Agent Aika

Naked Mission

Review by Anime Boy

7 Part OVA + 1 Special

Company: Central Park Media

Running Time: 120 minutes (4 episodes)

Region: 1

Rated: R (Violence, nudity, language and adult situations)

 

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EXTERNAL EXAM

In the near future, the Earth has been devastated by earthquakes and massive flooding.  Japan was hit the hardest, with 90% of the country now underwater.  Still, even in this troubled time, there is profit to be made.  Salvagers roam the underwater ruins, looking for valuables from the past.

A mysterious man is offering a huge reward for anyone who can provide information on a strange power source called Lagu. With bills coming due, Aika Sumaragi of K2 Salvage decides that she and her partner Rion can't afford to miss this opportunity.  Even the involvement of Gust, her "rival" won't deter Aika from being the first to get the reward.

Finding the information is not as easy as it sounds.  The mysterious Hagen and his army of female commandos will use any means necessary to stop anyone who gets too close.  With his psychotic sister Nena leading the "Delmo" army, it looks like neither Aika or Gust will survive long enough to get the reward.

Unless Aika unleashes the power of the Ultranate metal, and becomes a bikini clad super soldier!

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DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: A great looking transfer. The colors are perfect, there are almost no pixels, no wrinkles, and only some slight edge enhancement. This looks a lot better than the VHS or Japanese laser disc release. 

AUDIO: There is very little difference between the Japanese and English 2.0 audio tracks.  It will depend on your equipment on which one sounds better.

EDITS: The addition of the word Agent, and the burned in lyrics on the first episode are the only changes made.  Everything single panty shot is untouched!

EXTRAS: The only extras on the DVD portion is a music video of the opening theme "Silent City".  For the DVD-ROM content, there is a photo gallery of scenes from the episodes and laser disc covers.

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WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: There's a plot?  Actually, there is. Writers Kenichi Kanemaki and Katsuhiko Nishijima's story, while not necessarily the most complex, does weave a tale in between the panty shots and shower scenes.  Instead of going the "Hentai" route, they made Aika into an action adventure blockbuster, with a lot of fanservice.

ACTING:  The Japanese cast is excellent.  You don't get any sexier than Rei Sakuma's powerful voice for our lovely Aika.  Hiroko Konishi is perfect as the cute and ditzy Rion.  My favorite is the voice actor for Gust, Jurota Kosugi.  His manly voice combined with his playful demeanor makes him one bad ass dude, even if he is a total dipstick.

The English cast on the other hand is absolutely horrible.  Flat delivery, bad timing, and voice mismatches are just some of the many problems.  The worst of the worst is Alvaro J. Gonzales as Gust.  What the hell is up with the queer "Dudley Do Right" voice? It totally destroys the character.  Yes, he is a buffoon, but not in the way Alvaro J. Gonzales does him.

FAN SERVICE: Well, Aika is nothing but fan service.  They cram in more panty shots per minute than any other show before or after. You get to see every major female character naked at some point.  In fact, there is so much fan service, we created a drinking game for you to play while you watch!

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FINAL EXAM

Aika is one of my favorite anime.  It has everything an red blooded, hot anime fanboy can enjoy.  Great action, cool animation, interesting story, and fan service that makes you thankful to be a man!

Let's just go ahead and get it out of the way.  The fanservice is absolutely wonderful!  Everything that makes fan service what it is (bouncing bust lines, panty shots, shower scenes) is represented in full, living Technicolor!  Thanks to the absolutely beautiful character designs of Noriyasu Yamauchi, not only is Aika a guilty pleasure, but aesthetically pleasing as well.

Now, if you strip away all the gratuitous fanservice (heh heh, I said strip), and you actually have a pretty decent spy flick.  You have Aika, assigned to "solve" a problem that could spell doom for her country.  You have a power mad dictator, whose grandiose plan is more than simple extortion or global dominance.  The bad guys have all the latest technology, and an army at their command.  The good guys, one lone agent with special abilities.  This is the way James Bond could be, if he was a girl and they allowed full frontal nudity!

There is a high action quotient to go with the high panty count.  It seems like every 5 minutes, there is some serious booty kicking (heh heh, I said booty) going on.  All this can be directly attributed to writer/director Katsuhiko Nishijima of "Project Ako" fame.   With his penchant for over the top violence and frantic pacing, Nishijima truly knows what the audience wants.

Aika is cut from the same cloth as another titular hero (heh heh, I said tits) Cutie Honey.  Like the "Lovely Warrior", she can kick butt, adapt to any situation, and must become nude when she transforms.  The major difference between the two; Cutie Honey wears more clothes.

With any hero, you need a villain, and Hagen fits right in this world of beautiful women. Hagen is perhaps the prettiest opponent any hero in anime has faced.  Scary thing is, Hagen's a guy!  Scarier still, he's banging' his sister Neena!  Still, I envy him.  This man may look like a woman, but he has an army of hot babes to help with his master plan (heh heh, I said master).  That is if his sisters will let him play.  Ewwww!

My favorite characters are Gust and Bandora.  These two jokers are absolutely cool.  Well, Bandora actually is the cool one.  Gust is kind of a blow hard, but he means well.  He loves Aika, and will risk life and limb to save her.  He does use his brain on occasion, and he isn't afraid to risk it all for what he thinks is right.  However, he is nothing with out his partner, who saves his butt on more than one occasion.  Still, I can't figure out if Bandora is a guy or a girl.

I totally love the opening theme "Silent City".  T.A. Cool's rocking music combined with Michiko's deep vocals it perfect.  The lyrics totally capture the tone of the series, sexy and fun.  With the addition of the music video from the "Special Trial", I can listen to this song over and over again.

While the video and audio are well done, the lack of extras on the disc are disheartening.  It's a good thing I have a DVD-Rom, or I would have felt really slighted as far as extras go.  

My biggest compliant is the awful English dub.  While I will admit, this isn't an "Akira" level anime, it doesn't mean that you have to make it sound like some crappy B-movie.  The more I listen to it, the more I dislike it.  Thankfully, there is the wonderful Japanese track.

Aika (Agent Aika if you use the CPM title) is more fun than it should be.  This is one title, I will never get tired of watching.  If you will excuse me, I have to watch Aika and play our "Aika Panty Shots" game!

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