Wanna-Be's (1986) Anime OVA Review

Wanna-Be 's is a 1986 action sports sci-fi wrestling anime OVA directed by Yasuo Hasegawa and written by Toshimichi Suzuki. It features character design work done by manga artist Ken'ichi Sonoda and Yoshiharu Shimizu served as animation director. The voice cast features Eriko Hara, Miki Takahashi, Shūichi Ikeda, Akio Nojima, Eiko Yamada and Urara Takano. It also had metal music by Japanese band Seikima-II and an ending theme by Saori Saitō. Produced by Anime International Company, Wanna Be 's became a cult direct to video release among otakus, particularly because it took advantage of the Japanese wrestling craze of the time.

Miri and Eri are two female wrestlers known as the Wanna-Be's, who fight furiously in the ring against their local foes the Foxy Ladies. However, things get shady when the mysterious Kidou Corporation offers them a chance to better their capabilities. The girls begin to feel some strange and awkward changes in their bodies and uncover the company's nefarious hidden plans.

Considering that this was just a year after Dirty Pair, it's not strange to see a leading pair heavily inspired by them and with similar designs and personalities. The redhead with the short hair embodies a tomboyish attitude and her fiery nature, while the long haired girl with a less arresting color has elements that signal her calm demeanor and more "feminine" personality. The two have some chemistry and enjoy modernity through the futuristic lenses the show sets up, sharing a strong bond and a love for combat. The only difference is that the Wanna Be's don't cause a giant mess everywhere they go.

This OVA is quite awesome from the start, it goes right to the point and gives you the money shots you expect, it really grabs you from the start and never lets go, putting you on a short but very enjoyable roller coaster of wild wrestling action up to the science fiction brawl from the climax with all of it making perfect sense and never feeling out of place. I honestly wasn't expecting the turn it took around the half way mark but it was a very welcome surprise. The versatile genre elements it shuffles really do come together seamlessly.

As you might expect, we also witness some potent wrestling anime action, you can tell the animators and directors took their time and studied the different moves and maneuvers that were common at the time in the sport, having the girls perform them and be victims of them, arriving at some striking poses. The actual direction is also solid as the shots are dynamic, intense, well timed, edited smoothly and with the angles emphasizing the ferocity of the encounters. It's a shame we weren't gifted with even more matches or perhaps more characters in the ring. We have a good variety of bodies and colors in there, but it would have been cool to get more lady matches in there as a way to expand the world because the few that we see kind of make the world seem a bit narrow.

This is a radically deranged and out there anime OVA that mixes both sports fanservice with the imaginative thrills of a sci-fi monster anime of its time quite expertly.

Pink Force Commando (1982) Movie Review

Pink Force Commando (Hong fen you xia, Ninja Fighters, Pink Force) is an action adventure martial arts Hong Kong film directed by Kevin Chu (Chu Yen-ping). It stars Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh, Chung-You Chang, Yang Hui-Shan, Chun-Chun Hsu and Hao-Yi Liu. It is sometimes considered to be a semi-sequel to Golden Queen's Commando (1982) by the same producer and crew. It's also a film that collects a variety of mixed components from fantasy and genre cinema as a whole.

Three female bandits steal a great amount of gold and some time later the other two find out their leader, Jackal, has used the money for her own pleasure and businesses. She has paired up with her Nazi Commander lover and now wants her old partners dead.

Like Golden Queen's Commando here we have a mixture of genre components and narrative scenarios that are mishmashed, taken from other movies and then put into a blender, only to change the protagonists of the stories to a diverse group of action girls dressed in striking and contrasting outfits in order to be easily identifiable. This time we have the usual thugs but also Nazi officers, cowboys, Klansmen and magical heroines as well, it's a seemingly never-ending list of bizarre mashups that pay off in one climactic grand battle. 

As I mentioned before, the movie takes not only inspiration from stuff we have seen in other movies but it also features a variety of scenes taken directly from Golden Queen's Commando and spliced into the movie in a haphazard manner, always in a manner so clumsy that the quality of the footage itself is mismatched and contrasts highly from the footage that's original to this movie. Scenes like the card game trick, the primal wrestling match and the drunken samurai's humiliation were put into the movie but they come out of nowhere and have really nothing to do with the rest of the movie, seeming completely disconnected from their original context. Not only that but we also have music that's stolen from movies like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Conan the Barbarian (1982) and even Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970). The former and the latter movies being scored by Ennio Morricone isn't a surprise since Queen's Commando did this as well, so at least these two flicks have some bangers music-wise.

The storytelling is about as flawed as you would expect but also eclectic and fun for a film made under such a weird production process and carefree attitude. The plot takes insane twists and detours to the point where a good amount of it becomes nearly incomprehensible and borderline ludicrous once the footage from Queen's Commando shows up to confuse you even more. I wouldn't want to be the poor bastard who watched this movie before Queen's Commando and without any clue as to how this film was made because that must have been a truly strange experience. Nothing is well glued and events rarely connect coherently, you pretty much have to put together the entirety of the film in your head, being able to identify the important moments and plot points by the way the film conveys which point of the story you are technically in, for example, you know you are at the climax because there's a great battle with two opposing armies about to take place.

I gotta say that by having much of the same cast we are able to witness some badass performances by the actresses and the wonderful stunt work during the fights. The leading ladies from this movie are not that interesting as characters, when compared to a very solid and perfectly defined roster of tough girls like the one from Queen's Commando, but the core idea of the movie is quite interesting as a jumping off point to then stick a good amount of crazy scenes after the introduction.

It's a fun time if you know what you are getting into. Only recommended for Z-grade actionsploitation film fans.