With these short OVAs, it's absolutely positively impossible to show
that aspect of the manga, which is the most important reason why the
manga is rated so highly. The only thing they can hope to bring out
in the animation would be the other charming aspects of the manga,
which are Alpha's Alpha-like behavior (yeah, doesn't help at all to
describe things) and her strange(?) relationships with other
characters. For the first part, character drawings are essential
because that's what makes the reader not notice the slow feel of the
manga. The drawings in the manga are awkwardly cute yet somehow very
graceful.
So, how do these OVAs do against their odds? Not very well, I'll have
to say. The original OVA, which this DVD contains, does somewhat okay
with the character drawings, but doesn't do so well when those
characters move. Since the pictures don't move in manga, I bet it was
hard to keep the same feeling while moving them in the anime. It's
also not very good with the relationship stuff. It just came out as
all awkward and not warm enough. The final verdict is, "Nah."
The second OVA (I'll talk about it here little bit since it makes more
sense to compare them in one place) does a worse job with the
character drawings, but does better with the relationship part, but
not that much better.
When it comes down to it, I can't imagine why anyone would even
attempt to make an animation of a show like Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.
Maybe it was for art. Nah, it probably was a marketing ploy. I did
buy them, after all. I don't think they could get new readers using
the anime, so the major portion of the target audience is probably the
manga reader. It doesn't hurt when some people pick up the anime, not
having read any of the manga, either, I guess.
If I had to choose between the original OVA and the new OVA, I'd have
to choose the original. Of course, my real choice would be to not
pick an anime at all.
Image: Here's Alpha doing her Alpha-like behavior. It's a simple drawing, but it works pretty well.
