Anime: Agent Aika

 

Content Warning: Nudity, violence, sexual assault, incest, tentacles, body horror, and almost 200 panty shots.

Well, if that content warning up there doesn’t scare you off, I want to let you know that it isn’t that bad. But it’s not exactly good, either. It is, however, something you’ll probably only see here. Because they don’t make them like this anymore.

Our story begins with a nice little exposition dump in the form of a tour boat going over the remains of Tokyo, with the mandated shot of Tokyo Tower having seen better days, finding out that there were massive earth quakes and volcanic eruptions, followed by rising sea levels, putting most of Japan under the waves. And probably other places as well, but this is made in Japan, so we can excuse the narrow focus. The point of this little exposition dump is explain what our characters do.

Speaking of characters, we’re then introduced to Aika and her “thirsty” assistant, Rion, who work as salvagers. Using minisubs with movable arms, they’re recovering some kind of locked case from the current sea floor. We then get to meet Aika sexual harasser and love interest, Gusto, and his partner Bandra, the cyberpunk grandmother you never knew you wanted but now need in your life. After a brief tug of war, Aika and Rion get the prize and bring it back. Of course, since it’s been damaged, the client wants a discount. This is also where were meet Rion’s father, Gozo, who runs the salvaging company. Rion and Gozo argue, then Gozo gets a call for a job, tries turning it down, only of Aika to grab the phone and accept it.

When they meet the client for the briefing, in an underground garage, we find out that Gusto has also accepted the job. They learn that they need to find a ship and gather data on something called Raggu. Insert culinary jokes here. Of course, they get attacked by a bunch of women dressed in black kind of maid looking uniforms. Aika and Gusto make quick work of them, causing a bunch of panty shots, but get stopped by the Dominatrix looking Neena, who loads up the girls in the back of a truck with the help of more women in blue uniforms. I have to say that while the panty shots are excessive, it is realistic. If you wear something with a skirt that short and get in a fight, it’s not going to obey “skirt physics” that you see in other stuff. However, there’s so many of them you get desensitized to seeing white cotton undies rather quickly.

We then cut to Aika getting in an old fighter jet (which doesn’t seem to be too heavily armed) and taking off to find this ship. Of course Rion has hidden aboard it and didn’t bring a helmet. In fact, neither of them are wearing a helmet. There’s a reason why pilots wear helmets, which our heroes find out when they have to dodge the Stinger missiles launched by the girls aboard the ship. Gusto and Bandra are also there in their own plane, but they seem to make it out better. Neena also boards a plane of her own, launched by the ship, but Aika and Neena enter the Raggu zone or whatever and their planes suffer massive systems failure. While Neena barely makes it out, Aika is screwed. But we find out that she has a super corset. I’m not joking. It rips off her clothes and then becomes a battle bikini with tentacles. The tentacles restart the jet turbine and Aika is able to land the plane. Once landed, they get picked up by the ship and Aika starts get molested by Hargen, the commander of the ship and Neena’s brother.

While Aika is subjected to Hargen’s very unwanted touching and groping, Neena punishes the members of the crew in a sex dungeon, and Rion wakes up. She’s able to get free and dresses up as one of the crew. Along the way, she finds another woman who’s been able to slip aboard and dress up as a member of the crew. This is Maipin, an “A-Class Spy” who even carries business cards. James Bond, eat your heart out. Gusto also got aboard and is able to KO the girls with a single punch, leaving a trail of knocked out girls, showing off their panties, in his wake.

During all of this, Hargen explains to Aika what exactly is going on. Raggu is an extremely rare material that has the potential to create a lot of energy, but is usually found deep in the earth’s crust. The last time it came to the surface, it caused the earthquakes and floods that destroyed Japan and much of the world. Hargen has been able to harness the power of Raggu to power his ship and make weapons. He also takes the super corset and is able to figure out what it is. The corset is made up of Ultranate, some kind of super metal or nanomachine with some intelligence. We also see Hargen and Neena sleeping together, after we find out that they’re brother and sister. There is not enough EW for this.

