One of those forgettable OVA from the 80's
Just as the title says. The 80's are full of those forgettable, unmemorable OVAs, which are not flashy enough in animation to at least receive a small honorable mention in some blog, or trashy enough to be infamously remembered in the same kind of blog.
Story follows middle school girl Hanegi Manami who, of course, is late to school. Before she can leave to school, her gramps show up in front of the house with his new power armor. Paying no mind to such trivialities, Manami gets a ride with her senior schoolmate, love ensues, but forgets her lunch-box. Gramps sets up in his power armor to deliver the lunch- box, while being chased by his old rival, also in a power armor of his own. To shorten things up, Manani ends being challenged to duel gramps rival bodyguard, Nick Jagger, in the most school bully manner. The power armor duel ends becoming a wrestling match, with right to last minute surprise challengers and German suplex.
OK, so the story is "that" and the animation is nothing special, but it is funny? Well, kinda. Personally I thought it to be more silly than funny, but it still stole a laugh or two from me. But hey, we have Koorogi '73 performing the opening song and Banjo Ginga doing the voice of Nick Jagger. The few lines, at least. We also have the cameos of some other anime characters of the time in the school background, like Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, Max from Macross or Sayla from Gundam, for example. So, in the end is just another silly little OVA of the golden ages, in which the staff was probably just having some dumb fun in doing it. Another one of those excuses to draw mechas and cute school girls in embarrassing situations. If you like to dig this kind of stuff, go for it. If not, I would suggest that yours 40 or so minutes would be better invested in other place.
As matter of interest, it seems that Izubuchi and Nagano worked as characters designers for this OVA. Another interesting curiosity is that Nick Jagger was the name of a character from a never made series, proposed in 1985 to Sunrise by Masami Yuuki and Izubuchi.
Story follows middle school girl Hanegi Manami who, of course, is late to school. Before she can leave to school, her gramps show up in front of the house with his new power armor. Paying no mind to such trivialities, Manami gets a ride with her senior schoolmate, love ensues, but forgets her lunch-box. Gramps sets up in his power armor to deliver the lunch- box, while being chased by his old rival, also in a power armor of his own. To shorten things up, Manani ends being challenged to duel gramps rival bodyguard, Nick Jagger, in the most school bully manner. The power armor duel ends becoming a wrestling match, with right to last minute surprise challengers and German suplex.
OK, so the story is "that" and the animation is nothing special, but it is funny? Well, kinda. Personally I thought it to be more silly than funny, but it still stole a laugh or two from me. But hey, we have Koorogi '73 performing the opening song and Banjo Ginga doing the voice of Nick Jagger. The few lines, at least. We also have the cameos of some other anime characters of the time in the school background, like Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, Max from Macross or Sayla from Gundam, for example. So, in the end is just another silly little OVA of the golden ages, in which the staff was probably just having some dumb fun in doing it. Another one of those excuses to draw mechas and cute school girls in embarrassing situations. If you like to dig this kind of stuff, go for it. If not, I would suggest that yours 40 or so minutes would be better invested in other place.
As matter of interest, it seems that Izubuchi and Nagano worked as characters designers for this OVA. Another interesting curiosity is that Nick Jagger was the name of a character from a never made series, proposed in 1985 to Sunrise by Masami Yuuki and Izubuchi.
- arthurehb
- Oct 23, 2017