BEING UPFRONT: A Pictorial Guide to Bodacious Women in Anime--Page 5 (E-G)

EARLY REINS
Helen; Lola (left to right)
This one-off OVA is based on a video game, and set in frontiers where anime rarely goes--the Wild West of the 1800's. Yes, Sergio Leone fans, we have an actual Japanese spaghetti western here, with the only modern touches being a little bit of slickness in the CGI animation--but only a little. A small passenger train (steam engine, of course) full of people is headed for Sunshine Hill. Among them are a Union soldier and six young women of different ages and backgrounds. For some reason, quite a few non-reputable men want this train stopped, and are all too willing to kill people to do this. The baddies didn't take one thing into account: These women, by and large, don't take any mess. The saloon singer Helen is kind of snooty about these matters, but doesn't turn away from helping out when things get hairy--or could do well with a good look at a low neckline. Lola is tough, quiet and cool, and has a big...body count. If you get on the wrong side of her guns, you'll regret it for the rest of your life--all three seconds of it. While her preferred mode of dress doesn't lend itself to placement here, a scene in which she's dressed differently makes it perfectly clear; I won't say any more than that. At 45 minutes, it's much shorter than your average Western movie, and doesn't have much along the lines of character development. Still, it's simple but distinctive and effective popcorn entertainment.

EIKEN
Chiharu Shinonome (BWH: 88-F/55/82cm); Kirika Misono (99-G/61/89cm); Komoe Haruno (111-?/46/65cm) (top row, left to right);
Name unknown (AKA "komon no sensei") (85-C/54/88cm); Yuriko Shinonome (bottom row)
(Source: Original manga)

Densuke Mifuno is an average, dull student who is starting at the high-school division of Zosshono Academy, which has 54,000 students ranging from primary to high school level. Thanks to the banana peel on the ground we see at the beginning of the first OVA, he accidentally falls into fellow high school frosh Chiharu Shinonome. Hands first. To the jealousy of all the male students who witness it. She is not only cute and intelligent (she got the highest score on the entrance exam), but shy, and obviously not a little bit endowed. Despite the accident, she and Densuke seem to be attracted to each other in that nice innocent way we all like--but it doesn't seem to be going that smoothly. Shortly after the collision, Kirika Misono flies in (and crashes) on a mecha, big hair and big parts flying in the wind. She essentially browbeats Densuke into joining her Eiken Club (I have no idea what that name means, unless it's a reference to how most of the female members' backs must feel), of which Chiharu turns out to also be a member. Kirika is a brash and pushy one, and is almost always seen inhaling food--most of it phallic-shaped. I guess she has to eat that much to satisfy those three stomachs. While seemingly not romantically interested in Densuke, she does flirt with him now and again...to put it one way. In one of the club's meetings, the only purpose of which seems to be to hang out and eat streaming noodles, we meet a few other members (including a bear, for some reason). Komoe Haruno is a kind, slightly bashful, 111cm-busted sixth-grade student. As you can see, she can't belly up to counters, between her height and her... Komon no sensei is the teacher's advisor to the Eiken Club, and is so quiet and mousy (and high-strung, as you can see) that people forget her name and sometimes not even notice that she's there. She doesn't seem to belong here, but, on two different occasions with the club, she ends up losing at least one piece of her ultra-plain outerwear to reveal her nice purple lingirie. And what it holds back. Another student is eighth-grader Yuriko Shinonome, Chiharu's younger sister. She's only an A-cup (so she says), but still has enough to move in the OP; her picture above is from that scene. She calls Densuke "onii-chan" and frequently jumps on his head Kaolla Su (Love Hina)-style, only much more ecchi, natch. Unlike Kaolla, however, she wants Densuke to think of her as more than a little-sister type, and flagrantly tries to seduce him right in the middle of a sports meet event, in which a team of four has to hold on to each other while going down a water slide full of liquid yogurt (komon no sensei's picture is from the top of the slide). Yeah. And how about all that hula-hoop (and anatomy) twirling in the OP? As you've probably gathered by now, Eiken is an excessively gratuitous pandering piece of fan service-filled trash that will seriously offend genteel anime fans. If a minute without ridiculously inflated bouncing breasts and/or in-yr-face-fanboy panty shots happens in this OVA, I must have missed it. In other words, it's immensely entertaining--for those of us who are entertained by that sort of thing. Basically, this show was Made For Being Upfront. Recommended to those who can handle it.

