by Matt Marcus, Staff Writer
In the wake of the success of the original Project A-ko film, A.P.P.P. released three sequels, all of which now have Blu-Ray releases from Discotek. All three—running for around 50 minutes compared to the original’s 80—felt a little too scant to review individually, so I’ve opted to combine my thoughts here (much like their previous DVD release from Central Park Media, subtitled Love & Robots).
Project A-ko 2: Plot of Daitokuji Financial Group
Three weeks have passed since the end of the first movie. The defeated alien ship remains perilously perched upon the military command tower at the center of Graviton City, but now it’s been converted to a glitzy shopping mall and recreation center. Of course, this is cover for Captain Napolipolita and her henchwoman D to raise funds for repairs, after which they intend to fulfill their original mission of returning the lost alien Princess C-ko to her home planet.
But this time, the villain is the military industrial complex, in the form of B-ko’s weapon’s dealer mogul father Hikari Daitokuji (or, as I like to call him, Phoney Stark). He sees the alien ship as a goldmine of advanced technology he’d like to steal and exploit for his own ambitions, and so the Plot of the Subtitle are his machinations trying to hoodwink the defense force into doing the dirty work for him. (Notably, he’s been stealing mecha designs from B-ko.)
Meanwhile, our main trio are simply looking forward to a summer break of fun. They end up obstructing both the aliens and B-ko’s father’s schemes, mostly by blowing everything up. Graviton City is left a smoldering ruin again, but life goes on.
All of the elements of the first film are here. The A-ko/B-ko/C-ko triumvirate continue their schtick. There’s a decent amount of mecha and exploding shit. Surprisingly, the non-mecha fanservice is relatively tame; I found the fully-animated scene of A-ko changing into a bathing suit without exposing herself particularly funny, as if it were an intentional troll to those seeking more cheap thrills. Honestly, the funniest bit was how the Alpha Cygnans painted C-ko’s face on the front of their ship, goofy open-mouth grin and all.
The extras are notably sparser than those for the first film (no extra documentaries or feature commentaries this go ‘round). The only unique bonus are screenshots from the PC-88 casino game collection tied to the film, which included several scenes lifted from the film but drawn in that classic 8-bit style.
Overall – 6
Project A-ko 2: Plot of Daitokuji Financial Group Blu-ray available on Amazon and Crunchyroll
Project A-ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody
This film is based around Spring Break, and every girl in Graviton High School is thinking about romance. A-ko becomes obsessed with a dress she can’t afford, and starts working at a fast food restaurant to save up. B-ko is still using her posse to stalk her, and of course the two are still fighting before school every day. C-ko is starting to feel neglected by A-ko,
All of this is thrown out of whack when C-ko runs into the street and is nearly run over by a hunky-yet-gormless guy named Kei. A-ko falls for him immediately, followed by B-ko, while the whole time, Kei has caught feelings for C-ko. So much for the Yuri.
Hijinks ensue, which culminates with a destructive showdown in the fancy hotel atop the yet-again-renovated alien ship, which is now a theme park. As the chaos expands, the commander of the defense force decides to neglect his duties this time (off screen, no less), so a group of under-cover protective public works employees mobilize, which turns into a cavalcade of mecha and sentai winks. They even included a cameo by BaBe, the idol duo who sing the film’s theme song “Get A Chance!” (The English Version plays over the credits, the lyrics of which are basically inscrutable.)
In the end, everyone’s heart gets broken. Kei confesses his love to C-ko, who harshly rejects him, while A-ko and B-ko see their fantasies shatter along with the floor of the hotel. Everything resets back to the status quo again. Hooray.
This one definitely feels like a step up from the previous film, but having the central conflict shift to center on Kei was honestly a bit deflating even if, as the trivia notes say, this would have been expected by the audience at the time. I know that the joke is that his cool surface image is actually the result of being too shy to talk, but it’s not quiet a strong enough joke to hang an entire plot on. I also wish more came out of the extensive mobilization scene; having Graviton City secretly be a hotbed of superheroes and super robots could have been used more for the comedy besides “look, an off-model reference!”
As with the previous release, the bonuses are relatively slim, though the trivia section is always a fun treat. I did notice one omission, though, which led me down a bit of a rabbit hole. In the film, we see a brief segment of a porn flick, where a girl with short blue hair (and no clothes) is about to, uh, impose herself on a red-haired girl. The scene is interrupted by the mobilization call (somehow within the movie!) by a girl with orange pigtails. Turns out, these three are the animated versions of an idol group Lemon Angels, a multimedia project that was an offshoot of the Cream Lemon hentai series, much like what Project A-ko began as. Seems like an odd thing to leave out from the otherwise exhaustive trivia notes, especially since they are even explicitly credited.
Overall – 7
Project A-ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody is available on Blu-ray from Crunchyroll and Amazon.
Project A-ko 4: Final
The aptly-titled fourth film of the mainline series is about two impending threats: a new alien invasion, foretold by ancient inscriptions found in Iraq, alongside the teacher Miss Ayumi’s engagement to…Kei??!?!
Out of all of the sequels, this one has the strongest set-up for farce. Phoney Stark is back as the facilitator of the omiai between Miss Ayumi and Kei. Since he is basically in charge of the military, he orders them to protect the bride and groom from terrorist threats (read: B-ko, who is back on a rampage to steal Kei for herself). This provides cover for the defense force to mobilize against a massive alien fleet that is approaching earth (circumventing the cowardice of the commander who bailed in the previous film).
A-ko is, for her part, is also trying to wreck the wedding, again leaving C-ko feeling abandoned; in fact, her crybaby friend begins to fear that A-ko and B-ko’s love of fighting is going to turn into feisty romance, leaving her alone. When it turns out the fleet is helmed by C-ko’s long-lost mother, C-ko decides willingly to leave. (We are led to believe that Ayumi is tied to the aliens, but that turns out to be a fakeout.) A-ko and B-ko fail to take her back, only for C-ko to unceremoniously show up at A-ko’s door the next day, having changed her mind on leaving. C-ko asks A-ko not to fight B-ko anymore, to which A-ko happily agrees.
To be honest, this one might be my favorite of the bunch. Seeing A-ko and B-kos fights become so regular that even their friends see it as just another ordinary morning got a good chuckle out of me. C-ko getting Yuri-goggles was a fun twist that I wish the movie leaned more into. Still, the plot AGAIN is centered around Kei, who is even less charismatic here than in the previous film.
The extras here match what we saw in the previous releases. Would you know that there are a lot of Lupin cameos??
Overall – 7
Project A-ko 4: Final Blu-ray is available on Amazon and Crunchyroll.
All in all, none of these films reach the heights that the first film did, and in some cases detract from it (*cough* Kei *cough*). That said, if you wanted to see more bubble-era OVA hijinks chock full of parody, none of these are an awful time.
Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, as well as the writer for the blog Oh My God, They Were Bandmates analyzing How Do We Relationship in greater depth.