As Hargen collects the Raggu in the island Aika landed on, he convinces Aika to sleep with him to collect the information she’s looking for on Raggu. Thankfully, Gusto shows up and prevents things from going all the way. They’re able to get away, but end up leaving Rion behind on the ship. Aika and Gusto, along with Bandra, land Aika’s plane on what was once a mountain gas station but is now an isolated island. I have to say, as much as I feel like the setting has been ignored, the bits with the islands with old highways and stuff on them are really nice and a subtle way to remind you that things have changed. Of course, there’s more panty shots while Rion and Maipin try to stay out of sight and there’s an extra creepy scene with Hargen putting magical Ultranate panties on Neena. Because… I don’t even want to know.

We see how powerful the Raggu weapons are as a naval group tries to stop Hargen and gets destroyed easily. It turns out that Hargen wants to use his ship, turning it into a rocket with a quick change of the back end of it, to draw up all of the Raggu and wipe the planet clean of humanity. He’ll use the Raggu to restore the old environment and repopulate the world with his children and create a utopia. If you were wondering why Hargen has a ship with nothing but women, here’s your answer. It’s his harem.

As the ship gets ready to take off, Aika and Gusto try to slip aboard. But they end up having to use a space shuttle, along with Gozo and piloted by Bandra, to dock with it once they get in orbit. There’s actually a really cool space battle using the main guns of the ship in space that I really enjoyed. That’s the thing about this OVA I found: Lots of things I like around a bunch of needless panty shots and weird sexual stuff.

Once aboard, Rion, Gozo, and Gusto are able to start causing problems and laying down some explosives, while Aika gets her Ultranate stuff back and fighting Neena and her Ultranate. The fights are really good and show how power isn’t as important as experience and a clear head when fighting. Of course, Hargen forgot to tell Neena that Ultranate was developed as a weapon but wasn’t used because it takes a very rare type of person to control it. Of course, the only person who has control is Aika. While Neena devolves into a body horror monster, Hargen tries to kill Aika. After wounding Hargen, Aika is winning. That’s when Hargen gets snagged by the monster that is Neena and it doesn’t end well. Having caused enough damage, the crew of the ship is forced to abandon ship, leaving Hargen and Neena to perish together in space.

And that’s the end. Of the first series. Oh, yes, there’s more.

There’s episode 4.5, which is mostly filler, but explains how Gozo and company now have an office and introduces the company’s new employee, Michikua, a pretty boy with an empty head. It’s actually a fun watch and is a welcome rest from the weird shit from the previous four episodes. It also sets up some stuff for the next three.

The second series centers around the survivors of the Delmo Corps, the women who worked for Hargen, trying to kill Aika as revenge for killing Hargen. Which is incredibly dumb. I mean, he was a monster that was sleeping with his sister. Plus, the captain of the group is in a relationship with another woman, which they did telegraph in the episode where the ship launched into space with one of them putting her hand over the other’s on the throttle and they exchange a look. I have… I got no words, honestly.

And they have a very dumb idea for their first plan. The leader of Gold ranked team (in case you couldn’t tell already, the color of the women’s uniforms denotes their rank) is going to use another woman to pretend to be a man, seduce Aika while the crew is on vacation and then ambush her. The whole point of this is either queerbaiting or girls kissing girls fan service. Whatever the reason for it, Aika is charmed by “Pierre” and ends up getting drugged by “him.” Gozo is also being tracked, as are Rion and Michikura, by other members of Delmo. Well, things go bad for them as Aika flips her shit when she finds out that Pierre is really Valarie and the Delmo call in a pair of armored cars to be air-dropped into the resort. If you have resources like this, why are you wasting your time with girls kissing girls for fun and profit?!? Anyway, we get to see Gozo and Aika get inside the armored cars that are driving around INSIDE the hotel using creative methods. The use a fire hose to flood one of them, which is rather creative. And fun to watch. Of course, our heroes win and the Delmo retreat.