For more on the show, including pictures of--gasp--female characters who can stand upright easily, check out

THE ELVEN BRIDE (Jpn: ELF NO WAKA OKUSAMA) Milfa Links This is a softcore hentai comedy (the first of several you'll see here), but not your average one. The male and female leads are newlywed couple Kenji and Milfa Links. They're quite traditional, deeply in love with each other and live in a big comfortable home. Yeah, yeah, big deal, right? Well, the story is set in an Old-European-style village with modern touches like a big garage (albeit with a two-headed hydra inside) and the clothes the people wear (such as Milfa's sleeveless blouse in this pic). Kenji is a human and Milfa is an elf (Record of Lodoss War, anybody?). Unfortunately, this last part results in an incompatibility that makes consummating their marriage impossible. The series (if you can call it that; were more than two OVAs made?) follows their attempts to solve their problem, and the ensuing mishaps. It's pointed out a few times that Milfa is unusually well-endowed for an elven woman, but she's also very modest (and easily embarrassed), is outfitted accordingly and most of her close-ups are her face/head only (which made getting an appropriate screen capture difficult). This is a refreshing change from other manga/shows where the creators assume we'd forget about the size if it wasn't stuck in our faces all the time. Feminists will definitely not like the portrayal of Milfa as a happy, dutiful, blonde and very buxom housewife, but this is better than tentacle porn anytime. Kazuma G-Version's art in the manga is excellent (not to mention steamier!) as well. English-version videos (sub VHS/sub-only DVD) are available from Soft Cel Pictures (18 and over only, please).

FATAL FURY (Jpn: BATTLE FIGHTERS GAROU DENSETSU) Mai Shiranui (left top); Lily McGuire (left bottom); Panni (right) I'm not really that large on anime based on fighting games, but when the domestic video box blurb describes female lead (well, in the second OVA and movie) Mai Shiranui as a "bouncy Ninja" and the video preview talks about her "double suspension," I'd say that inclusion is warranted. Seeing a Maboroshi Studio anime music video with footage from it confirmed this status. Also brought to my attention was Lily McGuire, a tragic beauty type who male lead Terry Bogard befriends in the first OVA (and who he had actually encountered once before, when they were children). In the Motion Picture, not only does Mai cut loose--note the subliminals--but we're introduced to three elementals/fighters who work for Laucorn Gaudimos, the movie's main villain. Included to double your fun on the bad guys' side was Panni, who controls water (and by accounts, ripples quite nicely). She's gotta be using spirit gum to keep that outfit on. Masami Obari did the character design here, and you can tell, can't you? Strictly a turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy type of anime--but there's nothing wrong with the odd one of those.

What, that's not enough info? Then go to

FIGHTING SPIRIT (Jpn: HAJIME NO IPPO) Kumiko Morita Hi, sports fans. This piece of work is about Ippo Makanouchi, a young man who makes a sharp ascent from bully-bait to professional boxer, but still manages to keep his basically shy, polite personality. Imagine Wayne Gretzky's mind transplanted into George Chuvalo at his peak, and you've got an idea. In episode 41, an idol named Kumiko Morita, who all the athletes there know about but wouldn't mind knowing, comes to the gym where Ippo trains with a camera crew to tape a segment for a TV show. After interviews and assorted flexing by his baser compatriots, Ippo is wondering to himself what he can do to show off to Kumiko, when one of the crew asks if he'd engage her in a sparring match in the ring (hence her ability to look irresistibly cute in a training outfit, as you can see on the right). While trying to figure out how to put his dukes up without genuinely hurting her, he first swings a body blow he thinks she can block--and sinks it into her left one, much to the envy of the other boxers, but she takes it in stride. She then ups the action for the camera by pelting his face with successive (but not hard; she's just an idol, remember) lefts and rights, which he can't think to block because he's transfixed by two parts of her idolatry merrily dancing away in front of him. By now, his fellow boxers are insanely jealous. While this series does use a lot of the customary sports anime clichés (which put me off the show at first, thus making me skip about 10 eps near the beginning), the bits of comedy (which actually don't depend on fan service very often) and strength of the characters, especially Ippo, make this one better than most of them. Just grind through those early eps and it'll pay off. Slug your way through VAP's official Ippo website Japanese only) English-version videos will be available in the future from Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. (formerly Pioneer). Here's their official website. This is a long series, so I hope they handle it like Ai Yori Aoshi and make the four-ep discs few and far between.

