Ayane-chan High Kick! (Ayane's High Kick)

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: 綾音ちゃんハイキック!

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Information

Type: OVA

Episodes: 2

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jan 21, 1997 to Apr 25, 1997

Producers: Nikkatsu

Licensors: Central Park Media

Studios: Rikuentai

Source: Original

Genres: Comedy, Sports

Theme: Combat Sports

Demographic: Shounen

Duration: 27 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 5.84¹ (scored by 2,507 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #9523²

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

Popularity: #7656

Members: 5,518

Favorites: 8

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Synopsis

Meet Ayane Mitsui: a full-time high school student and part-time hand-to-hand combat specialist! Exams are forgotten and homework is neglected as she pursues her life-long dream of becoming a pro-wrestling champion. Ayane has what it takes - skill, determination, and a lethal "high-kick" - even a cool wrestling mask! But who will guide her to the top?

Enter Kunimitsu Tangay: a veteran trainer who is prepared to mold young Ayane into a championship caliber fighter. But his rigorous regimen isn't preparing her for wrestling... but for kickboxing instead! Feeling betrayed, Ayane is furious when Kunimitsu enters in a kickboxing tournament. But Ayane's school ABSOLUTELY FORBIDS such violent extracurricular activities. What will she do when Sakurako Miyagawa, the top contender of the All Japan Kickboxing League, challenges her to a duel? Will she be able to high-kick her way to victory - or will she get kicked out of school?

(Source: U.S. Manga Corps)

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Adaptation:

Ayane-chan High Kick!

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Mitsui, Ayane

Main

Miyamura, Yuko
Japanese

Miyagawa, Sakurako

Main

Kawamura, Maria
Japanese

Nakajima, Kayoko

Main

Nishihara, Kumiko
Japanese

Tange, Kunimitsu

Main

Ootsuka, Akio
Japanese

Principal

Supporting

Chafurin
Japanese

Toyota, Manami

Supporting

Inagaki, Kappei

Supporting

Yamaguchi, Kappei
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Miyamura, Yuko

Theme Song Performance

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Theme Song Performance, Theme Song Lyrics

THE STREET BEATS

Theme Song Arrangement, Theme Song Performance

Miyamae, Mitsuharu

Art Director

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Opening Theme

"Fight For Yourself" by The Street Beats

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Ending Theme

"Aoi Kaze no Mukou ni (蒼い風の向こうに)" by Yuuko Miyamura

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Reviews

Oct 11, 2008

ParaParaJMo

Recommended

This anime is ok. Maybe it was a pilot of a TV series that couldn’t really take off. Who knows. I felt if this was developed in the same way Hajime no Ippo is, then it could have really worked. The series leaves you wanting for more because Ayane just wins fights out of luck and not really on skill. Watching this makes you realize it does have a lot of potential if they went on with it. But I felt it had some flaws, like we don’t see Ayane taking her kickboxing license exam. I mean, shouldn’t she have realized that by then? I ... would have liked it if they showed us that just to see how she handled it and how she got her license to fight. It’s a major plot hole and doesn’t really make any sense. Then again, Ayane is portrayed to be a student with bad grades, so we are to assume she is a total ditz to some extent I guess.

And the rest of the cast is really generic. Like I’m assuming the Tange name is paying homage to Tange Danpei from Ashita no Joe, another anime I have reviewed in the past. They do develop some sort of relationship, but not really a father daughter relationship that could have worked like you see between Kamogawa and Ippo in Hajime no Ippo since you really don’t see Ayane’s father in this. It maybe would be cliché, but it works and feels natural. Sometimes clichés are a good thing in some animes. And then you got Miyagawa, she’s practically Ivan Drago and Floyd Mayweather packed in one. She’s like Ivan Drago with her training methods minus the steroids and how she’s a machine, and she’s like Mayweather flashing her wealth and how she publicly trash talks. So it’s your typical sports fight story but with a female perspective.

