BEING UPFRONT: A Pictorial Guide to Bodacious Women in Anime--Page 4 (D)

DANGAIZER 3
From the Dangaizer 3: Hina Mitsurugi; Cindy Shahani (left to right);
Reimy-Hart (lower right)

I told you you'd see Masami Obari's name (not to mention his youknowwhats designs) here a lot, didn't I? In this OVA series set in the future, Hina Mitsurugi is a fairly typical teenage girl from Neo Hong Kong, but she also has a passion for fighting games (her player character Reimy-Hart is pictured on the right) and watching judo matches. Is she in for quite a surprise when a match is interrupted by something like an earthquake, and she ends up in this parallel world where two teams of people battle each other using Feng Shui to power giant robots called Devil Dragons and their weapons. It may not do much for mystified yuppies, but, believe me, it does a lot here. Dangaizer is so powerful that it requires three pilots, and Hina ends up becoming one of them. One of the two women who Hina joins in battle is the very arrogant Cindy Shahani, who says that she just got in from Canada; I suspect that we may have sent her away because of her attitude. Nevertheless, she is both beautiful (despite the odd facial expression in the above picture) and a powerful fighter, so it's not like she has no purpose. The third pilot, by the way, is the much friendlier (and non-upfront) Reika Fou.

From the Goma Corporation: Crimson Sapphire; Eileen; Deene (left to right)
The Goma Corporation is based on a group called the Nine Dragons, who have organized to fight against Dangaizer after an incident which is explained in notes on the first R1 DVD. The first warrior Dangaizer goes up against up against is Sapphire (representing the element of fire), who finds that she has her hands full going up against Hina, despite her being such a beginner. Later on we meet Eileen, a result of an experiment by the Goma Corporation who, for some odd reason which doesn't get fully explained in the anime, looks somewhat like Hina, and is seriously out for blood. In the third and fourth OVAs, one of the two warriors sent out by Goma is Deene (element of wind), who isn't as flashy as Sapphire, but is no less bloody-minded. Deene's regular outfit plays down her figure, but her own version of the stripped-down outfit that all the pilots wear while operating the Devil Dragons (Reika's is most notable) flatters and frees her. While giant robots have a long history in anime, the characters who are neither all good or all bad and the nihilistic, unresolving conclusion of Dangaizer 3 are definitely woven from Evangelion's cloth. Being an Obari production, none of that gets in the way of the heaping servings of fan service here. Few opportunities for emphatic buxomness, bounce, panty shots or little bits of nudity are squandered. I just wish that the manga that this is based on would turn up somewhere so we could find out what happens at/after the end of the last OVA. If that doesn't sound appealing to you, Dangaizer 3 most likely won't be, but at least it can be enjoyed on a baser level if that's your sort of thing.

I had no luck trying to find an English site about D3, but Obari has

DEMON FIGHTER KOCHO Kocho Enno Kosaku Urano is a student at Heien University, which is now having a serious problem with ghosts. Kosaku tends to become easily haunted by ghosts and demons, which makes it a good thing that he's friends with Kocho Enno, a young woman from Taiwan who is studying astrology at Heien. Both are members of the university's Astrological Society, of which Professor Kamo is the advisor. Kamo has decided to take the ghost matters into the Society's hands, so a summoning ceremony is performed, with Kocho at the center. The ensuing gale-force power causes the skimpy outfit she is wearing at the time (not the one in this picture) to billow heavily...as well as two other things, much to the delight of Kosaku and the Prof. Okay, and me, too. And maybe you. This single 30-minute OVA is nothing more a nice little piece of fan service comedy fluff, but the gags, including bits of fourth-wall humour and the most horrible transformation sequence in anime history, are nice touches. I recommend this if it seems to be your (fun)bag(s), and you can find it for its current MSRP of $10 USD. Yes, it is kind of a ripoff of Devil Hunter Yohko, but at least that's not a very common ripoff source. I won't kid anybody; on the anime scale of things, this title is so minor that not even a few minutes of Googling will dig up a fan site. Well, for the time being, here are some reviews from The Meta Anime Review Project. The English-version video (dub VHS/cheap bilingual DVD) is available from Anime Works. The DVD is notable not just for having the original language track if you prefer that (suffice it to say that I do), but, thanks to the bonuses--the total of which runs longer than the OVA itself--you can see for yourself just how unladylike dub actress Jessica Calvello is.

