This review contains major spoilers for Video Girl Ai 520https://i.ur.com/Lup4P5Y.jpg Youve probably encountered the idea of anime just being advertisement for manga when there is one. While theres a bit more nuancehttps://www.quora.com/Isittruethatmostanimeisanadvertisementtogetpeopletoreadthemanga to it the basic idea is true. Nowadays you see it most obviously in the singlecour seasonal anime that crop up each season. Theyll have endings but they wont feel conclusive. Since a second season was never intended to experience more of the story youll have to read the manga. The most popular anime tend to hide it well but this isnt always the case. Notably theres Attack on Titans first season and the manga reader/animeonly divide it popularized for a new generation. This demo style of AnimeasAdvertisement is perhaps seen best in OVAs. The formats shorter runtimes make the advertising aspect more blatant. With a singlecour anime you can cover a solid arc or two of a given manga. Sure there might be a cliffhanger but any director with even a bit of skill can eke out an ending thats satisfying even if its not conclusive. This isnt the case with most OVAs. You might finish an arc if youre lucky and to get there details will have to be cut to reach an abrupt ending. Viewers essentially have to read the manga to get any sort of satisfaction. You see it in Junk Boyhttps://anilist.co/review/2975 you see it in Outlandershttps://anilist.co/review/3806 you see it in Alice in Cyberlandhttps://anilist.co/review/15008. Whats that you have no idea what those are? Of course you havent The economic boom at the time as well as the lower costs associated with making an OVA meant that any and anything of note and sometimes not at the time got one. Most fell through the cracks. This isnt to say that it all was unknown dreck. Enough funding time and care could lead to OVAs with superb animation and plots that were punchy through their conciseness. The endings could genuinely lead to intrigue while standing on their own as satisfying. The boom led to classics like Golden Boyhttps://anilist.co/review/6670 Please Save My Earthhttps://anilist.co/anime/526/PleaseSaveMyEarth/ Gunsmith Catshttps://anilist.co/anime/650/GunsmithCats/ and todays subject Video Girl AI. I first encountered the OVA about twenty years after its release via an anime guide. It covered all manners of tropes and cultural concepts found in anime often using examples from 90s anime such as Ranma and Video Girl Ai. While it might not be as popular today the fact that it endures in the anime fandoms consciousness thirty years later is a testament to how big it once was how formative it was to anime watchers in the nineties and noughties. If it wasnt a classic it wouldnt have had not one but two television dramas debut in the late 2010s. Its legacy is no doubt felt in many romantic comedies and dramedies that have debuted since its release. This review is not about that anime. This is about its manga. Just as I first encountered the anime in ananime guidebook I encountered the manga in an extensive holy shit is it extensive mangaguidebook by Jason Thompsonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga:TheCompleteGuide. For years I wasnt sure whether to dive into the manga or anime and I have no idea why I didnt just say por qu no los dos like I did with Akira. Earlier this year when this Emo Sadboi was in dire need to lift his spirits he decided to finally pull the plug and read the manga. If the anime was so acclaimed surely the manga was too. Seeing as OVAs cut so much I imagined the manga would be even better. I expected a classic. I expected a moving tale of romance. What I got was a meandering mess of a manga that only the most hopeless of hopeless romantics could glean any satisfaction from. What I got was largely exhibit A of how an OVA can actually improve a story. But first we need to know what said story even is. 520https://i.ur.com/4Ez1NWZ.jpg Video Girl Ai follows Moteuchi Yota an unpopular high school boy. Hes a bit of a geek with an obsession with Batman and trouble talking to girls that is only exacerbated by his use of male advice magazines. His awkwardness is to the point where hes been given the nickname of Dateless Yota. he doesnt think he has a chance with his crush Moemi and any luck he may have had is all but dashed when she reveals she likes his best friend the cool Takashi. Hes crushed yet hes not bitter. Hes a good person at heart. Pure one might say whatever the hell that means so hes able to see a magical and mysterious video store called Gokuraku which offers tapes of Video Girls designed to cheer crestfallen young men up and help them find love. Yota believes a Video Girl is just a flowery name for a Gravure Idolhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ModelpersonGravureidols which is fine by him. But when he pops the tape into his home VCR. He finds that the woman behind the screen is talking to him. And its not just because hes so desperate for the affection of another that hell see companionship in everything. No the girl behind the screen Ai is actually addressing him. Then she comes out of the screen. This is what a Video Girl is a physical program that helps young men find love. This is the story is how the spunky Ai attempts to help Yota ditch his dateless reputation and how their relationship complicates and evolves as the series