GALAXY ANGEL
Forte Stollen; Ranpha Franboise (left to right)
Milfeulle Sakuraba was just a cute, cheerful waitress who was only minding her own business when two young women encountered her while they were working. First Lieutenant Forte Stollen is a hotheaded weapons fiend with a voice so deep that some people have wondered if she was actually a man. Given the picture above, I wonder if they were blind. Second Lieutenant Ranpha Franboise is calmer, friendlier and a bit flirtatious, but also a pretty wicked martial artist. They are both senior members of the Angel Brigade, a branch of the Transvaal Empire military. While they search for mysterious relics known as "Lost Technology" (whatever that is), the Brigade--now expanded to a quintet with the addition of Milfeulle--are sent out to perform various bits of gruntwork, much to their chagrin, and our laughter. Produced by Broccoli (Di Gi Charat), the first season of Galaxy Angel was broadcast on Animax and featured the above two in the funky, nicely aerated costumes you see here. For the second season onwards, it was picked up by TV Osaka, and there were demands to redesign those outfits to cover up those nice expanses (What? I thought Osaka was supposed to be cool and casual). They did it. While the show may still be cute and funny, the stink of obvious compromise is not going to sit very well with me from that point. Well, at least the original designs were brought back for the Moonlit Lovers video game. For now, enjoy the extra skin tone while you can.

When in Japan, you can visit the official web sites at

GEOBREEDERS
Unnamed bake-neko; Yuu Himehagi (also on lower right); Eiko Rando (left to right)
This series is about Kagara General Security, a private firm dedicated to "deleting" bake-neko. Bake-neko ("phantom cats") are living electrical charges who live in (and wreak havoc in) information systems, like computer networks. They appear to humans as cats, or as catlike people. One such example is the one above left, who has overtaken a shopping mall, and goes around trying on different outfits (and goes stark nekkid in the times in between). Kagara's Yoichi Taba (the solitary and much put-upon male member, who is trying to quit before he gets killed; he's in the background in the above middle pic) and Takami Sakuragi (administration, butterfly knives, poor stress handling, the odd panty shot and a bit of jealousy over said bake-neko's build) are on the case. The scene where the bakeneko turns up in front of Taba in the altogether while he's communicating with Kagara leader Yuka Kikushima is priceless. Yuu Himehagi's main duty is driving, but her main hobbies are smoking a lot and sleeping on the floor of the garage (see right). Their accountant, Eiko Rando, is also the best martial artist in the group, so she gets into the thick of it at times. In the case that the first OVA series is based on, Kagura investigate a stationary transport ship, so Rando dresses for working near the water. This allows for the odd spot of freedom of movement--and a good look, of course. All of that, however, is just a tiny bit of gravy on one of my favourite action comedies.

GET BACKERS hevn (BWH: 97/58/89cm) (Source: Official websites) The Get Backers are Amano Ginji and Mido Ban, who retrieve stolen articles for clients who hire them when they aren't running up their tab at the Honky Tonk Café or trying to get their car back from the towing company. While they are able to fight well when needed (Ginji with an "electric eel" touch, Mido with a super-strong grip and an evil eye that makes people hallucinate for a minute), they still have a major Achilles heel of being suckers for beautiful women. This includes the one on the left, code named hevn (pronounced "heaven," if it wasn't obvious to you). She works as an "intermediary" for our heroes, helping them get jobs (for a percentage of their fee, of course), which frequently wind up being more trouble to them than anything else. In at least one case, she manages to get them to take it by flirting with Ginji a bit. Given her overall beauty and the nice independent jumps parts of her give us during her little twirl-and-pose in the OP sequence (which is where this capture is from), I have to say that I wouldn't be immune, either. Action, a large slice of comedy, bishounen and bishoujo--really, this one has something for everybody. To retrieve some info in Japanese, you can check out the official websites at TBS (the anime) and Shonen Magazine (the manga). For the vast majority of you reading this, who are English, the fan sites Dakkanya.net and Honky Tonk (nice index page pic) are just what you were looking for. English-version videos (bilingual DVDs only) available from ADV Films. Given how many episodes there are in this series, I'm glad that the first three DVDs have five eps each. Keep it up, lads.

GOLDEN BOY Unnamed president of TN Software The first OVA in this comedy series features happy-go-lucky knowledge-hungry lech Kintaro Oe (the wide-eyed lad on the right) in the first of several jobs, this one being at TN Software. He first encounters their president in a road accident in which she runs him off his bicycle into a large pile of trash. The first sight we get of her above the waist is a sequence of barely-encased wobbles and ripples that makes Jell-O™ look arthritic in comparison, and it's not the only time you get to behold their fluid motion. As for her wardrobe, I suspect that Satoshi Urushihara (Plastic Little) designed this red painted-on-looking temperature-gauging outfit. Her general demeanor is pure Ice Queen (which makes Kintaro fantasize about being her slave), but when she loses her temper, even The Champ would get the hell away from her fast. A screamingly funny show, and one of the very few English dubs that don't flat-out suck. OK, a couple of the minor voices do, but still... Study hard at the the Golden Boy Page of Education.