DIRTY PAIR FLASH Kei (left picture); Yuri In the 22nd century, Kei and Yuri are Trouble Consultants who work for the World Welfare Works Association (3WA for short). Their duty for the 3WA is to solve problems beyond the capabilities of a planet's own authorities. They bicker a lot, wear very little and destroy very much in the line of duty, and as a result they are known as the Dirty Pair, rather than their code name Lovely Angels (much to their shame). A year of TV eps, 10 OVAs and a movie were made. A sequel set of OVAs, entitled Dirty Pair Flash, redesigned the characters (and their outfits as well). Kei was given the most radical makeover here, with her overflowing red helmet of hair replaced by this two-tone new wave wonder (which I frankly think suits her hotheaded personality better). Also, in one of the most obvious intentions in anime, the Pair were given transformation sequences before springing into action. During Kei's in the Mission 1 series, her white-encased chest bursts through her red vest, producing the results you see here. The much more feminine Yuri is normally a bit more, um, steady, but the duo's training for the Galaxy Cup volleyball tournament in the Mission 3 series shows off her moves as well. The original series was one of the defining "babes with bazookas" animes, and Flash upped the stakes.

You can enjoy the destruction at the

DIVERGENCE EVE/MISAKI CHRONICLE ~DIVERGENCE EVE~
Misaki Kureha (BWH: 93 (83? Her foot's in the way)/54/84cm); Luxandra Frail (95/60/89cm); Suzanna Bluestein (90/56/86cm); Kiri Marialate (89/54/85cm) (top row, left to right);
Lyar Von Ertiana (94/59/88cm); Prim Snowlight (104/57/90cm) (left picture, left to right); 1st Lieutenant Yun (middle row);
Two unnamed bridge crew members (bottom row);
plus a few very minor characters; (Source: OP sequence from episode 3 forward)


Do these designs look familiar? Yes; the same team who worked on Amazing Nurse Nanako, especially character designer Toshinari Yamashita, brings you this sci-fi/horror series. This means that two fetishes get heartily indulged again--heavy CG work and heavier breasts. After the discovery of a phenomenon in space which was named "inflation holes," inflation drives were made to allow faster-than-light-speed travel into outer space. One of the relay stations for this is called Watcher's Nest, where an organization known as Seraphim operates. Four young women have just been transferred to Watcher's Nest directly from their training academy on Earth: The clumsy but plucky Misaki Kureha from Japan; the kind, cool and hearty (except when she has to deal with needles during their many physical exams) Luxandra Frail from the United Mexican States; the polite and friendly Suzanna Bluestein from Great Britain; and Kiri Marialate, a tough and blunt New Zealander. The first loop that is dealt to the viewer is that episode 1 is actually a flash-forward to the events that occur before the last ep of the first series. The second is in the second/real first episode, when the transport ship carrying our four cadets to Watcher's Nest is attacked by a monstrous being from an alternate dimension, known as a "ghoul." Misaki is somehow able to confront and fight these things, after a sequence which involves her clothes ripping away from her body. Yeah. She has no idea or memory about this happening--and this is only the first clue that things are not quite what they seem to be. Lieutenant Lyar von Ertiana (from the Federal Republic of Germany) commands our quartet. She's a fairly battle-hardened woman, but not totally, as her very few signs of self-consciousness about still not having found a boyfriend at age 29 show. Her-right-hand woman is Ensign Prim Snowlight, originally from the Kingdom of Sweden. Not only is she the chief researcher for the Technical Development Dept., but she also conducts the cadets' physical exams. Of course, the biggest chest has to go to the quiet, unassuming one--but that's not all there is to her, folks. 1st Lieutenant Yun is one of the elite pilots in Seraphim, and very little is known about her (including her first name), since she only appears a few times in the whole series. This also makes trying to find a good still of her impossible; this one was the best I could do to show off both her face and her chest well. She seems scowly and a bit aloof, but does show a sign or two of being warmer than one thinks at first. When the action starts picking up, we're immediately taken to the command deck of Watcher's Nest, where Commander Wolfgang Woerns' crew keep him up to the second on what's happening, including these two bridge bunnies (were they ever given names?) who suddenly turn in his direction, wobble, and yell out what's going on--and quite a bit goes on. On one hand, the writing in this is pretty good, and the more you follow the show, the more you'll get into it. On the other hand, despite the dark tone of the story overall, they couldn't resist sticking in bounces whenever they could--the bounciest thing being the ending theme, the irritatingly catchy "Pump Up" by Nao Nagasawa, which frequently clashes with grim climactic events in the story. All in all, I wouldn't write this off completely, but I can understand if you have a rough time seeing the range for the mountains. It did come off quite a bit like Gunbuster cast by Russ Meyer.