progresses. While I have a whole skeleton to pick with the story giving credit where credits due its not rotten to the core quite opposite in fact. Video Girl Ai for all its faults sits atop a solid foundation. This might be surprising to hear. At best the story sounds clich as all get out a bland socially awkward teenage boy with one defining interest in Yotas case his desire to be a manga illustrator is comforted by an energetic womanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ManicPixieDreamGirl? At worst the story about a woman who ostensibly has no agency and whose sole purpose is to comfort a heartbroken and awkward teenager sounds like yikes on bikes levels of problematic. Yet to his credit the mangaka Masakazu Katsura puts in the work to make it not as boring nor creepy as it initially sounds. Perhaps because as clich as it might sound its hard to deny that for many its relatable to strike out and want someone to turn to. Not necessarily to be a rebound but a soundboard and someone to talk to. Yota for as basic as he sounds can be interesting at times and his desire to be an artist is admittedly kind of endearing if not selfinserty to the nth degree youre not sly Katsura. Beyond that the plot isnt as creepy as it sounds because at the end of the day Ai does have agency and she doesnt act as a glorified toy for Yota. A big well big but well get to that in due time part of Video Girl Ais conflict is Ai resisting the powers that wish to control her and reduce her to a mindless program the glorified toy she decidedly is not. While I disliked the drama of Video Girl Ai for reasons Ill get to shortly in regards to that aspect of the manga I have to give props for the characters being consistent. This is a bit of faint praise to be sure but its still something to note.. A lot of the time I found the characters to be annoying at best downright stupid at worst but the consistency of their decisionmaking goes a long way in making the manga more tolerable even if not outandout enjoyable. If the characters made annoying decisions just to advance the plot my intelligence would be insulted but this thankfully isnt the case. My last bit of praise is the art though its honestly a mixed bag. The art of Video Girl Ai is inconsistent ranging from high to low detail. The low detailed art isnt bad and it works for the comedy well. The problem is that the styles switch so often and the difference is so great that it ends up being jarring. On the other hand the high detailed art goes harder than it has any right to. The detail edges towards realism while still maintaining a bit of stylistic flair. Its honestly a bit breathtaking. That said its a bit of a doubleedged sword because there are so many panty shots and instances of barebreasted nudity that Video Girl Ai may as well be ecchi. Bear in mind that these are teenagers. Also recall that the art is realistic? Seeing the problem yet? There were many instances where I was legitimately uncomfortable reading because unlike a lot of animanga these characters being sexualized dont look like cartoon characters of nondescript ages they look like realass teenage girls. And with that we move solidly to Video Girls Ais weaknesses. Broadly speaking the manga is fine but the devil is in the details and when we start looking a bit closer all hell breaks loose. 520https://i.ur.com/aZVtMxJ.png The early chapters feel like the best the manga has to offer. An entire story worth of possibilities is in front of us and it starts off well enough. Were introduced to our core cast of characters and theres the implicit promise that well see how they interact with each other. Unfortunately Katsura reneges on this promise as the relationship between Ai and Yota progresses too quickly. Its clear that Katsura wanted to get the ball rolling on the plot but in pushing it too soon I found it hard to muster care about what happens to these charactershttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EightDeadlyWords. Sure theres definitely chemistry between Ai and Yota and chemistry can do a lot of legwork when it comes to romantic stories. That said when storyaltering shit starts in happening to the characters of a lowstakes romance during volume one and two of a manga that has 15I cant help but check out. Ai loses her memories fairly early on and again its a bit hard to care due to how quickly it happens in the mangas run. As a result the manga ditches a lot of its cute comedy moving pretty solidly into drama from this point forward. And by fucking God is the teenage drama the most banal part of this goddamn manga. Let me do my best to quickly summarize the relationship progression just to illustrate the main reason why I couldnt care less about it. When we begin the story Yota has a crush on Moemi unbeknownst to her. Moemi meanwhile has a crush on Yotas friend Takashi and begins dating him soon after. Yota and Ai meet begin living together and begin developing feelings for each other that they dont act on. Ais memory is erased while Yota still has feelings for both her and Moemi. Noboku a girl one year younger than Yota has a crush on him and Yota decides to begin dating her. Soon after Ai regains her memories. Yota and Noboku drift apart and they break up. Moemi and Takashi stop dating. Moemi and Yota begin dating. Yota realizes Ai has regained her memories. Ai begins living at Takashis house as she doesnt want