Ryoko Forever Fan Club
Ai Orikasa's Other Roles

Images on this page are all video captures from the actual shows.

The list is ordered with my personal favourite characters towards the start.

801 TTS Airbats (listed on the Turnpike by its Japanese title, Aozora Shoujotai [Blue Sky Squadron]) is a straightforward romantic comedy set in an air force base, where the 801st Tactical Training Squadron Airbats display team acts as the dumping ground for undesirables. A lightweight but very humorous and entertaining show, with a small cast of interesting characters, plus authentic and detailed aircraft; highly recommended. There have been 7 OAVs to date. Sergeant Arisa Mitaka is probably the squadron's best pilot. Despite her considerable skill, she's been punted to the Airbats due to her attitude problem and tendency to get into fights: she's often mistaken for a gaijin due to her dark skin, and it annoys her. Arisa has a large dose of the Ryoko spirit, and is a primary character with lots of air time, good lines, and an important place in the story.

Maze is an extremely strange ecchi comedy involving deposed Princess Mil, her best friend Maze (a very strange character indeed), and their small troop of followers, constantly on the run from assassins and armies. The two OAVs are pretty funny, if you can cope with lots of bloodshed, gobs of gratuitous nudity and bisexualism, and enjoy D&D parodies (the dragon-hosted quiz show is a riot), although the manga and subsequent TV series didn't grab my interest. Not for children. Soriodo is one of Maze's followers. Her demihunter training (that is, she has the ability to fight demiarmor [magical mecha] unaided) makes her a fearsome warrior. Her only weapon is an endless supply of long steel throwing spikes that she can also use as claws. Typically, foes learn of her presence only when they receive a spike between the shoulderblades an instant after she teleports behind them. Possibly the most Ryoko-like of all Ai Orikasa's other characters, her behaviour and speech patterns are fairly similar to Ryoko's, and she also has the requisite golden eyes (albeit closer to orange than yellow). But she's even more lascivious, fun-loving, and totally lacking in modesty, has a wicked sense of humour, and takes great delight in embarrassing her uptight colleague Rapier (a female knight of the realm whose personality seems to owe something to Aeka). Unfortunately, Soriodo lacks Ryoko's depth of character and her softer, more emotional side. The picture shows Soriodo's normal costume which is all she ever wears in the OAV series.

Saber Marionette J depicts a society gone horribly wrong on a planet where, due to a terrible disaster, there are no human females. The males reproduce through cloning machines and have built female robots called marionettes to take the place of women - a vain effort, since the mindless, unemotional marionettes are useful only for labor. The appearance of half a dozen thinking, feeling marionettes with a special destiny changes everything forever. Although it appears at first to be a simple action comedy, the show has surprising hidden depths and is capable of taking a firm hold on one's attention once you start thinking about it. Watch out for Yuko Mizutani (Mihoshi) in classic form as the smart but deranged Luchs. 57 episodes have been animated to date. Baiko is one of the most advanced Saber Marionettes (built to military specifications for combat), one of two acting as the personal bodyguards of the Shogun of Japoness, the Japan-like city-state in which SMJ is mostly set. She later assimilates a human male's personality, which makes it hard to decide whether Baiko should be called he, she, it, or even they. Baiko is one of the more important secondary characters and can be found in most episodes. She's equally likely to be on patrol as in conference with heads of state, and is always found with her colleague Tamasaburo. She has golden yellow eyes and is a ferocious and extremely capable warrior; with her two green-bladed energy swords, she and Tamasaburo form a very effective second line of defence for Japoness.

Battle Athletes Victory is a romp concerning the efforts of a group of female athletes to win a place on the University Satellite and perhaps become Earth's Champion, the "Cosmic Beauty". The early parts are rather lightweight, focussing mainly on slapstick comedy, while the very engaging later parts focus on the personality problems of the characters. I find it considerably more interesting than the Battle Athletes OAVs. Yumika Karashima is the "loving and hopeful" faculty doctor at the training grounds. She's 27 ("That's none of your business!"). Her services are much in demand, as becomes apparent only a few minutes into the first episode. She's an amusing character but really doesn't get anything like enough screen time, and is secondary to the story.

Blue Seed sounds like the name of a hentai show, but nothing could be further from the truth. It's the intriguing story of Momiji, a young girl in a strange situation: she possesses a powerful store of energy which would be released upon her death, causing the Aragami, a race of ancient monsters bent on taking over the world, to be forced back into hibernation for centuries. So the Aragami are forced to protect her while searching for a safe way to destroy her, while the Government protects her while trying to resist the urge to use her as a human sacrifice. This fairly dark tale is lightened by good doses of humour and a lot of character development, and is one of the better humans versus monsters stories. Not sure how many episodes in total, but I believe there have now been two 26-episode TV series. Ryoko Takeuchi is more-or-less the administrative assistant of the TAC (the small government department assigned to protect Momiji and fight the monsters), but she's also very handy with a gun and her competence makes her very valuable when the TAC go on a monster hunt. Unfortunately she's also a rather dry character, and tends to be the TAC's serious side. She tends to take second place to some of the other characters, but is a constant presence and plays a large role in the series.

