DGFischer

In the P.A. Works concept of Shirobako, the fictional anime studio Musashino Animation worked on the seasons of two series.  In the first twelve episodes of Shirobako, Musashino produced Exodus!, where the three-girl members of the idol group Tracy, Akane, Aya, and Alpine, are accused of murdering their manager and spend the rest of the 13-part anime proving their innocence.  In the last twelve episodes of Shirobako, the studio was producing Third Girl Aerial Squad where a four-girl team of flyers led by Aria  (later a fifth, Catherine) battle over another 13 episodes an extra-terrestrial force with highly advanced technology by using vintage jets (pre-1980’s).  The double ova that make up the Shirobako Specials are the imaginary first episodes of these imagined anime.

In watching these two shows, I kept remembering the fictional failed project of Shirobako’s director, Seiichi Kinoshita, Jiggly Jiggly Heaven.  There is a lot of ecchi in both ova.  In Exodus! Akane, Aya and Alpine are booked on a terrible promotional gig.  They have just played before a few disinterested and must go to a meat-market demonstration.  But they must dress for that part.  So, they must remove their scanty idol girl pop group dresses to don the skimpy French maid two-piece outfit.  If you include the sheathed knife attached to the thigh … three-piece (it’s for the meat-market demo, slice sausage trim steak, and maybe ward off unwelcome advances).  But it is the rule of ecchi, naked does not mean exposed.  The girls must remove their bras to complete the transition from pop idol to French maid.  Akane is bare-chested for space of ten seconds, but she’s seen from the back, and in the few seconds of front view, the maid ensemble, sparse as it is, offers adequate cover.  In Third Girl Aerial Squad, there are rather bosomy members of the squadron who wear their flight uniforms zippered fairly low (they are flying at heights of 20,000 feet … or 20 feet to avoid radar.  Must get warm flying at such altitudes).  There is a shower scene where steam and plexiglass serves the purpose, but a few feminine tochuses do appear in the haze.  Much the same in Sounan desi Ka?, Episode 8: Oasis.  Four bare girls flushed out by a tidal flow and nothing seen (many thanks to strategically placed mangos and seafoam).  Ecchi goes to lengths to avoid the obscene in the quest for titillation.   The supreme irony of it all.  Jiggly Jiggly Heaven died after three episodes and a botched re-cap.  These episodes of Exodus! And Third Girl Aerial Squad, presumably each one the first of thirteen episodes of fictionally successful programs… are the sole and only.  Director Kinoshita’s luck at quality work continues.

But as premises for full series, there is something to them.  Exodus! is an allusion to The Fugitive.   Third Girls resembles 12 o’Clock High.  Both shows betray my age, but I was intrigued by the Fugitive, but thought nothing of 12 o’Clock High beyond its theme music.   Same with Exodus!  Akane, dressed in her French maid costume, becomes irate with the group’s manager and goes out to find him.  Alpine, worried over Akane’s furor, goes after her a few minutes later.  She comes across the manager in a dark hallway, stabbed to death and lying in a pool of his blood.  All the manager could do was draw the kenji "A" in his blood before expiring. Aya joins Alpine at the murder-scene and wonders where Akane is.  Akane shows up, a little confused, and is horrified over the manger’s death.  The knife in her thigh-sheath is missing, but it had been so for some time.  A call comes in from the pop group's agency, and the head of the agency convinces the girls to take it on the lam … for reasons uncertain.  And the real assassin, who has a fascination for gyroscopes, lurks in the background.  There is a chase scene, the girls elude the police, and the episode ends.

Third Girls Aerial Squadron is not as fascinating.  Too much aviation tech talk.  Girls arguing over which antiquated jet prototype is the best.  Aerial dogfights that somewhat resemble episodes of Scott Macloud as Space Angel (SMA … the tiny pulses of light smashing into fighter-craft … the explosions … those freaky lip movements … shutter!).  And Aria, the emotionless warrior whose mettle can match the superiority of the aircraft sent against her.  Aria, who cannot feel for anyone since a tragic battle took her true love and killed love forever.  And then, the miraculous rescue of Catherine from the clutches of the Builders whose domination threatens the planet.  All these very disjointed gatherings of cliché’ and hum-drummery.  Boring and slanted.  Totally predictable.

I had hoped that the two ova would have been the projected first and last episodes of Exodus!  No such luck.  A modest suggestion.  If P.A. Works could create any of these two imaginary works to a whole, either as series or movie … go with Exodus!  It has an element of suspense which is believable and fast-paced.