Sometimes a good idea from a popular movie or TV series turns out to have originated from an older, lesser known title. If you've seen the popular and hilarious comedy Excel Saga, you may be surprised to learn that ACROSS's conquest plans were originally used by a more rural secret society in:
Background:
Released By: ADV Films
Length: 50 minutes
Year of Production: 1986
Language: Sub only
Available on Netflix: Nope
Four years after their success with Excel Saga, ADV tried to cash in on their success as much as possible with this title, originally produced 13 years before Excel Saga. They slap the name Excel Saga on the box in the hopes of selling more copies. There are some legitimate similarities between the two titles. The Evil Organizations in both series realize world domination is a difficult challenge, and decide to start at an easier setting by taking over one city/prefecture first.
The Heroes
The heroes in this title have no powers in particular. They are the members of an underfunded and undermanned high school baseball team. Two male players, Morita and Sukekubo, and their female manager, Akiko are joined by their lecherous adviser Mr. Roberi and a scientifically enhanced, Indian transfer student, Karmi. Karmi is prone to fits of rage against the Japanese culture and people, firing off missiles with the slightest provocation. He is the only useful member of the Defense Force.
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| The original Defense Force on the left, Roberi buried in rubble |
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| Karmi, with his default response to any provocation |
The Story:
The story opens on a creepy surgical scene in which a scalpel gets disturbingly close to a twitching eyeball. Then happy fun opening theme song time. Back in the plot portion of the story a night watchman at a hospital catches some movement out of the corner of his eye. As he turns to follow the movement, an explosion presumably kills him. The doctors panic and try to recapture the escaped patient. An old mustachioed doctor admits that he turned a traffic accident victim into an 8,000 horsepower cyborg, just for the hell of it. The medical staff has no idea how the recapture the powerful, missile laden crime against nature.
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| Scientists don't consider the consequences of sciencing for science! |
Meanwhile at city hall, the Governor is burning the midnight oil with his secretary, compiling a blacklist of doujinshi deemed harmful to the nation's children. An unexpected phone call takes the mayor by surprise, especially when all he can hear is light breathing followed by a scream. The prank is revealed by the voice on the other end of the line to be the work of a secret society known as the Telephone Pole Group or TPG for short. The group's goal is world domination, but they plan to succeed where others have failed by starting with small rural areas instead of Tokyo.
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| "This sounds like my brother's screenplay....." |
The mayor is ordered to look out the window. He is horrified to see the hospital burning in the distance, and before he can ask what they want he gets pelted in the head by a ball which rolls to the middle of his office. The ball pops open to reveal a taunting toy. Elsewhere a man heading to the bathhouses find the unconscious cyborg.
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| The TPG, conquest with a sense of fun! |
The next day the two sole members of the high school baseball team practice their victory laps on the off chance they get a whole team together and win Koshien. They are summoned to the principal's office by their adviser Mr. Roberi. The team is informed that the local government has charged them with protecting the prefecture from the TPG. The trio are reluctant to take on the task until they hear about the government funding that goes along with the job. Then a shopping montage where they pick out their uniforms and tools. They also practice posing like heroes.
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| Or Egyptians...or Ballerinas....or Brawlers....Whatever |
Once they're prepared, Morita, Sukekubo and Akiko head to Mr. Roberi's apartment. There they find the cyborg, who introduces himself as the Indian exchange student Karmi. Karmi lets them all know about his hatred of Japan. Why he's in the country is anyone's guess. Meanwhile, outside the apartment, the TPG is amassing its troops. Lady Baradagi leads an army of faceless minions as well as the more distinct Scope Tsurusaki. The troops barge into the apartment, prompting the heroic trio to "transform" by removing their school uniforms to show their hero uniforms underneath. The enemies seem as dumbfounded as the audience.
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| "Ummmm.....Should we come back? Does 5:00 work for you?" |
The trio suggest to Karmi that the TPG are responsible for turning him into a cyborg. In reality they are there to recruit the man-chine to their cause. Before Scope can bring that up Karmi fires off his missiles, destroying the entire apartment complex. Scope responds by unveiling his secret weapon, a pair of infrared goggles. The Defense Force counters with a space heater, forcing Scope to switch to his X-ray goggles. With this power he is able to spot an area marked "Do Not Press!" inside Karmi. When Scope punches this weak spot a boxing glove bursts out of Karmi's chest, knocking scope out.
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| Because the doctors watched too many Looney Tunes episodes |
Karmi responds with another barrage of missiles and as he chases the TPG of into the sunset, the less useful members of the Prefectural Earth Defense Force agree to make Karmi a full fledged member of their team. Episode 1 ends and then it is eyecatch time.
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| Tiny, crudely drawn lead characters. A commercial break staple. |
Episode 2 opens on an espionage film showing the TPG's new, phony business front. These evil bastards set up a fake wood dispensary and kidnapped a government employee. Roberi assigns the two, non-mechanically enhanced male members of the Defense Force to the mission of saving the employee. Not one to send them off unprepared, the adviser gives the two a bicycle and cart to aide in their endeavors.
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| Your tax yen at work! |
The Telephone Pole Group is hatching yet another nefarious scheme to ruin the Defense Force. Their latest plan is to discredit and dishonor Mr. Roberi by having lady Baradagi pose as a student and seduce him, allowing for steamy, candid photos taken by the minions. Mr. Roberi doesn't question the new transfer student suddenly stripping down to lingerie in order to do her math homework. Instead he runs off to get his own camera.