The next episode has the Delmo lure Aika and company to what was once Russia to try to find something left over from before things went to hell and… It’s just a ruse to get them there, which makes no sense, as they want to collect data about Aika. Not kill her, not really attack her, just get more information so they can kill her later, I guess? I don’t fucking know, man. I just watch this stuff. I like how no one in the group even notices that the entire base is run and staffed by women until it’s too late. Aika gets in a thing and ends up blacking out at 10 or so Gs. Gozo ends up getting drunk and they distract him with Karaoke. Meanwhile, Rion notices that one of their guides is wearing her Demlo uniform under her clothes. For some reason, Michikura ends up dressed up in one of the black uniforms. Soon enough, there’s a fight between Aika and the Delmo, Gozo singing and fighting more of them, and Rion and Michikura running around. Aika ends up defeating the Captain, and her lover, and getting her data back. They end up escaping in the plane she was suppose to fly and using the magnet sensors to confuse a missile launched at her, which ends up blowing up the cargo plane they arrived in.

The final episode has the last two Gold rank Delmo, a melee fighter that uses claws like Vega from Street Fighter and a demolitions expert, blowing up the group’s office with Aika inside. When Gusto shows up and finds out that Aika is dead, he swears revenge. Using Michikura’s friend, Maipin, they manage to infiltrate the Delmo base. They actually do pretty good on their own, until they encounter the Gold rank group. Of course, Aika is still alive and kicks their asses. This makes the Delmo give up on hunting down and killing Aika. For now.

And that’s it. Okay, there is a live action episode but it’s just women in latex outfits that end up getting taking out with special effects and showing off their white cotton panties. I wouldn’t be surprised if the actors are all Japanese AV (Adult Video, or porn) stars. You can really skip this one unless you have a panty shot fetish. Which is saying a lot from this series.

All in all, this series isn’t bad, it just sacrifices plot and character for cheap fan service. It’s got some really good things here and there but you just have to wait between some less than stellar stuff to get to it. If you edited down the first four episodes into a 90 minute movie, you could have something special. I’m also surprised to find out that there’s no other media that came before. It feels a lot of like an OVA series that was based on a manga or light novel. If the first four episodes was half of that and they focused more on the Delmo Corp, which was a much more light hearted and fun series, it would have been a much better work.
 

Rating: 2 out of 5

Suggestion: Watch it if you really want to, you perv.

Manga: If It's For My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat A Demon Lord, Volume 1

 

Content Warning: A single corpse

In case the name didn’t give it away, this manga is based on a series of “Light Novels” (read: novellas). I know this was also made into an anime but I just happened across this manga at a local bookstore which is just reopening, so I thought I would share. And, yes, I will be covering the books in the future (but probably not the anime).

Our story opens with Dale, an adventurer in a typical J-Fantasy world, sitting around a fire, frying some fish and drying off his clothes after an encounter with some stinky frogs. He sees something in the woods and discovers that it’s a child of the Demon Race that looks in pretty poor shape. Since Dale knows some magic, he’s able to communicate with her in very basic terms. He gives her one of the fish and then finds the body of her father. After doing the right thing and burying him, he offers to take the girl, Latina, with him. He takes her to the Mackerel Tabby, the Adventurer’s inn he’s been staying in. The Tabby is run by Rita and her husband, Kenneth. There, Dale bathes Latina and they go to bed.

In the morning, Rita has prepared a list of things that a girl needs, as well as giving her a ribbon to wear in her hair to cover her horn (the other one is broken, a sign of a criminal in Demon Race culture). They go out and buy a whole lot of things, including picture books so Latina can learn the human language. We also see that she’s one smart cookie, figuring out greetings by context. After this, Dale has to go and collect his reward for the stinky frogs he killed, leaving Latina with Kenneth and Rita. While she’s there, business picks up, and she starts to help out. Kenneth finds out what’s going on when one of the grizzled adventurers, Jilvester, pointed out the young “waitress.” Kenneth is impressed and later makes a special desert for Latina. When Dale learns about this, he’s the proud parent. There’s this whole thing of him being overprotective towards her and impressed by her. I suppose this the “Moe” (mo-eh) thing I remember hearing about…

Next, we see that Latina has learned how to read and write in the local language and Dale takes her out to buy more notebooks. Along the way, they run into Jilvester, why slyly asks what she’s going to be making when she helps in the kitchen. File this away for a minute. The pair gets back to the Tabby and Dale has to hold himself back while Latina peels the potatoes. Before long, the Tabby is full and Jilvester orders a round of mashed potatoes for him and two others. That’s because, as soon as the rest of the adventurers discover that Latina made the mashed potatoes, there’s a rush for them. You see, Latina has stolen the hearts of all of the grizzled men that visit the Tabby. She’s pretty much their mascot. And it’s so wholesome, I love it. Having played a lot of D&D, I can tell you that there’s nothing quite like having a little girl around to motivate a group of dirty muderhobos to do the right thing.

