BEING UPFRONT: A Pictorial Guide to Bodacious Women in Anime
HONOURABLE MENTIONS Page 2 (M-V)

MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH
Caldina; Alcyone (foreground in picture; left to right)
When three high school junior girls get transported from the Tokyo Tower to help defend a magical world called Cephiro, they have many new and strange things and people to deal with. Caldina is a dancer and the third of the villains sent to try to destroy our heroines before they become full-fledged Magic Knights. Her grand introduction is peppered liberally with bounce (as is episode 13). Alcyone is much more stern, serious and dangerous in her efforts, but this doesn't prevent her from outfits like this (plus the one she gives a quick wobble in during the battle in episode 25) or being described as having the biggest chest in Cephiro by Caldina in episode 31. A creation of CLAMP, the four-woman manga-ka team behind such series as Tokyo Babylon, X/1999 and Card Captor Sakura/"Cardcaptors." And Chobits, I might add.

Tons of Rayearth links can be found at

MAMOTTE SHUGOGETTEN! Ruuan Keikounitten (left in picture) Tasuke Shichiri is a high-school student whose dad is an archeologist, so he's away from home on digs most of the time. His dad mails him a ring from China called a shitenrin (which frames the girls in the picture) that, according to legend, grants a person with a pure heart who looks into it a guardian from heaven. You can see where this is going, right? Tasuke winds up summoning Shaolin Shugogetten (moon goddess) (right in picture) who is very sweet and tries her best, but being trapped in the shitenrin for 4000 years hasn't prepared her for the modern world at all, so much hijinks ensue. The next day, another package arrives from dear old dad, this time containing a wand called a kokutentou that was found in the same area as the shitenrin. Detect a pattern yet? Ruuan Keikounitten (sun goddess, and an old rival of Shaolin's) pops up, and her duty is to make Tasuke happy. Of course, she tries to do this by hanging all over him something aggressive, which makes him uncomfortable more than anything else. Like Jiyuu in Jubei-chan, her chest isn't really that large (well, not by my standards! dB) ), but it's presented well enough and given some attention by others, so here's her slot in this section. Yes, this show exploits the Ah! My Goddess formula something fierce, but does so with huge doses of screwball humour in the mix. While it's not quite as endearing as A!MG, it's still pretty nice and definitely funny. Some people who want an angel of their own: Shao-line; Spirit of the Moon; and Kiryuu-san's MS! page.

MEZZO FORTE (OVAs)
Momomi Given that Yasuomi Umetsu's most recent works, Kite and Cool Devices: Yellow Star were brutal pieces of work which saved a lot of its brutality for the intimate scenes featuring its young female leads, I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to see Mezzo Forte--even with a nomination I had been E-mailed. Given the flap that Kite stirred up here, Umetsu made a conscious decision to make Mezzo Forte in a way that the sex scenes could be removed easily for an alternate release for general audiences. That's the version that I finally watched. The young, cute, spunky and deadly Mikura, author and former detective Kurokawa and explosives/mechanics man Harada make up a mercenary group who are hired to kidnap Momokichi, the wealthy owner of the local baseball team Peach Twisters (yes, that sounds kind of like slang for masturbation to me, too). The two things they hadn't counted on were bungling the job, and Momokichi's daughter Momomi. Papa is a big man who isn't above proving his points with a little death, and Daddy's little girl is a big chip off the old block. She's young, sexy, cold as ice and has even less hesitation about plugging people who bother her than dear old dad. Her opening scene has her lounging by the pool in this bikini, which even affords a cute little wobble--but that's all that's cute about that scene. Since that's really the only time her chest looks that big, she only earns an Honourable Mention. I should probably give the award to the bikini, since her nude shower scene doesn't make her look that big; she's still far from flat, though. Like Kite and Yellow Star, the violence is not spared here--but it's also presented in an absurd, over-the-top manner which makes it more comical than anything else.

