Ariel Visual

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: ARIEL (エリアル) VISUAL

Information

Type: OVA

Episodes: 2

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 21, 1989 to Aug 21, 1989

Producers: animate Film

Licensors: Central Park Media

Studios: J.C.Staff

Source: Novel

Genres: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi

Theme: Mecha

Duration: 27 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 5.72¹ (scored by 822 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #10850²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #10661

Members: 2,420

Favorites: 0

Available At

Official Site

Resources

AniDB

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Synopsis

To save the Earth from alien invaders and their giant monsters, Dr. Kishida does what any other red-blooded mad scientist would do: he builds a giant robot—the ultimate feminine fighting robot!

Unfortunately, his grand-daughters refuse to pilot it! Apparently, they've got more important things to do than becoming teenage super-heroes. Besides, how are you supposed to study for your college entrance exams while getting beaten-up in battle?

Fortunately for Dr. Kishida, things aren't too well for the invaders, either. According to their reports, the Earth was the perfect target: lush, peaceful, and relatively defenseless. Theoretically, the planet should've surrendered long ago. Now, the war is at a standstill, the dreaded Accounting Department is warning about the serious cost overruns, and the head of the home office has arrived from Galactic Headquarters to personally oversee operations. Has Headquarters decided to unleash, The Audit—or do they have something even more evil in mind?

The fate of the world rests upon two people: Aya Kishida, one of the doctor's granddaughters, who may have to give up prep school to pilot the mighty (and lovely) ARIEL; and a mysterious alien named Saber Starblast, who may have the power to defeat the invaders once and for all...

(Source: AnimeNfo)

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Background

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Ariel
Sequel:	Ariel Deluxe

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Kishida, Kazumi

Main

Hayashibara, Megumi
Japanese

Dr. Kishida

Main

Saka, Osamu
Japanese

Kawai, Mia

Main

Koyama, Mami
Japanese

Kishida, Aya

Main

Mizutani, Yuuko
Japanese

Torefan, Simone

Supporting

Hirano, Fumi
Japanese

Ragnus

Supporting

Suzuoki, Hirotaka
Japanese

Houser, Albert

Supporting

Shiozawa, Kaneto
Japanese

Demonova

Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Watanabe, Junichi

Director, Script

Matsuura, Noriyoshi

Sound Director

Hayashibara, Megumi

Theme Song Performance

Shounen Shoujo Gasshoudan Mizuumi

Theme Song Performance

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Opening Theme

"Ariel no Uta (エリアルのうた)" by 国立科学研究所合唱部(二軍), Shounen Shoujo Gasshou Dan Mizuumi

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Ending Theme

	1: "Mikakunin Girl: Good Innocent Ribbon Lady (未確認GIRL -Good Innocent Ribbon Lady-)" by Megumi Hayashibara
	2: "Mikakunin Boy: Best Oriental Young Man (未確認BOY -Best Oriental Young-man-)" by Yuuko Mizutani

Reviews

Aug 24, 2011

ktulu007

Mixed Feelings

The story arc is pretty simple. Aliens have invaded for the sake of claiming Earth for the corporation they work for. Their efforts are being thwarted by a large mecha shaped like a woman, ARIEL, so an old friend of the invasion force's leader shows up to provide assistance. Things aren't going smoothly on Earth, however. ARIEL's pilots decided that they don't want the job and it's up to their Grandfather/Uncle, two of the girls are his granddaughters the other is his niece, to persuade them otherwise. The story itself is pretty standard and kind of weak, but the execution is great. It's very light-hearted ...

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Gift

Oct 12, 2015

dodongos_dango

Mixed Feelings

My biggest issue with Ariel Visual is that there’s no reason to care about the plot and most of the characters. The OVA starts out with an opening narration that summarizes that sets up the bare bones of the plot and character relations, but it never develops them beyond what’s presented in this narration. It never really goes into why the aliens even want to take over the Earth and by the end of the second episode all of the characters can still be summed up with the same two sentences that they were summed up with in the opening narration.

My other big issue is ...

Open

Gift

Dec 29, 2018

matthigh

Not Recommended

There were loads of OVAs that came out in the eighties that have largely been forgotten; relegated to the dustbin of history. This is one of those. And, to be fair, it should stay there.

Starting watching this cold, and it started out with two solid minutes of dense exposition, explaining the whole plot and a brief history of about ten characters each. It reached a point where I put it on pause, backed out to check online to see if I was missing some prequel or earlier season I should be watching first. Nope! This ... was the starting point!

And, then I found out this 2-part OVA was billed as "Episode IV", sort of a throwback to Star Wars, as a way to jump into the middle of the story, I guess.

Unfortunately, that little trick didn't work out too well. You're left dropped in the middle of a story, without all of the careful setup, or the long act of character development that is necessary for the viewer to buy in to the story. So, it ends up being a jumble of scenes without purpose, me not caring about what the characters are doing.

It doesn't help that the overarching plot is fairly hackneyed, as invading aliens with giant monsters attack Earth, but there is a giant robot created by a scientist that is Earth's only defense against them. The "catch" of this OVA is that apparently this annoying scientist decides his three young female relatives are the best fit to pilot this craft, and ONLY they can do it, and acting in the most annoying manner possible will make these unwilling girls bend to his demands.

And the show makes you aware of that almost every minute, as Granddaughter #1 is so against it that she makes sure to make the viewer aware of this fact every time she opens her mouth. Ugh.

First episode is nothing but exposition and setup, cutting from one bland scene to another, from one set of characters to another, every minute. And me not caring the entire time. The second episode (starting with an annoying Star Wars IV screen-scroll, no less) is where the action happens, but remember at its heart this is a Giant Robot vs. Giant Monster show. And if you're not into that, then this was just a monumental boring fight scene.

Artwork is serviceable if not a little wonky in places. The animation is uneven, and when it's bad it's really bad. Maybe they were hoping to leverage this into a series (after all, it seems half the OVAs were testing the waters for that idea), but nothing really came of this. Thankfully. I file this one back into the dustbin of history, where it belongs.