Project A-Ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody

After a hilarious smooth-jazz billiards opening, Project A-Ko 3 makes the disastrous mistake of suddenly turning two of our three protagonists into vile boy-lovers, reversing everything from the first two movies. But, in classic Project A-Ko fashion, the whole thing devolves into self-aware lunacy about the way that these characters don't fit as hetero whatsoever, and it turns into some really idiotic nonsense, in the best way.

In the end, this ends up being gay after all, so it's all redeemed anyway. I am willing to put up with any amount of heterosexuality if it means that C-Ko is made happy.

“Cinderella Rhapsody” is the third installment in the “Project A-Ko” franchise, and while it maintains the general production values from its prequels, it’s a step down in terms of plot quality.

This OVA introduces a new character named Kei, a motorcyclist who almost runs over C-Ko and is subsequently run over by A-Ko. Kei hardly speaks, and he doesn’t do that much, but A-Ko and later B-Ko fall for him immediately for no reason. I realize it’s part of the humor of the OVA to have the two girls fall head-over-heels for a guy with seemingly no personality, but after both of them spent so much ... time fighting for/over C-Ko in the past two installments, it seems a bit out of character for them to suddenly be boy-crazy. C-Ko is also even more annoying here than in the previous stories, especially in how she treats A-Ko. Meanwhile, B-Ko’s minions get a little more screen time here, which is nice.

Most of the OVA is rather slow, with the wacky action and outrageous destruction which this franchise is known for only happening towards the end. The end is also a bit confusing — the city defense forces are called on, perhaps due to a misunderstanding, and there’s a whole montage of various people around the city stopping whatever they’re doing, donning Power Rangers-type gear and heading towards the spaceship. This whole sequence could have been explained better.

The voice acting is mostly good, but some of the minor characters, like the ones in the aforementioned montage, sound like they’re just reading their lines (perhaps they’re not professional voice actors). Kei hardly speaks, but for the few words he does utter, the delivery is okay.

The music is similar to that of the first OVA — not bad, but not particularly memorable. Same with the animation and art.

Regarding objectionable content, there are a few scenes with nudity, with the most explicit being a scene where some men are watching an adult film in a theater, and are very clearly “interrupted.” There are also a fair amount of flashing lights in this one.

Overall, this OVA is a downgrade from the previous two installments of the franchise, but it is still somewhat watchable and further explores the zany characters of Graviton City. I recommend watching this only if you have seen the movie and the first OVA, but I advise that you keep your expectations low.