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Project A-Ko FAQ
--- MOKUJI ---
PROJECT A-KO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Introduction
This is a list of the most common questions regarding the movie series
PROJECT A-KO. A-Ko started out as a parody of anime,
and is arguably one of the best (and best-known, at the time of this FAQ) anime available
outside of Japan.
With contributions from: Derek Upham, Ken Arromdee, Jon Beckett,
Enrique Conte, and Curtis H. Hoffmann.
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Why is the title of the anime Project A-ko?
It's a pun on "Project A", which was the title of a popular movie
by Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan, about an ex-navy man fighting
pirates. Chan acknowledged the in-joke in "Project A II", where
he had 4 characters introduce themselves as Mr. A, Mr. B, Mr. C,
and Mr. D...
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What's with the asteroid?
That's what was left of the ship C-ko came in, along with all the
advanced technology which was used to rebuild Graviton. What's left
of the "asteroid" became the tower that is standing in the middle of
the lake.
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Why are the names of the characters "A-ko", "B-ko" and "C-ko"?
"Eiko" is a common female Japanese name, which sounds like "A-ko".
"B-ko" and "C-ko" follow the sequence. In Japanese, the "-ko"
(kanji for "child") suffix is only used in feminine names, so it
means that A-ko and the others are female.
Another possible explanation is that the names describe their
attributes. A-ko = Athletic, B-ko = Brainy, C-ko = Cute.
(So what's D?)
The use of letters could also emphasize the simplicity of the
plot. A and C are friends. Here comes B, who wants to have C
for herself, and tries to get A out of the way. Meanwhile, D
is looking for a lost princess...
The full names of the characters are "A-ko Megami", "B-ko Daitokuji"
and "C-ko Kotobuki".
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Why are A-ko and C-ko wearing different uniforms from the rest of
the girls?
It's traditional in Japanese schools to have transfer students wear
their old school uniforms until they get their new ones. Note that
by the end of the film A-ko and C-ko have the same uniforms as the
other girls.
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Is B-ko a lesbian?
Maybe, maybe not. In the second sequel, A-ko and B-ko chase the same
man, so B-ko is at most bi. But, since most of the characters in
this universe are female, what else is she going to chase?
Originally, Project A-ko was intended to be another installment
in the Cream Lemon series of adult anime. Sometime during
pre-production, the decision was made to tone down the sexual
situations and make a more mainstream anime film. It may very
well be that B-ko was intended to be an overt lesbian in the original
anime. (Given that the team who did Project A-ko was the same team who
had just finished the acclaimed "Pop Chaser" installment of Cream Lemon,
one has to wonder how the adult version would have turned out...)
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Is C-ko a lesbian?
YOU SICK PUPPY, YOU!! ^_^ After the incident with the wolf (in the
flashback) C-ko developed an extreme case of hero-worship on A-ko.
C-ko has no interest whatsoever in sex.
(Perhaps because the word is too long for her to understand...)
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Is "D" a man?
- No. EVERYONE in the alien ship is female (even Captain Napolipolita).
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Why is B-ko dancing with those fans?
The fans are called "tessen", and she's doing a victory dance (note
the 'V'-sign she does at the end). See, her flunkies have arrived,
and they have C-ko!!
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Is A-ko's father Superman?
Yes, and her mother is Wonder Woman. It should be pretty obvious
from the cameo shot in the living room at the end of the first movie.
The animators who did Project A-ko are familiar with quite a bit
of American and British SF, as well as anime.
"Dad" is reading the "Daily Plenet", and the headlines are taken
from the 1940's Superman cartoons by the Fleischer Brothers (which
I heartily recommend). The one on the left is from "The Bulleteers",
while the one on the right is from "The Mad Scientist".
We meet B-ko's father in Project A-ko 2. Mr. Daitokuji has an
uncanny resemblance to Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man. This would
explain the money (Stark is a rich industrialist), the powersuits
(Iron Man's abilities come from his armor suit), and the rivalry
(Marvel Comics publishes Iron Man, while arch-rival DC Comics
publishes Superman).
