A Man's Job Part 4: Grrl Power

One of the most used professions in anime apart from "guy who beats things up" is the job of a general contractor.  The type of person who will take on any job for a fee.  There are an ever increasing number including Sket Dance, Getbackers, Fairy Tail, Cowboy Bebop, and Desert Punk to name just a few.  Some specialize in certain professional areas, others cross some of the popular genres such as school, super hero, fantasy, space opera and post-apocalyptic.  We'll look at an adorable example of the jack-of-all-trades anime trope with:

Background:
Released By: ADV Films
Length: 25 minutes
Year of Production: 2004
Language: Sub and dub, dub reviewed
Available on Netflix: Yes

I saw Grrl Power reviewed on ANN a while back.  The reviewer was very positive about it so I decided to pick it up.  Grrl power is based on a short lived manga series called "Makasete Iruka!" that ran for 2 tankoubon.  Apparently that name wasn't catchy enough for a US release so we got the slightly odd Grrl Power instead.

The Man and His Job
Ryo Saeba is one of my favorite manly men of anime.  He works as the City Hunter, an all purpose man for hire along with his constantly annoyed partner Kaori, and his various other allies.  Most of the city hunter jobs involve guns in one way or another.  Ryo switches back and forth between a deadly serious killer and sex-crazed ladies man.  His trademark phrase, "mokkori" is used the way smurfs use "smurf."  Depending on the situation it can be a verb meaning "to have sex," an adjective referring to something sexy.  It is occasionally used a noun as well.   The great Jackie Chan once played Ryo Saeba in a fairly terrible live action movie.

Serious Saeba

Teenage Hormones Ryo

The odd-jobs company Irukaya in this week's show is manned by 3 young girls.  Sora is the tomboyish one who handles the tougher, more physical jobs.  Umi is the pretty one who handles jobs involving beauty, deceit and seduction.  Ao is the youngest and handles the more intellectual jobs.  She is also deaf and mute, communicating with sign language.  The girls are so focused on their work they don't bother going to school.  Oh, and they're orphans.

Story:
The story starts off showing each of the girls at one of the jobs they do best.  Sora is seen delivering a lunch via jetski to a fisherman in the middle of the ocean.  Umi flirts with a boy in order to get his girlfriend to break up with him.  The slap she receives from the slighted girl costs the guy extra.  Ao is working the books at a fish processing plant.  By analyzing production costs and expenditures she is able to save an immigrant worker's job and ensure pay raises for all employees (assuming the owner doesn't funnel all of the extra savings into his own pocket).

Dangerous child labor is alive and well

$10 for a breakup and physical violence

Guess which one is the foreigner

A rich man with the voice of Foghorn Leghorn comes to the girls requesting they retrieve a diamond ring he has dropped down the sink.  The girls turn him down because they don't like his bow tie, buttons and mustache.  The girls rush off to the school they should be attending to deliver ingredients for lunch and haul off the previous day's leftover for their own consumption.  The rich dude chases them the whole way talking about his precious ring.

Mustachioed man tailing three little girls?  Where are the cops?

The class representative from their homeroom comes by Irukaya after school to plead with the girls to return.  He talks about the important life lessons school teaches, such as how to get along the the kind of jerks you'll be dealing with the rest of your life.  The girls not so politely refuse, declaring they would rather work.

And ignore well meaning classmates while dressed as rabbits

A new customer appears with a very special request for the girls.  She wants them to convince her son to go back to school.  He has been skipping for 6 months. Not the kind to hesitate in the face of blatant hypocrisy,  the girls head off to meet the young man.  Sora asks the computer obsessed kid to go to school and he refuses.  He believes school to be pointless and boring, a point Sora fully agrees with.  Realizing her error, Sora resorts to physical violence.

"That's for exposing my poor debating skills!"

Deciding to change tactics, Sora launches into the same speech the class rep gave to her, about learning to deal with the annoyances of the real world and whatnot.  The boy counters that schools don't actually teach anything useful.  He wants to live life by his own rules and not just memorize a textbook.  Umi and Sora both voice their complete agreement as Ao looks on in silent horror.  The girls let slip that they don't go to school and work for a living, so the grade school dropout decides to join them.  He begins to regret this decision when they wake him up at the crack of dawn for work.

They were already up farming organic, free-range vegetables

Realizing they don't know the boy's name, Sora names him Riku, because she can.  For his first job Riku has to carry an old woman down a large flight of stairs and halfway across town to the market.  Their next job is helping student's finish their homework before school.  Riku is unable to do any of the questions.  The whole Irukaya crew has a quick breakfast and then Sora and Riku run off to work as human chimney brushes.

This profession is known to cause testicular cancer, even for girls

The girls have a brief watermelon break, and Riku begs them for a less physically demanding job.  Umi volunteers to take him to cheer for a local baseball team, her next assignment.  He can't seem to motivate the boys as well as she can though. 

Doing it right (well as right as a preteen's underwear can be)

Doing it very, very wrong.

That night the girls have study time.  They are reading high school and college level books and Riku can barely comprehend the titles.  In order to keep up with customer requests the girls always have to be as well read as possible.  Sora and Umi tell Riku that their parent's were swindled by loan sharks and are currently on the run from their creditors.  The next morning Riku gets up earlier to help with the farming and his task it to spread manure.  His enthusiasm wanes yet again after takng a dive face-first into the fertilizer.  When he complains about how disgusting it is the girls point out that the manure can't be dirty since it came out of them.

Waste not, want not, even if it is human waste

At this point Riku realizes he can't possible keep up with the girls and doesn't have the skills to make his own living.  Instead he just asks for the pay he has earned.  The ladies tell him all the money made goes into a savings fund.  They are hoping to buy a small island just of the coast in order to create their own utopian society.  Riku agrees to go back to school and Sora reminds him how lucky he is to have a home, parents and even a computer.  She and Umi describe how they fell through the cracks in society, but it is okay because they love their life.  The rich dude (who is still following them) is moved and asks them once again to find his ring, waving a thick stack of bills.  Once again they refuse and race off to the next job.

The peanut gallery rejoices

Why watch?
1.  Sign Language - It's kind of neat to see a show where one of the main characters communicates exclusively through sign language.  More amazing is that in their town apparently 90% of the population is proficient in talking with their hands.

This apparently means, "Thanks for your business" not that I'd know

2. Colors and Style - The artistic style of this show is very pleasant and fully embraces the more cartoonish aspects of anime.  It is hard not to feel good watching this despite the themes of child labor, loan sharks, and a poorly maintained social safety net. 

Seriously, look at those colors and cute faces!

Why not to watch?
1. Short Duration - Clocking in at 25 minutes, this feels more like the pilot for a new TV series than a true OVA.  This show has a fun feel to it and it would have been interesting to see the girls working on a more extensive or complicated job.

So much wasted potential

Should you be watching?
This one is definitely worth watching.  There may not be anything ground breaking here but it is a fun, pleasant viewing experience.  The style and bright palette really enhance the experience.  I don't really care for some of the social themes and ideas promoted here (child labor, pulling yourself up by the boot straps, and the uselessness of traditional schooling) but I may just be reading too much into it.  If you don't over think it, this is a fantastic OVA that is definitely worth a watch.