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Project A-Ko - Uncivil Wars

Project A-Ko - Uncivil Wars

List Price: $29.99
Your Price: $26.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fun anime movie!
Review: A 16 year old redhead babe named " A-Ko" has superhuman powers and has many adventures in the big city including challenging her rival "B-ko" to have "C-Ko" for best friend, battle tough gals and male-like female aliens from space.
A very good, hilarious, action packed and wacky anime spoof with good laughs, neat ideas and parodies of anime such as " Fist of the North Star", it's a leave your brain at the door anime with fine artwork and hot toon chicks.
Also recommended: Fist of the North Star, Dragonball Z Movie Trilogy, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend, The Professional: Golgo 13, Perfect Blue, Ninja Scroll, Millienium Actress, Bio-Hunter, Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, Sailor Moon Movie Trilogy, Ranma 1/2, Kill Bill.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fun anime movie!
Review: A 16 year old redhead babe named " A-Ko" has superhuman powers and has many adventures in the big city including challenging her rival "B-ko" to have "C-Ko" for best friend, battle tough gals and male-like female aliens from space.
A very good, hilarious, action packed and wacky anime spoof with good laughs, neat ideas and parodies of anime such as " Fist of the North Star", it's a leave your brain at the door anime with fine artwork and hot toon chicks.
Also recommended: Fist of the North Star, Dragonball Z Movie Trilogy, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend, The Professional: Golgo 13, Perfect Blue, Ninja Scroll, Millienium Actress, Bio-Hunter, Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, Sailor Moon Movie Trilogy, Ranma 1/2, Kill Bill.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A wickedly HILARIOUS take-off of the usual anime kartoon!
Review: A great way to introduce yourself to the whole crazy world of Japanese animation, otherwise known as "anime". Here Project A-Ko makes fun of itself: lots of oversized robot warriors, explosive violence, exaggerated action, alien invasion, and of course, those fun-loving girlies with huge jewel-like eyes, multi-colored hair, and why not? ...the usual cute sailor-style uniforms with the flaring pleated skirt and the perky red ascot at the heaving young bosom!

Here in the story, our young heroine, A-Ko with the fiery red hair takes advantages of her superstrength and her blonde friend C-Ko's persistent urging to make it to the school at the very last moment one morning. This is where the great eye-popping anime drama unfolds: a few certain characters like the filthy-rich B-Ko with her strange hairdo and a gorilla-like spy from the outer space are increasingly interested in the babbling infant like C-Ko despite her silly behavior and bad cooking. Thus A-ko finds herself a reluctant protector to her best friend and had to fight off a whole line of towering robots that the brainy B-Ko had so rapidly invented. And in the meanwhile, a shady queen of the alien warfare is hatching a sly scheme to GRAB the innocent young C-Ko and make off with her for ... a very surprising reason.

A very rollicking trip so full of rib-tickling visual gags, white-knuckled action, and plenty of subtle suggestions like B-Ko's obvious lesbian love for the little C-Ko in the name of "friendship" as well as such naughty shots of A-Ko's snow-white undies as she fights fiercely to kick some big robot's behind and grip her poor fingernails onto the smooth surface of a zooming jet as it flew kamikaze-type toward the monstrous alien spaceship! You'll be giggling nonstop!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Didn't feel like A-KO
Review: All things considered this one is probably better than the first one. I just had one problem, different voices. Most of the voices on this one are probably best known for their roles in Ranma 1/2. Venus Terzo (girl-type Ranma) really didn't make a good B-KO I thought. C-KO, who's always been a bit annoying, is played by the actor who plays Shampoo on Ranma, which her high pitch voice adds to the annoyment. But worst yet, the captain from the first A-KO, who I thought was a man, is really a woman.
Scott Mcneil did a good job playing him/her, except when he sings. If you watch the Japanese version then everything's the same. I would recommend checking it out if you're a big A-KO fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Quite possibly one of the best in anime's slapstick genre
Review: It's a given that this movie may seem odd to some, well most, when they first watch it, but take my word, it will grow on you. The only thing I found particularly disappointing was the very beginning where the city was destroyed(hopefully I'm not spoiling this for those of you who haven't seen it) I saw not where this tied in to the movie, maybe I'm not as sharp as I used to be. Omit this short scene, and you've got one of the best darn anime ever to come from the mind of the genius himself, Yuji Moriyama.

Some wonder where A-ko's superhuman strength comes from, be patient with this movie, and you will see(Hint: Pay close attention to the last few minutes of the movie, when A-ko wakes up for school. Notice the name of the newspaper A-ko's father is reading and rack your brain about what other being with superhuman strength might have to do with said paper.

