This film was an anime that I first caught on the Scifi channel, back when it was still cool to me. It had weeks where they showed Godzilla films, they had the last three seasons of MST3K and they had anime week. That week introduced me to a lot of really cool cartoons like the now well known Akira and lesser known films L. I. L. Y. C. A. T. This is another of the films I saw and while not as good as some of the other features I really enjoyed it. I rewatched it recently though and it has lost a bit of luster to it as it really moves kind of slowly at times and now I have seen other anime movies that are funnier and a bit more clever. Still, it was enjoyable enough on this latest watch.
The film introduces us to A-Ko, a typical schoolgirl who has super strength! She is friends with C-Ko and both of them are about to go to a new school where they will run afoul with B-Ko, a young woman from their past who becomes obsessed with being friends with C-Ko and wants A-Ko out of the picture. Well B-Ko is not super strong, but rather super smart and she uses those smarts to design mech suits to battle A-Ko! Meanwhile, a group of aliens are heading to earth as they may have found their long lost princess!
The film's plot is kind of absurd and at times is just one big swerve as first time watchers are going to think one thing, but the film will hand them another. The characters are quite funny though and the situations so bizarre that it does make for an entertaining film, though not as good as other classic anime films. It also features more nudity than I was expecting when watching an uncut version for the first time and lots of panty shots...
So, it was pretty good, but could have used better pacing. A few of the military scenes just lag on a bit and this gets a bit frustrating when it interrupts A-ko's and B-ko's epic battle. I also wish A-ko was not reduced to being a bit weak in the final act. Throughout the film she is portrayed as insanely strong, able to toss giant robots with ease, but then she is having trouble fighting one of the aliens with a sword, an alien she smashed through a wall and such on several occasions without even giving it a though, but at the end it can stand up to her? Other than this and a few other gripes though it is pretty entertaining, but I think I prefer my anime movies to be a bit quicker paced.
