Okubyou na Venus

Random 80s OVAs… You never know what you are gonna get with them. I enjoy watching a tone of these old obscure titles on Youtube just for the off chance that one of them will be a hidden gem. Most of the time they’re not anything to be proud of, and I end up watching them on 2x speed just to get the easy anime list entry. It’s a little ironic, because today I wrote a review on another 80s ova, Rhea Gall Force, where I talked about how I’ve yet to find a gem via old OVAs ... on Youtube. Then, later that day, I found this gem.

This jawn is only a twenty minute AMV about the life of some random singer. I know none of the background for this work, like whos the singer is, who made this film, who was this made for, and frankly, I don’t really care. It is honestly not important. This AMV is just a fun little watch to kill twenty minutes. It depicts the mundane life of this singer girl and all the silly stuff that ensues. The OVA is broken into four songs--four acts-- each with a different atmosphere: first song (best song) is upbeat and playful, second song is similar to the first except with inane and surreal imagery, the third song is really sad and melancholy for some reason, and the last song is triumphant because it’s the last song I guess--corny I know. But if I was to hate on any of these, the third song was quit out of place. It felt super lame to have a sad song right before the ending; it was as if the writers where like “we can’t just have an upbeat film,” even though that is the films biggest selling point. I hate to sound like Digibro, but this film would’ve been so much better if it was a happy film all the way through--just a happy, upbeat little video to start a boring day with.

The visuals for this were a little more limited than I would like, but the film made it work. The character’s movement is kinda jank, and the backgrounds also leave something to be desired. On the contrary, the cuts between scenes were amazing. For example, in one scene during the first act, the main girl is shown waving at something the viewer doesn’t see. Then the film cuts to a picture of a seemingly random horse. Then it cuts to a far away shot of the girl waving to a man riding a horse. It would’ve been boring if we were just show her waving at a hours. Showing the scene with these harsh cuts made it suspenseful, because we don’t know where this horse came from. And this lack of knowledge would lead us to want to find solace in an answer, which is given us seconds later. Act one had a tone of these interesting cuts, all accompanied by a peppy beat that sometimes match up with the cuts.

Act two was more of the same, except the surreal imagery was cranked up to a nine. This act had vampires, gangsters, and, since it is an 80s OVA, it also had to have space in it too. I do think the song in act one was more catchy, which is just taste. But the surreal imagery was loads of fun. Like the vampire guy rocks a white tux and pulls the main girl out of a bath of clouds, then proceed to sing and dance together (best ship), so how can you not like that?

The third and final act were less than par to say the least. I already said what I had to say about act three: tonally incongruent and gratuitous. The final act was just the main girl singing at some big concert, and it was kinda underwhelming to say the least. Out of all the acts, it had the least scene diversity since it took place in only a concert hall. And because the animation isn’t that good, taking away all the cool cuts and silly imagery strips this AMV of its strongest elements while showcasing its worst. To make matters more grim, the final song was set up to be a concluding song that could rival even In The Court of the Crimson King, but it honestly fell flat; the song felt like just another 80s pop song. And yes I get that the third act and the conclusion is supposed to show that the singer has struggles in life, yada yada. You can show that without being so melodramatic. It’s not hard. And the argument does not take away my criticisms of the song or visuals.

With all that being said, I’d love to be the most pretentious man in the room and say this random AMV no one has heard of is better than Daicon IV, but I can’t justify that statement. This AMV overstays its welcome and loses focus. However, the first two acts were fun and upbeat enough for me to recommend this at all. Not to mention this takes place in America, and who doesn’t like America? All jokes aside, this AMV pretty good--earning a solid six out of ten for effort. If you like what I got to say, check out my other reviews on actually relevant stuff or hit me up on discord. I’m always down to talk <3. Tavvauvusi.