Katsuhiko Nishijima's Project A-ko is one of the more unusual animated productions to come from Japan. Unlike most popular anime, Project A-ko is self-contained and not part of a TV series. It is possible to rent Project A-ko without extensive knowledge of the film and thoroughly understand it. As such, it provides good entertainment value. Project A-ko is refreshingly funny, action-oriented, and nonpretentious. It doesn't boast groundbreaking animation, but it contains 86 minutes worth of comedy and adventure.
A-ko is a wholesome looking redheaded teen in a sailor suit who just happens to possess extraordinary strength and speed. Despite a superficial similarity to the later Sailor Moon series, Project A-ko is devoid of pseudo-mysticism and teen romance; the film is played strictly for laughs. A-ko's friendship with the diminutive crybaby C-ko earns the enmity not only of fellow classmate B-ko, but also of alien invaders. B-ko is obsessed with making C-ko her "friend" while the aliens believe that C-ko is some princess figure. This sets up the entire film, which consists of a series of blackout gags seemingly influenced by Chuck Jones' Road Runner series. The running gags include a frazzled high school teacher, B-ko's Coyote-like attempts to defeat A-ko through superior technology (ala Acme merchandise), A-ko repeatedly knocking an alien spy off his feet every school morning, and displays of A-ko's amazing superhuman strength. There are also a few assorted potshots at other anime favorites, including a hilarious Fist of the North Star parody early in the film.
There are other ways in which the film recalls the classic Warners cartoons. One quality of the original Warners shorts is irreverence: nothing is safe from satire, not even other Warner's films. The same is true of A-ko. The ridiculous sight of a teenage schoolgirl successfully destroying stereotypical anime mecha with her bare hands, as well as battling the domanatrix-suited B-ko, tells us that the film takes nothing seriously, not even established anime conventions. Much of Project A-ko is satirical, although the satire does not approach Mel Brooks' epic levels of deconstruction. Of course, lampooning the conventions will mean nothing to an audience that is unaware of those conventions, so these jokes will likely be lost on someone not familiar with Japanese animation. The slapstick, however, remains and will be funny to anyone who enjoys the violence of Warner Brothers.
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