Graviton City

Project A-ko the Vs. Battle Two: Blue Side

In the conclusion to the Battles series, A-ko, B-ko and Maruten storm Gail's secret fortress with the intent of rescuing C-ko and in the case of Maruten bringing Gail and his henchmen to justice. However, once again the girls fail to protect C-ko and the young girl pays for that failure by being possessed and by the spirit of Xena.

Even worse is that B-ko, once killed and now seduced by Gail, seemingly betrays A-ko. Leaving A-ko to her fate B-ko departs with Gail and Xena to journey to the Talho Sector where Xena, with the help of her Three Headed Dragon, will destroy everything that exists in order to create a new universe more to her liking.

Meanwhile A-ko is rescued by Maruten from the destruction of the secret fortress that Gail had been using. The pair set off after B-ko, Gail and Xena to the Talho Sector and to a confrontation in which the fate of all of existence hangs in the balance.

The opening scene is a bit confusing as it features A-ko in a familiar school uniform we know from the first four movies. A-ko narrates the scene as it deals with her graduation and entry into the job force where she runs into her high school crush, Kei Yuki. However, just as things between her and Kei seem to get interesting B-ko shows up to drag A-ko back to reality.

After that our heroes storm into Gail's fortress where two things become clear. One; because of her death at Gail's hands B-ko, Gail and the nun he knew as a child have a strange but real connection. Two; Maruten is going to have lots of quality time lodged in A-ko's cleavage.

One of the big changes from Grey Side is the short amount of screen time that Grash and Liza have. After Gail betrays them and destroys his base with them still inside they don't reappear until the very end of the movie. Even so Liza and A-ko have a brief indecisive battle.

The journey to the Talho Sector offers some quality moments as well. Here we are treated to the sight of a truly evil C-ko as well as the improbable and doomed romance between B-ko and Gail. On the other ship we are treated to Maruten waxing philosophic on the nature of the human female. When he's not busy peeking up A-ko's skirt, that is.

For his part Gail seems a mixture of evil and good. Yes, he wants to destroy the universe. Every universe in fact. But only for the purest of reasons, to create a new universe that is free of the evil that pervades the current universe.

Xena is also interesting. She starts out evil and just gets worse as time progresses. Destroying planets and killing billions is just a bit of playfulness to her. By the time she reaches the Talho Sector she is suffering from full blown megalomania. What's ironic is that Gail professes to desire to destroy the universe because of the great amount of evil within it but is unable to see the evil in handing over the fate of all of existence to one such as her.

A-ko and B-ko offer a different dynamic than in the first four movies, that much is immediately obvious. However it's a dynamic that is quite common in anime, the intense but usually friendly rivalry between two strong females. The concern they show for each other is genuine if sparing. When B-ko is forced to choose between Gail or A-ko the result is all but a foregone conclusion.

All hope seems lost when it appears as if nothing can stop Xena from achieving her goal. But that's when the girls make the discovery that Xena hasn't completely consumed C-ko's spirit. They attempt to bring C-ko's spirit to the fore with some rather unorthodox methods with the hope of saving the day.

This scene is quite amusing, giving us a look at a host of A-ko's and B-ko's alternate reality counterparts. We even get a glimpse of the original A-ko and B-ko fighting at the Graviton High School for Girls.

In the end we find that Gail was right about one thing, there really is no justice in the universe. With C-ko rescued and the universe safe for now, the girls' attempt to collect their reward is predictably tragic.

Of course there is always a six inch tall bulb-head waiting in the wings to take all the credit and reward money.

I would consider the soundtrack to be superior to the Grey Side soundtrack. But that might be due to the fact that I preferred the Blue Side over the Grey Side in general. In any case I can't claim to be unbiased.

The soundtrack did what it was supposed to do, that is support the action and feel of each individual scene. From Xena destroying fleets and planets to the scenes with B-ko and Gail to when they all arrive at the Talho Sector the music works quite well.

A-ko and B-ko have a more complex relationship here than in the original four movies. Where before they seemed to merely want to kill each other, here they seem to bicker almost as if they were sisters, allowing them to exchange the sort of verbal barbs that are unmatched in the first four movies with the possible exception of Final.

Also, B-ko's romance with Gail is ultimately more interesting than her pursuit of the childish C-ko or the Coke-swilling Kei. As is how that romance finally resolves itself.

Contributed by Spacecadet.