MISAKI CHRONICLE ~DIVERGENCE EVE~ various unnamed cadets A sequel of sorts was released later in 2003, called Misaki Chronicle. Basically, after the events of the first series, Earth ends up caught in a time barrier, and Misaki gets caught up in it, causing many different continuities in time, and Misaki appearing to everybody in different stages in her life, not to mention at different ages. For the first episode (all I've seen of it at this point), we see her at the Allied Forces Military Academy, straggling behind a group of other cadets on the track (who, if nothing else, could make Synchronized Bouncing a candidate for an Olympic sport) and generally screwing up left, right and centre. In fact, she comes off quite a lot like Amazing Nurse Nanako Shichigusa. At one point, Misaki and several of her cadet friends, including the unnamed blonde and brunette pictured in the lower row, sit in the cafeteria, look over at and envy three of the elite cadets--Luxandra, Kiri and Suzanna. This comes off as a prequel, but signs (note Lyar von Ertiana's rank in the first episode) are definitely pointing to warping into something else, and staying in more than one form of perpetual motion. Let's see.

Can't really find anything about this show in English yet, but they couldn't get away without an

DOKKOIDA!? (Jpn: SUMEBA MIYAKO NO COSMOS-SOU SUTTOKO TAISEN DOKKOIDA;
Loose Eng--LIVING IN HOME SWEET HOME COSMOS HOUSE SUTTOKO WAR DOKKOIDA)
Neruloid Girl/Asaka Nogiku (top row, left to right);
Hyacinth/Sayuri Yurime (bottom row)

In Kanagawa Prefecture in Nakasora City, Suzuo Sakurazaki (right in upper right picture) has just been let go from yet another part-time job, and is searching frantically for another one. A futuristically-dressed young girl spots him, declaring that he's the perfect fit. No, not for that, you sickos. She introduces herself as Tampopo (Dandelion), and tries to get him to put on a transformation belt, a product of the Otankunasu Company's seven years of toymaking research, commissioned by the Galaxy Union Police. She tells him that it would turn him into the superhero Dokkoida (left in upper left picture, and face on Suzuo's T-shirt), who looks like a superdeformed Ultraman in a diaper, and she wants him to monitor the suit for the GUP. He's understandably suspicious about the whole thing, until circumstances persuade him to put it on and go with it. However, his yellow streak shows through when he actually transforms and has to fight the evil scientist Dr. Maronflower, who stands atop a huge monster robot which is demolishing the city. In the midst of the carnage appears Neruloid Girl, trying to outdo Otankunasu's powered suit with her own (from the rival Emerald Company, and also a GUP commission). I won't say anything more about the fight at this point, because, well, you really have to see it for yourself. In the second episode, A-level Universal Criminals Edelweiss (a cute magical girl/golem controller) and Hyacinth are sent down to Earth to fight the two powered suit users. Hyacinth is one wicked masked dominatrix, complete with a male slave named Pierre (right in bottom right picture), and the whip she wields allows her to perform her "hentai attacks," which spur Pierre into action. In my opinion, she can carry out the same attacks by just standing there and breathing, but that doesn't have as much comic value as thrashing away on a guy, does it? As part of the terms of taking on this job, Suzuo is put up at the Cosmos-sou rooming house, and Tampopo moves in with him, posing as his little sister. As it turns out, everybody else Dokkoida gets involved with also moves in, also under earthly guises, also having to keep them secret from everybody else. Asaka Nogiku, who has strangely familiar purple hair, takes the room next to Suzuo's--and proceeds to take over his fridge to chill the gallons of beer she drinks. Asaka obviously doesn't benefit from the powered suit's emphasis in her civvies, but she does give a nicely comical turn making fun of another character in one episode. Later on, Suzuo runs across an ill-looking but very attractive and familiarly-built woman who is starving--meaning she hadn't eaten her customary truckload of food. She introduces herself as Sayuri, and guess where she and her male friend now calls home? After an incident I won't spoil here, she finds herself attracted to Suzuo, much to the jealous consternation of another Cosmos-sou resident--and not who you may think. While the female fan service is unmistakable here, the Dokkoida!?'s comedy doesn't hinge on it as much as it does the parody elements and the characters in general, so I think it's pretty safe to recommend it to anybody looking for a suitably zany comedy series. I might add that not all the parody is of anime; the episode which rips on reality TV shows is a favourite of mine.

You can pop around Cosmos-sou and see who's home at the

DOMINION TANK POLICE (Jpn: DOMINION) Annapuma and Unipuma In Masamune Shirow's hyperactive screwball comedy (I suspect a Keystone Kops influence) OVA series, the Puma sisters are the well-built catgirl robot sidekicks of Buaku, the buffoonish thief who has the entire police force in an uproar. One of the funniest scenes in the whole thing is the one where the sisters transfix the massed officers with a tightly-coordinated dance/striptease before opening fire with the big guns. And do you think they'd make the New Dominion Tank Police series without them? Of course not. Recommended. You can visit Dominion Tank Police HQ (don't forget your Kevlar vest) and the VAP-Room!. English-version videos of the original OVAs (sub VHS (one ep a tape--yuck!)/dub VHS (two eps a tape, but it's still a dub, so yuck!)/bilingual DVD (all four eps on one slice of media at long last)) are available from U.S. Manga Corps.

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