Kenritsu Chikyuu Boueigun

Do ever find yourself watching something, and then suddenly realize that you've had this stupid grin on your face the entire time?

Yeah, this is one of those kind of shows.

Prefectural Earth Defense Force is pretty much 1980's anime distilled in a single, 50-minute OVA. It represents everything that made anime in the eighties what it was. And I mean that as a compliment. If you're the type of person that ALSO considers it a good thing, then this is for you.

It's definitely a ridiculous premise, but ... that's sort of the point. It's not supposed to make logical sense, you just have to roll with it. Just like you roll with, say, Project A-ko. Or Urusei Yatsura.

Love the character designs. Love the characters. Sometimes the slapstick does get a little too slappy. Unfortunately, this is all of PEDF that was made. So, I guess if you want to watch more, you'll just have to watch it one more time.

This is a straight-up gem people! Randomly clicked on this and didn't even need to smoke another bud. This OVA is just crazy story and action, imagine "Inferno Cop" with an actual budget. It's that 80's indie Japanese goofy comedy style, but with the stakes turned high with a hilariously random plot and directing. It's almost that the OVA tries to give the impression it's not intending to be funny, but just happening to be telling a story in a strange way. It's almost a parody of anime as a whole. The dialogue's always quirky and funny, the character's never leave a dull moment. They're ... sleeve-rolled macho personalities with embarrassing habits. Why not take a break and have a good time with this?

If you want more afterwards, I recommend the live-action movie "Repo Man (1984)".

Bear with me, I’ll get my head around this story. So there was this Indian bloke caught in a car crash. The doctor’s hand slipped while fixing him and accidentally turned him into a cyborg with missles in his shoulders. Meanwhile a terrorist organisation called the Telephone Poll Group turn up promising….errr, nothing in particular. A prefectural earth defence force is drawn up from the local prefectural school (because where else would you get a prefectural earth defence force, it stands to reason) to combat the new terrorist group and their leader with her sexushii bodii and giant Dirty Pair pink hair. The two groups ... try to hire the cyborg Indian for their respective teams but the Indian gets really mad after being turned into a cyborg and blows both parties up. And then he goes to school. And then gets turned into a lady and we see his/her boobs. Because this is an 80s OVA and the Japanese Government required animation companies by law to have at least one boob shot in their OVAs.

The whole thing is very silly indeed. It reminds me of the old Yatterman/Time Bokan series with its ineffectual super villains and silly heroes where they break the fourth wall and generally completely fail at being threatening. The only reason you know they’re evil is because they have a load of minions at their disposal, and only villains have minions. We know they’re minions because they all have ‘minion’ written across their face. The minions are probably my favourite part because they like to jump around in the background when the villains are talking going “hi mum look at me I’m on TV” and being very unprofessional. There are a few other really clever gags too, like the boss of the villains spending most of his time giving interviews to journalists about his plan for world domination and how he loves to drink milk in the morning. But these yet again can often fall back to the usual unfunny routines of perv faces, shouting loudly and hitting people for humour.

The animation is shockingly good for an 80s OVA. Like really excellent with great swooping action scenes with a lot of things going on. Shame the sound design doesn’t always keep up. I don’t think this was a problem with my file either. Character’s reactions and explosions wouldn’t necessarily mesh with what’s going on screen, so I think it was a real design choice. I’m going to put that down to age though, since I have seen that before in other older anime and it might just be something I gotta get used to. It’s fun but forgettable. Got some great moments during its 40 minute run, like the politician receiving a list of banned lewd dojinshi, but then lots of people yelling and hitting things for humour. It’s a shame that the best jokes in this highly kinetic and well animated OVA were all from the writing rather than physical.