is a 1986 Japanese
action comedy
Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre.
Film
The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of actio ...
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
film that had several sequels and a spin-off.
This film focuses on a happy-go-lucky 16-year-old red-haired, sailor-suited teenage schoolgirl, A-ko Magami, who goes on her magical adventure from high school to outer space as she struggles to finish her homework, rescue her friend C-ko, and save the Earth from an evil alien invasion. This series references a number of other works of
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
from the 1970s and 1980s, such as ''
Macross
is a Japanese science fiction mecha anime media franchise/media mix, created by Studio Nue (most prominently mecha designer, writer and producer Shōji Kawamori) and Artland in 1982. The franchise features a fictional history of Earth and the ...
'', ''
Fist of the North Star
is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. It was serialized in Shueisha's Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' for 245 issues published from 1983 to 1988 and initially colle ...
'' and ''
Gundam
is a Japanese military fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ''Mobile ...
''.
Plot
An alien space craft crashes into Graviton City, wiping out the entire population and leaving a massive crater where the city is rebuilt. Students A-ko Magami, a perky, fun-loving red-haired, sailor-suited teenage girl, and her best friend C-ko Kotobuki, a bubbly, carefree optimist, enter a new year of school as transfer students at the all-girls Graviton High School. Although A-ko possesses superhuman speed and strength, she considers herself an average teenager. She mostly worries about getting to school on time, due to her habit of chronically oversleeping her alarm clock each morning. The pair catch the unwanted attention of B-ko Daitokuji, a rich, snobbish, spoiled, and brilliant fellow student.
B-ko develops an obsession in regards to C-ko, and is determined to win her over. B-ko's attempts to win C-ko over fail, however, and remembering that she was A-ko's rival back in kindergarten, B-ko creates a series of
mecha
In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the mean ...
piloted by her team of female followers to attack A-ko each morning. After losing each new and more powerful mecha, she eventually creates and dons the "Akagiyama 23," a powered suit that looks like a bikini. B-ko quickly escalates the fight across the school with no restraint.
Trench-coated spy "D" has been monitoring A-ko and C-ko each morning and reporting back to a large spacecraft as it approaches Earth. The aliens' conclusion is that they have located a lost princess whom they have been looking for. The aliens finally reach Earth and begin an all-out attack against the Graviton military, which is outmatched by the alien technology. A-ko and B-ko's own fight continues across the big city even as the military and aliens do battle. C-ko is abducted in the middle of this confrontation by "D," who is revealed to be a member of the Lepton Kingdom of
Alpha Cygni
Deneb () is a first-magnitude star in the constellation of Cygnus, the swan. Deneb is one of the vertices of the asterism known as the Summer Triangle and the "head" of the Northern Cross. It is the brightest star in Cygnus and th ...
, an all-female race of aliens. C-ko is their princess.
Witnessing the abduction, A-ko and B-ko set aside their differences. Infiltrating the spaceship, A-ko confronts D and the ship's alcoholic Captain Napolipolita, while B-ko rescues C-ko. B-ko then reneges on the truce and opens fire on A-ko, D, and the Captain, destroying the ship's navigation system. The vessel lands, precariously perched on top of the city's Military Command Tower (actually the remains of the previously crashed ship).
A-ko happily awakens the next morning, sore from the previous day's adventures, and walks with C-ko to school in their new uniforms. The girls pass by a disheveled D and the Captain begging for donations to repair their ship. The film ends with B-ko, ready for yet another fight, smiling as A-ko appears on the horizon.
Cast
Production and release
The film was directed by
Katsuhiko Nishijima
is a Japanese animator, storyboard artist, and director known for panty- fanservice.
Films
*'' Project A-ko'' (1986), director
*'' Project A-ko: Grey Side/Blue Side'' (1990), director
*'' Honō no Tenkōsei'' (1991), Director, Animation Directo ...
who would later go on to direct ''
Agent Aika
''Agent Aika'' (stylized and known simply as ''AIKa'' in Japan) is a Japanese OVA series animated by Studio Fantasia and directed by Katsuhiko Nishijima. The series follows Aika Sumeragi, a salvager for hire who gets caught up in a plot for w ...
