| Project A-Ko - Uncivil Wars | 
| List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $12.25
Buy New/Used from $4.00
Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 55 reviews)
Sales Rank: 83644
Category: DVD
Director: Katsuhiko Nishijima
Publisher: Us Manga Corps Video
Studio: Us Manga Corps Video
Manufacturer: Us Manga Corps Video
Label: Us Manga Corps Video
Format: Animated, Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD
Running Time: 104 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 1586640682
UPC: 719987207226
EAN: 9781586640682
ASIN: B00005B6LO
Release Date: June 12, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Description
In an alternate universe, A-ko and B-ko are bounty hunters on an untamed world. When a young heiress, C-ko, falls out of the sky and intot heir hair, they find themselves battling space pirates and galactic police for custody!
Amazon.com
Although these three OAVs (original animation videos) were released years apart--and years after the original Project A-Ko feature--they all share a single plot: the battle between A-Ko, who possesses super-powers, and the super-rich, mecha-building B-Ko for the affections of the infantile C-Ko. (The names of the characters play off the Japanese equivalent of "Girl A, Girl B" to designate extras in a script.) In "Cinderella Rhapsody," A-Ko falls for the dashing motorcyclist Kei. B-Ko wants whatever A-Ko wants, and they're soon fighting over Kei and C-Ko. But Kei only has eyes for C-Ko. In "Final," C-Ko turns out to be a long-lost alien princess whose people come to reclaim her, but the story remains underdeveloped. C-Ko leaves with the alien fleet but turns up at A-Ko's door the next morning and announces, "I came back." Viewers may wonder why everyone is so gaga about a whiny case of arrested development like C-Ko, whether she's a princess or not. In Japan, the pursuit of C-Ko is seen as a manifestation of the intense, platonic friendships among high school students, rather than lesbian attraction, but a weird sexuality pervades the stories, which include androgynous bodybuilders in dresses. All three episodes are silly enough to make Tenchi Muyo! sound like Nietzsche. Rated 13 and up for brief nudity, occasional sexual humor, and violence. --Charles Solomon
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 50 more reviews...
Project A-ko rules March 3, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Loads of fun with this 'oldie' from the anime front. I knew the VHS from years ago and I can only say it is still a delight to watch it. If you like the typical Japanese humor with screaming girls & lots of slapstick comedy this is the one to buy. The pop/rock soundtrack cd wich comes as an extra is a bit outdated but enjoyably campy if you're in the right mood.
 An anime classic October 14, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This movie was my first introduction to "anime" when I knew to call certain cartoons anime. I originally saw it on the Science Fiction channel in 1992. Though I didn't get all the references to other anime, and I still don't in some cases, it is a very fun movie. Even though now it's several years later, and the animation style's age shows through, I enjoy re-watching it. This may sound weird coming from a man's keyboard, but Project A-ko is my "feel good" movie.
This is the best anime movie ever made. September 29, 2005
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
Yeah, you heard that right. The best EVER. Unfortunately, Central Park Media has never been the top-of-the-line in terms of packaging, voice acting, mastering (etc., etc., etc...), but that's the reality. Unless you have a Region 2 DVD player and can dig up a Japanese version, this is the best you're going to get.
If you have to ask what Project A-ko is, you may wish to go back to watching Cartoon Network, because you'll probably hate it. Otherwise, this is the brainchild of Yuji Moriyama, an anime director who seems to have had a role in creating every single 80s anime series (yes, they made anime in the 80's. What, you weren't born then? Oh). Moriyama also directed several orginal video productions, most of which were slightly above average fanservice-fests. However, Moriyama had a moment of sheer genius and created Project A-ko, a film that is supposedly about three girls (who Moriyama and his team didn't get around to naming, thus Girls A, B, and C) but is more an excuse to blow things up, break things, promulgate even more fan service, and lampoon just about every major anime up to that time.
