Hiya of us, and welcome again to Improper Each Time. At present we’re testing a brand new manufacturing, as we discover the primary episode of late-90s OVA Agent Aika. The present falls in a venerable custom of fanservice-laden action-adventure initiatives that flourished following the widespread adoption of house VHS gamers, which allowed artists to bypass the strict requirements of TV broadcasting, and create explicitly adult-aimed leisure for the broadening anime market. Agent Aika director Katsuhiko Nishijima was principally a legend of this period, having directed the equally attractive Megami Paradise and Najica Blitz Techniques, alongside the monumental Venture A-ko (from which I think Agent Aika derives its identify).
Nishijima wrote, boarded, and directed this primary episode, so we’ll clearly be seeing about as unfiltered an instance of his aesthetic philosophy as doable. He’s right here complemented by frequent collaborator Noriyasu Yamauchi, who would work as character designer and animation director on quite a lot of Nishijima initiatives, and nonetheless sometimes lends his AD skills to fashionable productions like Is It Improper to Attempt to Choose Up Ladies In A Dungeon (pricey lord fashionable titling conventions are obnoxious). They’re each important figures of an oft-overlooked period in anime historical past, so I’m desirous to get higher acquainted, and Agent Aika’s story of post-apocalyptic smash exploration feels like a beautiful place to begin. Let’s get to it!
Episode 1
We open on a cruise ship providing an “ocean tour of Saitama,” instantly establishing our post-flood setting, with main Japanese cities now completely underwater. Having been not too long ago watching extra ‘80s anime OVAs and tailored movies like Megazone 23 and Venus Wars, I’ve turn into keen on how quickly they thrust the viewers into the motion, and the way a lot they belief that viewers to meet up with their worlds on the tempo of the characters residing inside them. It seems like a far cry from the usually exposition-drenched fashionable system, the place reveals take full episodes to clarify that sure, that is one other model of Dragon Quest we’re trapped inside
Their ship is presently floating over Tokyo
Properly then! The digital camera simply jumps to a direct upskirt quick as she continues her exposition, instantly fulfilling this OVA’s promise of mindless fanservice. The previous pantyshot-focused fashion of fanservice at all times feels form of unusual to me; I do know it feeling invasive is a part of the enchantment, such as you’re “seeing one thing you shouldn’t,” however this type of dramatically inert pantyshot lacks any form of sensuality, any intentionality in what’s being proven, or who it’s being proven to. It’s the eroticism of a grimy journal swiftly scanned by an adolescent earlier than being returned to the shelf, and I can’t think about it does a lot for anybody who has handed that stage of sexual improvement
Granted, the web hadn’t been broadly embraced by ‘97, so I think about we’re all additionally desensitized to the prospect of some panties and perhaps a boob
Monogatari truly makes use of this distinction in eroticism and intent to purposeful dramatic impact; there are occasions when characters will likely be bare however missing in any sensuality, and others when characters are totally clothed but emanating sexual intent. Framing, character performing, and character intentionality are all key facets of sensuality as drama, whereas this scene is extra like “hey, right here’s a butt”
This truly jogs my memory of HBO’s fashion of “sexposition,” the place they mix their have to cowl a level of exposition with their have to throw some intercourse on the viewers, leading to an amusingly discordant, detached method to eroticism
The state of the water’s rise is neatly conveyed by Tokyo Tower’s near-submerged state
The character artwork is light and expressive; much less sharp traces or distorted chins than the extremes of ‘90s character design, however nonetheless trending in that path in a nice, nostalgic manner. I like how this tour information’s nostril is expressed largely by its shadow
She then guides our consideration underwater, introducing the underwater salvagers who’re our precise leads
Enjoyable, energetic rock OP – like a lot of ‘90s anime music, it sounds a complete lot like ‘80s new wave music with a slight contact of onerous rock
I suppose that’s why I like ‘00s anime OPs a lot – they sound like ‘90s indie rock, which can at all times be my coronary heart’s sound
Seems to be like we’ll even be working into some jet fighters sooner or later? This OP seems to have transitioned from “scrappy salvage crew” to sentai villains
“Trial 1: Stunning Agent.” Yep, that’s the pitch
Salvage work is instantly conflated with sexual launch as we open the episode correct, with Aiko suggestively posed and respiration closely whereas extracting a case from the ocean flooring. Properly, that’s actually attempting tougher than the tour information panty pictures
Hahaha, this diving equipment. Their craft leaves them with legs spread-eagle, basically forcing steady panty pictures. Once more, fanservice with out sexuality – simply “listed here are some panties”
Oh no, their salvage is stolen by a rival named Gusto! Their crafts sorta remind me of Outlaw Star’s grappler spaceships, with connected arms for preventing. Granted, these arms are considerably extra justified as instruments for extracting salvage
Aika’s associate is Rion, and she or he has an unimaginable knack for getting tossed concerning the cabin into suggestive poses. Additionally her miniskirt may solely probably cover her panties from one actual dead-on angle with no lively breeze, as long as she by no means sits down
Good explosive impression frames as one thing bursts freed from the ocean flooring. Appears our “relic hunter” premise lasted all of about 5 minutes, as we’re now transitioning to some form of martial conspiracy
Man, the feel of cel animation is simply so inherently charming, as are these depictions of (admittedly post-apocalyptic) ‘90s Japan
Rion’s father is their boss
He’s apparently a little bit of a romantic, taking an old-school enterprise method in a cutthroat new world. Gesturing in direction of a bigger cultural battle there, as post-bubble Japan started to rethink the contract between worker and employer, and abandon the idea of a lifelong “firm man”
Aika is after all launched with a saucy saxophone riff, a kind of basic “ooh horny girl” trills. I’m perpetually amused by the same riff used for Nico Robin eye catches in One Piece
Aika’s uniform is a bit odd; it appears very like an airplane stewardess uniform
Yep, that’s what I assumed – Rion’s dad is performed by the always-recognizable Akio Otsuka, one of many nice gruff voices of anime
“That is my house. I simply wish to shield it.” Aika embodies the identical view of employment as Rion’s dad – she sees the corporate as her house. Simply as her work focuses on securing and venerating the previous, so does she respect the previous in her private life
Ah, to stay within the cheerful megacities of OVA-era anime. I do know these are imagined to really feel post-apocalyptic, however frankly, we’re already experiencing the apocalypse, and its aesthetics are manner much less cool than in these tales
They meet up with rival scavenger Gusto in a shadowed parking storage, and be taught their job pertains to a brand new vitality supply often known as “Lagu”
Relatively than scavenging, this job appears to contain company espionage. This present positive doesn’t appear fascinating in its personal ostensible premise
Immediately, horny warrior women in miniskirts assault!