English-version videos (dub VHS/bilingual DVD) are available from

GRAVION (Jpn: CHOUJUUSHIN GRAVION)
Mizuki Tachibana (BWH: 46"/23"/38")
(Source: Newtype USA centerfold, May 2004 issue)
Miss Best Chest, Newtype Japan Heroine of the Year reader's poll, 2002 Can you say "Hello, Mr. Obari"? I know I can. Earth is being invaded by alien forces known as Zeravire (or "Zelabaia," according to the Japanese website), but its global military is not equipped well enough to go up against them. However, the eccentric billionnaire Klein Sandman (any relation to the late, great Mark Sandman of the band

GRENADIER--HOHOEMI NO SENSHI Rushuna Tendou In days of yore, Japan was at war, and the gun clashed with the sword. Those who armed themselves with firepower were known as "senshi." Samurai Yajiro Kojima is a swordsman who, for obvious reasons, doesn't like senshi very much. This all changes the day he runs across an unusual young woman named Rushuna Tendou, who carries a very positive attitude (the secondary title means "Smiling Senshi"), a six-gun, and two obvious reasons for being featured here. She is on a journey to the distant capital of Tento as part of her training to learn to settle disputes without resorting to violence. Since she obviously hasn't quite attained that goal yet, we get to see just how incredibly well she handles that revolver, and we learn that jiggles can be functional--in this case, it indicates that she's reloaded her gun in just less than one second in the heat of battle with large groups of other, more evil, senshi. You have to watch it to see what I mean. I might add that Rushuna may not like having to get violent, but she does love a good bath--indoors or out. And so do we. In fact, that's how she and Yajiro first meet. I can't comment any more on the plot because, honestly, at this point, I've only seen the first episode, but I hope to rectify that before too long. More than one anime fan has commented that Grenadier and Rushuna seem to be no more than Trigun's Vash the Stampede with less goofiness and much more fan service. And why not? If you're going to rip something off, might as well make it one of the less common anime genres. For the obligatory official Japanese website, I present WOWOW's site, which is a nice piece of work, and Grenadier.jp, which has the absolute worst website design I've ever seen on an official anime page. I hope I only caught it in the middle of maintenance or something.

GS MIKAMI (AKA GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI) Reiko Mikami As you might have gathered by the name, this is a show about a young woman named Mikami who makes her living ridding buildings of ghosts. Mikami is a money-grubbing so-'n'-so who knows how well she is built and uses that knowledge to her advantage, whether it is to keep exploiting her lecherous, hard-working assistant Tadao (who always hopes to see more of her) while literally paying him pennies, or to attract more high-paying customers. While you have to give creator Shiina Takashi some credit for trying to make Mikami look unique, the facial design--especially those billiard eyeballs--doesn't exactly compliment her figure; if anything, it detracts from it. However, I've seen some of the OVAs and the comedy is good enough to let the viewer overlook that flaw. GS Mikami World has sadly gone under, and the best I could do for a fan page is this brief blurb with a few pictures on the side. If you can tell me about a good fan site, please do. The English-version video of the GS Mikami movie (dub VHS/bilingual DVD) is available from Manga Entertainment. What a shame.

GUNBUSTER (Jpn: GUNBUSTER! TOP O NERAE!, AKA GUNBUSTER! AIM FOR THE TOP!)
Noriko Takaya; Jung-Freud (left to right)
This dramatic OVA series is one of Gainax's earlier efforts, and considered one of their classics. That was probably also helped by the original character designs by Haruhiko Mikimoto (Super Dimension Fortress Macross). Noriko Takaya is a plucky young woman from Osaka who lost her father, Admiral Yuzo Takaya, when his ship was ambushed in deep space. She vows to follow in his footsteps and become a space pilot, and enrols in the Okinawa High School for Girls, which offers training in operating the RX-7 Machine Weapon. She's clumsy and has a lot of difficulty with it, which makes for touches of comedy (from Noriko) and drama (from others), especially when it's found out that she's one of the cadets chosen to pilot the Gunbuster. Jung-Freud is an ace RX-7 pilot from Soviet Russia who definitely does not fit the stereotype of the reserved Russian. She first comes off as arrogant and boastful to all around her, but, after a large-scale challenge between her and Noriko's sempai Kazumi Amano--which Noriko gets involved in--she becomes friends with both of them and her attitude softens a bit. However, this doesn't necessarily prevent a rivalry with them to become one of the Gunbuster pilots. The show was given a big dose of infamy by some very noticeable portrayals of female bodily movement. This includes the scene where Noriko stomps away in disgust from some fellow cadets who are making fun of her (also used in the OP sequence), skipping rope during training, and Jung-Freud in a nicely gratuitous bath-house scene which set the bar higher for similar settings in anime from that point onwards. As a result of this, the show is nicknamed "Bustgunner," and many fans now call jiggling in any anime show "Gainaxing."

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