Project A-ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody is an action sci fi comedy anime OVA and a sequel to Project A-ko 2 (1987). Animation director Yuji Moriyama directs his second Project A-ko (1986) sequel. While the studio changed from A.P.P.P. to Studio Fantasia, a lot of the crew and cast came back including Miki Itō, Emi Shinohara and Michie Tomizawa. The screenplay was done by anime writer and producer Tomoko Kawasaki (Slayers OVAs, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Corpse Princess), which is weird because of the differences in characterization between this OVA and the movie, which she also wrote.
During Spring Break, A-ko decides it's time to stop hanging around with C-ko all the time and get a boyfriend. A-ko wants new clothes and gets a job in order to afford a new outfit. After an altercation, C-ko runs into the street and is almost run over by a motorcycle rider, C-ko was holding A-ko’s earring and drops it on the floor only to be picked up by the driver, Kei. A-ko then meets Kei and she falls instantly in love with him, much to C-ko's annoyance. B-ko also develops a crush on the male biker and plans to steal the man away from the redhead. When a mysterious invitation arrives, the girls get ready for the reopening of the alien resort from the last OVA hoping to get Kei to notice them.
The love triangle seen in the other features was a solid one but now the writers tried to throw a monkey wrench and add a male love interest for the rival main girls. This sort of destabilizes the status quo and the typical formula a bit, but it creates a list of issues. The first one is that A-ko seems to be quite out of character as she perhaps wouldn't be falling madly in love with a random dude, nor do I think she would just decide to "be normal" and get away from C-ko just to meet a guy. She never struck me as boy crazy or something like that. It's not like we knew every facet of her before, and she was just a parody character after all, but there's something strange about seeing her act that way. I can buy it, however, because the pay off is worth it and everything works out in the end but boy is that a questionable decision.
Having said that, while the OVA money seems to be drying up a bit, this entry has some very good animated sequences with enjoyable destruction (even when the fights are lacking and brief), it continues in the tradition of adding fun references (even if most of them don't amount to much other than some admittedly funny gags), they do some good stuff with the secondary characters and the jokes, reactions and witty lines of dialogue can still be hilarious when they hit, which is often. So it's a well done sequel that simply has a somewhat misguided premise but in which the inner workings still function properly, even if the genius and novelty of the first movie is fading away a bit.
I also do appreciate how this new side of A-ko is awakened as she is seen behaving in an even more grounded or human way, especially after we see her at her fast food job and having money issues. This is honestly pretty sweet and shows how this character can live in the normal world and still have engaging problems in her stories. So I think that by this point, while still relying on the formula to a certain extent, the story potential for A-ko herself was slightly expanded upon.
It's a kind of daring way to break the mold a bit while still being faithful to what we have seen before in the series. It doesn't break what has been established and you can still have a lot of fun with it.