Truly fairly fluid, moderately choreographed combat animation, regardless of its obvious precedence being to show as many panties as doable
The dangerous guys simply stack all their knocked-out miniskirt goons in a truck for extraction, all of them with butts dealing with the sky. I really feel like at a sure level even the supposed viewers should lose the transgressive thrill of seeing one thing they shouldn’t; panty pictures are like the most typical foreign money on this actuality, not one thing to be craved or coveted
On the identical time, it’s oddly extra chaste than one thing like Megazone or Golgo 13, which lack this absurd density of panty pictures, however truly characteristic intercourse scenes. As I stated, a very adolescent method to sexuality
Aika apparently has a… magic leotard of some type? Presumably it’s a device for reworking into the blue-haired maiden she visually parallels within the OP. We’re working by a outstanding gamut of subgenres in a single episode!
Talking of genre-hopping, we then reduce to Aika getting ready to take off within the firm fighter jet
“Do you continue to blame your self for what compelled me into retirement?” It appears scavenging was the low-stress retirement plan for Aika and her boss, after a presumed mutual profession as secret brokers
We quickly be taught that Rion’s butt has stowed away on Aika’s airplane, in addition to the remainder of her
Their enemy Miss Nena is busy spanking her subordinates on a pommel horse, as you do
She leads her rocket squad into battle dressed solely in lingerie and a bathrobe, apparently additionally as you do
Her brother Hargen is the top of this conspiracy
One other wonderful panty shot non-sequitur as we take heed to Hargen plot his machinations whereas the digital camera stares at a passing butt
I actually just like the punk rocker design of Gusto’s subordinate; he seems to be like an additional from Fist of the North Star
Hargen seems to have sunken his captain’s chair into the ground of the bridge so that he’s higher angled to admire the panties of all his subordinates
Lagu is then activated, sending what appears to be an EMP blast by Nena’s airplane. Apparently little love misplaced between these siblings
The ubiquity of the EMP-based superweapon throughout anime speaks to the overall ambiguity with which know-how is incessantly addressed. Exhibits like these typically start by establishing how our technologically pushed world has remoted us from one another, trapped us in particular person rat races and reoriented life round inhuman gadgets. Expertise is thus framed as both a cradle during which to coddle humanity (Megazone 23, Akira, Ghost within the Shell) or a gradual form of dying, however “escape” from that future is framed as equally ambiguous, a supply of violent upheaval that should solely be approached with essentially the most humanist of intentions (Large Robo, Patlabor)
These tales incessantly characteristic younger protagonists who embody not essentially a greater resolution, however not less than the hope that the following era would possibly discover a greater resolution – and their villains are sometimes equally ambiguous, extra contemptible for the particular technique of their technological liberation than their underlying philosophy. It’s a simultaneous love for and suspicion of know-how that you simply see play out repeatedly throughout varied productions, reflecting post-war idealism tempered by the collective reminiscence of nuclear warfare. Particular person creators like Hayao Miyazaki embody this contradiction; his real love of trains and planes is matched solely by his contempt for a techno-hermetically sealed future
Aika’s leotard is certainly a reworking super-suit, resulting in a change sequence that’s exactly as attractive as you’d anticipate for this sequence
I do very a lot miss this manufacturing’s different type of fanservice: luscious mechanical readouts and autos, all and not using a trace of CGI
She manages a touchdown on a mysterious island, simply as Hargen approaches!
And Achieved
Properly, that positive was a enjoyable blast from the previous. The fanservice was omnipresent to the purpose of kinda disappearing after some time; as I stated, there was no actual sexuality current right here, simply the adolescent transgression of seeing some panties flash on the display screen. And that silliness apart, Aika’s journey is proving a diverting and handsomely realized action-adventure, dashing by subgenres and setpieces with complete confidence that the viewer will sustain. I’m at all times comfortable to fill in additional puzzle items in my general impression of anime’s evolving aesthetics and thematic considerations, and Agent Aika is already proving a helpful addition, bridging the hole between the ‘80s OVA period and the post-Evangelion late evening period. Onward to the secrets and techniques of the island!
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