to live with Yota since she fears it might jeopardize his relationship with Moemi. Moemi and Yota break up. Yota begins pursuing Ai. 520https://i.ur.com/hIO6M77.png Got all that? Cool. I didnt care about the vast majority of it because I knew that Yota and Ai were endgame. And I was right Because of course I was. While its easy to dismiss me as gloating over the fact that I essentially guessed correctly Id like to believe the writing was on the wall from the first volume. As solid as it might be as I said the plot at its most basic is clich so clich rules apply. Youve read or watched this story a million times childhood friend never wins and childhood crush never wins. Now if Im being fair the winner of the ship is either the person whos seen first or the person whos most prominent in the story. While Ai is solidly the latter Moemi is the former so even if I could wave off Noboku out of hand it was still fiftyfifty. But as Yota continued to pine after Ai I knew it was game over. Even if the relationship was tragically cut short she was endgame. Thus all of the other relationship threads felt like busy work like distractions from the inevitable. But hey the journey is more important than the destination and all that jazz so it still could have been worth it if it were entertaining. But its not boy howdy is it ever not. Let me do my best to quickly summarize the relationship conflicts. Yota gets with X the relationship is good until communication breaks down and they stop talking sometimes due to jealousy over Yotas perceived feelings for another other times just due to general scheduling conflicts. A character will love someone. Theyll push them away and regret their decision. Theyll stay away even when said person tries to contact them. This happens again and again. For 100 chapters. While Video Girl Ai has an unfitting breakneck pace during its first two volumes the pacing slows to a crawl for most of its run only picking back up towards the end. The teen drama and lack of communication gets old very fast yet it feels like it never ends. Basic conflicts are protracted for chapters due to this lack of communication. Any instance of characters making logical decisions and actually talking to each other isnt met with me moving along. I invariably say thank fuck because theyre much more likely to drag things out. I guess its a good time as any to go into the characters that wage said drama. 520https://i.ur.com/ucAy20L.png First off we have our main character Yota so archetypical it borders on mindnumbing. I may have given him some slack earlier but all my goodwill goes out the window when I have to read a basic character utilized in a dramatic context. Hes your cookiecutter protagonist: somewhat wishywashy unpopular inawaythatmakesthemrelateableandnotawaythatactuallymakesthemdistinct but inexplicably good at attracting girls. Heres the thing as wishywashy as he can be as much as it seems like he cant make up his mind many instances where he does make up his mind are nullified by other characters disliking the decision. One of these characters is Moemi whose characterdefining trait is being nice apparentlyhttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InformedAttribute. Though its more that shes agreeable being eager to please to a fault. Even with that she can be pretty selfish and will try locking people into relationships even if its clear her partner is distant. Theres not much to say about Takashi it seems like its a writing issue but his aloofness just makes him come across as a boring dick most of the time. Then we have Ai who is by far the most compelling of the principal cast members. Besides having a fun personality thats often neutered due to the shroud of drama that hangs over most of the manga she has the most going on with a Pinnochio syndrome that offers more to think about than Stereotypical Teenage BS. Her plight raises questions of what it means to be human and if being a person is worth the hurt that comes with it. Its basic but its still deeper than the puddle were dealing with otherwise. Instead of Moemi Id characterize Ai as the nicest character as many of her actions no matter how annoying they may be are noble. She doesnt want Yota to waste his time with her or fall in love with her as she knows shell be gone soon thanks to having a finite playtime. Naturally Ais plight shares focus with more pedestrian conflicts. It would be one thing to read the drama of characters I care about but thats not the case. Whether due to the pacing blitzing past these characters introductions or due to them just flatout not being interesting I dont care about following most of these people. 