Figure 17 has many differences from your typical wish fulfillment fantasy. © Anime Works/Media Blasters.

Figure 17. V.1, Soul Mirror. V.2, Winged Hearts. V.3, Valiant Duet. V.4, Little Secret. V.5, Forever Close. V.6, Memories Remain.
TV series (13 episodes), 2001-2002. Director: Naohito Takahashi. V.1, three episodes/140 minutes; v.2-6, two episodes/94 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.95. Distributor: Anime Works/Media Blasters.

Tsubasa Shiina, an extremely shy 10-year-old, feels lost and friendless when she moves with her father from Tokyo to live on a farm/bakery in rural Hokkaido. She is the only witness when a spaceship carrying six dangerous Maguar space monsters crashes nearby. The ship’s automatic defense encases both Tsubasa and its space policeman pilot, DD, in protective suits of intelligent metal to fight one of the Maguar. When the immediate danger is over, Tsubasa’s suit does not retract as programmed but turns into an android twin with her memories, but a personality as extroverted as she is withdrawn. DD uses galactic technology to make everyone believe that the android, Hikaru, is Tsubasa’s twin sister while they remain in the vicinity to hunt down the remaining Maguar, which can destroy all life on Earth if not exterminated before they multiply and spread.

With Hikaru as a popular, dynamic role model, Tsubasa begins to gain self-confidence and become part of the normal social life of Moeno Elementary School’s 4th grade. Each episode is divided roughly in half, first showing Tsubasa, Hikaru and their friends and classmates at juvenile activities (a school sports match, a class play, going hiking and fishing), then showing DD and Figure 17 (the twins merged into a metallic Amazonian warrior) finding and fighting another of the Maguar.

This sounds like many stereotyped juvenile wish-fulfillment superhero anime series, but Figure 17: Tsubasa & Hikaru has some striking differences. Most sci-fi anime series featuring elementary-school protagonists fighting space monsters are light action-adventure comedies (Figure 17 for ages 7+). But the level of intelligent dialogue and serious drama, plus the fact that this was broadcast at 10:00 p.m., seem more appropriate for an audience of middle and high school age who would presumably be too mature for the elementary school subplot. Figure 17 was not the usual weekly half-hour TV series, but a monthly one-hour (47 minutes of actual running time) program (May 27, 2001 to June 27, 2002).

The animation by the O.L.M. (Oriental Light & Magic) studio is so well directed that it seems to have twice as much motion than a close study actually shows. Attractive art design and lovely tourist-poster backgrounds of Japan’s unspoiled northernmost island (enough to make you want to plan your next vacation in Hokkaido) also distract from the lack of motion. A plot that evolves rather than repeating itself with minor variations every episode helps make up for some of the slowest pacing possible without getting boring.

The elementary school subplot is not all carefree fun & games. Tsubasa is just beginning to emerge from her shell and develop some self-confidence when one of her first classroom friends, a popular but sickly boy, unexpectedly dies, shocking all the children and especially traumatizing her; tragedy is a part of life aside from the melodramatics of space opera. Figure 17 is an intriguing series worth a more intellectual consideration than its surface plot implies.