Once Upon a Time in the 80s After decades of financial fluctuations Japan was blessed by the legendary asset price bubble that lasted form 19861992. Although Japans fortunes were already looking favourable following their steady navigation of the oil crisis and advancements into dominating technology concentrated markets. Japan was living it up and perhaps nowhere is this more prevalent than in the animation industry. The ultimate symbol of the decades precarious prosperity from an Otaku perspective are the unfathomably seismic movie productions that shaped the decade. 1984 saw the release of three absolutely massive movies starting with Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer. Urusei Yatsura was already the meeting point for the industrys most talented animators and Beautiful Dreamer was certainly no exception. Under the guidance of visionary director Mamoru Oshii countless innovative inspired and ingenious creatives where able to flourish throughout his time on Urusei Yatsura. Shortly following the 2nd Urusei Yatsura film was the 2nd movie of a certain universally loved industry icon named Hayao Miyazaki. Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa is an essential stepping stone in the formation of one of the most critically and commercially successful animation studios of all time. It also featured the God Warrior sequence which served as Hideaki Annos standout landmark statement. The magnitude of these two movies completely shifted the anime landscape these conceptually creative and amazingly animated masterpieces served as masterclasses of their craft. But as I mentioned earlier these spectacular spectacles were joined by a 3rd absolute phenomenon. In fact Im fairly sure this is what 3rd Impact is a metaphor of because Macross: Do You Remember Love is a celbased extravaganza. Released in June 1984 DYRL features the pen work of practically every noteworthy animator and artist of the age. An unprecedented standard was set in 1984 these labours of love saw the industry united. Riding the unparalleled momentum these aweinspiring assemblies of amazing artist animators and perhaps most importantly otaku continued forging these behemoth productions out of pen paint and paper. But the true spiritual successor to these three titanic testaments of Japanimation wouldnt come in the form of an avidly awaited adaptation or some visionary veterans latest creation nor did it receive a resplendent redcarpet rollout. But despite this it has endured and become a defining statement of animes defining period featuring many of the excellent and essential staff that would define anime for generations to come. Im obviously talking about 220https://projectako.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/07/creamlemoncast1.jpg Undesirable to Undeniable Although Im kinda not. Project AKo was invented with the intention of being an instalment in the Cream Lemon series. Hilariously it was decided that the story was strong enough for AKo to become a theatrical release the beautiful irony and aforementioned immense hilarity of this comes from the fact that AKo didnt have a script nor names for the characters and the title was a provisional parody playing on the Jackie Chan movie Project A. Despite all this the visual materials and storyboards where strong enough to get Ako the greenlight. Many would consider this upscaling of production to be an absolute nightmare scenario others might consider this as the opportunity of a lifetime but for director Katsuhiko Nishijima it was a chance to buy some new teeth. Now Nishijima must have been very popular because joining him would be: Original CKo character designer and key animator Yoshiharu Fukushima who had worked on Macross as well as serving as animation director for Urusei Yatsura 2: beautiful dreamer. Providing the original designs for BKo would be Nishijima himself and constant collaborator Noriyasu Yamauchi would design Ako. Additional character designs would be handed to Yuuji Moriyama who would also serve as animation director. The unfortunately late and great Shouichi Masuo who had previously worked on Macross: DYRL worked as Mechanical Designer alongside Kouji Itou. These twos involvement is unsurprising given their affiliation with Nishijima as members of Studio Gravitation what may be surprising though is the secret 4th member of the studio and uncredited key animator for Project AKo Hideaki Anno. Fellow key animators would consist of Nishijimas fellow Urusei Yatsura animation directors Atsuko Nakajima and Tsukasa Dokite who also provided the character designs for Dirty Pair. The connections are endless including tangential links to some of the finest television series OVAs and most importantly movies of the decade especially the aforementioned and heavily praised Urusei Yatsura Macross: DYRL and Nausicaa. Such a fantastic ensemble provided AKo with boundless potential the only thing that could let it down was the script except AKo still didnt have one. Nishijima had decided that the story would be told entirely through storyboards meaning everyone and anyone had creative control. This groundbreaking decision is prevalent throughout AKo theres a sense of unannounced freedom that flows from scene to scene. AKo is a distinctly and immensely joyful movie Its an awesome and astonishing amalgamation of 80s troops a true paradise of parody and an abundantly fun and triumphant celebration of expression through animation. So it is with ample anticipation I dig into the story of Project AKo. 220https://externalpreview.redd.it/4o4B4wc3fsLidLuFIRhIbjoxNcs0yOlEW5YH7lEw.jpg?auto=webps=21e38cba28c2ef8c5ce5982862272171ab1a8e3e A Slice of Life in Gravitation City Following an extremely confusing incident with English voice acting that is so surprisingly competent I thought I was watching the Dub we see an unnamed city getting completely obliterated by an asteroid. Rising from the ashes is the futuristic Gravitation City although the city still maintains an unmistakably suburban sentimentality of the suitably 80s variety. Its in these suburbs we meet are two protagonists starting with Eiko Magami. This enthusiastic and energetic fiery red head is your archetypical jolly joshikousei she sleeps in late goes on borderline dates with her closet friend and she can nonchalantly run as fast as a bullet whilst lackadaisically leaping over buildings What do you mean you cant. The aforementioned closest friend interrupting AKos breakfast of the traditionally Nihonese jam on toast is Shiko Kotobuki. Lighthearted and lightheaded the C in CKo must stand for cheerful or careless or crying or most likely crazy. CKos melodramatic mood swings are of the upmost extreme and overwhelmingly exaggerated. Shes rather a ray of sunshine