Which is what happens next. While walking with Kenneth for sundries, Latina wandered away, and got lost. When Dale finds out, he runs out to search for her. Rita, being the brains of the show, posts a quest for the return of Latina, offering a free tab if they look for her and an extra reward if they find her. One by one, the customers make excuses to leave and go on the hunt for her. While this is happening, Latina is confused and scared, trying to figure out where to go so she can get home. She runs across a trio of boys, Rudy, Marcel, and Anthony. They ask her who she is, where she’s from, and why they haven’t seen her before. Of course, Latina is scared and has trouble answering, especially with Rudy being a bit rude. This is when Chloe arrives and flying kicks Rudy and fights with him and Marcel. Chloe is the best kid, behind Latina, just saying. After the scuffle, we find out that Latina can use healing magic. The kids, now working together, figure out where Latina needs to go, and bravely set off. Because the south side of the city caters to the adventurer type of people, it’s rough and tumble, and their parents have told them to stay out. But, helping someone overrides that and they make their way there. Along the way, they come across the various shop owners who know Latina. When they return, Latina apologizes to Kenneth and Rita, and Rita gives the kids some candy, completing their very first quest. Soon, the customers have returned and Latina is thanking them for looking for her. When Dale comes back, she bursts into tears, afraid that he’s going to be mad at her. Of course he’s not mad and she ends up falling asleep from the stress.

After this, we see that Latina is now officially friends with the group, spending time with them. However, Dale has to explain the concept of friends to Latina. It turns out that the Demon Race has a very low birth rate, so there weren’t any kids for her to play with before coming to the city. Now she understands and there’s a very touching moment. However, Latina hasn’t really talked about where she comes from and what her life was like, leaving a door open for further volumes.

And that’s where it ends. I really did like it, it tugged at my heart strings. I have some… Concerns going forward, as it’s become a more common trope for daughter characters (not actual daughters, unless you read hentai) falling in love with their father figures and I get the feeling that this is setting up for that. Other than that, it’s a fun little story and I want to see what happens. I might have set up to order, ahem, all of the manga that’s currently available… But I’m not going to admit that. Nope. Not saying a thing about it. And, given the title of the series, I know that Latina is going to turn out to have a big role in the Demon Race’s politics or mythology or something. But, she’s just so damn cute, I’m along for the ride.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Suggestion: If you want some sweet and wholesome fantasy stuff, give it a try. You might just like it.

Music: Rhino's Best Of Anime

I don't have a picture for this one so please enjoy this fan art

 

Content Warning: None (really)

This collection of anime theme songs came out right at the beginning of the anime boom in the US, so it has a very eclectic mix of themes. I was wandering around the CD section of a local store when I saw it and had to have it. As such, I own the version with the clear Speed Racer insert, as I didn’t know there was one with Cutey Honey. Since this is a weird one, let’s just look at the list of songs, shall we?

Astro Boy (English)

Gigantor (English)

Speed Racer (English)

Lum’s Love Song (Urusai Yatsura)

Sentimental Over The Shoulder (Megazone 23)

Beautiful Planet (Windaria)

Active Heart (Gunbuster)

Adesso E Fortuna (Record of Lodoss War)

Full Moon Light (Devil Hunter Yoko)

Sailing (Silent Mobius)

Happy Birthday To Me (All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku)

Just Beyond The Time (New Dominion Tank Police)

My Heart I Can’t Say, Your Heart I Want to Know (Oh My Goddess!)

