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Video Girl Ai

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Video Girl Ai
Cover of volume 1 of the English version of the manga
電影少女
(Den'ei Shōjo)
GenreRomance, science fiction[1]
Manga
Written byMasakazu Katsura
Published byShueisha
English publisher
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Jump
DemographicShōnen
Original run1989 – 1992
Volumes15 (List of volumes)
Live-action film
Directed byRyū Kaneda
StudioToho
ReleasedJune 29, 1991
Runtime95 minutes
Original video animation
Directed byMizuho Nishikubo
Produced byMitsuhisa Ishikawa
Tetsuo Daitoku
Written byMayori Sekijima
Satoru Akahori
Music byTōru Okada
StudioProduction I.G
Licensed by
Released March 27, 1992 – August 28, 1992
Episodes6
Light novel
Written bySukehiro Tomita
Published1993
Television drama
Den'ei Shōjo ~Video Girl Ai 2018~
Directed byKazuaki Seki
Produced byTV Tokyo Robot
Written byKōhei Kiyasu
Music bytofubeats
Original networkTV Tokyo
Original run January 14, 2018 – April 1, 2018
Episodes12

Video Girl Ai (電影少女, Den'ei Shōjo, lit. "Video Girl") is a manga series created by Masakazu Katsura and published by Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump. It also has an anime adaptation. The manga is published in English by Viz Communications. It was formerly published in the anthology Animerica Extra by Viz.

It was started in 1989 and continued until 1992, and fifteen manga volumes were produced.

A live-action movie of Video Girl Ai was released in 1991.[2] The plot starts much like the first volume of the manga, but differs later, and the ending is quite different from the OVA and manga.

The Video Girl Ai anime is a six-part OVA series which was produced by I.G. Tatsunoko. The series was released in 1992 by Jump Video. It roughly covers most of the material found in volumes 1 and 3 of the manga (and some of Volume 2). Viz Video released the OVA in North America on VHS in 1999[3] and on DVD in December 2001.

In 2018 a live-action television drama called "Denei Shojo: Video Girl Ai 2018" ran on TV Tokyo. The series is set 25 years after the original manga and the main character is the nephew of Yota Moteuchi.[4]

Video Girl Ai was followed in 1993 with another sci-fi/romantic comedy manga DNA² and by the straight romantic comedy I"s in 1997.

History

It was started in 1989 and continued until 1992, and fifteen manga volumes were produced. The first 13 volumes tell a story about a video girl named Ai Amano. The last two volumes, which came years later, focus on a video girl named Len, hence the new name for these two volumes – Video Girl Len. In fact, a pun is present here which is lost in translation; the two video girls' names, "Ren" and "Ai", combine to form ren'ai – a Japanese word used to describe the type of romantic comedy that Video Girl Ai is. Although they have different protagonists, the "Ai" and "Len" sub-stories are not entirely unrelated; they take place in the same setting, with a similar premise. Two characters from the first 13 volumes also appear in volumes 14 & 15. Volume 15 concludes with a bonus chapter about Video Girl Haruno. Her story was written before Video Girl Ai, and is almost totally separate from the stories of Ai and Len, being alluded to in only one line of dialogue in the other chapters.

Story

The story starts when Yota Moteuchi finds out that the girl he likes, Moemi Hayakawa, is in love with his best friend, Takashi Niimai. Disappointed by this fact, he decides to rent a video from a mysterious video store that appeared in front of him on his way home. The video store was called "Gokuraku" ("Paradise"). The unique thing about this video store was that the videos in the store contained "video girls", girls which literally come to life and out of the user's television when the video tape is played to cheer the renter up. Not knowing about the video girls, Yota chooses to rent the video 'I'll Cheer You Up!', starring Ai Amano. Ai comes to life with the purpose to brighten up Yota's life and encourage him to pursue his love.

However, Yota plays the video on a broken video recorder, which causes Ai to come out "broken"; among other effects she has the ability to feel emotions. This additional feature of Ai causes her to eventually fall in love with Yota; a feeling which, after giving up on Moemi, Yota begins to return. However, a mysterious man related to Gokuraku known as Rolex enters the story and tries to recall Ai as she is faulty, and the fact that Ai's tape is nearing the end of its playing time makes matters even worse.

From this point on, the story changes focus slightly and concentrates on Yota and Ai attempting to overcome the difficulties presented by Gokuraku. Various other complications come into the story; for example Yota's continuing love for Moemi, and his relationship with a new character, Nobuko Nizaki.

Initially, Ai spends some of her time teasing Yota mercilessly in various sexual manners i.e. pretending to initiate intercourse, or joining Yota "innocently" in the bath "to help him wash". Yota's resulting embarrassment and attempt to extricate himself from the situation results, as always, in some slapstick humor and more resulting sexual tension.

