Eriaru visual

Central Park Media released this on videotape around 1996 but it is actually a 1989 anime based on a novel. In Japan these novels are mostly text with a few illustrations and many anime shows are based on such novels. The concept here is "girls who pilot a giant robot that looks like a woman". The story is a comedy and seems aimed at a very young audience. Therefore there is zero character development. Kazumi is the enthusiastic high school girl, Aya is the overly serious prep-school girl and Mia is the reluctant leader/university student. Their job is to protect the Earth from attack by the Gedo Corporation. These aliens rely on the monster-of-the-week for world conquest rather than conventional armies so the Ariel robot is the perfect counter. Why Dr. Kishida's grandaughters and niece are the ones chosen to pilot Ariel is never explained.

This show should be done again with a little more care because I think the concept is a good one. And I don't mean the subsequent release called Deluxe Ariel which is pretty much more of the same.