Project A-Ko

Sixteen years after its destruction by a meteor, Graviton City has been rebuilt into a futuristic metropolis. However, this is of little concern to superpowered high school student Eiko Magami, who only cares about her best friend Shiiko Kotobuki and arriving at school on time. Unfortunately, the incredibly intelligent Biko Daitokuji intends to befriend Shiiko, taking Eiko's place as the Shiiko's best friend using any means she can.

Biko decides that, to accomplish this, she must defeat Eiko in combat. In order to overcome her super strength and speed, Biko creates a mecha and challenges Eiko in front of their school gate. As the two commence their battle, an extremely large spaceship hovers over Earth, searching for something left behind.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Magami, Eiko Main

Itou, Miki Japanese

Daitokuji, Biko Main

Shinohara, Emi Japanese

Kotobuki, Shiiko Main

Tomizawa, Michie Japanese

D Main

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Captain Napolipolita Main

Ikeda, Shuuichi Japanese

Ayumi, Miss Supporting

Mukaidono, Asami Japanese

Mari Supporting

Gouri, Daisuke Japanese

Asa Supporting

Hibino, Akari Japanese

Ume Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Ine Supporting

Takamori, Yoshino Japanese

Nishijima, Katsuhiko Director, Creator, Screenplay

Kou, Yuu Episode Director

Moriyama, Yuuji Script, Animation Director, Key Animation, Character Design

Kimura, Shinji Art Director

Reviews

Sep 8, 2025

theo1763

Recommended

Who knew Kenshirou was actually a high school girl! I honestly did not recall much about Project A-Ko from my younger days, but reimmersing myself in it was a lot of fun. The story is totally absurd. A-ko is this absurdly overpowered redhead trying to get through high school, while her wealthy, obsessive doppelgänger B-ko continues to bring out increasingly bizarre mecha and gadgets to try to kill her to get to C-ko, their clueless and sort of annoying best friend. The whole film is basically one long chain of ramping action and off-the-wall gags, and I had a silly smile stretched across my face ... the entire time. Clearly, this is a parody through and through, and it succeeds in references to Gundam, Fist of the North Star, and even American comics pop up in ways that are simultaneously funny, whether or not you catch every single one.

All of the characters are a hoot. A-ko is ridiculously OP, and I loved the comic explanation towards the end for why she's so appropriately overpowered. It's the perfect cap on her hijinks. B-ko is the ultimate over-the-top rival, and her mecha battles are impossible in the sense of the word. C-ko is as annoying as all get-out, but she does provide a great deal of humor and really keeps the crazy competition between the other two in check. Even the background cast members, like the teacher and B-ko's henchwomen, are small touches that add to the zany charm. The way the characters bounce off each other and just keep escalating the absurdity is one of the best things about the film, and it makes every fight and every gag land exactly right.

I was amazed at the animation for a movie that is essentially a 1986 comedy. The action scenes are fluid, the city-destroying chaos is wonderful, and the background gags are always good if you look for them. The music and sound actually suit the frantic pace of the visuals perfectly, remaining punchy and fast-paced. The Japanese voice acting is perfect, with the characters getting just the right level of intensity and humor, and even the English dub, as much a product of its time as everything else, really works nicely and adds a comedic charm of its own. Overall, I completely adored this more than I hoped. It's silly, humorous, loaded with references, and just a joy from start to finish. I gave it 8/10 since it's pure 80s anime enjoyment, and I'm anxiously waiting to see the sequels.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 8, 2022

Kamezuki

Mixed Feelings

“Project A-Ko” is the first movie in the franchise of the same name, and it is known for being one of the first anime movies available for sale in the US, and I believe one of the first ones aired on American television. Thus, there’s a lot of nostalgia associated with it, and it has a bit of a cult following.

The story follows A-Ko, a girl with superhuman strength; her best friend, the whiny and clingy C-Ko; and B-Ko, the rich, mad scientist-like girl trying to kill A-Ko and take C-Ko for herself. Concurrent to the fights between A-Ko and B-Ko, which seem to ... grow more outrageous and over the top by the day, the movie follows a group of strange and powerful aliens trying to find their princess, who apparently crash-landed on Earth 16 years prior, and they’ll stop at nothing to bring her back with them. These two stories intersect, leading to the grandiose finale.