MOUSE
Hazuki Kakio; Machiko Tsukioka (upper row, left to right);
Mirei Hanamura (right in picture); Momoi Haruko (lower row, left to right)

Once more, we steal away for some extra added service. Hazuki is Mouse's third servant by night and Yamanoue Complex's phys.ed. teacher by day. As you saw from the picture in the main entry, she's shorter and of slighter build than Mei and Yayoi, but she's given a couple of nice turns, including the scene this still is from. I mentioned three female students who are fond of Muon (left in upper right picture). They include the fiery redhead Machiko, who is the most aggressive of the group, including wheedling dates out of "Chuu-chan" (which makes the servants madly jealous, despite that he's obviously not trying anything with her). A scene involving Mouse's enemy One was what landed her here; apart from that, all I can say is it's not one of the kinder moments of the series. The other two are quieter and distinguish themselves only by their height difference--until the scene where the three of them wind up wearing Mouse's servants' outfits. We can see that Mirei doesn't do badly with Yayoi's kit; she even merrily pirouettes around once she notices that herself. In the last episode, we meet Momoi, who is the caretaker of the Sorata family home on Ansebu Island. After being called by our fatigued heroic villains to come around and help out with the main residence, she declares that she's going to do her best and puts her best bounce forward--just one time, so here she is. Spice on top of spice may be too much for some people, but in this case, I like it--especially since it makes me laugh instead of burning my mouth out.

There are other official Japanese web sites for Mouse, housed by

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION
Misato Katsuragi
A recent rewatch of the most influential anime series in recent times (and one the most controversial ones) has turned up an Honourable Mention. The setting is Tokyo-3, which has rebuilt itself after the apocalyptic Second Impact in 2000. The timid 14-year-old Shinji Ikari (left in left picture) is sought out by his estranged father Gendo, who he hasn't seen since his mother Yui mysteriously disappeared during an accident at NERV, the organization based in Tokyo-3 that they both worked for. Shinji is picked up during a state of evacuation by Captain Misato Katsuragi of NERV, after which, he has to deal with a mysterious explosion, being whisked off to NERV, meeting his cold-piranha father again (which opens up Shinji's psychological wounds), and then finding out he was only called upon to pilot a giant robot called an Evangelion Unit against unknown enemies called Angels. Eventful day. To top it off, Captain Katsuragi decides to take custody of Shinji and move him into her apartment, which she shares with a penguin named Pen-Pen and a surprising amount of empty alcohol bottles and cans. As an officer, she handles difficult situations with great skill; at home, she's a lazy slob. Shortly after he sees this snakepit he now calls home, Misato throws a dinner party to celebrate his arrival (all instant food, all of which she cooks terribly), during which she wears baggy clothes, slams down cans of beer and chides Shinji for his reticent nature, offering one notable Gainax bounce during the last part. On one hand, I feel kind of weird including this series because of its heaviness, especially concerning the characters' frailties and how they affect their relationships. On the other hand, Gainax couldn't resist having Misato promise in most of the next-episode previews that there would be more "service, service", and occasionally delivering on them for comic relief. And to help sell merchandise, especially the stuff featuring the enigmatic (and much-fetishized) fellow pilot Rei Ayanami.