'' and ''
Labyrinth of Flames
is a Japanese 2-episode original video animation, OVA anime series created and produced by Studio Fantasia and directed by Katsuhiko Nishijima. It was released from September 25, 2000 to December 21, 2000. The OVA was licensed by Central Park M ...
''. Production of the film included several artists who would later create other popular works, including
Kia Asamiya
, best known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist whose work spans multiple genres and appeals to diverse audiences.
He is well known for using influences from American comics, television, and films in his work, and describes himself as ...
and
Atsuko Nakajima
is a Japanese animator, character designer, and illustrator. She is married to anime director and animator Tomohiro Hirata, with whom she also collaborated in the ''Trinity Blood'' anime (in which Nakajima was character designer and Hirata was ...
. Also noted is the western source of the soundtrack, credited to
Joey Carbone
Joey Carbone is a composer, music producer, arranger, keyboardist, vocalist, advisor and educator. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.
Early life
When he was 16, Carbone was signed as a singer in a band to Atlantic Records by one of A ...
and
Richie Zito
Richie Zito (born August 21, 1952) is an American songwriter, composer and record producer from Los Angeles. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Zito has experienced success as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of ...
.
The title itself is a reference to the 1983
Jackie Chan
Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...
movie ''
Project A'', although the film bears no resemblance to ''Project A''; the working title ended up sticking.
In Japanese, "-ko" is a common suffix for girls' names, like Hanako, Rumiko, and Yuriko, or indeed
Eiko
Eiko is a feminine Japanese given name. Eikō, also spelled Eikou or Eikoh, is a masculine Japanese given name. The meanings of these names depend on the kanji used to write them.
Kanji
In the feminine name Eiko, "ko" is generally written with a ...
, which sounds just like A-ko. The literal meaning is "child", so A-ko is a generic "Child A", a common way to reference peripheral characters in Japanese contemporary drama. In the making-of documentary for the film, it is stated that "A-ko", "B-ko", and "C-ko" were intended as generic "Jane Doe"-type names.
''Project A-ko'' was initially planned to be part of the ''
Cream Lemon
is an early hentai series. The first ''Cream Lemon'' OVA was released in August 1984, though ''Cream Lemon'' was not the first hentai OVA. The first was ''Lolita Anime'', released earlier in February 1984. Related to ''Cream Lemon'' ...
'' series of
pornographic
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of Human sexual activity, sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults, OVAs, but during the production of the series, it was decided to make it into a more mainstream title.
The only sequence animated during its ''Cream Lemon'' days left in the revised production is B-ko's private bath scene. In a nod to ''Project A-ko's'' origins as a ''Cream Lemon'' episode, the owner and several working girls from the brothel in the ''Cream Lemon'' episode "Pop Chaser" - where director Katsuhiko Nishijima was one of the animators - can be seen in one of the classrooms A-ko and B-ko crash through during a fight sequence in the film.
Nishijima states (possibly in jest) that he took on this project because he was missing some teeth at the time and needed the funding from this film to buy new ones.
Release
The film was released to theaters by
Shochiku-Fuji on June 21, 1986, alongside a shorter film titled ''
Going on a Journey: Ami Final Chapter''.
Pony Video distributed the film via
VHS and
LaserDisc
The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
later in the year.
''Project A-Ko'' was
Central Park Media
Central Park Media, often abbreviated as CPM, was an American multimedia entertainment company based in New York City, New York and was headquartered in the 250 West 57th Street building in Midtown Manhattan (on the corner of Central Park, hence ...
's first video release in 1991 alongside ''
Dominion Tank Police
is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. Set in the fictional city of Newport, Japan, in a future in which bacteria as well as air pollution have become so severe that people must wear gas masks when outdoors, th ...
'' and ''
MD Geist
is an anime and comic book series about a post-apocalyptic world.
Geist (the main character) is MD-02, a ''Most Dangerous Soldier'', genetically engineered to function as a killing machine, but every one of the MDS units went homicidally ins ...
