Product Description

A-ko enjoys the life of an ordinary schoolgirl...along with incredible superhuman strength! But her high school rival B-ko is not content to livei n the shadows any longer. A-ko's superpowers and good fashion sense may not a match for B-ko's mega-powered fighting robots of doom!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61151 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-08-13
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 86 minutes

Amazon.com
Originally released in 1983, the fast-paced, cheerfully inane Project A-Ko OAV spawned numerous sequels and won a devoted fan base. The story, which spoofs many early anime properties, focuses on the efforts of rich, mecha-building B-Ko to win the affections of the infantile C-Ko from A-Ko, who possesses super-powers. The result is a drawn-out duel. Although she turns out to be a long-lost alien princess, viewers may wonder why anyone would fall for a whiny case of arrested development like C-Ko. (The character names play off the Japanese equivalent of "Girl A, B, C" to designate an extra in a script.) In Japan, the rivalry between A-Ko and B-Ko plays as a satire on the intense, platonic friendships among high school students, rather than lesbian attraction, but a weird sexuality pervades the film. Rated 13 Up: Nudity, profanity, violence, alcohol and tobacco use. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Project A-ko Versus OAVs
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.

The Project A-ko Movies
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.

a warmhearted anime spoof
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.