cokesque

Synopsis

After the girl he likes confesses her love to his best friend, a depressed Motoechi Yuta, the guy his classmates call “Dateless¹,” happens upon a mysterious video store. The tape he takes home is unlike any other, for when he pops it into his VCR, he gets an unexpected Memorex moment as the teenage girl in the video emerges from his TV screen² and lands on his bed.

Her name is Amano Ai. She is a Video Girl, whose job is to cheer up a lonely guy and and help him get his love life in order. Never mind that an insufferably cute, headstrong girl will be spending a whole month living alone with Yuta. He is smitten with his friend Moemi, after all. As for Ai, there’s nothing to worry about there, either, because Video Girls can’t fall in love.

Impressions

I’m not sure what it is. I just can’t stop smiling when VGA is on.

The plot is by now familiar in its genre. There’s a shy but kind-hearted male protagonist. There’s a cute girl from heaven/space/the computer/the video world. There’s a love triangle, or in fact a love square. So why is this show better than, say, Mahoromatic?

Two words: Amano Ai.

Amano Ai is the quintessential Hayashibara Megumi character, one that showcases Hayashibara’s wonderful vocal range and power. Ai is adorable and accommodating one moment, obnoxious and violent the next. She runs the full gamut of emotions, maudlin to madman, something lacking in many more widely-lauded Hayashibara characters like Lina Inverse.

As is so often the case, the anime is based on a manga which was still running at the time of production (the anime covers roughly 12 of 116 chapters), so animators had to come up with their own ending. This is so often a bad, bad thing. VGA is, sadly, no exception.

So let me amend my earlier statement. I can’t stop smiling…until the last episode. Once again, an anime takes a sudden turn from lighthearted romp into freakishly grotesque symbolism. The messages the animators are trying to convey are worthwhile. If only the execution was less abrupt and heavy-handed.

Regardless, this anime is too successful in too many ways to suggest watching it is not three hours well-spent. Amano Ai is worth the price of admission. Anyone who enjoys a good ecchi shounen romance would be remiss in avoiding Video Girl Ai.

Random Thoughts

The art is nice, if a bit too 1980s. Everyone seems to be having a bad hair day.

Mahoromatic borrowed the idea of an episode-ending “countdown” from VGA.

Dub

Okay, I didn’t watch the dub, but Viz’s translation is godawful³. You don’t need to know Japanese to be annoyed by Ai saying Yuta couldn’t handle “the Full Monty.” And what little Japanese I do know tells me they took substantial liberties with the dialog.

Notes

¹ The Japanese is motenai, a pun on his name.

² Fortunately not in Sadako style.

³ At least in the 2001 release, there may be newer, better versions.

- 2005-12-15 18:18 -