[Review] Spaceship Girl Yamamoto Yohko

Another recent watch for me was Spaceship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, a series
that seems to have gone from an early nineties OAV based on a manga, and
has then been revisited as a 26 part TV anime series.

First of all, however, I should mention that it is not necessary to watch
the OAV before the TV series, and I should also mention that the two
stories, although they cross over and share some basic features, do not
necessarily follow each other.

I saw the TV series first. The art is fairly standard for its type but is
well put together for all that. The story in both versions is based around
a group of four girls from the 20th century, taken forward in time to
pilot spaceships in a "war" which is actually a set of preplanned battles.
The pilots are perfectly safe for, generally speaking, a teleport system
protects them so that, if they are defeated and their ships begin to go
boom, they are teleported back to their base ship. Apparently, the theory
behind it is that 20th century folk are better suited to piloting than the
contemporary pilots, a theory supported by the fact that the four pilots
in question, especially the title chara Yohko, are so successful.

In the TV series, the porting of the four backwards and forwards in time
has awakened an entity referred to as "Oldtimer" in the series which takes
great exception to the meddling in time of these folk and takes various
steps to stop it, some of these steps rather extreme! Actually, the story
was very enjoyable up to around three or four episodes from the end when
the story appears to come to a climax, fall away to a practical end then
suddenly tries to get going again with the possession of one of the four
in a storyline that finishes as abruptly as it starts!

As for the OAV series, most of the charas are the same right down to the
launches, though Momiji's face plaster, which is normally on one cheek but
sometimes migrates to her nose in the TV series, appears to be missing
entirely. The biggest difference is that, in the TV series, Momiji and
Yohko were already flying and it is they that recruit Ayano and Madoka
where, in the OAV, Yohko starts out as the rookie. Everything else is
pretty much the same, right down to Madoka's irascible temper and huge,
shiny forehead. The art is a lot less sophisticated but I believe this may
be down to the years between the two productions. Unlike the TV series,
the OAVs don't have much of a story plot other than their ongoing rivalry
with NESS in general and the Redsnappers in particular.

--
//\ // Chika <miyuki><at><crashnet><org><uk>
// \// Mitsuo... Menda... naha naha...

.... Hey! Your Trakball is upside down!

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:58:59 +0100, Chika <miyuki@spam-no-way.invalid>
wrote:
[color=blue]
>Another recent watch for me was Spaceship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, a series
>that seems to have gone from an early nineties OAV based on a manga, and
>has then been revisited as a 26 part TV anime series.[/color]

I watched Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko just last month, and while I
rated it as below average I did notice one detail in it that made the
show nearly unique: Yohko's school (presumably a high school) didn't
have school uniforms. The only other series I can think of that had
no uniforms for middle or high school were Shingu: Secret of the
Stellar Wars (in which a school uniform was part of the mystery of one
particular student) and an old TV series called Miracle Girls.
------------------------

David S. Bieksza
[email]bieksza@noUCEerols.com.inva[/email]lid

Replies to the group are preferable to an e-mail
reply -- my spam filter list is so long I may not
see a direct reply.

In article <cv1pa45sbmr9ne1l4bgibgrv13u4hgi96i@4ax.com>,
Dave Bieksza <bieksza@noUCEerols.com.invalid> wrote:[color=blue]
> On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:58:59 +0100, Chika <miyuki@spam-no-way.invalid>
> wrote:[/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
> >Another recent watch for me was Spaceship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, a series
> >that seems to have gone from an early nineties OAV based on a manga, and
> >has then been revisited as a 26 part TV anime series.[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> I watched Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko just last month, and while I
> rated it as below average...[/color]

Fair enough, but why?
[color=blue]
> I did notice one detail in it that made the show nearly unique: Yohko's
> school (presumably a high school) didn't have school uniforms. The only
> other series I can think of that had no uniforms for middle or high
> school were Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars (in which a school
> uniform was part of the mystery of one particular student) and an old TV
> series called Miracle Girls.[/color]

They don't seem to dwell an awful lot on the school, so I left that detail
severely alone. I'll grant you, it is unusual.

--
//\ // Chika <miyuki><at><crashnet><org><uk>
// \// Mitsuo... Menda... naha naha...

.... "What?!? This isn't the Files section?!?"

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:01:55 +0100, Chika <miyuki@spam-no-way.invalid>
wrote:
[color=blue]
>In article <cv1pa45sbmr9ne1l4bgibgrv13u4hgi96i@4ax.com>,
> Dave Bieksza <bieksza@noUCEerols.com.invalid> wrote:
>[color=green]
>> I watched Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko just last month, and while I
>> rated it as below average...[/color]
>
>Fair enough, but why?[/color]

For starters, the skimpy animation budget. It was bad enough that
movement was so limited, but on top of that it had scene after scene
with pitch-black backgrounds (no expensive details to fill in) and/or
monochromatic "lighting." I could have forgiven all that if the story
was worthwhile, but for me it made hardly any sense. And the
concluding arc of Yohko vs. <spoiler omitted> was the final straw.

I originally saw about half of SGYY on VHS fansub tapes years ago.
When I finally installed a package of "exotic" codecs on my PC, SGYY
was the first series I picked to watch. Thus it was very
disappointing that the show didn't live up to my expectations.
------------------------

David S. Bieksza
[email]bieksza@noUCEerols.com.inva[/email]lid

Replies to the group are preferable to an e-mail
reply -- my spam filter list is so long I may not
see a direct reply.

In article <56fra4pjpb9dnpuhfj7hfsmb0ia19tpa59@4ax.com>,
Dave Bieksza <bieksza@noUCEerols.com.invalid> wrote:[color=blue]
> On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:01:55 +0100, Chika <miyuki@spam-no-way.invalid>
> wrote:[/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
> >In article <cv1pa45sbmr9ne1l4bgibgrv13u4hgi96i@4ax.com>,
> > Dave Bieksza <bieksza@noUCEerols.com.invalid> wrote:
> >[color=darkred]
> >> I watched Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko just last month, and while I
> >> rated it as below average...[/color]
> >
> >Fair enough, but why?[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> For starters, the skimpy animation budget. It was bad enough that
> movement was so limited, but on top of that it had scene after scene
> with pitch-black backgrounds (no expensive details to fill in) and/or
> monochromatic "lighting." I could have forgiven all that if the story
> was worthwhile, but for me it made hardly any sense. And the
> concluding arc of Yohko vs. <spoiler omitted> was the final straw.[/color]

I can certainly grant that some of the story was a bit disjointed. I think
I said as much in my original review. However I was expecting no less than
a TV series, so I expected a certain amount of corner cutting with the
budget. Having said that, I think I've seen worse, although I can
certainly grant that I've seen better.
[color=blue]
> I originally saw about half of SGYY on VHS fansub tapes years ago.
> When I finally installed a package of "exotic" codecs on my PC, SGYY
> was the first series I picked to watch. Thus it was very
> disappointing that the show didn't live up to my expectations.[/color]

If I've learned anything after all these years, it's that it can be
dangerous to try to revisit your past. Reality doesn't always match up to
expectation. ^_^;

--
//\ // Chika <miyuki><at><crashnet><org><uk>
// \// Mitsuo... Menda... naha naha...

.... Psychoceramics: The study of crackpots.