Picked up an old anime recently called Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, about a cat-eyed joshikousei and her friends traveling 1,000 years into the future to take part in friendly space battles. It was originally a light novel series adapted by J.C. Staff into two OVA series in 1996 and 1997, followed by a two-cour television series in 1999. Some interesting people worked on it, notably Akiyuki Shinbo, who directed both the OVA and television series, but also Nakazawa Kazuto (OVA character designer) and Watanabe Akio (television character designer).
Television opening:
OVA I ending:
I love the series, but I can see why no one’s heard of it. It’s a bit of a toss up. The OVA, not surprisingly, is somewhat thin on the writing due to the short runtime. The focus is largely on visuals and atmosphere at the expense of characterisation and coherency, and it maintains a quirky, light-hearted tone for the most part. I actually didn’t like it the first time I watched it, but after rewatching it with a better understanding of the source material and what they were trying to accomplish, I think it’s the pinnacle of the franchise. The television series offers more engaging storylines and character development, but is more straightforward in terms of storytelling and is visually more dubious. The animation isn’t as impressive, Shinbo showcases much more of his trademark style in the television series (which I’m not a huge fan of), and as much as I like Watanabe’s designs in other projects, they feel like a downgrade compared to the OVA here. Nakazawa’s lithe designs fit the focus on active, athletic high school girls like a glove.
Maybe it is mediocre if you look at it critically, but the aesthetic is so on point that it doesn’t matter. Like most '90s sci-fi anime, it has aged like the finest wine, both in terms of art direction and overall concept. I really miss shows like this. It strikes an almost perfect balance between cool sci-fi designs/action and a fun tone. Very little is explained, especially in the OVA, which I also appreciate. The creators understood that the story is fundamentally a vehicle to get cute girls into spaceships and to have imaginative space scenes, e.g. one episode revolves around playing space billiards with small planets. If you go in expecting hard sci-fi and deep worldbuilding, you’ll be disappointed. It’s better viewed as a “cute girls doing cute things” kind of show, but before that genre really took off.
Some more sakuga from the OVA:
