SYNOPSIS:
Two best friends, the strong redhead A-Ko and blonde ditzy C-Ko, begin their first day at Graviton High School for Girls. There, they meet a fellow classmate, B-Ko: a rich and spoiled blue-haired brat who falls for C-Ko and plots to remove A-Ko from her life. But defeating A-Ko in battle proves difficult, as she apparently possesses superhuman speed and strength! B-Ko develops larger and more powerful mechs to fight A-Ko every day before class. But while they're locked in deadly skirmish, an alien ship full of manly women approaches their town, having identified their long-lost princess among the three girls...
REVIEW:
This was the very first anime film I ever saw, and to this day, still stands as one of my favorites! As a young kid, I was a very energetic and outdoorsy kind of person. I loved to climb trees, play sports, practice martial arts, and I was always the fastest at obstacle courses - no one could beat me! Speed and agility were some of my top tenets in life back then. If American Ninja Warrior had been a thing when I was a kid, I would've dominated that show! Of course, I'm slow, broken, and putting on a bit of weight nowadays, so my most active days are probably behind me. But back then, I loved anything that inspired speed and agility. Which is probably why, to this day, Sonic the Hedgehog is my all-time favorite cartoon character.
A-Ko's speed and strength are never really addressed in this film, except as a shock to people introduced to her for the first time. Every day, she and C-Ko are running late to school and A-Ko makes the trip running at supersonic speeds, with C-Ko in tow. Every day, she has to defeat a new powerful mech of B-Ko's, which she punches and kicks through like they were paper. She seems near-indestructible! And she was a huge inspiration to young me, who wanted to be faster and stronger.
I will say, if you can bear it, you may be better off watching this in Japanese with subtitles. The English dub was made back when anime was passed off as kid shows in America and budgets for translating voices was very low, so the English audio is rough to listen to at times. C-Ko is incredibly annoying to hear in English, being a whiny brat who cries if she gets in trouble or doesn't get her way. Honestly, I don't see what the appeal is for B-Ko.
This film would probably be appealing to modern-day feminists and trans people, as the entire cast is female, regardless of strength, size, or appearance. One of B-Ko's henchmen is a giant muscle-bound lady who has deep grunts and shouts, but speaks in a high-pitched effeminate voice. The alien forces invading the town are from an all-woman race. Some of them appear to be men at first glance, but it's revealed that not one of them is a man, and they're all very strong fighters. Even A-Ko, with all her superhuman strength, finds herself challenged while fighting one of their top operatives.
Of course, this was made in a different era, so when the English dub was made, they changed B-Ko's interest in C-Ko from a romantic one to a friendly one. She only wants C-Ko as her new friend in the English dub. If you watch the Japanese version, you'll find she's actually attracted to C-Ko and is jealous of A-Ko getting to hang out with her all the time. So the original version was a bit more tolerant of LGBTQ+ relationships.
RECOMMENDATION:
If you want some action porn, this movie has plenty of it! (If you're here for the "other" anime porn, there's like two brief boob shots in this film, but that's it) If you want to see space battles, there's a few good scenes of giant ships battling, plus some tanks and jets vs alien spider mechs. If you enjoy old 80s anime films and music (like me), this is the epitome of 80s anime! If you like strong, powerful women who save the day and rescue the damsel in distress, there's plenty of that here too! Watching empowering films like this as a kid, plus having a strong female role model throughout my upbringing (my mother), made me the tolerant and empathetic person I am today. I'd recommend this film to anyone!