The design first of all is just typical of what you saw in most animes in the mid-1990s. It had the brighter resolution, and sharper faces and bigger eyes then you’re use to seeing. Pretty much what you see in other animes like Slayers, Tenchi, and Sabre Marionett J is what you see in this anime. So in comparison to most mid-90s anime out there, the art design isn’t really anything distinctive, but in no means what I consider un-tolerable.

The fights themselves, though only 2 are descent, just wish the anime could have taken the time and give the viewers an educational insight on kickboxing like how Hajime no Ippo does for boxing. Plus, the rounds are like 30 seconds each. It’s just the first round, Ayane is getting beat, 2nd round, she has her rhythm going on, and 3rd round, it’s even and Ayane gets lucky and wins. It’s too basic and one-dimensional and you don’t get different kinds of fights as you’d see in the other anime I’ve been somewhat comparing this too. It’s not about comparing boxing and kickboxing, but overall executing the concept of the central sport in relation to this anime. But I like how Kourakuen Hall is accurately represented from inside and out. I’ve been there three times and have fought there as an amateur once, so I feel like I can relate to it in that aspect.

For the dub, it’s actually not that bad. It’s nothing special, but nothing to a point where they’re intolerable or you don’t feel they have no representation to the personalities or the traits of the characters. I’m not familiar with too many dub actors with the exemption of like ocean studios so this is as far as I can comment on. So you can watch this anime whether you prefer Japanese or English and you’ll still get the same fulfillment.

But on the Japanese side, you got big names like Miyamura Yuko, the voice of Asuka from Evangelion playing Ayane; Ohtsuka Akio the voice of Snake from Metal Gear playing Tange, the trainer; and Yamaguchi Kappei the voice of Ranma and Inuyasha playing Ayane’s fight fan friend, Kappei. So seiyuu buffs such as myself should give this a shot. The music itself is very energetic. The theme songs give a fighting spirit feel to it, but also have a feminine touch. You also got the theme songs remixed into guitar for it to go with the training montages so nothing much to say.

By the time we get to this point of my review, you already get the idea that overall to the anime community. This is nothing too special. Which I’ll admit, but it’s still nothing really downright awful either. But I say if you like Hajime no Ippo and Ashita no Joe, Tough, or any martial arts action anime that doesn’t excessively defy the laws of physics, then this anime is for you. Despite the main character being female, it’s still appealing to both genders because of the action appeal though I wouldn’t really call the quality of the action high octane. People will probably love it or hate it for all the right reasons, or think it’s ok, also for the right reasons. It’s definitely worth a rental.

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Jul 26, 2015

literaturenerd

Mixed Feelings

Today I am going to revisit an uber obscure anime. How obscure? I've never met another person in my life offline that has actually seen this one, yet it somehow got an English dub! This OVA lost funding due to lack of interest and only 2 episodes were ever made, even though it was clearly intended to be a running series. Consider this a pilot for a TV show that never took off. Why would an American dub studio bring over an anime that only had 2 episodes and simply ended?!

The answer is because CENTRAL PARK MEDIA! This infamous dub studio plagued American Otaku ... during the 1990s and is now fortunately bankrupt. Central Park's leader was a guy named John O'Donnell, who was a Texas multi millionaire. He founded an anime publisher and dub studio basically for the sole purpose of trolling. He either brought over and adapted the worst titles known to man, or titles that only had a few episodes and left you wanting more... which of course you were never going to get. Sometimes he used his own money to create sequels to obscure anime, but only titles that NO ONE asked for! If people actually wanted to see a sequel, he refused to fund it. Most leaders are driven by rational self interest and make decisions that will benefit them personally. However, you occasionally get that one guy that frequently does stuff that doesn't actually benefit him, but he does it anyways JUST to piss people off and give the whole world the middle finger!

