The way I figure it is, if I can watch or read something ten years after I watched or read it the first time and it doesn’t make me squirm, it’s quality. Based on its renewed popularity, YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki is quality.

Way back in 1989, and again in 1991, Akita Shoten video put out two one-episode OVAs of YajiKita, which featured the top voice actresses of the day as our intrepid pair. Sadly, I don’t think the casting was as great as they did, but, I can’t blame them for their choices.

The two episodes are unrelated, which gives one a good feel for how random the typical YajiKita arcs are. The two eps are filled with random ninjas, lots of fighting, mysterious beautiful women and other chestnuts of the genre. My personal favorite, Kotestsu the shadow, is *far* manlier than he is in manga form. Yukiya was perfect – he looked utterly girly, and made all his hench-gang blush with muted desire, but was actually quite the dashing boy with a male voice. This pleased me no end.

But what about Yaji and Kita, you ask? (You had better ask….)

Yajima Junko’s seiyuu, Yamamoto Yuriko (also the voice of Yuri-licicious Iczer-1,)is, in my completely personal opinion, a little too flightly and goofy. We do see a more serious side of Yaji, but because there’s so little time in the two stand-alone episodes, its not very developed.

Shinokita Reiko, played by Yamada Eiko (Anne in Anne of Green Gables and the righteous Midorikawa Ranko in Ace wo nerae!) is nearly perfect as Kita. The body language for Kita is pretty special too. Watching her stand and sit is like bird-watching – she’s got distinctive body language that communicates her emotions very effectively, and the animation really captures that.

But you guys don’t care about that. You only care about Yuri. I know you. So…is there Yuri?

Duh, this is Kita-san we’re talking about! Of *course* there is!

In the first episode, Yaji and Kita arrive at school and have just about enough time to be fed a pack of lies by the Principal and the Student Council President, when Reiko is served with papers. A love letter, that is. We get to smile at her usual reaction, because the only people watching this obscure video are clearly obsessive fans….

Now, this is pretty mild Yuri, I admit that.

What makes it a tad more amusing and a notch higher on the Yuri goggles scale is this:

The student who gives Kita the love letter is voiced by none other than that Yuri darling, Mitsuishi Kotono in what has *got* to be one of her earliest roles. (A quick survey of her resume on Anime News Network turns up nothing older, but that’s hardly definitive.)

It’s a small thing, but I love that the “6 Degrees of Yuri” hold true for no less than three of the voice actresses in this series – two of them the leads. ^_^

So, no hot steamy sex here, but for a quickie, this OVA neatly encapsulates the silliness of YajiKita perfectly.

And, sadly, no Kita in a tux either, but we do get her to see her casual boyish after-school look! ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – Nostalgia-gasm