For enough Eva links to keep you busy until Human Instrumentality, go to the

PLEASE TEACHER! (Jpn: ONEGAI TEACHER)
Mizuho Kazami; Koishi Herikawa; Hatsuho Kazami (right in picture; left to right)
Kei Kusanagi (on the right in the first picture) is a young lad who suffers from an unknown illness which causes him to black out when he feels deeply distressed or depressed; in fact, this caused him to go into a coma for three years, and, while he still attends high school, he's actually 18 years old. One night, as he's laying on the grass in front of a lake, a spaceship descends, and he sees its pilot, an attractive young woman, surface on the water. The whole experience leaves him understandably freaked out, and, to top everything off, their new national language teacher, Mizuho Kazami, turns out to be the alien woman (actually half-human) he encountered. Due to circumstances, they wind up getting closer to each other, and a couple of events arouse suspicion in his aunt and uncle (his guardians) and principal. This results in them getting married to keep both of them from getting drummed out of school, which adds another secret that Kei has to keep from everybody else, on top of having to deal with a relationship that has jarringly shifted gears on him. In the fifth episode, they go to Okinawa for their honeymoon, since they figure that they'll be away from his classmates/her students. Someone watches the couple on the beach through binoculars, and the first sight of her shows her merrily bouncing away up to hubby in the outfit above. Later on, it turns out that Kei's circle of friends is actually there after all, including Koishi. She's been his friend for a some time, but hopes that he'll see her as more as that, dropping hints like getting up in his face and asking if he likes how it looks (meaning the swimsuit, but still...) in the frame above. She also gives a damn good bobble of frustration later in the episode when he runs away from her that night. In the sixth episode, they're back home (conveniently right next door to his uncle, who's a doctor) and they find that Mizuho's mother Hatsuho ("MILF! MILF!") and younger sister Maho (remind you of a certain sister of Ah! My Goddess' Belldandy?) have stopped by to see who she snared. Hatsuho steps right up to Kei to talk to him about how he should treat her daughter, which gives him (and us) a faceful of impressive cleavage. While I've gone on about the fanservice quotient in Onegai Teacher, it's in this section because (A) the scenes above are pretty much all there is to that, and (B) the rest of the time, this is a surprisingly tasteful, mature and dramatic series about the nature of friendship and love, with some of the best character development I've ever seen. Heartily recommended.

The

POKÉMON (Jpn: POCKET MONSTERS)
Kojiro (AKA James) (top picture, right); Kanna (AKA Prima, AKA Lorelei) (captures below) If anyone had ever told me that Poké-bloody-mon would make it onto this page, I would have asked them for some of their drugs so some badly-needed funkiness could be added to, say, Kaitou Saint Tail. But what do you know? Here it is.
In episode 18, "Holiday in Aopulco" (which was originally not shown in North America but appeared as a "lost episode" entitled "Beauty and the Beach"), Musashi/Jesse (above, middle) and Kojiro/James (right) crash a beauty contest during Kasumi/Misty's (left) spot. Yes, I said Kojiro/James. He wears an inflatable female body suit with a bikini and lipstick to pass as a woman. After a bit of fumbling in the cleavage of the suit, he freaks Kasumi/Misty (and the audience) out by inflating the breasts to melonious proportions, and then taunts her by hefting them. Very wrong, and bloody funny. This scene was most definitely not included in the North American "lost episode" version. Congratulations, Kojiro/James; you are the first bodacious GUY in anime to earn a place in Being Upfront!
Later in the series, our gang are on Mandarin Island, where they hear about an expert Pokémon trainer named Prima (who is really Kanna AKA Lorelei, a member of the Elite Four who specializes in Water/Ice Pocket Monsters), who runs demonstrations and battles. When this episode was shown, several fans wigged out on the newsgroups, and one took some screen captures off it and put them up on his page (I forgot your name, but if you're reading this, thank you). The capture on the right, from the battle in the episode, is of the full screen--no cropping (except for the black around the edges; notice the Warner logo watermarks in the bottom right corners). The producers of the show definitely did that on purpose, and, of course, they have my gratitude for it. dB)

Forget trying to find just one definitive website...okay, I just can't be bothered to search, since I'm not a fan of the show. However,

R.O.D/READ OR DIE Yomiko Readman (Code Name: The Paper) While Miss Deep may be the most obvious representative of R.O.D for this page, we can't overlook the female lead, book otaku Yomiko Readman, best known as "The Paper" (if you think your paper airplanes are the best, she's got something to show you). In the big battle in the second episode, she gives a few good turns (albeit not as much as her funkily-suited partner), and you can also see quite a bit of the lining of her jacket in this capture. Also, judging by some of the manga scans I've seen, Miss Readman does have the ability to fill out a few fancy gowns. Shame that none of those scenes ever got animated. The official Sony Music R.O.D site has plenty to look at, but no English, while this fan site offers plenty of information (in English this time) and other goodies. The English-version video (bilingual DVD) is available from Manga Entertainment. Be warned that they did no research on the story's background whatsoever (surely they could have scratched up a few dollars to pick up the manga and novels), and the translation is pretty goosed as a result. Most notably, the notes left around Yomiko's apartment by friend/roommate/author Nenene Sumiregawa reminding her to do several things are translated as "(Do this) up! Up! Up!" Yeesh. NOTE: R.O.D the TV is on the next update shortlist. Stay tuned.

REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA: THE MOVIE
(Jpn: SHOUJO KAKUMEI UTENA: ADOLESCENCE MOKUSHIROKU)
Nanami Kiryu (bovine version)
When the Sailor Moon anime was finally allowed to finish, some of the crew who worked on it went on to form the creative team Be-Papas, most notably director Kunihiko Ikuhara. Their best-known work to this day (okay, only known; what have they been doing lately, if anything?) is the shoujo TV series Shoujo Kakumei Utena, which follows the young woman Utena Tenjou as she enters the prestigious Ohtori Academy. She encountered a prince when she was very young and both of her parents had died. He comforted her and gave her a ring with a rose insignia on it to remember him by. This left such a powerful impression on her that she wanted to grow up to...become a prince herself, going so far as to wear a boy's uniform at Ohtori. This attracts a lot of attention to her, especially from the Student Council, who, among other things, holds sword duels in which the winner wins the favour of Anthy Himemiya, the Rose Bride. Utena gets caught up in the duels and the Student Council's many machinations, which range from quirky to surreal to dark. The president of the Council is the young and handsome Touga Kiryu, who has a pretty 13-year-old sister named Nanami. Nanami loves her brother very much; in fact, to a quite obsessive degree. In the TV series, she was frequently played for comic relief, including an episode in which she receives a fashion accessory she promptly wears everywhere and boasts about. This turns out to be a cowbell, and, before too long, she has turned into a cow version of herself. The Utena movie redesigned the characters and retold the story with many spins on it, including the type which couldn't easily be shown on TV. The already high surreality quotient was also ramped up very sharply, with one prime scene being the only appearance of both Anthy's pet monkey Chu-Chu and Nanami--again, as a cow. During this scene, Nanami rears back on her hind legs when faced with Chu-Chu, and her udder shakes, which makes this the only occurrance of mammary bounce in the whole of Utena--and maybe even in the whole of the shoujo anime genre. If a guy in an inflatable woman's-body suit can make it onto Honourable Mentions, there's no reason why a farm animal can't.

SLIGHT FEVER SYNDROME (Jpn: BINETSUBYO KOGUN) Mizuki Yuzuriha; Tsuchiya-sensei (right to left) While Mariko was most definitely a shoo-in (bra-in?), two more characters from this series gave me some trouble about whether they belong on this page or not. A rewatch helped me make up my mind. The trouble is, the production quality of Slight Fever Syndrome is not the greatest, and state variation is the result. Female lead Mizuki benefits from this, as does the first teacher to drop into her office seeking her help. Tsuchiya-sensei is a good-time woman who is concerned about a vanilla form of sexual deviance an old boyfriend turned her onto, and how to broach the subject with any future flames without risking driving them away. With Mizuki's help, she learns to accept it--and ends up finding another deviance to like. And you like it too, guys; admit it. English version videos (two sub or too-fast-and-loose-dub VHS tapes/one bilingual DVD, all cursed with overlays) are available from Kitty Media (18 and over only, please).

TEIZOKUREI DAYDREAM Misaki Saiki Misaki is a woman with two highly interesting jobs. During regular hours, she works as an S&M queen, but she has a sideline as a necromancer, meaning that she is able to see and talk to ghosts. Because of the latter talent, she is frequently drafted by the Livelihood Preservation Group, run by the city government. Her regular job also provides her with interesting outfits that permit her freedom of movement (read: "Lookit the skin!") during ghost investigations, and an even more intersting weapon called Kinui. The only reason she's here is because of one bit of bounce during the first OVA's only bit of comic relief; otherwise, this is a case where state variation is not that good to her. For the most part, the first OVA is as grim and hardened as Misaki herself usually is, and the yin and yang of sex and death may be a bit much for some fans to take. However, if you know you can handle horror with a bit of that charge, it's worth at least one viewing. For your ghostbusting and perversion needs, you can visit Bandai Vidual's official website (Japanese only).

