Discotek Media, the US anime distributor, is really good at getting me excited for retro anime that I've never heard of, very much like the Criterion Collection does with live-action films. And I don't think they've hyped up a home video release as much as they did with Bluray disc of "Project A-Ko," a 1986 film meant to be an OVA spin-off from the pornographic series "Cream Lemon." Yes, a bizarre beginning for the production, but perhaps not uncommon for anime at the time. But for whatever reason, it shifted to aim for mainstream audiences, only keeping a brief bit of nudity, and otherwise containing virtually no sexy at all. The relevance of "Project A-Ko" in North America was that it was a very early release at a time when licensed content was just starting: it's cited as Central Park Media's first VHS release, and one of Manga Entertainment's first English dubs. This, plus licensing on cable television, helped introduce a lot of future fans to anime for the first time. So nostalgia is a big factor here.Anyway, Discotek Media had already released a remastered version of the movie on DVD, but at some point was interested in a 1080p Bluray release. Easier said than done, since the original masters were long lost, and the old laserdisc copies used up to that point were showing their age. But by 2020, they formally announced the pending Bluray release, detailing their hacks to get a better-quality copy: 1) they'd use special hardware to get a direct recording from the laser of the laserdisc, bypassing the rest of the machine, and 2) they'd use an upscaling software called AstroRes to clean up the video. Those early press-releases included sample clips after AstroRes was used, and they looked outstanding, with great color and fine details that looked correct, despite being so blurry to the human eye on the older discs. This was time-consuming and expensive and highly-experimental, but promised to give the world the best-looking version of "A-Ko" yet.... but then, through sheer accident and hunches, the original masters for the movie were found, kept in a Japanese warehouse vault, but missing from the database documentation. What incredible luck, and before the Bluray had released. There was still a chance to make this the ultimate home video version! Discotek proceeded to commission a 4K resotration of the negatives, and released the Bluray in late 2021. Not only did the video look better than it ever did, but there were also hours of bonus features in the form of interviews (both old and new), commentaries, and trivia. Truly, if you were a fan of the movie, this was a highly anticipated release. But even if you weren't, watching this adventure in real-time from announcement to release over the course of two years was exhilerating. Anyway, exciting as it was, I bought a copy and watched "Project A-Ko" for the first time. Set about 16 years after an alien crash wipes out a Japanese city, killing the population, the city has rebuilt in the crater and continued on with life. Our lead characters are teenagers attending school: Eiko and Shiko ("A-Ko" and "C-Ko") are inseparable friends, walking to and from their new school every day. C-Ko is the childish one, clinging to A-Ko constantly, and prone to loud outbursts and crying. A-Ko is the straight one, doing her best to help C-Ko without getting into trouble in school. A-Ko's only major flaw is her tendancy to sleep in late, nearly being late for class... and then running at mach-10 speed across rooftops to get to class, dragging C-Ko as she dashes. Yes, A-Ko seems to be super fast and super strong, like Superman in a sailor suit, and no one seems to question it. Meanwhile, Biko ("B-Ko") is another student in class, rich and stuck-up, immediately paying attention to the two girls. She's become infatuated with C-Ko, and insists that she become her new best friend. It turns out that all three had grown up together, and B-Ko was jealous that her friend was stolen from her. So she concocts plans to make C-Ko love her, and leave A-Ko (or if necessary, to kill A-Ko to get her out of the picture). After her motives are made clear, the movie turns into a running gag each morning of A-Ko and C-Ko running to school, being met by B-Ko at the gates, being challenged to a fight by some new weapon or robot, and A-Ko casually destroying it and heading off to class. 
The premise is kind of funny, and B-Ko's constant failures (and ridiculous faces as she slowly goes mad) are a lot of fun. Basically, this is an origin story of a potential super-villain in the making with B-Ko, and her arch-enemy and hero, A-Ko. In the English dub at least, it tries to describe the relationship between the three as that of best friends, but it's easy to read gay subtext between the group, especially from B-Ko. As the fights at the front of the school get more and more out of hand, a second subplot comes into focus: an alien spacecraft (related to the crash 16 years prior) is waiting in Earth's orbit, searching for their missing alien princess, and they believe they've found her in... C-Ko. Which makes no sense, and that's the joke. Yes, they discover the town is the right place, based on the crater and wreckage-turned-monuement in the middle of the city, but surely they'd assume A-Ko was the princess, based on her powers that make her different from everyone else? Or at least they'd guess one of B-Ko's student minions, a massive girl that looks like a black man in disguise, was the princess, given that her body-type resembles that of the alien crew? Ultimately, this was just to help raise the stakes at the climax when C-Ko gets kidnapped, and leads to some of the best action-comedy scenes in the movie.Aside from being funny in the dialogue and jokes (which I think holds up quite well, even in the old English dub), the action is ridiculous, either because of how competently-animated it is, or how crazy it gets. Both help make "Project A-Ko" very watchable, despite my trouble as a modern viewer watching old anime. In the bonus-feature interviews, the animators joke that this might have been the greatest animated film yet, even surpassing Disney. While that was certainly meant to be a joke (from the period, only "Akira" stands out as being so well animated), the fight scenes do look pretty spectacular for the time, with plenty of detail in their destruction and choreography and sheer bombastic tendancies. Those fight scenes make the production feel fresh despite its age. Character designs look like the comedic versions of "Sailor Moon" characters, which isn't my personal taste, but was common at the time. Animation quality outside the action isn't great, but is adaquete. Curiously, even after the remaster, I saw a ton of color-banding and blocky pixelation where there were subtle shades of green and blue (typically on grass or in the sky). Otherwise, it looks sharp, and the disc includes both a 16:9 and 4:3 version (the latter isn't cut off, so it shows more content and feels more natural, although documents suggest the movie was always meant to be shown in widescreen). Notably, the music was composed by American artists Richie Zito and Joey Carbone, both accomplished in the US and making their mark in Japan, as a way to help the movie stand out. From the interviews, it sounds like they were approached at the last minute, and finished the score (and some English vocal tracks) in just two weeks! However it was done, it's pretty great music, and is very 80's. As for the English dub... yes, it's not great by modern standards, but it's also a lot better than most dubs from that decade, and works great in terms of the humor. "Project A-Ko" is successful as an action-comedy, but the story of its development, and how the remaster came to be released, is far more interesting. The Discotek Bluray is worth purchasing simply for the bonus features; the film itself is a bonus on top of that! The movie stands mostly on nostalgia, but I admit it's a lot more fun than other retro anime, and is worth watching once for newer, curious otaku.