Rating: 
Summary: A MUST-READ for manga fans!!!
Review: Ok, so the name might not seem so intriging, but the artwork and storyline are AWSOME! I must admit, though, that there is quite a bit of..er, nudity in each volume, along with A LOT of "offensive language" (which includes curse words, dirty jokes, etc.) and "suggestive themes", so this is more suitable for mature readers. Personally, I think the series is great and has lots of humor. It can be kind of sad sometimes though...
When I first started reading Video Girl Ai, I was about 12 1/2, so if you're in your early teens and you're mature enough, it's OK. If you're a stingy money saver like me, I'd recommend that you read it in the bookstore, since the book itself costs about [$$$].
Overall, excellent story and artwork, GREAT READ!
Rating:
Summary: must read for teenage boys of all ages
Review: Some of us never quite get it out of our system. Even at age 40, I fell for AI as much as I would have at 13. To give you an idea, I loved everything Rumiko Takahashi ever did (especially Ranma and Maison Ikkoku), so that's my standard. AI is as good, and as romantic as Maison Ikkoku. Some of the artwork is sexy, and very well executed. I'm sure this influences my response (it would be interesting to do a gender comparison...). But there's nothing explicit. I have a low tolerance for gratuitous sex. For example, after the first Crying Freeman, it just got too stupid for me. AI is a similar concept to Oh My Goddess, but a lot more intelligent. Plus AI doesn't come to the rescue with magic at the end of every episode (like Belldandy). In AI, people have to work out things for themselves. Another one I liked a lot was Silent Mobius. This is harder to compare because Mobius is more of an action story, while this is romance. But so far I like AI better. In the end, people are more interesting than monsters. So if you're in the market for manga in this category, Video Girl AI an excellent choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Nicely done, but not my cup of tea
Review: Sometimes I'm quite baffled by Japan's eternal fixation on the fantasy world of self-serving puberty and hormone-driven infatuation with cute but brainless young girls in placid pleated school-uniform skirts and penny loafers. Anyway, here in very first book, a poor young boy who desperately needs to be laid suddenly finds that the object of his youthful lust, Moemi has taken her sloe-eyed interest in his best friend, a handsome but vain Takashi at his high-class private school. So in order to nurse his sorrows, Yota Moteuchi wanders into a video store which had miraclously appeared in the name of his "pure heart". So he eagerly takes an X-rated video home to indulge in all the pleasure so unfortunately denied him in real life. Thus he met Ai, the charming but egotistic young TV strumpet who suddenly fell right off the screen to devote herself to improving the boy's life and serving his every need - much to his unwilling horror. What about dear, sweet little Moemi???!! But ah, she's trotted off to timidly acknowledge her undying adoration to the aloof Takashi, who merely treated her like dirt. And what's more, the stubbornly determined Ai's got her arm tightly locked around poor Moteuchi's throat! So maybe Moteuchi and Moemi are much better off going together??? Hm...let's wait and see! Good artwork with very delicate shading and even delicater details of Moteuchi's overdramatic, moist-eyed emotions and luscious, nearly pedophilic shots of young schoolgirls' underwear. Nevertheless, despite my lifelong love for manga and anime, I'm sorry but I'm not very interested in some kid's juvenile triumphs and woes with romance and dating.
Rating: 
Summary: The Not-so-standard Love Triangle
Review: Takashi, the popular boy at school, has little interest in all the attention that surrounds him. Moemi is a cute and intelligent girl who has fallen for him nevertheless. Our hero, Yota ("Motenai" - "Dateless") Moteuchi, has been attracted to Moemi for some time now, but just before he can get the courage to confess his feelings, she confesses hers for Takashi, Yota's best friend. Yota nobly supports her, and encourages her not to give up in the face of Takashi's indifference. Making his way home, he spots a strange and magical video store, Gokoraku, and things get surreal. He rents a video named "I'll Cheer You Up" from the adult section staring Ai Amano. This is the "video girl" of the title, for the girl on the tape has been made for the purpose of cheering up someone suffering from heartbreak, in person if need be. Yota is shocked when Ai comes out of his TV, and dismayed as he finds that his damaged VCR has turned the cute Ai, into a brash, no-nonsence, flat-chested girl. But he slowly realizes that this Ai is a lot more fun to be around. For as long as her tape lasts.... One month. Preproduction is the first volume of the series which ran... uh... I believe 11 volumes in Japan (14 including Video Girl Len). There is an anime based on the series, also out from Viz, that covers the first three volumes, and brings the story to a nice conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: The Not-so-standard Love Triangle
Review: Takashi, the popular boy at school, has little interest in all the attention that surrounds him. Moemi is a cute and intelligent girl who has fallen for him nevertheless. Our hero, Yota ("Motenai" - "Dateless") Moteuchi, has been attracted to Moemi for some time now, but just before he can get the courage to confess his feelings, she confesses hers for Takashi, Yota's best friend. Yota nobly supports her, and encourages her not to give up in the face of Takashi's indifference. Making his way home, he spots a strange and magical video store, Gokoraku, and things get surreal. He rents a video named "I'll Cheer You Up" from the adult section staring Ai Amano. This is the "video girl" of the title, for the girl on the tape has been made for the purpose of cheering up someone suffering from heartbreak, in person if need be. Yota is shocked when Ai comes out of his TV, and dismayed as he finds that his damaged VCR has turned the cute Ai, into a brash, no-nonsence, flat-chested girl. But he slowly realizes that this Ai is a lot more fun to be around. For as long as her tape lasts.... One month. Preproduction is the first volume of the series which ran... uh... I believe 11 volumes in Japan (14 including Video Girl Len). There is an anime based on the series, also out from Viz, that covers the first three volumes, and brings the story to a nice conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: Dateless gets some help
Review: This is another personal favorite. ...possibly because I relate too well to Yota's experiences. This is a wonderful story with beautiful artwork. Yota is totally in love with a really cute girl at his school. However, she is in love with his best friend. It's interesting that both of them view their romantic situations as hopeless. Moemi doesn't know Yota loves her when she confesses her love. As a result of his unrequited love and him crying for Moemi's broken heart, Yota ends up at a video store. ...in the adult section. He finds himself drawn to the videotape of Ai Amano. When he gets the tape home, Ai comes out of the TV to help Yota with his love life. In a way, that might sound like a simple plot. There is much more to the story. I don't want to totally spoil the story details here. Yota's last name is similar to the Japanese word for "dateless" and that's where his nickname comes from. Ai actually means "love" in Japanese. The name of the video store, Gokuraku, means "paradise." There is no warning printed on these collected volumes. When the chapters appear in Animerica Extra, there is a note about this being for mature audiences. Right now, the series has a long way to go before we'll see the ending. My latest issue of Animerica Extra has chapter 34, and I heard something about there being around 100 chapters. That's chapters, not volumes. This first volume has 8 chapters in it. There is an anime OVA (made for video) and a live action movie based on this manga. The live action version is not available in America. The adult tapes mentioned here are not the type we have in America. According to someone I know at a local Japanese import shop, tapes of girls describing what they'll do on a date are popular. The tape itself just has the girl's face since full nudity is illegal in Japan - at least for live-action. That's my understanding of it anyway. I haven't seen one for myself.
