The Essentials
Name: Video Girl Ai, Den’ei Shoujo
Genre:: Romance, Comedy, Science Fiction
Episodes: 6
Released: March 27, 1992 - August 28, 1992
Based On: Video Girl Ai manga by Masakazu Katsura
Director: Hiroshi Watanabe, Mizuho Nishikubo
Produced By: Production I.G, Shueisha
US Distribution By: Viz Media
Major Japanese Cast
Ai Amano: Megumi Hayashibara
Yota Moteuchi: Takeshi Kusao
Moemi Hayakawa: Yuri Amano
Takashi Niimai: Kouji Tsujitani
Gokuraku Manager: Kenichi Ogata
Ai’s Creator: Hirotaka Suzuoki
Major English Cast
Ai Amano: Maggie Blue O’Hara
Yota Moteuchi: Brad Swaile
Moemi Hayakawa: Jennifer Copping
Takashi Niimai: Samuel Vincent
Gokuraku Manager: Richard Newman
Ai’s Creator: John Novak
Scores
Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherency/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: 8/10 (x 1 = 8 pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)
Total: 148/180 (82.2%)
Review
Video Girl Ai is a short (6 episode) yet pretty well made series that follows the story of roughly the first 3 volumes of the Video Girl Ai manga, which covers the opening arc of the story.
Katsura seems to like the “girl come from nowhere and guy falls in love with her” type stories (see DNA2 and, to a lesser extent, I”s) and Video Girl follows along the same lines.
Yota feels down after being “rejected” by the girl she likes (via her professing her love for someone else) and rents a video from a mysterious video store. However, this isn’t just any video - the girl in the video comes out of the tv and appears in the flesh right in front of Yota. Except Yota’s VCR was broken and causes the girl - named Ai - to malfunction (she acts more tomboyish than sweet, and her boobs drop a couple of cup sizes).
What follows is a love quadrilateral with Moemi loving Takashi, Yota loving Moemi, Ai loving Yota, Takashi loving no one, and Yota also falling for Ai. Now, when I saw love quadrilateral, you may get the idea that this is a /really/ funny comedy. While it could be classified as a comedy, the romance part is definitely more pronounced, with multiple comedic or otherwise light moments scattered throughout the episodes. The omake at the end of the first three episodes also provide comedic relief.
The animation and music is pretty good considering it was made in 1992, and the dub is decent as well. If you don’t mind a 14 year old anime series, Video Girl Ai is a nice (and short) watch (and also comes on one disk).
First Watched: December 2005
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes
