An extremely fun action comedy OVA in a superhero parody vein. Six episodes.
Scruffy college student Ozora Hiroshi invents a Molecular Armour, which renders him strong, fast, and invulnerable, and ends up fighting the Dolls, robot women who steal obsolete technology on behalf of the villainous Dr. Machinegal, who is really his mentor and ZIC corporation chief scientist Dr. Amagi. Hiroshi's sister Mirai modifies the Armour to serve her own purposes, which mostly involve thwarting the plans of Shirase Mao, her rival for the affections of Misaki Kaoru, an astronaut candidate for ZIC's hyperdrive spaceship project, which Amagi is in charge of and is trying desperately to stop because of the extreme risk of failure and the ruin of his reputation. Meanwhile, the youngest Ozora, Nozomu, is convinced that he can do a better job than any of them.
Really this is just the setup for poking fun at basically every element in the superhero genre, a lovely excuse for a good time. The doddering, cackling Dr. Machinegal, who warns his minions not to do too much damage because he is the one in charge of repairing it, his impossibly glamourous Dolls named after movie stars, the ridiculous form-switching between Captain Tokyo and Super-Mirai, bratty Nozomu and his insidious plots, girls who earn pocket-money by winning beauty contests, an answer at last to the age old question of "what do supervillains do between heists?", and the only express or implied male nude transformation sequence I have run into, are just a few of the elements which contribute to the entertainment.
It is well to be aware that, owing to the pressure of current events, certain parts of episodes 2 and 6 may be less amusing to certain viewers than was originally intended.
The animation is the usual glossy, bright AIC work, adequate if not extremely fluid, and the usual warnings about cross colour and ringing apply. The standard visual gags are applied with an appropriate degree of verve, and a liberal dose of GAINAX bounce for good measure.
The viewer who expects exaggerated voice acting, excessive use of standard AIC sound effects, and ridiculously typical music will not be disappointed. The audio package is exactly suited to the programme it accompanies.
Recommended.
The video transfer is sharp, the audio clear, and the CAV presentation flawless. Japanese inserts are provided with servicable translations. English language support in the programme is more than adequate, and I have to put in a good word for the dubbers. Although there are the usual limitations of translation [the theme song particularly suffers from the lack of an equivalent English concept to "otome no chikara"] and vocal expression, much of the dialogue and delivery really is funny and well-done. Good use of background fill voices contributes to the effect, and the translators are not afraid to resort to improvisation where literalism would be useless to capture the spirit of the original, such as Nozomu's nattering at his older brother and other throwaway bits.
As usual with Pioneer bilingual releases, the dub mix is on the digital channels, and the Closed Captions are a little awkward. Chapter stops are provided only for opening, Part A, eyecatch, ending, and next episode trailer. But there are no real issues.