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What was B-ko watching at the very end of the movie?
A-ko and C-ko, so she can start her morning fight.
Some things never change.
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Are there any sequels?
5 of them. Project A-ko 2 to 4, and Project A-ko the Vs: Grey
Side, and Blue Side. All of them were made-for-video releases,
while Project A-ko was a theatrical release. They have all
been released in the US.
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What's this about in-jokes in the movie
Project A-ko has a mind-boggling number of in-jokes referring to other
animated and live-action SF shows, as well as product in-jokes. A partial
list follows:
-
The alien captain has an uncanny resemblance to the moody protagonist of
Leiji Matsumoto's CAPTAIN HARLOCK: SPACE PIRATE, who moodily fought
against alien invaders. Harlock would be often seen moodily drinking
a glass of red wine, so his Project A-ko counterpart was a drunkard.
-
The alien ship itself looks like a cross between the Arcadia from
CAPTAIN HARLOCK and the Yamato from Matsumoto's SPACE CRUISER
YAMATO (a.k.a. STAR BLAZERS).
-
The space fighters from the Earth Defense satellite are taken straight
from the old British SF series U.F.O., down to the way their missiles
are loaded. In this scene, there's also an old-fashioned train-crossing
signal with accompanying barrier.
-
The missile barrages with dozens of missiles twisting every which way
are from the TV show SUPER DIMENSIONAL FORTRESS MACROSS, which first
had that special effect. An famous double in-joke is that, in
one of such scenes in the movie MACROSS: DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE (a
re-telling of the show's story), some of the missiles are actually
Budweiser cans and bottles of sake. In Project A-ko, the animators
had fun with this by making a couple of the missiles into Pepsi cans
(you can see them in the sequence with a fighter traveling down a
long trench).
-
Talking about MACROSS, B-ko has the same cork-screw bangs as Linn
Minmei, one of the female leads from said show.
-
C-ko is the epitome of the anime cliche of "the cute girl that can't
cook." C-ko is mind-bogglingly cute, and her lunches are deadly even
to her. Freeze-frame the bento box lunches C-ko gives to A-ko; some
of them contain bottle caps and stuff.
-
"Ms. Ayumi" is a copy of "Creamy Mami" the star of a very popular
"magical girl" show from the early 80's. That's why C-ko makes
the comment that Ayumi reminds her of a famous person -- she probably
was a fan of the show!
-
In one of the city scenes, one of the alien spider-machines crashes
through a poster of "Madoka" from the popular manga KIMAGURE ORANGE
ROAD. (It is not an in-joke to the anime series, which was still
a year in the future at the time this movie was made.)
-
B-ko's transforming mecha beautifully illustrates one important
point about the dozens of giant transforming mecha featured in
a number of anime shows -- where does the pilot go?
-
The movie A-ko and C-ko are watching is a spoof on HARMAGEDDON
(a.k.a. GENMA TAISEN), a dark SF film by Katsuhiro Otomo. In
the original, the protagonist is stalked by a psychic-hunting
cyborg. In this version, he's stalked by... Colonel Sanders!!
-
Among the people in the theater, you can spot "Ten-chan", from
the very popular SF comedy anime series URUSEI YATSURA. In one
of the classroom scenes, you can see "Oyuki" from the same show,
her hair now blonde instead of a very icy blue. The sequence
with B-ko flying up the fortress to rescue C-ko is a copy of
of a similar sequence in the first URUSEI YATSURA movie.
-
C-ko's tiara in the "temple" is from Go Nagai's "Fandora".
But what *is* Fandora??
-
Hokuto no Ken is a VERY violent post-apocalyptic martial-arts TV
show and movie. It recounts the adventures of Kenshiro, master of the
"Fist of the North Star" technique and Macho-Man-From-Hell. "Mari",
one of B-ko's flunkies, seems to have Kenshiro's abilities (and
looks). Many of her lines are straight from Hokuto No Ken.