520https://i.ur.com/teazeUx.png One argument for having the drama is that its realistic that as petty as this drama may seem its something that actual teenagers go through. The argument goes that its more important to depict than more entertaining fantastical drama. While this may be true it doesnt make it enjoyable for me as a 23yearold man. Am I out of the demographic? Possibly but I have the distinct feeling that I wouldnt have enjoyed it ten years prior either. It certainly doesnt feel like my experience. And this isnt me using my geekiness to say I wasnt Like the Other Guys. No Yota is established as not being great with women. Thats realistic enough thats something the audience can latch onto. Yet he has essentially three relationships in the span of what a year? So hes an idiot whos terrible with women yet simultaneously has the magnetism of Jupiterhttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InformedAttribute? Yeah no Im calling bullshit. And it doesnt feel like a change made to service character development but instead to forward drama that wouldnt be possible if Yota couldnt gather women in his orbit. A work I enjoy often uses teen drama Cobra Kai you might have heard of it. Its a sequel show to the Karate Kid film series. As the original movie deals with teenage drama Cobra Kai does as well naturally drawing it out due to being a show instead of a move. Many viewers including me find it to be the weakest part of the show. Yet despite it making up a decent portion of the five current seasons I still love Cobra Kai overall. For one the characters are genuinely endearing and two the teen drama is balanced out by copious amounts of ridiculous karate action. Video Girl Ai meanwhile expects me to care about all of its BS relationships that last two seconds without bothering to endear me to the characters at first. Beyond that Video Girl Ai like Cobra Kai has another genre that it could lean into. 520https://i.ur.com/GxptWZa.jpg And it does At least at first. Video Girl Ai is a fantasy/scifi story with word building aspects that delve into Gokuraku and the nature of video girls. In addition to this we have an outandout villain in the form of Rolex Ais creator who seeks to fix her. He also creates Video Girl Mai nice naming dork an example of what he believes Ai should be. These are exciting elements of the manga that do a wonderful job of breaking up the monotony. Naturally these are all but dropped about 2/3rds in. 520https://i.ur.com/1j2Abkh.png We never really get an explanation of how Rolex the Gokuraku store owner and Rolexs superior are all connected. Rolex appears so sporadically and has so little attention given to him later on that I didnt even know his name was Rolex at least in the version I read he was almost exclusively referred to as that man. We never get a clear motivation/reason for his actions. Mai as genuinely interesting as she is is dropped from the story far before its conclusion. Part of the reason why Video Girl Ai is so annoying is that it seems to actively shy away from the elements of the story that I enjoy the most. Given that these more fantastical elements are dropped entirely in the sequel stories I have a distinct feeling that the mangaka never wanted them in the first place and it was only thanks to a shrewd editor that theyre here at all. If I may shamelessly steal borrow an analogy from the other review Video Girl Ai is like gum. But it doesnt begin godly it begins fine. So we begin with something like Spearmint and not Wrigleys Big Red nor Hubba Bubba. We lose flavor fast yet we have to keep chewing and chewing until its just gruel that stretches and stretches without snapping. The ending to the main story comes like a freight train. There is very little buildup and you cant help but feel like it was rushed. Yet it ends up working in the mangas favor because by the time the ending comes youre chewing gum thats long since lost its flavor spitting it out feels good it feels great in fact. Would I want a more fleshed out exciting arc to finish the story? Sure but Katsura spent the better part of 13 volumes proving that he doesnt have the skills necessary to write it. I happily accepted the sweet embrace of FIN. For what its worth the ending is genuinely cute. There are two more volumes after this. Now to be fair these are comprised of two short stories centered on new video girls Len and Haruno. While there are certainly some bumps in the road I overall enjoyed them a fair bit more than Video Girl Ai proper. This is mostly thanks to their length theyre short and sweet. 520https://i.ur.com/uz75AAV.png I enjoyed the dynamic between the protagonists of Video Girl Len while the main characters friend is a creep I liked that he actually felt like a friend who wanted the best for the lead unlike Takashi. Video Girl Len also does a good job of characterizing the lead as being actually bad with women unlike Yota before him. The concept itself was interesting as it essentially is Video Girl Ai if Ai actually helped Yota get with his crush instead of having the two fall in love with each other. Plus its nice seeing Yota as an adult. The final story Video Girl Haruno is extremely short not even taking up the entirety of the final volume. Unlike Len the dynamic between the lead and the video girl is the exact same as the main story up to the two stories effectively having the same prologue. That said I still liked this one more because a pretty sweet if not basic story was told in a few chapters instead of over the course of 13 volumes. It really just highlights how much of a bloated mess Ai is. At the end of the day Video Girl Ai is more an example a lesson than a story in its own right because it shows how much an adaptation can improve over a source material. I still havent watched the OVA and I just know that its leagues better than the manga because it doesnt meander for volume upon volume. If youre looking to get into the Video Girl Ai manga dont. Just stick with the OVA or read the two sequels. They do what the main story aimed to do a hell of a lot better. 200https://i.ur.com/mKYWeeh.png 520https://i.ur.com/9Yvqxjw.jpg