Cutey Honey (New Cutey Honey)

Voices (Macross Plus)

Sailor Moon Theme (English)

Of these, I’ve seen maybe half… Okay, at least one episode or parts of it. When this came out (1998), a lot of this stuff was still on VHS and you had to stack it down. Not to mention the various versions of some of them, like Megazone 23, which was used to make a Robotech movie for a hot minute. However, this gave me a list of things to track down, even if I never got around to some of them (Windaria is one I don’t even remember hearing of).

I picked this up for one song, really: Voices. Macross Plus had some of the best music I’ve ever heard in an OVA but finding a full soundtrack was almost impossible. To me, Voices is the second best song in the series, with Information High being the number one.

I still listen to some of these from time to time, as I can remember the shows when I hear the theme song. Gunbuster, Macross Plus, and Nuku Nuku are some of the shows I remember well.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Suggestion: They don’t make themes like they used to. While a weird mix, it’s a wonderful time capsule of how things used to be.

Manga: Komi-san Can't Communicate, Vol 1

 

Content Warning: Mild LGBTQ+ phobic language/humor

You know, I’m a grown up. And that usually means that I like things for adults. Not like I need porn all the time, I just like to enjoy things with serious subject matter and foul language. But, sometimes, just sometimes, you need something funny to let you unwind. So, yes, I’ve very late to this party, but I’m going to start talking about Komi Can’t Communicate.

Our story begins with Hitohito Tadano, a typical high school boy. And a bit of an idiot. Looking to start off things at his new school, he says hello to Komi as they’re getting ready for class and she ignores him. When they get to class, they end up seated next to each other. Before long, Tadano ends up alone with Komi and is able to communicate with her, using the chalkboard. It turns out that Komi suffers from harsh social anxiety and literally can’t speak to people. She wants friends, she wants to have conversations, but her condition prevents it. She reveals that her goal is to make 100 friends and Tadano promises to help her.

The next person they bring into the fold is Najimi who is… Genderfluid, I guess? They were a boy but now dresses like a girl (and later says they can’t be someone’s girlfriend because they’re a boy). They refuse to be friends with Komi because she’s “rude” but Tadano manages to get them to try, and they agree to walk home with Komi. During this walk, Najimi is accosted by some hooligan friends, the one that wants to make them his girlfriend, and we see Komi’s “superpower.” Let me explain a little bit: You see, so far everyone thinks of Komi as a “princess” or “goddess” even though she doesn’t talk. Part of that is because she’s quite beautiful but her quiet nature seems to let people infer things, filling the silence with something that usually benefits Komi. When the hooligan tries to force Najimi into a relationship, he drops his house key. When Komi tries to return it, she’s only able to get out a few words. The hooligan sees this as her making threats and he runs away. You see why I call this a “superpower”?

Anyway, next Najimi gets Komi to go to a coffee shop and get a very complicated drink. She can’t say what she wants but the “superpower” is triggered again and the guy behind the counter makes some super fancy thing.

The next “friend” Komi gets is Himko, who also seems to suffer from some social anxiety, but more of a cute, clumsy thing. Komi ends up stalking her and making her freak out but this does let her conquer her fear of talking in front of groups, before she runs away. When she’s finally able to talk with Komi, Tadano says they should be friends, but Himiko says that she isn’t worthy to be Komi’s friend, but she can be her dog…

The next little plot involves Komi getting a cell phone. It’s an old flip phone (god, I suddenly feel old) but now that she has friends, she needs it, right? We also briefly see her family; Mom, dad, Komi, and a brother. She also doesn’t speak to them. She goes to school and is able, through trial and error, to get everyone’s phone numbers.

After that, there’s an election for class president, and Komi ends up elected as class God. Yeah…

There’s some smaller plots in the rest of the volume, one of which involves Komi accidentally calling Tadano, and it is a cute as you can imagine.

All in all, this is a fun, slice of life, cute little manga series that I was surprised to enjoy. I’ll be slowly picking up the rest of the series as time goes on, because I need a little something that isn’t all dark and brooding or dealing with large, complicated subjects every once in a while, just to keep things nice and fresh.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Suggestion: In these dark days, sometimes, you need something light and fun to keep you sane.