Battle Athletes, the infinitely less popular OVA (compared to its TV counterpart, Battle Athletes Victory), has something going for it. Without being compared to the TV show that was released later, it's completely average. Kanzaki Akari is a slightly whiny, crybaby klutz that yearns to live up to the amazing legend of her goddess-like mother. Fairly determined, the thing Akari lacks is confidence. In this timeline, Earth almost completely demolished itself in horrid wars that took place long ago. When, during these wars, Earth was attacked by an outside invasion - aliens. In order to combat these aliens, humans united to fight the enemy. Unfortunately, it was a match of opposite forces, and the war became a meaningless demonstration of death. As a better way of fighting the opposition, Earth sent its best athlete, a nameless man, to a great competition against them in sports. The winner would win the war. The human won. Years after, Earth's greatest title is to be that of the Cosmo Beauty - the ultimate female athlete. (Men don't really seem to have political power in this world. [Editor's note: Oh darn. :P]) At University Satellite, where the battle for this title is, Akari trains with her team that was formed there - all for Cosmo Beauty. Akari is entering the very-difficult-to-get-into University Satellite at the beginning, so you don't have a chance to get to know her before she's pulled into the black hole of sports.
The plot isn't bad - fairly used (Humans vs. Aliens + Great Big (Really Big) Competition Divided by Another Really Big Competition Among Humans = Salvation of Human Life), it's pulled off with some grace. It has a bad ending, but so did the TV show, so in comparison it's passable. Actually, the OVA probably had a better ending than the TV show. However, the TV show has an ending, while after the end of BA number 6, I was wondering if I hadn't actually bought the entire thing.
The thing that really irked me about the OVA is the fact that it had horrible character development. The entire show was crammed into six OVA episodes; although that can be done in some OVA, it didn't work with Battle Athletes. Akari starts out as a whiny crybaby with some determination - at the end, she still is. There is no change in her manner - although you could take that as a point that she is always in 'indomitable spirit', it really seemed dumb. There was no chance for you to see how everything could work - for instance, at the beginning of the OVA you are made to acknowledge that Akari was the number one trainee from the Antarctica Training School on Earth. But when presented with this whiny, unconfident girl, one wonders how she could have possibly passed the other two trainees? Frankly, all Battle Athletes needed was some more time - and it was given that time in Battle Athletes Victory. Even though the TV show was introduced after the OVA (and the sequels usually don't work out better than the original), it really did in this case. And BAV was average! [Editor's note: Yeesh. So harsh. ;p]
Battle Athletes does have some re-watchability, as long as one remembers that to take this show very lightly. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously in the first place, but you shouldn't really think at all. It doesn't have the ability to be the topic of discussions, and one of the best parts of watching anime is getting inside the minds of the characters or plot. Or, in this case, lack thereof. Battle Athletes really isn't too bad - just worse than average.
[ "Battle Athletes Victory" TV ]
Reviewer : Kylara
Many years from now, our own planet Earth has made an incredible shift in its axis. Antarctica now lies on the equator, and the rest of the world flipped with it. There on Antarctica is the training school for girls, where young female teenagers practice and hone their athletic skills in order to get to the near-legendary "University Satellite". The few that get there may compete in the Great Competition, where the winner becomes the "Cosmo Beauty", the best athlete in the entire universe. Fifteen year-old Kanzaki Akari starts off attending the Antarctic training school in an effort to eventually become a "Cosmo Beauty". Daughter of the legendary (and now deceased) Cosmo Beauty, Midoh Tomoe, Akari yearns to be as good as her mother. Unconfident, whiny, and absolutely helpless when without friends, she hides amazing athletic abilities. With the help of the many friends that she attains in the training school, Akari goes her goals with everything she's got.
This show has a good load of good points and bad points. Coming out after its OVA half, Battle Athletes, it really stretches out what the OVA covers. The OVA covers the latter half of the show, while Victory covers that and the events before. Although better than the OVA (it wasn't really squashed together), as a standalone TV show it was average.
The best thing this show has going for it is probably the character development. Akari changes from a whiny, crybaby (sound familiar?) to a more confident girl with a better understanding of the world around her (but subject to a good cry every now and then). Seeing Akari change is very refreshing, but the creators seemed to know they had a good thing, and overused it - Akari often flip-flopped back and forth from unconfident to super-confident. Akari's other friends, ranging from Yanagida Ichino to Jessie Gurtland (the former loves her, the latter hates her). Everyone from the first season (except the comic relief) has some really good episodes that truly show what a great person they are. The characters from the second half of the show? By the second half of the show, almost all of the original characters are gone. Obviously, other new characters came to take up the lost space. Even though they are the 'true' original characters from the OVA, they are infinitely that much more boring than the first set of people. Kris Christopher, a major character in the OVA and in the second part of the TV show, is the most annoying person I've ever met. She's too perfect, and when she's not perfect, she's just stupid. Taking the place of Ichino as Akari's best friend, she simply doesn't seem to fill her shoes.
Also on characters being from different parts of Earth (or the solar system), they become incredibly stereotypical. If they had made fun of themselves more [Japan], it probably would've fit the description of a very interesting parody. As it was, the really typecasted characters get marked down, and brings down the entire quality of the show. For instance, Tanya Natdhipytadd, the girl from Africa, is apparently what they think of that continent. She prays to the god "Wong Ai-Ji" (whom I bet they made up), rips all her clothes to make them easier to run in, and dashes around barefoot on all fours. (Yes, she's human.) Although she's the most obvious one, there are many others like her in the show. (Some of the stereotypes get really dumb, even the ones that they made up.) [Editor's note: And of course everyone speaks Japanese. ^_^]
The plot is original and creative enough, although the ending sort of messed it up. Original enough with its trendy 'Female only athletic battles' (I counted exactly four guys in this entire show), it exercises well the competitiveness and beauty of athletic sports. One of the neatest points about this is the underlying message that Akari sometimes remembers - everyone does their best, so doing that isn't good enough anymore. Although that seems like it can be a discouraging message, it shows good enough spirits for anyone.
Odd, funny, and mostly very lighthearted, this show has a lot of different themes in them, and really shows how human these characters are. Well, at least emotionally - I'm not sure it's possible for humans to actually do half the sports they do. Overall, it was interesting and funny, and very watchable.
