BEING UPFRONT: A Pictorial Guide to Bodacious Women in Anime--Page 2 (Am-Az)

Print/licence statuses at the end of the entries refer to North America (that's where I live, so...).

AMAZING NURSE NANAKO (Jpn: NANAKO KAITAI SHINSHO)
Nanako Shichigusa; Kaoru Satsuki (left to right)

Even before the actual OVAs were released, the now-defunct Sony-sponsored anime magazine AX was hyping this puppy (or those puppies, depending on how you look at it) to the teeth in their magazine and elsewhere. I even saw a cute standup of Nanako at a Disc Pier in Osaka (and regret not getting my photo taken with it!). A scientist named Kyoji Ogami is developing a robot called the Venus 2000, and finds that he only needs a brain for it. Enter young, beautiful and healthy as all get-out (and stupid) Nanako Shichigusa, who stays at Ogami General Hospital, training and serving as one very clumsy and put-upon maid/nurse. All the while, she serves as a study in extended motion; several posters on rec.arts.anime.misc said at the time of its release that the Gainax Bounce was being threatened by the Pioneer Bounce. Lady, let those cats outta the bag before they suffocate! Yep, she's in this for the fanservice, and there's no disguising that fact whatsoever. In the third OVA, a patient is brought in for Dr. Ogami to check out, and he brings in the mysterious and seductive (as long as she's wearing her makeup) Kaoru Satsuki to hypnotize him (and the males in the audience as she walks). That is, when she isn't coming on to the patient or Nanako. On one hand, Nanako is cute and very bouncy (character design by Toshinari Yamashita, best known for Burn Up W/X), the plot has background elements that need the whole series to unfold, and Dr. Ogami does help Nanako out when she gets in big trouble (that is, in every episode). But, on the other hand, she's occasionally bloody irritating (look, you can only exploit clumsiness for laughs for a short time before it goes stale, and man, does her voice ever grate) and, a lot of the time, Dr. Ogami's a total bastard to her, which has resulted in some people laying charges of misogyny on the series (arguably not true, since Dr. Ogami doesn't treat Satsuki so badly, but you can see where they're coming from). I'm thanking Belldandy I didn't buy this blind, but if you're curious about it, I suggest that you rent it first and decide what to do from there (which is probably the only way to see it now anyway). The second and third Pioneer/Geneon volumes aren't as bad as the first in those regards, but the elements are still there, so it's your call.

Out of print (previously on Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. on bilingual DVD).
ANN Encyclopedia Entry
The Yuka Takeuchi Fan's Kaori Satsuki Gallery (which I've contributed to). I guess he found Nanako annoying, too.

ANGEL BLADE

One name you will see come up a lot in Being Upfront is Masami Obari (Japanese only). His specialty is anime based on fighting games, and you can always count on absurd levels of torso development for both fanboys and fangirls in his work. Thanks to the miracle of alphabetical order, his introduction here is going to be downright overwhelming. The most individual characters in a single story in BU--14, and that's just the first two OVAs!--his most over-the-top character design, and the hands-down flat-out smuttiest piece of work he's ever had major involvement in. To make things a little easier, let's break this entry down into two groups.
Good side: Unnamed victim; Angel Blade; Moena Shinguuji (top row, left to right);
Seiryu Tenmyouin; Kyoka; Shaia Hishizaki (middle row);
Ayame Fudo; Emily; Angel Ender (bottom row)
Unnamed victim from Angel Blade