Her final attack is the notorious "Thousand-Fist Attack" from said
TV show, which will gorily explode the opponent's internal organs
10 seconds after it's executed (thus her "You'll be dead in ten
seconds!" line).
-
In Project A-ko 3, Yawara and Jingoro (the two Judo masters from
the TV series, Yawara), can be seen as customers at the fast food place.
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Translations
Project A-Ko, and all of its sequels have been both subtitled, and dubbed,
into English by U.S. Manga Corps. There have also been fan translations
for all of the sequels floating around for several years.
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The Manga
Project A-Ko wasn't really based on a previous manga, from what I
can tell. However, after the first movie was released, a manga was
created excerpting the movie.
There is an orginal comic book series published by ??? studios. The
artwork is by Tim Eldred, previously the artist of the American
Captain Harlock comics. Curtis Hoffmann is not at all impressed
by the artwork in the American comic, and has never been pulled in by
the writing enough to actually read any of it.
If someone else wants to review the American Comic, they can do so here.
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The Main Cast
![[A-ko]](ako_ako.gif)
A-ko Megami: a super-strong, slightly naive high school girl. Daughter
of Superman and Wonder Woman, A-ko hates waking up early in the morning.
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![[B-ko]](ako_bko.gif)
B-ko Daitokuji: a super-talented girl, and A-ko's rival for C-ko's
attention. B-ko may or may not be a lesbian, but she certainly hates
being shown up by anyone else at anything that she does. B-ko's father is
(a thinly disguised) Tony Stark, the Iron Man.
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![[C-ko]](ako_cko.gif)
C-ko Kotobuki: The ultimate airhead. C-ko is an alien princess, somehow
lost on Earth. She worships A-ko, and can't remember who B-ko is (when
they'd last met years before, B-ko was an ugly little brat that liked
picking on C-ko.) C-ko always talks in third person, can not cook to
save her life, and will burst into tears at the slightest sign of
disapproval from anyone else.
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![[Agent D]](ako_d.gif)
Agent D: An enthusiastic, if dense, alien spy sent to Earth to locate her
people's princess. Big and ugly, D really is female, although it's hard
to tell at first.
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Captain Napolipolita: Captain of the alien ship sent out to rescue C-ko
and return the princess to her home world. The Captain is quite
intrepid, but inclined to drink when under pressure.
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Everyone else: Too numerous to mention. Unless one of you guys decides
to send me updates to this file.
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Seiyuu List
The below list of Japanese voice actors from Project A-Ko and
A-Ko the Versus comes from the
Voice Actors Database
maintained by Hitoshi Doi.
- A-ko The Versus
- Gail :: Hayami Sho
- Maruten :: Kikuchi Masami
- C-ko's father :: Saka Osamu
- Raiza Chichi :: Shimazu Saeko
- little Gail :: Takayama Minami
- C-ko's servant :: Takayama Minami
- Grash :: Takemura Hiroshi
- Project A-ko
- Spy-D/K-kun :: Genda Tessho
- Mari :: Gohri Daisuke
- Ume :: Hayashibara Megumi
- Captain Napolipolita :: Ikeda Shuhichi
- Mari :: Ikemoto Sayuri
- Magami A-ko :: Itou Miki
- Kei's mother :: Mutoh Reiko {Kanketsuhen}
- Asa :: Ogai Youko {Kanketsuhen}
- Defense Minister :: Ohki Tamio
- B-ko's father :: Ohtsuka Yoshitada
- mother :: Shimamoto Sumi {Kanketsuhen}
- Daitokuji B-ko :: Shinohara Emi -- debut
- Ine :: Takamori Yoshino
- Kotobuki C-ko :: Tomizawa Michie
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Misc. Stuff
This FAQ is not currently being maintained by
Curtis Hoffmann.
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