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| If only he knew a top-notch camera crew was on location. |
Morita and Sukekubo pose as potential customers to infiltrate the TPG's new business. They are immediately identified, wrapped in straw mats and thrown in the river. The leader of the TPG, who goes by Shogun, retreats to the back room having dealt with the annoyance. There he continues an interview with the Mayor's secretary who is apparently the "kidnapped" government worker. Shogun reveals all of his villainous secrets, like drinking plenty of milk. Morita and Sukekubo attempt to sneak in the back on their second attempt. They are caught immediately yet again, boiled in a pot to make soup stock, tied up in straw and thrown in the river. Again.
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| Tradition is important in less-than-super villainy. |
The boys get out again, caught again, and the third time they are encased in cement. The TPG's plan of disgracing Roberi is going smoothly, as he is constantly thinking about how to exploit his sexy female student, despite the fact he assumes she is going through severe financial and familial hardship. He uses all of his meager finances to treat her to dinner and then steers her toward the red light district. Before things get too torrid, Sukekubo and Morita crawl out of the river and confront them. Then Karmi spies all of them with Baradagi and assumes they are consorting with the enemy and unleashes one of his trademark projectile attacks.
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| Gotta love those wrestling uniforms |
The secretary, reports the results of her interview to the Governor, proving herself more useful than the entire Prefectural Earth Defense Force. As she prepares to leave, she spots a paper lying on her boss's desk. There is a story within featuring pictures of Mr. Roberi with the possibly underage young woman. End Episode 2.
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| Absolutely ZERO people cared about this "scandal." |
Episode 3 opens with the TPG's masses of faceless henchmen trying desperately to hold a door closed as their leaders shout threats. After a brief struggle the door bursts open and a masked, semi-metallic figure charges through the ranks of minions, aiming for the Shogun. The assailant's advance is only halted when a hidden trap door opens up in the floor.
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| Their security system was installed by the Warner Brothers |
Shogun hosts a staff meeting with the rest of the TPG to discuss the reasons for their recent failures. He lays the blame squarely on the modified, rocket-launching shoulders of Karmi. Shogun reveals that he has produced his own scientifically enhanced warrior, a girl named Yuko. She is the same assailant who fell through the floor earlier. When Shogun releases her shackles, Yuko goes on another berserk rampage chasing the villainous organization outside, firing her own missiles. She only stops when the TPG reveals they have her father, the doctor who created Karmi, strapped to an electric chair. They agree to release her father if she can defeat Karmi.
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| "By defeating Karmi you can win this fabulous prize!" |
Yuko transfers to the high School of our heroic team, enters Karmi's classroom and immediately opens fire. Karmi refuses to return her attack as he has a policy against fighting women. Unfortunately the decision isn't his alone as his teammates have installed a remote control device into the cyborg and use the cheap device to force him to fight back with missiles. Yuko switches from projectiles to brawling, and sends Karmi flying from the school to the riverbank.
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| This makes drawing the chalk outline somewhat redundant. |
Karmi picks himself up and does something off screen that completely removes Yuko's will to fight. It's probably better we don't know what happened. Apparently anticipating her hesitation, the TPG shows up with Yuko's dad in tow, threatening to electrocute him again. They give him a sample shock to motivate his daughter, but the button gets stuck and the chair overloads, exploding. This reveals that the dad in the chair was just a dummy. The real father appears, apparently a full member of the TPG, laughing at his daughter's suffering.
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| "Isn't it hilarious how we scarred my daughter emotionally and physically?" |
Karmi and Yuko bond over their mutual fate of being horrible abominations of humanity, never to return to their original forms. A second scientist, Mafune, ruins the moment by claiming he can restore their bodies. Everyone goes to Mafune's lab where Karmi and Yuko submerge themselves in two capsules where they must remain for 10 days. At the end of that time the two emerge, completely flesh and bones. The only slight change is that their genders have been reversed. Mifune reveals he made this little switch because it would have been too boring to simply make them normal. Yuko's dad is thrilled, apparently he always wanted a son. Morita wanders the streets and finds Lady Baradagi. He asks her out and she agrees on the condition they split the bill 50/50.
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| World Domination makes for strange bedfellows |
As the credits roll we get to watch the somewhat awkward date between the two. During the course of their stroll around town, Morita and Baradagi see the two sex-changed, ex-cyborgs who are all dressed up and apparently on an even more awkward date. After the credits Morita and Baradagi are seen in a restaurant where the Lady Antagonist is gorging herself as Morita looks on in awe. She continues to insist on splitting the bill 50/50 between mouthfuls. The End.
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| 50/50 doesn't work if you eat 10 times more than your companion |
Why watch?
1. Chase Scenes - The animation in PEDF is very average on the whole. The times when the animation staff really shines though is when they are animating chases. They do some fantastic work where the chase is shown from the point of view of the missile. There is also a fun superdeformed chase through the city at the end of episode 2.
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| Best scenes in the whole OVA |
2. The Minions - Any Evil Organization worth its salt needs to have a talented, faceless workforce to handle the mundane tasks. TPG has a very motivated staff and it really is a shame they don't appear onscreen more than they do. Their greatest moments take place while tailing Roberi in Episode 2.
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| How can you not love these adorable stalkers? |
Why not to watch?
1. Japanese Humor - Personally I love humor of all types. I have, however, shown some of my favorite comedy anime to friends, or girls I'm dating and been asked, "So when does this get funny?" Not everyone takes the Japanese comedy style and if you're one of them this probably isn't the show for you.
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| This scene will be hilarious for some, incomprehensible to others |
Should you be watching?
This title gets my seal of approval. Unless you really don't like Japanese humor there is nothing wrong with Prefectural Earth Defense Force. The one possible low point in the humor could be Karmi's overreaction and constant missile salvos, but I think it really works as a running gag. The ineffectual villains fighting only marginally more competent heroes makes for a delightful tale that is worth a look.
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