as bright and blessed as her yellow hair and flower clips suggest or as blue as the tears streaming down her face. For some I can understand why CKo may come off as irritating but form me she steadily skips along the borderline carefully balancing on the verge of annoying although if she were to fall Im sure her best friend would be there to catch her. Speaking of falling thats exactly what are 3rd main character and pseudoantagonist Biko Daitokuji pretty much immediately does upon CKos introduction to the class. BKo is an OjouSama of the intellectual variety and she decides to concentrate all that brainpower into getting CKo. Now youre probably wondering couldnt she just talk to her the answer NO. Sharing isnt BKos strong point what is her strong point though is developing evil plans vile schemes and dastardly plots. BKos less looking to capture CKos heart as much as she is planning to steal it form AKo the main problem being that AKo is a secret superbadass. A lesson the ringleted royalty of Gravitation Highs henchwomen learn rather quickly when tasked to carryout a surprise attack on CKo whilst her closest confidant is distracted allowing BKo to save the day. One major problem though BKo doesnt consider that her unparalleled love for CKo isnt a universal love as she quickly earns the genuine ire of the most notable of BKos henchwomen Mari. Maris immensely imposing design wouldnt be out of place in the postapocalyptic austere hellscapes of Fist of the North Star. Theres an inherent comical contrast between this behemoth bulldozer of a women and the comparatively chibified ball of cuteness shes looking to bully thankfully AKo shows up in time to deliver a onehit KO. another comedic contrast is when the usually gruffly grunting Mari speaks revealing she has two voice actors. Daisuke Gouri who did voicework on the show Mari is parodying shares a role with Sayori Ikemoto. This idea was proposed by sound director Yasunori Honda and Nishijima acquiesced also thinking it was a great idea and implemented it into the movie. This is the freedom I mentioned earlier Project AKo feels like it has limitless potential because there were little to no limits imposed. Thanks to this the relentless references insane injokes and caricatures of commonplace tropes delightfully distinguishes Project AKo and are a highlight of this refrencematsuri. Aside from Mari when you look into both the foreground and background of Project AKo you start to notice many characters form other series. This was a widespread practice in the 80s the three main heroines all made their animated debuts in Urusei Yatsura as extras but Project AKo takes it to the extreme. Another character of importance whose design is based off a preexisting one is AyumiSensei who looks identical to Creamy Mami however unlike Mari her personality couldnt be further removed form what shes referencing. Theres another Reference I desperately want to share but unfortunately cant due to spoilers. I will say though right at the end of the movie theres a reveal that I think adds an incredible detail to the story. It may seem like an excessive exaggeration but this comedic plottwist is actually one of my favourites throughout the medium. Its so sneaky and so funny a really cool little moment. Shortly after AKos brief battle with Mari her and CKo go on an entertaining exploration of Gravitation City set to the sweetest of saccharine synthpop tunes. Another unique and distinctive quality Project AKo has to boost is that the original soundtrack is AmericanJapanese collaboration and its also brilliant. The standout being Dance away that plays during AKo and CKos date. Follow your dreams is another track wellworth mentioning Its a super upbeat jubilant tune. The whole soundtrack sonically personifies the spirit of Project AKo. After the girls night out in the city its basically back to the beginning AKo waking up late and rushing off to school with CKo in hand. But this time BKo is waiting by the school gate and shes not alone. Its revealed that she is a mechanical genius and overnight has developed a mecha with the specific purpose of defeating her rival in love unfortunately for Gravitation highs preeminent genius AKo is still the Gravitation highs preeminent Supergirl and she swiftly defeats the mecha. And with that its off to class for AKo and CKo and back to the drawing board for their selfproclaimed rival. And thats basically Project AKo an everescalating battle of friendship love and one girls desire to get too school on time. Theres also something about the impending doom of an alien invasion and a mysterious spy simply know as D relaying information about the everyday occurrences in the lives of are protagonist and oddly referring to one of them as their princess. But as I mentioned thats not particularly important this movie isnt about something as dramatic as Intergalactic wars or a philosophical and reflective exploration of love and it certainly isnt an environmentally conscious fantasy epic. Project AKo is simply a great time. An action comedy thats just looking to entertain and in that it exceeds. Im sure this legendary lover letter to anime also completely exceeded any expectations it had at the time and if you havent seen it yet I hope it does yours too. So Watch 220https://pbs.tw.com/media/GCB57OLa4AAgxom.jpg:large This 220https://moviethumbs.fancaps.net/7634878.jpg Movie 220https://moviethumbs.fancaps.net/7634858.jpg Please Lighting in a Bottle Project AKo has left a pretty profound impact on the animesphere especially in the west. It aired on the SciFi channel in the 90s and was released on home video both subbed and dubbed. I cant believe how fresh AKo must have felt when compared to the hyper violence and serious nature the majority of first wave anime shared. If you want a firstperson account of the impact of Project AKo check out Projectako.com. This is a fantastic website for all things AKo and helped massively in making of this review so thank you CharSan. In Japan AKo received many sequels all straight to video and reportedly all of diminishing quality although I cant confirm this as I havent seen them probably because Ive rewatched the series first instalment countless times. Project AKo is an extremely rewarding rewatch for me I always discover something new understand a reference I didnt before or notice some minute detail in the animation. AKo also served as a major inspiration for one of my alltime favourite anime Kill La Kill as well as serving an influence too countless other anime. 220https://externalpreview.redd.it/TTpmoIEE7MPp8JOD4Bk6SC9alXqUtncuO8ELfCucqo.jpg?auto=webps=6fdbea3d9015dec7624ac77676a9ac4eb448fafc I guess now the only thing left to say is thanks for reading and good luck in the New Year.