A.I.C.'s animation is excellent. Celestin's sabotage of the Asgardian supercomputer that controls the world combines the spectacle of both supernatural and sci-fi disaster epics. The music is delightful, and anime fans who are into costuming will want to take notes on the dress styles of the Gods. But the plot is still more for fans of human-interest romance than of fantasy action-adventure or comedy; and romance aficionados will appreciate it more if they have seen the 1993 Oh My Goddess! series to better know the main cast.

© 1994 Kinji Yoshimoto * Satoshi Urushihara / MOVIC Co., Ltd. / Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.

Plastic Little.
OAV, 1994. Director: Kinji Yoshimoto. 50 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $24.98. Distributor: A.D. Vision Films.

Plastic Little was one of the first and most notorious of the "for teens with raging hormones" direct-to-video productions of the mid-'90s. Released in Japan on March 21, 1994 (produced by Animate Film, in cooperation with Studio Pierrot), it was quickly snapped up by A.D.V. for a U.S. release (July 1995) in the days when under-an-hour dubbed anime videos retailed in the $35 range. It was labeled "Mature Audiences" then; now it is merely 15+.

Plastic Little is a Star Wars-type space opera with the most buxom teen girls you ever saw as action heroes. "Heroes" is the right word. 17-year-old Captain Tita Koshigaya and 16-year-old Elysse Mordish lead the "assault on the Death Star" action while Tita's male spaceship crew rely upon her for inspiration and orders. The plot is shallow but skillfully directed to blend humor and suspense into nonstop action. Tita is captain (inheriting from her deceased father) of the Cha Cha Maru, a "pet shop hunter," specializing in capturing dangerous native animals for zoos, on the human-settled planet Yietta. Stopping for repairs and some R&R at the luxurious capital, Tita rescues a girl (Elysse) fleeing from obvious villains. Elysse is the daughter of a scientist who has just been murdered by Guizel, commander of Yietta's military who plans to overthrow the Galactic Federation civil government and turn the planet into his personal kingdom. Elysse holds the secret of her father's improved antigravity device for Yietta's floating cities. Guizel orders his Storm Troopers to kill the Cha Cha Maru crew and sieze Elysse. Tita realizes their only hope is an immediate surprise assault on Guizel's stronghold before he can get the full force of his troops into motion. The action is well choreographed, and backed up by a lush dramatic score of theatrical quality by Tamio Terashima.

Actually, everything about Plastic Little is "lush," thanks especially to character designer and animation director Satoshi Urushibara, one of Japan's most popular cheesecake pinup artists. Yietta's capital city (by director Yoshimoto) looks modeled upon European Rivera travel posters. The ship's women's bath is a futuristic sybaritic delight. All the men are handsome, and the girls -- well, so many anime fan clubs held "jiggle contests" to count the bouncing boob shots that A.D.V.'s new DVD includes as one of its Extras a "Jiggle Counter." This production did not spare any expense in animating the sensuous movement of smooth, round pink skin, especially in the nude bathing and dressing scenes. Adolescent males can ogle Tita and Elysse, while the girls' beauty plus their fortitude and common sense in the action scenes (no airheads here) make them attractive role models for adolescent women. Plastic Little's success became a go-ahead for numerous OAV productions such as Agent Aika and Burn Up W starring beautiful busty women with a strong command presence, featured in action scenes often emphasizing panty shots.