Welcome back to another Okazu Guest Review Wednesday! Today we welcome back Matt Marcus once again. Matt is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, such as the JRPG games club podcast Lightning Strikes Thrice that is currently covering Final Fantasy VIII.

Back in March 2021, Discotek Media’s official Twitter account posted that they were canceling their planned digital restoration of the first Project A-ko film for their upcoming Blu-ray release. In its place, they announced that the Blu-ray would instead be based on an upscaling of an original 35mm master, all copies of which were once thought to be lost to time. It was both a stroke of good luck for classic anime fans and a cautionary tale about proper filing procedures (said copy of the film had been filed under the wrong name and had been hiding for years). Project A-ko **Perfect Edition** released in December of 2021.

It is hard to feel the need to introduce this film, given its historical significance and how Erica has previously covered it on the site, but here is a brief overview: Project A-ko is a 1986 theatrical film produced by APPP, the creators of the Cream Lemon series of adult OVAs. It is a wacky screwball action comedy that is lavishly animated and stuffed to the gills with parody and references to other media (including but not limited to Fist of the North Star, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, Creamy Mami, Harmadeggon, Captain Harlock, Starship Troopers, Megazone 23, The Flying Phantom Ship, Wheels on Meals, The Long Goodbye, and a couple of famous American comic book characters).

The premise is simple: head–and body–strong teenager A-ko and her childhood friend C-ko start their first year of high school in a posh girls school and run afoul of B-ko, the resident queen bee, who falls head-over-heels for C-ko. Oh and there is a crew of female aliens who are looking for their lost princess. Also B-ko is a mecha engineering genius? Look, the film opens with a “meteor” decimating a major city and then immediately cuts to sixteen years in the future where the city has been rebuilt inside the impact crater. Wild stuff all around.

Watching this film for the first time in 2022, I found a lot to like and a few things to side-eye. The mecha and spaceship design is gorgeous. The music is the perfectly aged flavor of ‘80s cheese. The detail put into the destruction of many, many bits of the environment is something to behold. Nevertheless, this is the Cream Lemon team, so even though the content is not R18 there are still a couple scenes of teen nudity and countless panty shots. A few other gripes: B-ko is a psycho lesbian trope (even though I love her); there is a surprising amount of murder happening being treated as slapstick; and I have no idea who finds C-ko’s wailing anything other than incredibly grating. I try to imagine an ‘80s salaryman watching this film in theaters, chuckling to himself as he thinks, “Oh ho ho, that C-ko is crying again! What mirth this bestows upon me!”

What really interested me the most with this release is the plethora of extra features, the standout being the 30 minute mini-documentary aptly titled The Music of Project A-ko. It is centered around interviews with the writing and composing duo of Richie Zito and Joey Carbone, as well as singers Annie Livingstone and Samantha Newark. (Sadly, Valerie Stevenson, who sang lead on C-ko’s theme song “Follow Your Dreams”, passed away in 2015.) As a music production nerd, it was very fun to hear the history of how the music made it to the film. I would also highlight the small featurette on the scrapped CD-ROM game, which is especially entertaining if you experienced PC gaming in the ‘90s.

It’s clear that Discotek had a lot of love for this film. As a newcomer to it, I appreciate it more than I like it. If you love Project A-ko, you’ve already bought this. For those who have yet to check it out, there is fun to be had if you allow it some grace for its vintage.

Art – 9 This is what you are here for, seeing lots of things crumble, shatter, tear, and explode
Story – 6 The story is just an excuse for gags and action, which it does well enough
Characters – 5 There’s some fun rapport but this is not a character-focused vehicle
Service – 7 Yes, definitely
Yuri – 5 / LGBTQ – 0 To quote one of the extra features, “B-ko’s obsession with C-ko seems to border on the homosexual”

Overall – 8 The currently best way to enjoy a classic

I would like to give a shoutout to my podcast cohost Sibyl (you can find her projects here). She and I covered this film in detail on a bonus episode of Boku No Stop, available only for Pitch Drop Patrons.

Erica here: Thanks for a great review Matt and a couple of guffaws! The key news about this release of Project A-ko was when Diskotek found the original 35mm masters literally in someone’s closet. The animation for this has never looked so good. Not even when it was originally animated. ^_^