Characters

  • Ai Amano (天野 あい, Amano Ai) Beautiful, full of boundless energy. Hard to say what she is really like, versus what she was intended to be. Video girls are generally supposed to be comforting, nubile, excellent cooks and socially graceful, but the malfunction of Yota's VCR has made her tomboyish, at times rude, prone to violence, a terrible cook (actually, she learns to cook all by herself), but full of heart and able to feel human emotion. Her chest endowment has also shrunk considerably due to said VCR malfunction. Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (OAV), Minami Takayama (CD-drama), and by Maggie Blue O'Hara in the English dub. Played by: Kaori Sakagami ('91), Nanase Nishino ('18).[4]
  • Yota "Dateless"* Moteuchi (弄内 洋太, Moteuchi Yōta) Yota is the stereotypical loser, unable to declare his feelings to his unrequited love, Moemi, socially awkward, with a tendency to get nervous and clumsy around women. However, he is known to be also very caring, kind, and helpful to those he is close to. Voiced by: Takeshi Kusao (OAV), Nozomu Sasaki (CD-drama), and Brad Swaile in the English dub. Played by: Ken Osawa ('91), Shigeyuki Totsugi ('18).[4]
  • Moemi Hayakawa (早川 もえみ, Hayakawa Moemi) An attractive girl, though almost hopelessly moon-eyed over Takashi, who is too popular to really appreciate Moemi's affectations. Voiced by: Yuri Amano (OVA), Kotono Mitsuishi (CD-drama), and Jennifer Copping in the English dub. Played by: Hiromi Hamaguchi.
  • Takashi Niimai (新舞 貴志, Niimai Takashi) Your typical "tall, dark, and handsome" popular guy. He is one of Yota's best friends, and rejects Moemi's advances because he knows Yota's feelings for her. Voiced by: Koji Tsujitani (OAV), Kazuhiko Inoue (CD-drama), and Samuel Vincent in the English dub. Played by Naoki Hosaka.
  • Nobuko Nizaki (仁崎 伸子, Nizaki Nobuko) A girl, one year behind Yota, who developed a crush on him in art class two years earlier and now, with Moemi and Ai temporarily sidelined, can pursue romantic ties with Yota. She first appears midway through volume 3 and only appears in the manga.
  • Natsumi Yamaguchi (山口 夏美, Yamaguchi Natsumi) A girl, an orphan and a runaway, who had played with Yota in kindergarten. Her family then moved away. Her theme is misfortune. Her attribute is a hand extended to help one up. She first appears in volume 6 and only appears in the manga. She seems to have a weak heart.Later on in the series she dies in the hospital, and becomes Ai's role model in love.

* This nickname is based on a pun with the Japanese verb 持てる (moteru), which means to be well liked or popular (or to have something). A second way to read Moteuchi would be "Motenai," which is the negative conjugation for moteru (in other words, to not have something). An attempt to get the joke across to English speaking audiences was made by Ai, who reads his name and declares, "Motenai?!? As in LOSER?" Yota corrects her, but the image has already been planted into the audience's mind.

Len story characters

  • Len Momono (ももの 連, Momono Ren) Star of 'Let's Fall in Love.' A new and untested video girl. She was created by the nameless "Old Man" who once worked in the Gokuraku store. Unlike Ai and the original Video Girls, she's allowed to feel emotions of her own.
  • Hiromu Taguchi and Toshiki Karukawa The boys who rent the tape. Hiromu is the center character of this new story arch, and is pretty much as shy as Yota used to be. He has a keen interest on Ayumi, but there are some problems in their relationship because of his shyness and because of the bad reputation she has. Later, they engage, but Hiromu becomes too happy to pay attention to Ayumi, and they break up temporarily until he can "find her again" in his memories. Toshiki, on the other hand, is more emotionally expressive and prone to teenage-typical reactions, like spying on Len (which makes her angry).
  • Ayumi Shirakawa (白川 歩み, Shirakawa Ayumi) The girl Hiromu wants to love. However, their relationship is made difficult because of a rumor spread out by her ex-boyfriend, which gave her a bad reputation in her school and beyond (Hiromu and Ayumi attend different schools). Len then devised a plan to reapproach them, just to make Ayumi see who she was dealing with all along. She breaks up with her ex-boyfriend for good and starts dating Hiromu.
  • Yota "Dateless"* Moteuchi (弄内 洋太, Moteuchi Yōta) Now eight years older than he appeared at the end of "Video Girl Ai", Yota now teaches at an art school in the afternoon, which Hiromu and Ayumi attend. He is Hiromu's mentor and they talk often about Len. Yota tells Ayumi that Len went through the same experiences that she is going through. He does mention at one point in the series that Ai is doing well.

Volumes

ISBNs are for the 2nd edition by VIZ Media

  • Video Girl Ai volumes:
    • Volume 1 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-074-X
    • Volume 2 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-075-8
    • Volume 3 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-075-8
    • Volume 4 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-104-5
    • Volume 5 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-146-0
    • Volume 6 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-607-1
    • Volume 7 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-748-5
    • Volume 8 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-303-X
    • Volume 9 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-304-8
    • Volume 10 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-305-6
    • Volume 11 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-306-4
    • Volume 12 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-307-2
    • Volume 13 – American Edition: ISBN 1-59116-308-0
  • Video Girl Len volumes:

Reception

The manga has over 14 million copies in print.[5]

References

  1. ^ "The Official Website for Video Girl Ai". Viz Media. Retrieved May 27, 2017.
  2. ^ "電影少女". Japanese Cinema Database. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  3. ^ "ANN 1999 Spring Anime Preview". Anime News Network.
  4. ^ a b c "Live-Action Video Girl Ai 2018 Series' Promo Video Streamed". Anime News Network.
  5. ^ http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2018/03/16/time-limited-video-girl-store-to-open-in-tokyo-next-week

External links

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