinctly and immensely joyful movie, It’s an awesome and astonishing amalgamation of 80s troops, a true paradise of parody and an abundantly fun and triumphant celebration of expression through animation. So, it is with ample anticipation I dig into the story of Project A-Ko.
  
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  __A Slice of Life in Gravitation City __
  Following an extremely confusing incident with English voice acting that is so surprisingly competent I thought I was watching the Dub we see an unnamed city getting completely obliterated by an asteroid. Rising from the ashes is the futuristic Gravitation City, although the city still maintains an unmistakably suburban sentimentality of the suitably 80s variety. It’s in these suburbs we meet are two protagonists starting with Eiko Magami. This enthusiastic and energetic fiery red head is your archetypical jolly joshikousei, she sleeps in late, goes on borderline dates with her closet friend and she can nonchalantly run as fast as a bullet whilst lackadaisically leaping over buildings… What do you mean you can’t. The aforementioned closest friend interrupting A-Ko’s breakfast of the traditionally Nihonese jam on toast is Shiko Kotobuki. Light-hearted and lightheaded the C in C-Ko must stand for cheerful, or careless, or crying or most likely crazy. C-Ko’s melodramatic mood swings are of the upmost extreme and overwhelmingly exaggerated. She’s rather a ray of sunshine as bright and blessed as her yellow hair and flower clips suggest or as blue as the tears streaming down her face. For some I can understand why C-Ko may come off as irritating but form me she steadily skips along the borderline carefully balancing on the verge of annoying, although if she were to fall, I’m sure her best friend would be there to catch her. Speaking of falling that’s exactly what are 3rd main character and pseudo-antagonist Biko Daitokuji pretty much immediately does upon C-Ko’s introduction to the class. B-Ko is an Ojou-Sama of the intellectual variety, and she decides to concentrate all that brainpower into getting C-Ko. Now you’re probably wondering couldn’t she just talk to her, the answer, NO. Sharing isn’t B-Ko’s strong point what is her strong point though is developing evil plans, vile schemes, and dastardly plots. B-Ko’s less looking to capture C-Ko’s heart as much as she is planning to steal it form A-Ko, the main problem being that A-Ko is a secret super-badass. A lesson the ringleted royalty of Gravitation High’s henchwomen learn rather quickly when tasked to carryout a “surprise attack” on C-Ko whilst her closest confidant is distracted allowing B-Ko to “save” the day. One major problem though B-Ko doesn’t consider that her unparalleled love for C-Ko isn’t a universal love, as she quickly earns the genuine ire of the most notable of B-Ko’s henchwomen, Mari. Mari’s immensely imposing design wouldn’t be out of place in the post-apocalyptic austere hellscapes of Fist of the North Star. There’s an inherent comical contrast between this behemoth bulldozer of a women and the comparatively chibified ball of cuteness she’s looking to bully, thankfully A-Ko shows up in time to deliver a one-hit KO. another comedic contrast is when the usually gruffly grunting Mari speaks revealing she has two voice actors. Daisuke Gouri who did voicework on the show Mari is parodying shares a role with Sayori Ikemoto. This idea was proposed by sound director Yasunori Honda and Nishijima acquiesced also thinking it was a great idea and implemented it into the movie. This is the freedom I mentioned earlier, Project A-Ko feels like it has limitless potential because there were little to no limits imposed. Thanks to this the relentless references, insane in-jokes and caricatures of commonplace tropes delightfully distinguishes Project A-Ko and are a highlight of this refrencematsuri. 
  
  Aside from Mari when you look into both the foreground and background of Project A-Ko you start to notice many characters form other series. This was a widespread practice in the 80s, the three main heroines all made their animated debuts in Urusei Yatsura as extras, but Project A-Ko takes it to the extreme. Another character of importance whose design is based off a pre-existing one is Ayumi-Sensei who looks identical to Creamy Mami, however unlike Mari her personality couldn’t be further removed form what she’s referencing. There’s another Reference I desperately want to share but unfortunately can’t due to spoilers. I will say though right at the end of the movie there’s a reveal that I think adds an incredible detail to the story. It may seem like an excessive exaggeration, but this comedic plot-twist is actually one of my favourites throughout the medium. It’s so sneaky and so funny a really cool little moment. 
  
  Shortly after A-Ko’s brief battle with Mari her and C-Ko go on an entertaining exploration of Gravitation City set to the sweetest of saccharine synth-pop tunes. Another unique and distinctive quality Project A-Ko has to boost is that the original soundtrack is American-Japanese collaboration and it’s also brilliant. The standout being Dance away that plays during A-Ko and C-Ko’s “date.” Follow your dreams is another track well-worth mentioning, It’s a super upbeat jubilant tune. The whole soundtrack sonically personifies the spirit of Project A-Ko. After the girl’s night out in the city it’s basically back to the beginning, A-Ko waking up late and rushing off to school with C-Ko in hand. But this time B-Ko is waiting by the school gate and she’s not alone. It’s revealed that she is a mechanical genius and overnight has developed a mecha with the specific purpose of defeating her rival in love, unfortunately for Gravitation high’s preeminent genius A-Ko is still the Gravitation high’s preeminent Supergirl, and she swiftly defeats the mecha. And with that it’s off to class for A-Ko and C-Ko and back to the drawing board for their self-proclaimed rival. And that’s basically Project A-Ko an ever-escalating battle of friendship, love and one girl’s desire to get too school on time. There’s also something about the impending doom of an alien invasion and a mysterious spy simply know as D relaying information about the everyday occurrences in the lives of are protagonist and oddly referring to one of them as their princess. But as I mentioned that’s not particularly important, this movie isn’t about something as dramatic as Intergalactic wars, or a philosophical and reflective exploration of love and it certainly isn’t an environmentally conscious fantasy epic. Project A-Ko is simply a great time. An action comedy that’s just looking to entertain and in that it exceeds. I’m sure this legendary lover letter to anime also completely exceeded any expectations it had at the time and if you haven’t seen it, yet I hope it does yours too. So… 
  
  Watch 
  <img width='220' src='https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCB57OLa4AAgxom.jpg:large'>
  This 
  <img width='220' src='https://moviethumbs.fancaps.net/7634878.jpg'>
  Movie
  <img width='220' src='https://moviethumbs.fancaps.net/7634858.jpg'>
  Please 
  
  __</center>Lighting in a Bottle<center>__
  Project A-Ko has left a pretty profound impact on the animesphere, especially in the west. It aired on the Sci-Fi channel in the 90s and was released on home video both subbed and dubbed. I can’t believe how fresh A-Ko must have felt when compared to the hyper violence and serious nature the majority of first wave anime shared. If you want a first-person account of the impact of Project A-Ko check out Projecta-ko.com. This is a fantastic website for all things A-Ko and helped massively in making of this review so thank you Char-San. In Japan A-Ko received many sequels all straight to video and reportedly all of diminishing quality, although I can’t confirm this as I haven’t seen them, probably because I’ve re-watched the series first instalment countless times. Project A-Ko is an extremely rewarding re-watch for me, I always discover something new, understand a reference I didn’t before or notice some minute detail in the animation. A-Ko also served as a major inspiration for one of my all-time favourite anime Kill La Kill, as well as serving an influence too countless other anime.
  
  </center><img width='220' src='https://external-preview.redd.it/TTpmoIEE7MPp8JOD4Bk6SC9a-lXqUtncuO8ELfCucqo.jpg?auto=webp&s=6fdbea3d9015dec7624ac77676a9ac4eb448fafc'>~~~
  
   I guess now the only thing left to say is thanks for reading and good luck in the New Year.

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