Fantasia

I happened to run into this on YouTube and was drawn by the title, "Fantasia". A title of that caliber generally brings to the imagination something special, containing some unique quality. It may also bring to mind the old Disney movie for those who've seen it (I would have to admit I haven't as of yet). While it wasn't known until after in my case, the OVA was even worked on by the people who did the first "Ghost in the Shell" movie a couple of years after. Production I.G. would be those people and they certainly chose a relatable name, in a way still ... being relatable to those of the anime community. That relatable feeling may feel different to each person, however.

Production I.G. doesn't disappoint with their visual work, and does a great job working with proportions and keeping animation stable with a good sensation of a 3D object on the screen at times. It is less apparent to see that type of animation now, as it seems now the attention has shifted to maximizing the actual motion, but there's still a lot of motion here to be had. The sound work met the requirements to flow with the visuals, yet it didn't stick out at any time and didn't immerse or play particularly catchy songs. The animation is only around twenty years old, but I have to say if any animation was to be considered timeless, it is likely this kind as it always feels perfectly proportioned. Production I.G. also did a fairly well job at directing Fantasia as it features some interesting animation for the bland setting, and some interesting angles and character movements.

So, it's good to know Production I.G. wasn't cheapening out on the design of Fantasia superficially, but the same could certainly not be said to the actual content of the story. If I were to cut it short, Fantasia features your average, high-school boy having come upon a magical girl. Relatable, yes? Don't expect too much to find that will surprise you in this setting. The characters are as you would expect, the magical girl being exceptionally weak and desperate in this case. A surprising subtlety this time, however, was that there was brief attempted justification for it. It was definitely brief, but given the comical situation the characters were placed in, I could fairly say it convinced me to a small extent. Besides the magical girl, the boy is dropped in the typical love-triangle situation and he acts relatively as one who's seen anime with similar premises would expect. He was able to get me to do a small chuckle from one of his lines, and he is emotive thanks to the visuals, but he's dry as is everyone present here. The characters all feel reasonably justified for their moods, but that's the limit to the character descriptions they carry.

The story around the magical girl isn't too unique in general, involving a magical rug, but it's enjoyably simple and relatable again. Nothing is taken seriously in the context, while the direction seems to battle the ridiculousness they have to work with simultaneously. It molds conflicting moods at times, but by the mid-point everyone can safely agree there is nothing to be taken seriously in Fantasia. The design for the villain and all the characters looks as it would in the 90's, and it could add to the enjoyment a bit as it can add to the ridiculousness. The designs are simplistic, and so is basically everything beyond the Production I.G. work. An interesting thing to question, however, is who this is even directed at. There is ecchi scenes with the magical girl, yet the other girl characters all look very reasonable. That is odd if the direction was at the perverted, but it could make sense if the one girl gave the audience plenty of service in her screen-time. She doesn't, however, only being with the main boy closely for about a third of the OVA. The rest is filled with flat drama and non-ecchi characters, at least to today's standards.

I can't be sure who this was made for, but Production I.G. felt the need to create Fantasia. Production I.G. doesn't hold back too much though and still creates a visually pleasing short. To the writing, it doesn't take an expert to come to the conclusion that it's very uninspired. It has its own magical girl take on her fantasy history, but that's about it. From the start, though, the simplistic town setting doesn't set expectations too high, and I can't say what is here isn't enjoyable. There is some enjoyment to be had with Fantasia's silliness, and some may like it more or less than others, but there isn't much worth to put this OVA on a high priority. It was a pleasure to watch visually and it's short length surely aids that. The OVA does feel like the pilot for your typical boy meets magical girl series and it doesn't end with an ending that gives closure. From the over-done nature of the premise, however, the viewer can safely imagine what happens counting up the conclusions of all the other series I know they've seen in the same bucket. I didn't feel unsatisfied because of it, and because of the nonchalant viewing. Fantasia is worth a watch if one can bear everything I mention to it, but it isn't anything you have to worry about at the moment.

*By the way, the art in the actual OVA is much better than what is shown in the MAL cover of it. Also, Fun-Fact: The script was done by a guy who did some of InuYasha's script ༼ つ ͠° ͟ ͟ʖ ͡° ༽つ.

I can't believe, that Production I.G, which animated such masterpieces, like Haikyuu!!, Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru, created a totally mediorce anime in the ancient time with full of fan services.

Akihiro is a big otaku, who doesn't have much success with girls. They only live in his fantasy. One day he gets a magic carpet, where a beautiful girl comes out from. She has magic abilities, and uses it imprudently, and cause problems to Akihiro. So, the girl is pretty, but clumsy. The girl, Maron falls in love with Akihiro, and wants him to take to her world and live together with him. He goes, but ... Akihiro doesn't have time to admire Maron's world, because another girl, Roll appeared, who always wants to kill Maron. Who's this girl, and what she want from Maron?

Who knows. The complete OVA is about 30 mintues long, and as you can read, the story is really poor. But what really nice in this OVA, is the art and animation. It seems, the Production I.G always did the best in animation. It's very nice compared to other animes from the beginning of the 90s.

I would highlight Furumoto Shinnosuke, who was the seiyuu of Akihiro. I think, he's the most underrated seiyuu, I really like his voice. He has similar voice, like Yamaguchi Kappei, but unfortunately he was casted in very few animes. I think, he deserved much more.

The music is also quite good. The theme song is performed by Okui Masami, who's like muse for me in japanese music. This is her debut song, and I think, it's ideal as debut song, it forecasted a very good singing career, as Okui Masami had during the years. On the theme song single a radio dorama of the anime is also available.

Well, the anime is not like a miracle, but if you feel like, you want to watch an anime with fan services just for fun, then, it's ideal for it.

From the studio Production I.G. that have blessed us an one episode OVA from 1993 called Fantasia. I have no idea why they made this, but I'm sure they should have used the time investment in creating this in something better instead of making this one episode OVA.

Story: 2/10 (Horrible)
If you can expect a good story in one episode of 25 minutes long, you're wrong. The "story" pretty boils down to a dude that trips over a carpet and later stumbles down on a pink haired magical girl on the pretty much one of the most stereotypical way guys stuble upon anime girls because anime ... physics. The OVA tries to tell us a story with pretty much every anime trope you can think off that was popular in the '90 jammed into 25 minutes and fails. I've seen average hentai in the past that contains a better plot that did made more sense and I'm not even joking.

Art: 5/10 (Average)
As this OVA got released in 1993, you can expect the typical art-style from the '90's. For modern standards you can write it off as 'bad', but in 1993 I think the art-style would be decent for it's time. Some may like it, some don't.

Sound: 4/10 (Bad)
The audio, well, I don't think it's that good. It's just your typical sound effects from the 90's and quite bad voice acting combined together. I even can't recall anymore I've heard any music used aswell, but as you guess by now I was not very fond of the sound in general.

Charather: 3/10 (Very Bad)
The charathers are very bland in pretty much every way possible. I've seen much more interessing charathers in similair shows.

Enjoyment: 3/10 (Very Bad)
I'm going to be honest and I really didn't liked the time investment for the one episode OVA. It was quite boring to say the least and I could have done something more productive with that small half hour. Sure, it was only about a small half hour, but still...

Overall: 3/10 (Very Bad)
In overall, I don't really recommend this one episode OVA unless you really want to waste a small half hour watching popular anime tropes of the '90's and hearing comical sound effects jammed in together that tries to tell you a story.