AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission

Aika R-16: Virgin Mission really has so little to do with its predecessor that why they even bothered to name it such and put it into the Aika franchise is a mystery. About all it shares with the original are a few of the character names and a lot of exposed panties. We get to see younger versions of characters that we really didn’t care about to begin with. Overall though it manages to be better than its original pretty much across the board.

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.

I hadn't seen an anime as loaded with fanservice and ecchiness like this one in a long time! Basically, all female characters (95% of the complete series) end up nude at some point, revealing their breasts and butts, in awkward positions. If you like these types of things, you'll be very grateful towards this 3-episodes OVA.

The story is very silly, light, and pointless. Art style is good, better than many other similar animes, and they focused a lot in the depiction of the female body. Sound is fine; the voice acting seemed to be alright for the most part, and I can't recall at all ... the opening and ending songs (that's how good they were). Character development is very vague for most of them. The main 3 characters, however, are explained enough as for the viewer to understand them.

Overall, I enjoyed the anime. It delivered a lot of fanservice, which I must admit I like, and it got me entertained.

Well, I never thought my first anime review would be about a 'Panty-show'.
(When I say, ' Panty-show', I mean a show where the premise, video takes, sound, and artwork revolves around cute, half-naked girls and lots of fanservice.)

But, here it goes....
First let's confirm that this is in-fact a Panty-show:
Pantyshots in every scene? check!
Little or no plot? check!
Girls or young women running around in useless costums and lingerie? check!
Bad story? check!
Women doing things that aren't natural for women to do like being physically and emotionally strong, gutsy, doing stunts that are impossible even for a man, and showing 'male' traits? ... check!
Splashy action scenes? check!
Lots of weird or make-believe vehicles? check!
Lame humor? check!

Okay, now that we have concluded that this series is in fact a panty-show, let's go into the details...

Story: 2 points.
A bunch of underage girls doing things that they would not be doing in real life, even IF they could.

Artwork: 7 points.
Fanservice, fanservice, fanservice, fanservice, fanservice, fanservice, fanservice, fanservice, fanservice, and even more fanservice. IF you noticed that the artwok for everything other than girl's bodies and clothing was poor then obviously you weren't jerking off in your jeans while your mother is in the next room. The artwork in this series was SO off-balance that the ass-lines in the girl's panties were more defined than anything else. In-fact, the asslines were so well-done you know where their raspberries are ;)

Sound Quality: 7 points.
The sound quality was pretty clear and the voice work was decent, however they, too, revolved mainly around the girl's individual activities and very little was left to the natural environments that surrounded them.

Character: 5 points.
The girls were trying to act WAY older than they are. The characterizations of the villians were poorly drawnout. The adults were completely out of character as real adults would never let's kids run the show(mind the pun).

Enjoyment: 5 points.
I only give this show 5 poiints only because it is one of the few times you get to see naked highschool girls in something other than loli-hentai, in which they are all classified as being over '18' and we all know that is a load of bull.

Overall: 6 points.
2+7+7+5+5= 26 out of 50. That comes out to be 5.2, and I will round it out to a '5'.