Around 1995, Japanese animation (anime) began pouring into North America, Europe and across the globe in video form. Most of these titles were unknown outside of Japan and never covered by animation journals. Whether a title is highly popular or very obscure, a high-quality theatrical feature or a cheap and unimaginative direct-to-video release, they all look the same on a store shelf. Therefore, Animation World Magazine will regularly review several new releases (including re-releases not previously covered) that have merit.

High school student Juna is tapped to save the universe as the spiritual warrior Arjuna. © 2001-2002 ARJUNA PROJECT·Sotsu Agency·TV Tokyo. All rights reserved.

Arjuna. V.1, Rebirth. V.2, Journey. V.3, Conflicts. V.4, Understanding.
TV series (13 episodes), 2001. Director: Shoji Kawamori. V.1, 3 episodes/75 minutes; v.2, 4 episodes/100 minutes; v.3, 4 episodes/110 minutes; v.4, 2 episodes/70 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.98. Distributor: Bandai Entertainment.

Arjuna is an unusually provocative and message-heavy series from concept-creator and director Kawamori, a fan-favorite for his development of exciting, yet thought-provoking works like Macross Plus and The Vision of Escaflowne. Arjuna is a strongly pro-environmental sci-fi/fantasy based upon Hindu/Buddhist themes of the oneness of all life on earth, and that the earth itself has a planetary consciousness/soul.

Juna Ariyoshi and Tokio Oshima are two high-school students, more than friends but too young to know whether they are really lovers or not. A highway accident leaves Juna suspended between life and death, where she is recruited "to save the Earth" by Chris Hawken, a physically crippled, but mentally powerful telepath working for a secret global organization devoted to staving off planetary ecological collapse. Juna has the latent psychic power to become Arjuna, a spiritual warrior with the ability to fight off the Raaja, fearsome ectoplasmic monsters that are spontaneously generating in ever-growing numbers. Frustratingly, Chris refuses to instruct Juna on how she is to do this, saying that she must figure it out on her own.

Arjuna's battles against the Raaja are the standard slowly escalating sci-fi menace of many anime TV series (although a higher-quality CGI/2D mix than most); what is different is the nature of the menace. It is soon obvious to the viewer (if not Juna) that the Raaja are huge enlargements of microscopic intestinal bacteria and cancer cells being generated by the earth itself at sites of particularly gross pollution. Kawamori does not blame only the convenient targets of greedy giant industries, but all of us for our wasteful modern lifestyles. Juna's classmates' favorite hangout spot is a U.S.-style fast-food chain blatantly named "Merikan Burger," where the kids order burgers so huge that they only eat half and toss the rest in the trash (while millions are starving in Africa).

Juna and her video-game junkie boyfriend become the two sides of a Greek chorus; Tokio symbolizes the conspicuous consumption of industrialized society, unable to understand why Juna has become such a puritan, unable to eat food stuffed with "safe" chemical additives, while Juna is unable to get through to him that his casual wastefuness (multiplied by the whole population of urban civilization) is causing the Raaja that are now blighting all crops, contaminating all water, causing meltdowns in nuclear power plants, and building up to the destruction of the Van Allen radiation belt and a polar shift, which will destroy most life on earth.

Kawamori's skillful direction, attractive character art by Takahiro Kishida, haunting music by Yoko Kanno and high-quality (for a TV series) animation by the Satelight studio, hold more for viewers than might otherwise be expected given the heavy-handed Save The Planet message. Earth Girl Arjuna (the Japanese title) was 12 half-hour episodes broadcast from January 9 through March 27, 2001. This DVD adds additional footage to some of them plus an entire extra episode to enhance the didacticism. Arjuna was somewhat notorious for having almost no merchandising, since practically any of the usual toys and knickknacks would be ludicrously at odds with the constant message against buying unnecessary consumer goods.