Plot and characters: 5/10

The plot is that there is a girl obsessed with pro-wrestling, who is reluctantly drawn into the world of kick boxing instead after a gruff old boxing manager notices her strong legs and perfect figure for kick boxing. It is sort of combination of Rocky meets Happy Gilmore. In the style of Gilmore, it is a zany comedy about someone who really wants to be good in one sport, but they suck at it and are absolutely amazing at a sport they initially dislike. Like Rocky, it features a naturally talented, but low ranked boxer going through a ridiculous amount of training montages with a coach that is basically an anime clone of Mickey from the first 3 Rocky movies. "Chase the chicken!" "YOU'RE GONNA EAT LIGHTNING AND YOU'RE GONNA CRAP THUNDER!!!" This series is cheesy, amusing, and I am kind of sad that it didn't get any love from anime fans at the time. The only thing this series needed was a Survivor soundtrack, Mr. T being a badass, and wildly inaccurate geography featuring 14,000 ft snow capped mountains just outside of Moscow!

Art and sound: 5/10

The art is pretty good for an old anime with close to zero budget. The soundtrack is forgettable, so just mute it during the training montages and play the Rocky theme! FUCK YEAH!

Overall: 6/10

This was an amusing little 2 episode pilot that could have been a hit series if it was marketed better and found the right audience. Obviously it is WAY too late to start a kickstarter and demand that the animation studio make this series, but when I was done watching it I almost felt the temptation to try. If Seikon no Qwasar could get 2 separate 26 episode seasons and Ikki Tousen and Kodomo no Jikan could each somehow get 3 fucking seasons, why did this only get 2 episodes? This is an underrated series that deserved a LOT more than it got.

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Sep 23, 2019

Timz0r

Mixed Feelings

To think Ayane-chan High Kick should have been a complete series, but the producers behind this didn't had the money to contineu this series or just didn't knew how to handle money and/or there was no intrest aswell. Kinda of a shame for being their first debut as a studio. Apparantly it was intented to have six episodes. Someone with a lot of money please build a time machine and go back to 1997 and sponser this anime project. It was pretty OK actually. Good enough to share some own thoughs with this, just to give Ayane High Kick a bit more love that it ... deserves.

Story: 6/10 (Fine)
Meet Ayane Mitsui, a redhead high school girl that wants to be a pro wrestler, but got tricked into the world of kickboxing. That's the story. I know the two sports don't really match each other, but I think I can understand the message they were trying to tell here with this story. It's all about the journey how you want to achieve your goals. To bad we'll never know if Ayane would have succeeded her goal.

Art: 6/10 (Fine)
Ayane High Kick's animation looks if you compair it with modern anime a bit dated, but hey, it's from 1997. It's about the same age when Pokémon (1997) came out in Japan as an anime, so I wouldn't make a fuss that much for it's animation. It's pretty OK. I've seen much worse animation, so no real complaints on the animation part aswell. Sure, I've spotted here and there some animation errors, but hey, I won't bitch and moan about that.

Sound: 6/10 (Fine)
Ayane is voiced by Yuko Miyamura, the person that also voiced the quite famous 14 year old Asuka Langley Souryuu from the Evangelion series. That combined with pretty alright background music that really kind of gives the vibes of the 90's together with decent voice acting from the other and sound effect typical for the '90's, I really can't complain sound-wise. Maybe I could make make a comment that the assigned intro song for this anime should have been "Fight For Yourself" by The Street Beats, which is a Jpop song that I actually don't really like, but hey, music taste does vary aswell.

Charather: 5/10 (Average)
It's kind of a sad thing thing I really can't judge with only two episodes that ever made for this series if I want to talk about it's charathers. You really need more episodes to see the charathers more fleshed out to be honest, even for an anime that was intented to be aired on television. That's why I go the average route if I want to rate the charathers.

Enjoyement: 7/10 (Good)
I actually felt bummed out the two episodes were over already. I honesty wanted more. I sort of want to know if Ayane would have succeeded her dream to become a pro wrestler even after she went the kickboxing route. Let's assume she did. Still I low key want to see all the shenanigans she has gone trough to acchieve her goal. As I already said before; someone please build a time machine and go back to 1997 to sponser this project.

Overal: 6/10 (Fine)
I honesty would recommend this short anime. It's only two episodes long that could get completed within the hour. I think this short cancelled anime is a good example that the lack of funding and/or intrest totally can destroy a potentional good series forever.

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Ayane-chan High Kick!

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