Project A-Ko

Project A-Ko (1986)

プロジェクトA子

For these three high-school students, repelling an alien invasion is as easy as a-b-c!

Earth. The not too distant future. A city is miraculously reborn just sixteen years after being completely destroyed by a giant meteor. At the prestigious Graviton High School for Girls, two new students are introduced. A-ko and her ditzy sidekick, C-ko.

Date of release
1986-06-21
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (47)
Runtime
1h 23m
Genres
Action, Animation, Comedy, Science Fiction
Director
Katsuhiko Nishijima
Collection
Project A-Ko Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

Project A-ko is a 1986 Japanese animated science fiction action comedy film. The film focuses on 16-year-old Japanese schoolgirl A-ko, who defends her best friend C-ko, as they face off against their classmate and rival B-ko while the Earth faces the threat of an alien invasion. Both Katsuhiko Nishijima and Yuji Moriyama directed it, though the latter also did character design. The film project initially started as part of the Cream Lemon series of original video animation, but later became its own film. The film staff was motivated to produce a fun and exciting film in contrast to the more serious anime films being produced at the time.

Production

Project A-ko was directed by Katsuhiko Nishijima who would later go on to direct Agent Aika and Labyrinth of Flames. The music for the film features music and songs composed by Richie Zito and Joey Carbone. Nishijima said that he wanted to make a film that directors Mamoru Oshii and Hayao Miyazaki were not able to make, which is a light hearted entertaining film without much deep social commentary.

Production of the film included several artists who would later create other popular works, including Kia Asamiya and Atsuko Nakajima.

The title itself is a reference to the 1983 Jackie Chan film Project A, although the film bears no resemblance to Project A; the working title ended up sticking.

Project A-ko was initially planned to be part of the Cream Lemon series of pornographic OVAs, but during the production of the series, it was decided to make it into a more mainstream title. The only sequence animated during its Cream Lemon days left in the revised production is B-ko's private bath scene.

Moriyama explains that the names "A-ko", "B-ko", and "C-ko" were initially placeholder names that were kept throughout production rather than being replaced.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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