Ellcia is a four-part OAV fantasy series in which Eira and her band of pirates use the mysterious Ship of God (the Ellcia of the title) to battle the evil empire and its high-technology armies. It's a rather odd show that tries to be funny to the point of being ridiculous while at the same time telling an epic adventure. Worth seeing once out of curiosity value, but it's not in the same league as Slayers or Record of Lodoss War. Princess Crystel is one of the bad guys. Placed in command of the empire's forces, she comes perilously close to defeating Eira and her rebellion. A primary character, she makes a respectable and strong-willed villain. She does what she does out of loyalty to her country and love for her father, a pleasant change from the cardboard-cutout "evil for the sake of it" villains that are all too common in anime. She drives much of the plot almost from the beginning.

Miyuki-chan in the Wonderland is CLAMP's twisted and kinky retelling of Alice in Wonderland. The plot of the two 15-minute OAVs concerns pretty Miyuki-chan finding herself in strange places and being assaulted by various oversexed women. Good mindless fun if you're into watching an endless stream of beautiful and beautifully-drawn underdressed women, with the occasional bit of S&M and nudity thrown in. Cheshire Cat (Chesha-Neko) is CLAMP's concept of a tabby cat, who pounces on Miyuki-chan from her perch in a tree. Note the golden yellow, slitted eyes. Only a minor character, Cheshire Cat is on screen for about a minute, and most of that time she's listening to Miyuki-chan's ramblings. Without doubt one of the most beautifully-drawn minor characters ever.

Sakura Wars is a steampunk story in which a group of girls with spiritual powers are recruited to pilot various mecha (lots of steam, pistons, rivets, and so forth - no Evas here) as a defence against an attack of demons. It's well made, with good artwork and an odd sense of humour that definitely makes it worth watching. Chisa Yokoyama (Sasami) stars as the Sakura of the title. Orikasa-san sings the downbeat, period-style ending theme ballad, Watashi no Aozora (My Blue Sky). Ayame Fujieda appears to be an aide to the officer responsible for the defence force. She doesn't seem to do very much, overall, although she's present in quite a few scenes. Watch out in the first episode when Ms. Orikasa has to speak a few lines in English, and actually does a pretty capable job of it (better than most Japanese voice actors seem able to manage).

Galaxy Fraulein Yuna has had two short OAV series. The first series (which has been released by ADVision) is only 2 episodes long and is loads of fun if you don't overdose on its excessive cuteness and silliness. The recent 3-episode second series (to be released some time in 1999) is much darker and more serious, focussing more on plot and character development than on slapstick. Yuna is voiced by Chisa Yokoyama (Sasami) on the Japanese versions. Fraulein D is the extremely nasty and evil and wicked villain from the first OAV series, who spends almost the whole of both episodes arranging for Yuna to be dropped into a black hole. She's not all that interesting and is really a secondary character, despite her central role in the plot. Although the picture here doesn't show it, she does have the obligatory cat-like slitted golden-yellow eyes.

Hurricane Polymar parodies the basic anime souped-up-human versus the bad guys genre. Although funny in places, the show is overpowered by the numerous fight scenes, which I find of no interest whatsoever. Nina is a fighter sent in by the bad guys to deal with the hero. Not a very interesting character, she's on-screen quite a lot but has little dialog and as characters go is low-grade cardboard. Oh, and she gets the privilege of taking her clothes off near the end, mainly fan service but also to show off her gills.

U-Jin Brand is a trio of hentai tales. In terms of story and character it manages to rise a little above the mediocrity of most hentai titles, but equally it's less hentai than most, so it's not clear what its appeal is. Sachiko Honda is the jilted girlfriend from the second of the three episodes. She gets her revenge and wins back her man by proving that his new girlfriend isn't what she appears to be. Although she's the central character and drives the story, personally I don't find her very interesting.

Babel II concerns a boy who receives formidable psychic powers from the ancient Tower of Babel, and as a result finds himself battling a megalomaniac who wants to use that power to rule the world. After a promising start, it settles down and becomes a rather predictable four episodes of non-stop psychic wars with lots of raging and gritted teeth. Yuka Ohzenji is this show's answer to Dana Scully, unfortunately she's neither as smart nor as interesting. Working for a small UN police department alongside her less skeptical partner, her only duty appears to be to observe the goings-on and not believe any of it until it threatens to ram itself down her throat. She's a secondary character at best, and rather uninspired.

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