TENCHI-MUYO! Ryoko In this venerable fan favourite, a curious young man named Tenchi Masaki is told several times by his father to keep away from a cave with a locked entrance close to his house. His curiosity gets the better of him, though, and when he manages to wrangle the key, he goes in and uncovers a mummified body, which turns out to be alive. This form later reveals itself as Ryoko, infamous space pirate and just plain bad girl (if you can consider 5000 years old a "girl"!), who at first appears to be trying to kill or injure Tenchi, but then falls in love with him and even moves into his home. She's very loyal, to the point of insane jealousy when other women (especially Juraian princess Ayeka) enter the scene, and more than a bit forward, which frequently embarrasses Tenchi. I previously attained her buxom appearance to "state variation," given how much smaller her chest looks in the hot spring scenes in the first OVA series. Then again, her entire body looks smaller in these scenes than in pictures like the OVA cover illo of her standing a bit to her left, looking forward and holding up her index finger, in which she looks taller and has very broad shoulders. A bit of a closer look led me to conclude that she is not really unrealistically endowed, but has the talent to both dress and pose in a way that emphasizes her assets, and this picture with Ryo-Ohki-chan uses both methods, so, for these reasons, she is now here. The Demon: A Ryoko Shrine has everything you could want on her and then some, and dmoz has its own page of Tenchi-Muyo! links, including many more Ryoko pages. English-version videos (sub VHS/dub VHS/bilingual DVD) are available from Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. (formerly Pioneer).

VANDREAD
Parfet Balblair (BWH: 83/59/84cm; Source: Official Vandread Website)
Parfet is the chief engineer of the Nirvana, and winds up becoming close to ship's doctor (and kidnapped Tarakian) Duero Mcfile (the man on the left in the left picture), since she regards herself as a sort of doctor to the ship's machinery. She is the one of the last characters from Vandread you expected to see here, right? She looks quite mousy--you can't even see her eyes through those glasses of hers--and her outfit, erm, doesn't let as much air circulate as almost all of the other crew members'. However, when she has to seriously throttle a piece of machinery for episode 10 of the first series, we see that she has enough motion (right picture) to get herself on this part of the page. Also, you'd have to be an idiot to not be able to see what a kind and friendly character she is as well; you might not kick Jura or Barnette out of your bed for eating crackers, but Parfet is somebody you definitely want as a friend for life.

English-version videos of the two TV series (dub VHS/bilingual DVD; The Second Stage is a direct continuation of the first series) are available from Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. (formerly Pioneer). Here's their own official Vandread website.

VARIABLE GEO Kaori Yanase (BWH: 84/58/87cm); Chiho Masuda (BWH: 83/59/85cm) (left to right) (Source: The Variable Geo Complete Visual Collection artbook) Last year's champion of the V.G. tournament was 19-year-old Reimi Jyahana, head of the Jyahana Group. As such, she winds up with two fighters looking to challenge her directly: Kaori Yanase of the MoHi Kan in Chiba, who lost to her in the finals and is looking to get back at her for her humiliating loss, and Chiho Masuda of CASO in Tokyo, who is a Ninja who is spying on the Jyahana Group to try to figure out what dark goings-on are happening there. These two characters are not as mobile as the ones listed in the main guide, but I saw enough to conclude that they should be here. The Yuka Takeuchi Fan isn't through yet. He also has a Kaori Yanase gallery. Enjoy. The English-version video with all three OVAs on one tape (sub and sadly overtweaked-script dub VHS/bilingual DVD) is available from ADV Films.

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Compiled by Dave Watson. Don't hold it against him.