Part of the Vanilla Series, but far from vanilla. In the future, the earth is left uninhabitable, so people have learned to build and live in giant cities placed above the clouds. In one of these cities, Aqua Tokyopolis, mutants who still reside on the planet's surface have been stalking and attacking young women, like the one pictured here (who is the first girl seen in the first episode), but a superheroine named Angel Blade has been turning up lately and rescuing them. Moena Shinguuji is the female lead, a young, kind of shy student at the all-girl Bernard Academy, who has been having dreams lately about those very events for some reason. Her chest is modest in the Obari scale of things, but when it it does bounce, it almost gets away from her. The same cannot be said of the Blade herself, who has obviously inherited the daring fashion sense of Go Nagai's Kekko Kamen character. You just have to see the OP sequence (starting with the second OVA) in which not only do her breasts do some crazy hopping, but so do her hindquarters in the next shot. And it has a way-gone transformation (and several subliminal frames) in it as well. Oh, yeah. You're probably intelligent enough to figure out the connection between these last two, so I'll leave it at that. Seiryu Tenmyouin is a beautiful and very popular student at Bernard Academy. She's the president of the student council, has the highest marks in her grade level, is the captain of several sports clubs, and is admired by the other female students--and deservedly so, as she's also very nice. The girls suspect that she's actually Angel Blade--and they're not the only ones. Moena works part-time at the Academy's coffee shop, which is run by Kyoka. We meet her when Moena's hyperactive friend Hasumi is bemoaning her lack of chest development, but Kyoka jovially handles her--then Hasumi comically handles Kyoka, who just merrily wobbles away, as always. It turns out that she's a distant relative of Moena, who adopted her after her mother died when she was young and her father disappeared. However, there is more to her than meets the eye--and this may have something to do with the appearance of Shaia, who runs into Moena on the street--and knocks her right down--and later turns up at Kyoka's shop with a heart-ornamented choker similar to the one Moena wears (see above picture), discussing matters which will be made clearer later with her. If the name sounds familiar, yes, it was lifted from Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, but it's not the same character. Ayame and Emily are police officers sent to investigate the events that are happening, and they come to the conclusion that Angel Blade would know about these enemies. Ayame goes so far as to dress up like how she thinks Blade would and turn up at the scenes of suspicious activity, in the hopes of encountering her to try to find out everything she knows. One of the things she does find out is just how the bad girls would like to deal with Blade if they ever get their hands--among other appendages--on her. In the third OVA, during a fight against two of Dark Mother's mutants (more on them later), Angel Blade is suddenly aided by a similarly-(un)dressed character (hence the ECU crop of her picture here). After she makes quick work of the baddies, she introduces herself to Blade as Angel Ender, her "prototype." So it turns out that she's not alone, which is a good thing, because there are a lot of people(?) to deal with below the clouds on the...
Bad side: Nailkaizer; Chloe; Elaine (top row);
Phantom Lady; Karin; unnamed secretary (bottom row)
Nailkaizer from Angel Blade

Behind the scenes at Bernard Academy, we witness the discussion of an evil plan, called Operation Mother, between the principal of the Academy (while he enjoys a young carnal snack) and a mysterious woman named Nailkaizer. She is an executive member of the organization Dark Mother, and appears under cover as the Academy's Houjo-sensei (and wearing a much more modest outfit than she normally does). Infamous singer Peaches talks about and praises members of the "fourth sex," or "herms." She would get a kick out of the ladies(?) of Dark Mother. "State variation" is an expression I use here to talk about the phenomenon of anime women's breasts notably changing size between scene cuts due to poor production, but it means much more here. These characters not only have the Obari Overbuild and undress to impress, but they can change their genitals at will; Nailkaizer's first appearance at the beginning of the first OVA won't leave your mind easily. This also means that we don't always see actual male characters in the 18+ scenes, therefore, more characters to feature here. Nailkaizer works in the field with two other mutants, Chloe and Elaine, who can not only fight, but disguise themselves to get where they want to, hence, Elaine's turn to hear every wise guy go, "hello, nurse!"--until she gets her syringe out, that is. Dark Mother is under the command of a woman who is referred to as Phantom Lady, but, also being a mutant, is featured in the second OVA playing catch with Nailkaizer, and doing the pitching. She could well have the biggest chest Obari has ever designed; she definitely gives Gravion's Mizuki Tachibana a run for her money. She is also very notable for her incredibly milky...complexion. Yeah, that's it. Karin is a mutant who refers to Phantom Lady as "mother." Normally, she just spies on the goings-on, but gets a bit more active at the end of the second OVA, and right into it in the sequel Angel Blade Punish! (more on that below). Also present at the meeting of the two sick minds near the beginning is the principal's secretary, who only appears briefly in that episode in the background of one scene (that blur in the foreground is Nailkaizer's right one), but long--and large--enough to make it here. Okay (inhale). As you might have gathered by now, this is not the kindest title as far as sex goes; there's only one truly "yes!" consensual scene in the first two OVAs, but there's still at least one more episode, so who knows? However, if you can overlook that, you can find a few laughs, some characters you can sympathize with and/or admire as well as drool over, and a plot that's a little less convoluted than a lot of Obari's recent work--but only a little.

In print on Critical Mass Video (18 and over only, please) (bilingual DVD; previously on Anime18). For some inexplicable reason, CMass's re-release is on two discs like CPM's was. I'd be very grooved if the special edition which joined all three OVAs together and added a new sex scene was released here.
ANN Encyclopedia Entry

ANGEL BLADE PUNISH!