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jsevakis wrote:

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

Not to mention, regardless of anyone's view or legality, it's always available online to download.

By that measure, nothing's ever "buried."

[. . .]

Now, leave me alone.

It's rather hard to keep track of who's arguing which side in that post, but I think that he might have been on your side (arguing that availability is not a useful measure of "buriedness"). *shrugs* I do think that a lot of the comments regarding Project A-ko (not?) being "buried" are instinctive reactions by people who are either scared of being old fogies or who are scared of the reality that most anime fans don't know this stuff. (Both reactions might simply be a fear of having a minority opinion, of course.) Or perhaps I'm overanalyzing this.

Of course, while direct criticism of your choices are partially unacceptable--if this is to pretend to be a news source then it has to accept reader feedback regarding the columns, but there's a limit to what's reasonable--I do think that a lot of us are having this discussion without reference to you. For example, while I think that you made the correct call here, even if I disagreed with your judgment I would still support your right to make that call.

jsevakis wrote:

Lest this become a repeat of the Lain thread, I would like to remind everyone that I am the sole arbiter of what is "buried enough" for this column, and I really could care less about those who have criteria different from mine.

For the record, this is going to be enforced by admin - any more "is this buried?!?!?!?!" comments will be deleted, and if you're a jerk about it, it'll get you a nice little ban. So let's go back to discussing the show.

CrazyDreamer wrote:

if this is to pretend to be a news source then it has to accept reader feedback regarding the columns, but there's a limit to what's reasonable--I do think that a lot of us are having this discussion without reference to you. For example, while I think that you made the correct call here, even if I disagreed with your judgment I would still support your right to make that call.

There's no reason at all to make the same comment over and over and over again, especially since it is very clearly not the reader's choice as to what Justin decides to cover. No amount of "this isn't buried by whatever my obscure, meaningless personal criteria is for a column I don't write and have no editorial control over!!!" comments will change the fact that he's going to write about what he wants to write about, and filling the thread with grandstanding "this isn't obscure enough!" nonsense is just wasting everyone's time.

I saw this about 12 years ago an thought "Wow-what is this wierd thing?"-gave it a 2nd watch and promptly fell in love with it-fast forward 11 years-I realized that while I had the dvds for the 2 sequel series-I didn't have the originial Project A-ko dvd! Panic ensued as I tried numerous places in my efforts to secure one-at last I finally found the complete collection including the sound track cd-much happiness ensued. Moral of the story-if you see something that you want-or might think you want-get it when the opportunity presents it's self or forever hold your peace.

I know what you mean. I tried finding the Discotek Lupin III: Plot of the Fuma Clan DVD that I'd only seen once at a small store in L.A. When I went to stores / cons in other cities, I couldn't find that thing, but lo and behold, I went back to L.A some months later and it was still sitting there. Snatched it up first chance I got.

This was my first-ever ligitimate anime purchase on VHS as well, way back in the good year of 1993. Prior to that, friends had dubbed me tapes of shows like Robotech and Bubblegum Crisis.

I continue to be amazed by the old-school mecha animation. So fluid and intricately-detailed without a touch of CGI! FLCL and Gurren Lagann fans should definitely check this out.

(It really is better in Japanese, however.)

Last edited by DuelLadyS on Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:45 pm; edited 1 time in total

Ah, A-ko- I loved this show back when I was renting anime VHS and dragging my stereo across the room so I could hook it up to the TV and record the songs. (Then sat there for half an hour going frame-by-frame and handwriting the lyrics down. I still have those tapes and binder somewhere...)

As I remember, the end of the movie shows A-ko's mom washing a Superman uniform. What that says for her parentage, you decide... Laughing

My A-ko is the spiffy lil' DVD boxset, with the Collector's Series release of the first movie+ soundtrack CD, the 'love and robots' DVD with the other OAVs, and the 'uncivil wars' DVD with the Versus OAVs.

Y'know, I'm honestly surprised to see that price on the Amazon listing- I only spent 20 bucks on it new- I remember being stoked that my Suncoast reward certificate was just enough to pay for it. Apparently, that was a good investment. Shocked

i remember watching this one but not the other movie.........i dont remember too much of the anime, luckly i picked it up (along with the 2nd movie) for like $2 each on VHS. time to watch another of my past Razz

This was my first anime and still my favorite anime movie (stand-alone film) to this day. I was also first exposed to it when I was 8 while watching Sci-Fi Channel anime week (before the "Saturday Japanime" thing started a couple years later I believe). I was lucky enough to get a piece of my fan art put on CPM's remastered dvd and get a free copy of it later. Love the soundtrack as well.

I always wanted to see A-ko ever since first watching this,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcmNQ6r5t2c

but I didn't see it until more recently when I purchased this.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultimate-Anime-Collection/dp/B000R343CG
The self proclaimed "Ultimate anime boxset" Razz

which does contain a couple of gems like the A-ko movie and Dominion Tank Police, but also the terrible A-ko Ovas, 2 episodes of La blue girl and... MD Geist Laughing

Its such a badly put together set as well, Id probably think it was a bootleg if I didn't know better, Definitely not recommended, but I think it may be the only DVD version of these titles available this side of the atlantic.