''. They later released a dubbed version produced by
Manga Entertainment
Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyro ...
to VHS in 1992. The English dub for the rest of the franchise was produced with
Ocean Studios
Ocean Productions, Inc., is a Canadian media production and voice acting company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is part of the Ocean Group of businesses. Ocean Group is involved in intellectual property acquisition and development, ...
instead.
After releasing ''Project A-ko'' on DVD in its original widescreen video format, Central Park Media later released a "Collector's Series" version in 2002, which features remastered video and coloring, a large number of A-ko related extras, commentary and interviews by many of the Project A-ko staff, and a free ''Project A-ko'' soundtrack CD.
On May 17, 2011,
Eastern Star released a newly remastered R1 ''Project A-ko'' DVD. It contains many of the extras of the original CPM release, minus the soundtrack CD.
In September 2020, it was announced Discotek Media will release the film on Blu-ray. The footage for the film was to be sourced from the laserdisc release using the Domesday Duplicator to capture the footage at a higher quality than previous releases, with a technology called AstroRes being used to upscale the footage and restore it to a higher quality.
In March 2021, Discotek announced that the film will instead be sourced from the original
35mm 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film
* 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock
* 35MM 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format ...
film negatives
In photography, a negative is an Photograph, image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occur ...
, which were previously thought lost. The 35mm film negatives had been stored in a film laboratory but a clerical error had resulted in confusion as to where it was.
Critical reception
The film has largely been praised reviewers who consider it a classic for fans of Japanese anime.
The film's humor was praised, with ''Hyper'' magazine saying the film "had me in stitches with its fast hitting cheesy humour."
Reviewer
Joe Bob Briggs
John Irving Bloom (born January 27, 1953), known by the stage name Joe Bob Briggs, is an American syndicated film critic, writer, actor, and comic performer. He is known for having hosted ''Joe Bob's Drive-in Theater'' on The Movie Channel fro ...
praised the film, citing the more adult subject matter compared to
Saturday morning cartoons
"Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a br ...
and crazy action, giving it four out of four stars. He placed the film alongside others such as ''
Gunbuster
''Gunbuster'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese OVA anime series produced by Bandai, Victor, and Gainax and released from 1988 to 1989. It was the directorial debut of Hideaki Anno, best known as the creator and director of ''Neon Genesis ...
'' and ''
Dominion: Tank Police'' which feature scantily clad women in
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
adventures causing a lot of mayhem.
''
GameFan
''GameFan'' (originally known as ''Diehard GameFan'') was a publication started by Tim Lindquist, Greg Off, George Weising. and Dave Halverson in September 1992 that provided coverage of domestic and import video games. It was notable for its ex ...
'' writer Shidoshi considers the film a "must see" film for any serious anime fan, saying it rises above being a mere parody and stands on its own as a work. He also says that it is the best film in the series, with the sequels being the sort of work that the film set out to mock.
However, some reviewers found the story confusing and hard to follow, with ''GameZone'' magazine saying "Confused? You better believe it. The plot's got more twists than a bag of noodles".
Sequels
Central Park Media has released the three theatrical sequels (often erroneously cited in U.S. anime references as OVAs) in a single-disc DVD collection, 'Project A-ko: Love and Robots':
* ''
Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group'' (1987)
* ''
Cinderella Rhapsody'' (1988)
* ''
FINAL
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
'' (1989)
After this original series, a spin-off entitled ''
A-ko the Vs'' (1990) was created and released in the OVA format. In this two-part series (a "Grey side" and "Blue side"), A-ko and B-ko are partners hunting monsters in an extraterrestrial environment, with no relationship to the previous series. Central Park Media released it as ''Project A-ko: Uncivil Wars''.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{A.P.P.P.
1986 anime films
1980s Japanese films
1980s parody films
1980s science fiction comedy films
Japanese animated science fiction films
Japanese science fiction comedy films
Central Park Media
CPM Press
Discotek Media
1980s Japanese-language films
Animated films set in the future
Films about impact events
1980s rediscovered films