There is a storyline, but it gets weirder and weirder as things go on and starts to reference things so obscure most Japanese fans can't even recognize them all. Good thing that the humor is easy to laugh at, the animation is top-notch (for the time), the character designs are wonderful, and of course that nothing is sacred. A-ko, by the way, is a normal happy schoolgirl who is habitually late, likes junk food, and can lift a tank. B-ko is her wannabe evil genius rival; hers is a stereotype almost any anime fan of any age will recognize - the evil pretty girl. B-ko, however, is also completely insane. C-ko is a walking cerebral hemmorage who could have been written into the movie after Moriyama had a vision of infuriating 'Ninja Scroll' and 'Akira' fans for the next 25 years. She is also A-ko's best friend. The only other characters of significance are the cross-dressing aliens. To summarize, B-ko decides to steal C-ko away from A-ko. This soon turns into 'A-ko must die,' so B-ko begins to create a stream of incredibly destructive inventions to use on A-ko, who -unfortunately for B-ko- is invincible. Hilarity ensues.
Moriyama succeeded brilliantly, but sadly A-ko was buried by godawful dubs, the curse of being shown on the infant SciFi Channel, several very mediocre sequels, and the fact Central Park Media went from being an obscure producer of weird overpriced VHSes in the 80s to the most obscure anime distributor on the face of the earth today.
I have not listened to the newest dub of this movie and I don't plan to. If you cannot bear to watch this movie in Japanese, please click on over to the DragonBall/YuGiOh/Hello Kitty portion of Amazon. If you haven't seen A-ko but your buddies make fun of you for watching 'wussy' anime, whine that they can't read subtitles, or think the Evangelion movie is the greatest thing since Benedict Spinoza, then A-ko may be for you.
Perhaps you can imagine watching an ancient VHS with the words "CONTAINS NUDITY" printed embarassingly on the box, or perhaps you can imagine you are watching this in a darkened Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza conference room at a sci-fi convention in a time before 99.99999% of the US population knew what "Japanamashin" is and anime cost $34.95 for thirty freaking minutes... if you could even find it outside of mail order. If you can, you may very be blown away by this ludicrously irreverent, clever, and endearing anime that has stood the test of time, if not the test of marketability.
An old fanzine once wrote of the "anime generations." One was the Robotech generation and one of many others was the Akira generation (whose descendants still go nuts over ever blood spray they see). There was never an 'A-ko' generation, but the impact of this goofy movie is lasting on just about every fanboy with a sense of history. This movie belongs in every serious anime fan's collection, and I can't rate it highly enough.
If your sick of school girls and giant robots September 1, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Project A-Ko is a total send-up of the genre, which is no doubt why I enjoyed it (and its sequel) so much. It has the usual giant mechanical paraphernalia, teenage school girls, and crossdressing alcoholic aliens. Err... where did they come from? Never mind: far more than most of the famous and iconic animes it parodies, Project A-Ko is entertaining, intriguing, and often just fall-down laughing funny. It's sort of like Japanese anime directed by an English eccentric. It's still sutiable bewildering in a Japanese sort of way, but with flashes of anglo style satire thrown in.
rated 13 up: brief nudity, occasional profanity, sexual humor, and violence
A classic and an exercise of freeform Japanese animation June 16, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
All that is to be said about A-ko has probably been said already by the 50+ reviews so I just want to chirp in and say if you are an old school anime fan or just a plain or regular anime buff you will appreciate the included Director's notes in the DVD collector's edition.
In the director's notes, Shigeru Morikawa, gives tons of interesting facts and trivia about the creation and dynamics of Project A-ko. What was first planned to be a soft porn cartoon turned a science fiction anime slug fest and acknowledged by Japanese animation industry insiders as a hallmark in the field of Japanese animation.
In fact, I was surprised to find out that tons of famous people in the field of manga (such as Kia Asamiya of Silent Mobious fame) and animation (people who worked on great Sci-Fi series like Macross and Evangelion) were key animators and contributed to the storyline of this movie.
I could go on for ages but I would spoil it too much. So if you are still behind the times and want to update your A-ko to DVD or haven't watched the movie but considering the purchase, I say, go ahead you'll love not only the anime itself but also the tons of extras packed within.
|
|
|