This one is a true anime classic. I first saw it when it aired during Sci-Fi channel's 1994 anime fest. It definitely stood out over the rest of the anime they aired that week (which I believe was Dominion Tank Police, Odin: Photon Space Sailor Starlight, and The Venus Wars). Strangely enough, I knew next to nothing about anime back then, yet I still managed to find this incredibly funny. I get a few more laughs out of it now that I get some on the in-jokes. Whether it counts or not as a buried treasure doesn't matter to me. Though I must say this is probably the first one Justin reviewed that I actually own a copy of. It might be "old" but I think its one of those essential animes that anyone who calls themselves a fan should see at least once.

**EDIT: The majority of this post was written early in the morning. As it became tl;dr and work interrupted, I didn't to post it until the afternoon. Plenty's been addressed since. I now return you to your regularly scheduled post... /EDIT**

Ah, so much joy I've received with this film over the years!

Like Justin, this wasn't the first anime I'd seen; by the time I first saw it, it was a near-blind buy with some Christmas money when I was 12, I had already been a big fan of Ronin Warrirors and Sailormoon localized on syndicated television and seen a bit of DNA^2 at a comic book show but it was the first thing that made me recognize myself as an anime fan.

Justin Sevakis wrote:

It didn't seem to make much sense, and was so over-the-top in its silliness that almost every aspect of the film was a complete mystery.

I think this is about everyone's first reaction to the film. I enjoyed it because it had those goofy moments to cut the tension but still had tons of more-serious action sequences and gorgeous animation sequences. Of course, at 12-13, cartoon boobs were pretty cool, too.

Though, I think, when it comes to the 'first reactions' in the movie, nothing tops D's, and the other aliens', erm, 'revelations' (?) towards the end of the film.

Justin Sevakis wrote:

Why were all the songs in English? Were they dubbed?

I never really wondered if they were dubbed until I saw Project A-ko 4, and even then, it was merely a passing thought. What really boggled my mind was one afternoon after watching it (for the umpteenth time), my dad wandered into the room and was watching the credits roll and he saw Richie Zito and Joey Carbone's names appear. He apparently knew who they were from a few films from the seventies. Couple years later I found an original Japanese soundtrack and was reading through the insert to discover that not only were Zito and Carbone really hired to do the music work, but that all of the songs were originally sung in English and by English-speakers. Though it probably shouldn't have, it did knock me over for a few minutes.

rti9 wrote:

I kinda felt that Justin sees Project A-Ko more as a comedy. I recall Daryl and Gerald from the AWO podcast talking how one saw it as a comedy while the other viewed it as an action movie. Does getting the references transform it into a comedy or even without understanding them the audience views Project A-Ko as weird silliness? I personally leaned much more toward action (absolutely loved the missile scene), but I haven't watched much 80's cartoons.

I've not heard the AWO podcast where they reviewed this film though my personal experience with watching the film several times over the past decade + (it is, one of my favorite anime films after all) is that during the first few viewings as a new/green anime fan, it was an action film that had laughable moments. A lot of it hit me during an anime viewing night at University when I brought my copy of the DVD to show; they saw it as I saw it when I first did but as I had grown as a fan, so many more of the references and parody made much more sense. So, in that regard, it became otaku-based comedy.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

Buried? I continually get the feeling that this column is better served to people new to anime (or close-minded), the type who think Evangelion is old and that anything before it sucks.

I will have to humbly disagree. I've been reading the column since its inception (not that it gives me any more street cred than anyone else) but I've always taken Justin's tone to be an opinion on what's good and what can easily fall through the cracks. Some of it's damn obscure, but not all of it. Since the beginning, there's probably only a handful of titles I'd never known about, and very few I'd heard of but never seen. I don't think that all of it has to be obscure to be over-looked. And, Project A-ko is probably the perfect example of such a title. It was huge in the nineties in the US but has gotten lost in the shuffle, mostly because of the huge quantity of stuff merely available, quality aside. It's one thing to be exposed to every new series airing in Japan; it's something completely different to try and watch everything you've never seen before.

I don't mean to put words into Justin's mouth either. I speak only as a long time reader and as one of those readers who Remembers Anime Before Eva, sometimes it's nice to have that nostalgia throw back, even if it's something I've seen plenty of times, like Project A-ko.

To those who are complaining... A-Ko is well over 20 years old now and stands practically no chance of ever being re-released in the states. IMO, that's buried enough...

Project A-ko was the first anime I ever owned, was also the first international order ever. Ordered by mail, paid with even by then archaic cheques. Those were the days. Can't quite remember what the year was.. 1993 perhaps? Now I had seen plenty of anime prior to that. Akira, Harlock, Macross to name but a few, but A-ko was the first one I owned as an original tape. And yes, it was the UK dub version.

Goddamn it, it has one of the greatest OSTs ever. Not to mention some really ambitious animation. Those short space scenes share the best space battles -award with Macross: DYRL.

Some time ago I made a promise to myself that if I ever finally get fed up with the abysmal tripe the anime studios seem to constantly churn out of their dark pits of otaku sweat, I shall end my anime-days with Project A-ko!

I caught a bit of this a month or two back on the FUNi channel, and I've been wanting to find out more about it ever since. Most of what I've seen from this decade of anime has been pure drek (thank you, Ani-Mondays...), so I'd love to get the chance to see some of the gems of that era.

I still think C-Ko should be dropped off a cliff. A high one.

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