Yamamoto Yohko, Starship Girl - Complete OVA

Rating:
Summary: Description
Review: a thousand from now, the great battles between civilizations have been reduced to the shoulders of a handful of chosen champions. when a war is waged, each side picks its representatives, gives them spaceships and the fight is on! of course if their champion looses, they must admit defeat and give into the wishes of the other. very handy, very civilized ... unless you don't happen to have any good fighters...

terra team has had it tough lately: ness' "red snappers" team has had things their way. even with technically superior ships, things are bleak for terra...

to make matters worse, they only have three pilots. despite a concerted effort to recruit girls from the past, the team simply keeps losing! now they desparately need someone special...someone powerful, capable, and who possess a killer instinct. a pilot of extraordinary skill to crew the new model ship. they need ... yamamoto yohko!

now if they can just convince her that a better life awaits her in the future, with new friends, new videogames and some very powerful hypertechnology (well some things just take less convincing than others!), terra might be able to defeat the red snappers for a change!

Rating:
Summary: Worth watching, although not exceptional
Review: I got to know this series thorugh the TV series, which has a tightly crafted story line and subtle character development focusing a lot on the friendship between the four girls while they travel through time and get involved in bitter coporate rivalry.

I love this series so much that when I saw it advertised on Amazon, I pre-ordered it immediately. So do these two OVAs (6 episodes) measure up to its good name?

As an OVA, the quality of the drawing is adequate, but not exceptional. (In Japan OVAs are sold directly to the public in the form of DVD/LD/VHS, rather than broadcasted on TV, so the quality is usually higher) Frame rate is smooth in most places and the character drawing is consistent throughout.

The character design is more feminine than the TV series and in fact very attractive although not overly lustful (i.e. male viewer-oriented).

Being an OVA also means that it does not have the luxury of playing time to develope the story or the characters too much. However the basic story line is intact. Youko's arrogance is carefully portrayed so that it doesn't irritate and it is amplified to a high in the last episode. (yes, arrogance can be a likable attribute, that is, in Youko's case only)

If you're a fan of the TV series, you won't be disappointed by these two OVAs, although I doubt you'll feel overjoyed either.

If you haven't watched this series before, these OVAs present beautifully designed characters, and an inventive story setting invloving coporate rivalry resolved through spaceship dog fights. It's worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: poor in animation, but good in adventure
Review: The age of this show shows up even in DVD format--sometimes I feel like I'm watching a cutscene on a playstation. The animation quality is high on action, but few on frames per second, while the character designs are generic.
The 6-OVA is actually 2 X 3-OVA. The second OVA has significantly poorer animation than the first. Animation gripes aside, there's enough concepts,story, surprises and adventure that's a reason why it was shown on Asian cable TV.
Four cute girls make up the Terra team-a smartass catgirl, a fiery socialite, a demure schoolgirl, and a tomboy country bumpkin. They engage in space combat with the Ness team, called the "Red Snappers" whose most prominent member is this really stupid girl who makes remarks that hit below the belt.
The setting is a hilarious prediction of what a future space tourism industry may be like. So when the girls are not duking it out in their spacecraft, they're relaxing in hot springs or freaking out in a haunted mansion. There's a fair amount of fanservice, but I would watch this show only in Japanese.

Rating:
Summary: poor in animation, but good in adventure
Review: The age of this show shows up even in DVD format--sometimes I feel like I'm watching a cutscene on a playstation. The animation quality is high on action, but few on frames per second, while the character designs are generic.
The 6-OVA is actually 2 X 3-OVA. The second OVA has significantly poorer animation than the first. Animation gripes aside, there's enough concepts,story, surprises and adventure that's a reason why it was shown on Asian cable TV.
Four cute girls make up the Terra team-a smartass catgirl, a fiery socialite, a demure schoolgirl, and a tomboy country bumpkin. They engage in space combat with the Ness team, called the "Red Snappers" whose most prominent member is this really stupid girl who makes remarks that hit below the belt.
The setting is a hilarious prediction of what a future space tourism industry may be like. So when the girls are not duking it out in their spacecraft, they're relaxing in hot springs or freaking out in a haunted mansion. There's a fair amount of fanservice, but I would watch this show only in Japanese.