The basic elements of the overall plot make sense, but leave me with more questions than answers. I was left wondering why all of this happened in the first place, why the princess is who she is, why the aliens are the way they are, and how the streets/walls in the city managed to get rebuilt every time before A-Ko went on her daily destructive run to school. I’m hoping that the subsequent OVAs will shed light on some of these mysteries.

I felt that there was a fair amount of tonal whiplash throughout the movie. It starts with a serious tone, as we see a bunch of people wiped out by a mysterious object crashing onto the Earth. Later we see aliens mercilessly blow a spaceship full of people to smithereens, only for the movie to depict the same aliens as funny characters soon after. Overall, the movie is goofy and humorous, so the few scenes where people are killed are somewhat jarring, especially since they aren’t really addressed afterwards.

The dialogue is good, but I got the feeling that it’s peppered with a lot of old anime/pop culture references that I’m not aware of, so it comes across as a bit abstract at times if you’re not aware of what’s being referenced.

The characters are simple, yet developed enough during the movie’s runtime to be distinctive. The main three are easily memorable, and some of the side characters are as well.

The voice acting was decent, but I thought that C-Ko’s voice was annoying, and Mari didn’t have enough lines to emphasize the uniqueness of her voice.

As far as other technical aspects go, I was impressed with the music, both the background instrumentals and the theme songs with vocals. The theme songs are sung in English and are catchy tunes in their own right, and the background music fits the scenes it’s used in well.

The art is good; I like the character designs, although Mari and D looked a little too similar (I thought they were the same person at first). B-Ko reminded me of one of the main characters of “Blue Sonnet,” a late ‘80s OVA that had a manga running at the time this movie was released. Perhaps B-Ko’s design was a reference to that character, as “Project A-Ko” is full of references to lots of older shows that I just wasn’t able to catch. The designs of the city, the townscape, the school, and the spaceships are all nice.

As for the animation, it’s fluid and colorful, and for the most part, it’s good. I noticed there are lots of scenes where characters are yelling but their mouths are closed, though, so I had the impression that relatively minor details may have been overlooked in favor of the “big picture.” I also noticed some blink-and-you’ll-miss-them Easter eggs, including a person’s name tag that says in romanized Japanese something like “I’m the commander; I’m an important person,” which reminded me of similar Easter eggs in “Gunbuster,” an anime which would come later.

Direction-wise, the action scenes are choreographed well and are pleasant to watch. Other scenes are also done well for the most part, except for maybe some of the scenes at the beginning, where I thought things dragged a bit.

Regarding objectionable content, there are stereotypical and extraneous nude scenes of a girl getting dressed and bathing, probably owing to this movie’s production origins as an adult anime. There are also upskirt and panty shots galore, more than I’ve seen in any other anime. There’s a scene where a girl stumbles into a room full of dirty underwear. There are characters who look masculine but are actually female, and this is played off as being funny, so the humor in that aspect is outdated. The violence is cartoonish, except for the aforementioned mass death scenes that seemed out of place.

Finally, a word of warning — there are a lot of flashing lights in this movie, particularly for a few minutes during the beginning in a scene that takes place in a movie theater.

Overall, this historically important anime has good aspects — the music, character design, direction and animation, to name a few — but has some issues with tone and outdated humor which may make people uncomfortable or confused while watching it. I would still recommend seeing “Project A-Ko” as long as you keep an open mind and don’t go in expecting a masterpiece.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 1, 2020

lethargilistic

Not Recommended

It's just not very funny. The main reason to seek out and enjoy this film is for the fact that it revels in the self-referential nature of anime. The more of an otaku you are, particularly of things released by before this came out, the more you will ostensibly get out of it. Although, certainly, you can notice things that were influenced by this in turn. I liked the Gurren Lagann drill mech.

I think the reason this has a high reputation is because of the sci-fi action direction it takes in the second half. Some of that material, such as A-ko hopping on the fighter ... jets or the part where A-ko and B-ko fought in the middle of the war between the Earthlings and aliens, was extremely good. They just went wild on it. But, in general, action alone doesn't sustain my interest very well. And it took its sweet time getting to that point; I started watching this movie in April and got bored in the first half. When I restarted it, I fell asleep at some point. (Which shouldn't be taken as a strong objection. Dealing with COVID stress every day has made me tire easily. I somewhat often fall asleep early for no reason.)

Love the character designs inspired by Rumiko Takahashi's work.

This is worth watching if you like 80s anime. But it's not, like, spectacular for me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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