Story wise, Aika tries at least tries to have a basic plot silly as it is. What it does have is not terribly original. What we end up with is the young Aika going to a private high school and learning how to be a submarine pilot so she can be a salvager. This is important back story because salvaging was oh-so importing in the original. (Yes, I am being sarcastic) She gets involved with another girl at the school who runs a treasure seeking club and since Aika can pilot a submarine she is invited along. Hilarity, boobs, and pantsu follow.
Lots of martial arts action accompanies the story as Aika and friends are constantly attacked for unknown reasons by their huge breasted teacher. We never are told why this happens, besides the obvious plot device that this allows for panty shots, nudity, and sexual "humor". The panties are dialed down a little bit, we don’t see a pair in "every" shot that contains females. But there is plenty of gratuitous nudity to make up for it.
Overall the main problem I had with the plot is that it doesn’t explain anything from the original and it makes you wonder why they even bothered to make this an Aika story. They could have easily just made it an original story and left it out of the Aika world. There are none of the superpowers Aika had in the first series. But if you were expecting virgin mission to be about how she got those powers then you’re going to be sorely disappointed. In fact the plot really isn’t about Aika at all; it’s about some new character that wasn’t in the original show either.
Character wise Virgin Mission fails almost as much as the original. Some of the characters have a bit more personality than the original but this is mainly due to the exceptional voice acting which I will get to later. Aika is nothing personality wise like her original and while she is very cutely drawn she isn’t interesting at all. The two new main characters are Karen and Eri. Eri is basically a clone of Haruhi Suzumiya and has the same personality and quirkiness except without the whole being interesting and fun part. Karen is a vanilla emotionless type whom the story is really about. She probably gets the most development and the plot revolves around her past. It’s pretty inexplicable why the writers chose to focus on her and not the title character. All of the supporting characters are basically just background scenery. They have no depth at all and are completely meaningless and useless to the story except in the girls’ cases to show us their panties and boobs.
The art much like the first show is strength, and obviously where the director put most of his effort into. We have very cute girls with great bodies and perfectly formed breasts. The action is well animated and it appears that some computer effects were mixed in which are pretty seamless and match the rest of the animation.
The voice acting is really what saves this series for me. Mamiko Noto who plays Karen and Ami Koshimizu who plays Aika are great. I love what they do and it is thanks to them that this show has any humor or personality at all. Music wise, Koshimizu sings both OP and EN songs and they are ok but nothing spectacular. I was disappointed that Noto didn’t sing one of them as I think she is a far superior singing talent.
Overall this series has more going for it than the original. If you have seen neither one don’t bother with the first and just watch this one. It’s difficult for me to recommend anyone watch unless you just really want to see echii and nudity. It’s a short series so you won’t waste too much of your life.