Hopefully, you have, or will enjoy this anime masterpiece as much as I did, and no matter what others may say, the dubbed version is just as good as the subtitled, there's so much to the movie, tht losing a nanospeck to the dubbed version won't spoil your outlook on the movie. But beware, the voice of C-Ko Kotobuki might drive you into hysterics the first time you watch it, consider yourself warned.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: X-Treme Old School High School!
Review: Look on just about any anime fan's list of must-own classics, and this one'll show up on almost every one of them. "Project A-ko" is one of the most well-done anime feature films of all time. While the story is about two high-school girls who end up fighting over the "affections" of another young girl (you think that's weird, wait'll you see the rest of this movie) while their city is in the midst of an alien invasion, this film was made mostly as a spoof of just about every other anime of its time in Japan. Parodies of and references to characters from everything from Captain Harlock to Macross to Space Battleship Yamato (Starblazers) to Fist of the North Star show up in nearly every single scene, and it not only makes for wide grins and pointing fingers from otaku everywhere, but it also fits into this crazy flick like a glove. Some of the rip-offs are pretty blatant (like the alien mothership; when you see it I'll give you three guesses to what it looks like), but hey, that's the point! Aside from all that, this is one of those anime that simply has it all; cute girls in sailor suits, giant robots, aliens, almost-nonstop smash-mouth fighting action, and laughs aplenty. The animation for its time is unparalleled; silky-smooth with theater-quality fluidity. The soundtrack, a rocking set of themes that keeps right up with the action, was put together entirely by Americans (the first of its kind!) and produced by the legendary Ritchie Zito (producer for Cheap Trick). The dubbing's even great, even if it deviates from the original dialogue a bit. Folks, if you haven't seen this film yet for some reason, you don't know what you're missing. It's a wonderful ride.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Project A-ko Versus OAVs
Review: Many people are familiar with Project A-ko because it is classic anime from the 80's. However not many people are aware that there are two different Project A-ko OAV series. There are the original four movies with A-ko and B-ko fighting for the friendship of C-ko. However there is the Versus movies.

This DVD contains both the Versus movies. Project A-ko Versus 1: Gray Side. and Project A-ko Versus 2: Blue side. These series take the same characters and place them in different settings and situations.

The Versus Movies are a space story where the fate of the universe is at stake. The focus of the conflict is C-ko, who is kidnapped by space pirates who crash on a planet while losing C-ko in the process. A-ko and B-ko are firm friends and partners in this series and appear to be some sort of bounty hunters and when they find C-ko, well, you can imagine what happens here. The pirates want to fuse some evil magician's soul into C-ko's body for some dark and tiwsted reason.

The music and the plot are not as great as the original movies but are interesting to say the very least. I found the Project A-ko Versus not as comical as the other movies but very dramatic in some sort of odd love story. Parents be warned, like the rest of the other Project A-kos, there is mild nudity, sexual undertones, and transgenderal themes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Japanime film ever
Review: Maybe all the wackiness got to my head, but I think this is the best Japanese animated film, if not the best movie ever. I haven't been watching it much lately, but that could be 'cause I watched it about 5 consecutive times when I first rented it and more than 20 times after I eventually bought it 4 years ago. Hey! How many times have YOU watched a single flick? Seriously though, I have been known to have weird taste so you might not like this film nearly as much as I do. However, if you'd like a movie with the hyper behavior found in Ranma 1/2 and Tenchi Muyo (...) and the blow-everything-up machine clashes of the Gundam series (...), Project A-ko is your ticket.

Everything up to this point was written for the VHS version of this movie. Now, the Collector's Series DVD is slightly different. I'm sure Amazon.com tells all the extra features but there is something you might want to know: near the end of the movie (when Miss Ayumi steps out of the classroom onto the balcony), there is a slight pause that shouldn't be there. This is trivial and it's probably just the copy I have, but I thought you should know. This is a Dual-Layer Format DVD. It says on the back of the box that the "Layer transition may trigger a slight pause."

One more thing: don't bother using the english subtitles to read words you can't quite make-out. The direct english translation is different from the dubbing.

One more thing: It took me a dozen rewinds to figure this out, but what B-Ko says when she dons a ballcap and vest for five seconds is, "We'll call it our own superbowl." You probably already knew that, but sometimes the characters talk too fast and it's hard to know what they say.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A-OK anime parody/satire
Review: Project A-ko is about the friendship-relationships of three school girls, all of whom have super/extra human attributes which create unique experiences. But that's not what it's really about. A wacky story line is a framework to hilariously ridicule "otaku" and other anime stereotypes. Stereotypes parodied include:
* pre-occupation with school girls (in sailor suits)
* robots (with school girls inside)
* repetitive fight scenes (to the extreme)
* one central character being annoying (to the extreme)
* transgendered sub-theme (this is even funnier after Ranma 1/2!)
* Hidden plot elements that make more sense on subsequent viewing
* Characters stolen from other 1980's anime series
* period music (theme song almost identical to movie Flashdance)
* Inappropriate "fan service": dressing, bathing, and upskirt shots, ...

This is not for everyone. As a parody, it's not a good introduction to anime. Also has incidental nudity and lesbian allusions that some could find offensive.

A "must buy" for those who enjoy satire and collect best of genre anime. Similar humor to that in _Mars_Attacks_ and _GalaxyQuest_.

Definitions:
otaku --- someone anime obsessed to the point of perversion
fan service --- special inserts catering to otaku cravings which increase video sales.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: How A-Ko died...
Review: Project A-Ko was easily one of the more popular franchises to come out of Japan. It was perfect. Two students fight over the affection of a third student. (Think Archie) A large and well-developed cast of supporting characters. A setting where almost anything could happen. I have never understood why this wasn't made into a tv series. Then along comes these two movies (theatricaly released, if I recall). The relationship of the three characters is changed completely. The background and supporting characters are gone, all gone. And instead of the humor we were accustomed to, we get a plot and script that approaches the horror genre. The fans stayed away in droves, and A-Ko was never seen again. I can never forgive this movie for that, and it will never be a part of my collection. And frankly, I don't reccomend it be a part of yours either. This isn't Project A-ko. It's just a stolen title and stolen characters superimposed over an otherwise forgettable movie.


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