Video girl Ai

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Video girl Ai
Original title 電影 少女
transcription Den'ei Shōjo
Manga
country JapanJapan Japan
author Masakazu Katsura
publishing company Shueisha
magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump
First publication 1989-1992
expenditure 15th
Original video animation
title Den'ei Shōjo - Video Girl Ai
Original title 電影 少女 ～ VIDEO GIRL AI ～
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
year 1992
Studio Production IG
length 29 minutes
Episodes 6th
Director Mizuho Nishikubo
synchronization
Real film
► Video girl Ai (1991)

Video Girl Ai ( Japanese 電影 少女 , Den'ei Shōjo ) is a manga drawn by Masakazu Katsura . This series appeared from 1989 to 1992 and belongs to the genre Shōnen and contains elements of romance , drama and comedy . It was adapted , among other things, in the form of an anime and a real film.

action

The shy teenager Yota Moteuchi is in love with his classmate Moemi. However, Moemi loves Yota's best friend Takashi. She confesses to Yota her secret love for Takashi, so that he finally loses the courage to reveal his true feelings to her. Since, despite his lovesickness, he thinks more of the feelings of others than of his, a mysterious video library appears to him, where he borrows the video from Ai Amano. Ai, who is programmed to comfort her viewer, arrives as a video girl while playing the tape in Yota's world. Here she has three months to find a girlfriend for him.

But her intervention leads to a number of misunderstandings and while she brings Yota and Moemi together, Ai falls in love with Yota herself. However, this is strictly forbidden for a video girl and she risks her life as a result. So she finally wants him for herself and becomes Moemi's rival. When Yota and Ai finally get closer and closer, Ai's programmer steps in and tries to delete them.

Publications

Manga

In Japan, the manga first appeared in the manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump at Shueisha from 1989 to 1993 . The completed series was published from 1991 in 15 individual volumes. The last two volumes, which take place about nine years later and build a similar setting but with the "video girl" Len Momono, are known as Video Girl Len . This is a play on words, since Len and Ai in Japanese are synonymous with Ren'ai, the word for " romantic love ". In Japan there was also a nine volume hardcover edition.

The German edition of the manga was published by Carlsen Comics between 2001 and 2003 , the translation is by Gyo Araiwa. The series has also been translated into other languages, including Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian and English.

After the first Japanese edition, some pictures were changed in Japan. While the French paperback edition took over the drawings from the original version, the English and German translations are based on the modified version.

Real film

On June 29, 1991, a live action adaptation of the manga was released in Japan. Ryū Kaneda directed the production of Toho. The script was written by Masakazu Katsura and Masahiro Yoshimoto.

Anime

An anime of the same name was released from March to August 1992 as OVA with six 29-minute episodes. It was produced under the direction of Masakazu Katsura at Studios Production IG and Tatsunoko and published by Jump Video . The character design was created by Takayuki Goto and the artistic direction was Tatsuya Kushida. The anime is based heavily on the manga template, only the ending has been changed.

Viz Media published an English translation of the anime in North America and Yamato Videos published a localized version in Italy. The broadcaster Buzz Channel broadcast the six episodes on Spanish television.

synchronization

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū )
Ai Amano Megumi Hayashibara
Yōta Moteuchi Takeshi Kusao
Takashi Niimai Kōji Tsujitani
Moemi Hayakawa Yuri Amano

music

Tohru Okada composed the music for the OVA. The song " Ureshii Namida" by Noriko Sakai was used for the opening credits . The credits were underlaid with Ano Hi Ni by Maki Kimura. The following titles were also used in the episodes:

  • Ano Hi ni ... ( あ の 日 に… ) by Maki Kimura
  • Ashita wa Ashita ( 明日 は 明日 ) by Masakazu Katsura
  • Frozen Flower from Nav Cat
  • Garasu Moon ( 硝 子 MOON) by Mayumi Sudō
  • Kimi no Niji ( 君 の 虹 ) by Mayumi Sudō
  • Kokoro no Mizutamari ( 心 の 水 た ま り ) by Masakazu Katsura
  • Message ( メ ッ セ ー ジ ) from Nav cat
  • Suki Nan Desu ( 好 き な ん で す ) by Maki Kimura

Light novel

In Japan, one of appeared Sukehiro Tomita wrote Light Novel -Adaption with illustrations by Masakazu Katsura. The novel volume was published on June 9, 1993 ( ISBN 4-08-703008-3 ), the first chapter having already appeared in Jump Novel Vol. 1, which was published on August 21, 1991 .

Dorama

A dorama for the manga was also produced in Japan .

Reception and analysis

According to the Anime Encyclopedia , the characters go through the experiences of puberty, emotional insecurity and sexual desire, alienation and embarrassment. The basic principle of the plot corresponds to that of other series such as Urusei Yatsura and Oh! My Goddess , in which a strange, beautiful girl with special abilities also appears in the life of an average, normal young person. There is also a lot of fan service , but with Video Girl Ai the focus is not on comedy and slapstick, but on the dramatic aspect of the situation. In the Anime Encyclopedia , in addition to this approach, which is unusual for the genre, the directorial work is also praised, which puts the characters in the foreground. The quiet scenes would highlight the secret language of the two female protagonists and the change in their relationship from friendship to rivalry.

Susan J. Napier writes in Anime - from Akira to Princess Mononoke that the anime shows an idealized, conservative role model of women. Ai is caring and subordinates herself in everything she does to Yota, who also represents a conservative understanding of roles. This is a reaction to the emancipation of women in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s. The breaking up of typical role models and traditional relationships led to a special thematization of conservative notions, in particular the love relationship, in the works of the 1990s, for example in addition to Video Girl Ai in Oh! My Goddess . The anime does not focus so much on the comedic as on the dramatic aspects: Ai's presence is the result of a technical error and the technology causes her problems in the further action, after all it doesn't end well. Ais fate is also a story of disappointed expectations and a threat from modern technology. Yota's character is unusually drawn for the genre, he acts considerately and does not want to hurt the two girls. Towards the end of the series, when both are aware of their feelings, the plot and the images become more dramatic and disturbing, until Ai's life finally comes to a violent end in a nightmarish scene. Especially in this last part of the plot, Napier sees a connection to scenes and images of violence that are typical of pornographic anime.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrick Drazen: Anime Explosion! - The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation p. 143. Stone Bridge Press, 2003.
  2. ↑ a b c Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition p. 702. Berkeley 2006, Stone Bridge Press.
  3. ^ Napier, 2001, pp. 141, 149, 150
  4. ↑ Napier, 2001, pp. 153-155

literature

  • Susan J. Napier: Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation . Palgrave 2001. (English)

Web links