Rating:
Summary: Why doesn't Blockbuster have this one to rent?
Review: This is one truly masterful blend of comedy and romantic fantasy! Masakazu Kastura(creator of IRIA and DNA 2)truly peaked with his title: VIDEO GIRL AI. Lonely heartbroken Yota learns the girl he had a crush on is really in love with his friend. On his way home from this revelation, he sees a video store that he never noticed before, and decides to take home a "video girl". In Japan, a video girl is a video-recorded date for men. But this one is a real Video Girl, and comes right out of the TV into Yota's living room. Now, he's got Ai, his own little genie-like playmate for three months. It's her job to comfort him and make him feel secure, but because Ai's tape was played on a VCR, her program becomes different and she starts to fall in love with Yota. While at the same time Yota is trying to get over his feelings for his unrequited love, Moemi, who on her own seems to have a thing for Yota too even though she's now dating his friend Takashi. Then, Ai gets sent away by her creator, and redone with a new mission, to just root for Yota. But their love for each other prooves too strong, which causes Ai to be sent away again. When she returns, she has no memory of Yota or the love she had for him. This while Yota has gotten a new girlfriend in the cute Nobuko. Does Yota pick the right girl in the end? Will the Video Girl god ever leave Ai alone and let her get a normal life? All the questions and more are in the manga. Also check out the cool anime on DVD or video also from Viz!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, bittersweet story
Review: VGAi managed to capture my high school experiences and feelings just about perfectly--and in a way that doesn't make me want to go beat my head against a wall! Some may find it overly "cute," but there are some more serious undercurrents which come out later in the story. A wonderful story, which shows that even oversexed teenage boys really do have some idea of what love is about.
Rating:
Summary: It's so nice to see a story where the guys have emotions too
Review: Video Girl Ai is a school romance story that everyone can relate to. You remember what it was like when the sight of your loved one made your mouth dry, and your palms wet? When the most intelligent thing you could say in their presence was "N..nnn...urgle"? Yota (known generally in the school as "The Dateless") just can't manage to tell Moemi about his feelings for her. He always chickens out, freezes up, or just ends up standing on his own tongue. School pin-up Takashi, Yota's longtime buddy does his best to help, unaware of the leading role that he's been playing in Moemi's fantasies. With his lack-of-a-love-life getting more complicated by the moment, Yota seeks escape by hiring a video. Simple silicon, no feelings to hurt. "I'll cheer you up" is the message on the front of Video Girl Ai's box. Unfortunately Yota's VCR fries a circuit, and catapults Ai out of her world and through the screen into Yota's bedroom. Ai does her best to cheer Yota up, as helpmeet and advisor, but it looks more and more like she has a few loose circuits of her own...
Rating:
Summary: Love Triangle Without Cliché
Review: Video Girl Ai was an amazingly sweet and cute well-drawn manga. So the plot is very typical-except for Ai. Poor dateless boy is best friends with most popular stud, Takashi. Dateless, as he is actually called though his real name is Yota, is in love with the class cutie, Moemi, who is in love with his best friend. One day Moemi confesses to Yota that she's in love with Takashi, and Yota could never bring himself to tell her that he loves her. Takashi kinda blows Moemi off, thinking she's joking. Yota, who just had his heart broken does something so martyred I almost wanna puke, but it's kinda sweet, so I forgive him. He cries over what Moemi's going through instead of worrying about himself and proceeds to help get them together through the rest of the graphic novel. Now where on Earth does Ai come in? One word: Gokuraku. A video store which is only visible to those pure of heart (like someone who just had his heart broken and is crying over someone else's pain). Naturally, Yota heads over to the adult section. :::sighs::: Men. He sees Ai's tape, and is handed wordlessly a card from the old man working at the cashier. He is left to his own devices-namely, taking home the video despite the fact he's underage. Unfortunately, he screwed up his VCR that morning during a graphic dream by knocking it off the shelf. Ai actually pops out of the screen. Though she may come off a bit...slutty, she's very cute. She tries (keyword: tries) to get Moemi and Yota together. Unfortunately, near the end, Moemi hooks up with Takashi. The book ends with a cliff hanger-when is the next one to be released? I can't help hoping that in the end of the series Ai will end up with Yota. questions? comments? e-mail me at: sailorgirl615@sailormoon.com.
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