Monday Pin Up 2/13/23 (Patreon)

Since bringing back the voting polls for the monthly pin ups over on Discord, I've noticed a bit of a pattern forming: Voted pics feature the most popular characters I can come up with, while non-voted pics feature obscure stuff that only matters to me. Consider that you have no idea who these bitches are and guess which kind it was this week! 

I kid, sort of. The 80's was a peak era for anime. Japan was rolling in cash and some of the weirdest, goriest, boobiest projects in existence were given the go-ahead with virtually limitless animation budgets. This led to the creation of revered classics like Akira, and not-so well remembered cult darlings like today's topic, Project A-ko. 

Project A-ko is a fever dream painted on cels. You will never see a movie concept like this get such stunning and expensive animation in this modern era. It's a lesbian love triangle where teen anime girl Superman vs teen anime girl Iron Man fight for the affections of the most annoying trophy girl imaginable. The rivalry starts with petty schoolyard squabbles and gradually escalates to untold death and destruction and panty shots throughout the entire city. All of this is set to the backdrop of an invasion by aliens out to retrieve their missing princess. Seriously not kidding, this is the most anime anime that has ever anime'd. 

Project A-ko is special to me because it was, to my memory at least, the very first anime I ever saw. And it was one hell of an introduction to the genre. I just had so many questions. A-ko is supposed to be the hero, so why doesn't she so much as blink at the high body count throughout the movie? Why is B-ko allowed to ambush her enemies with killer robots outside the school gates when she seems to be concerned with following school rules otherwise? Why is C-ko the worst girl ever?

I would later find out that Project A-ko was actually a comedic satire of anime as a whole. A spoof, put mildly. And imagine that being your first anime. That would be like if Scary Movie was your introduction to horror. A-ko doesn't care about the body count because the explosions are just spectacle for our amusement. B-ko is only mildly scolded by her teacher about her death machines making her late for class because that's awesome. And the fact that C-ko, the girl that the other two are leveling the city for, is the most annoying twerp on Earth is just sheer comedy gold.    

I'm talking about this now because somebody recently found a long-lost film reel in their garage and we got a blu ray release of the film as a result. (I'm perpetually amazed at how little fucks were given to preserve media back then.) I watched it again and despite some dry bits with the alien invasion, I think it holds up great! You don't have to take my word for it if you're interested though. As of this writing you can still watch the whole thing on Youtube for free, and I recommend you do. 

Well thanks for indulging me by reading all the way to the end! If you can think of any obscure/forgotten anime that deserves more of a spotlight than it got, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.