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Plastic Little Anime Review

Plastic Little Box Art

Plastic Little: The Adventures of Captain Tita

3 stars / OVA / Action / 16-up

Bottom Line

Cheesy to the max, but attractive and lots of fun for what it is.

It’s Like...

...Sol Bianca, underwater and with less clothes.

Vital Stats

Original Title

プラスチックリトル

Romanized Title

Purasuchikku Ritoru

Literal Translation

Plastic Little

Animation Studio

MOVIC

US Release By

Section23 (also ADV Films)

Genre

Sci-fi Action

Series Type

OVA

Length

50 minutes

Production Date

1994-03-21

What's In It

Categories

Look For

  • Super Submarines
  • Chases
  • Gratuitous Skin

Objectionable Content

  • Violence: 3 (significant)
  • Nudity: 3 (significant)
  • Sex: 1 (mild)
  • Language: 2 (moderate)

full details

See Also

Sequels/Spin-offs

  • None

You Might Also Like

Other Stuff We Have

Plot Synopsis

Tita, captain of the good ship Cha Cha Maru (that's a submarine ship, not a space ship), and her crew rescue a girl, Elysse, who's being chased by a villain with really huge shoulder pads, ambitions of world domination, and an army at his disposal. They decide to put an end to this fellow's machinations and lots of action ensues.

Quick Review

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Plastic Little follows a simple, time-tested recipe: Start with some good looking girls, take their clothes off occasionally, drop in a tall skinny bad guy (this time with the world's largest shoulder pads), add a healthy pile of explosions and destruction, toss in a pinch of romance, and shake vigorously. Very vigorously. Plastic Little is cheescake, Urushihara style, done right. The art is beautiful, the animation is good, and there's lots of action. What more could you ask for? (Other than plot or anything resembling character depth, that is...)

You'd better not be watching Plastic Little for the story, and it borders on tasteless at times (not necessarily a down side), but there's enough action (and bath scenes) to keep almost any fan of that kind of thing happy.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

Switch to Quick Review

Plastic Little is Satoshi Urushihara's specialty--T, A, and action--done right.

The basic idea is pretty much the same as everything else his name is attached to: Start with some good-looking girls, take their clothes off occasionally (Tita's ship has a built-in "bath tub" the size of a small water park, complete with water slide), drop in a tall skinny bad guy (this time with the world's largest shoulder pads--he looks like a freestanding shower curtain with a head), add a healthy pile of explosions and destruction, toss in a pinch of romance, and shake vigorously. Very vigorously.

The resulting dish may not have much in the way of substance, but if your taste is simple and you don't have a problem with a huge slice of cheescake on the side, it's a lot of fun anyway. Even if the relatively convoluted story isn't much more than an excuse for the action and occasional exposed skin (isolated to one long scene), the fun characters do their part to hold it together.

Tita is a spunky, no-nonsense girl who is never reduced to a damsel in distress; when she needs rescuing, she does it herself. She also pulls off one of my all-time favorite denouements. Tita's "love interest" and Elysse don't do much much more than fill space, but the two older crew members on the Cha Cha Maru are an appealingly wizened pair in contrast to their spunky young captain. And the doctor, Mei, is... well, very attractive, and the only female character who is never naked.

But it's pretty obvious from the get-go that what makes Plastic Little worth watching is the visuals. The art is the most true to Urushihara's style of any of the anime adaptations of his work--clean and appealing, with fun, varied, thoroughly attractive character designs by the man himself. The animation is well above par, too--nice character animation, solid action, and watch for some great chase scenes.

The background music is more disappointing--things are remarkably quiet in fact--but I really like the mellow end theme (even though it has nothing to do with the story). The Japanese acting gets the job done without being particularly memorable, though I do rather like Yuriko Fuchizaki's energetic-without-being-annoying take on Tita.

Overall, while you'd better not be watching Plastic Little for the plot, and it borders on tasteless (not necessarily a down side, depending on your taste), there's enough action and pretty girls to keep almost any fan of that kind of thing happy.

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Related Recommendations

Sol Bianca (and its sequel) is a well done but less sleazy version of the same sort of thing. For a similar feel with a very different setting, try Cutey Honey. Be warned that the other of Urushihara's animated features, the Legend of Lemnear, did not fare as well as this one. Though the formula is the same, the feel is sleazier, and it's just a lot less fun.

Notes and Trivia

There is also a one-shot Plastic Little manga by Urushihara, on which this is based. It features an assortment of stories about the crew of the Cha Cha Maru, and quality artwork by Urushihara. It's available in English from CPM Manga as a 5-part comic series, and as a graphic novel called Plastic Little: Captain's Log.

ADV's subtitles on this one aren't as "creative" as some of their other early releases, but the subtitles on the end theme have almost nothing to do with the actual lyrics (I'm assuming this was somebody's attempt to make it read like a song). We did a full translation of it if you're curious.

US DVD Review

The DVD is a quality ADV production: sharp video, nice audio in both languages, and subtitles for just the songs or everything, plus a nice gallery of sketches and storyboards. It also (whether this is a good thing or bad) shamelessly panders to the audience Plastic Little is targeted at: It features what may be the world's first "Jiggle Counter," a menu-selectable feature that pops up a small counter in the top corner of the screen at appropriate moments. Tasteless in the extreme, but I had to admit pretty funny if you watch it with the right mindset (and group of jeering/leering friends).

Parental Guide

Appropriately rated 17+ by ADV, for a lot of nudity and some relatively graphic violence.

Violence: 3 - Several bloody deaths, as well as some city-scale destruction.

Nudity: 3 - Lotsa upper body nudity; one extended nude scene, and a couple of others.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Even with all that nudity, there's not much more than some cute romance and a couple of nosebleeds.

Language: 2 - Some light profanity.

Staff & Cast

Original Japanese Cast

Note: In the early ADV-released tapes several cast names were apparently mistranslated, but these should be correct. The names in brackets are the characters' full names, as they appeared in an Urushihara art book. Actor names are Japanese style, family name first.

Tita [Tita Myu Koshigaya]: Fuchizaki Yuriko
Elysse [Elize Altmodisch]: Shiina Hekiru
Balboa [Joshua L. Balboa]: Wakamoto Norio
Nichol [Nichol Hawkins]: Yamaguchi Kappei
Roger [Roger Rogers]: Nakao Ryusei (Takanori Nakao)
Mikail [Mihail Deargref]: Ohtsuka Chikao
Mei [Mei Lynn Jones]: Yokozawa Keiko
Guizel: Ienaka Hiroshi
Nalerov [Nalerof Altmodisch]: Akimoto Yosuke

With: Hoshino Mitsuaki, Sugawara Junichi, Ugaki Hidenari, Miki Shinichiro

Crew

Executive Producers: Yutaka Takahashi, Megumi Shirakawa
Screenplay: Masamoto Sekijima
Character Design: Satoshi Urushihara
Art Director: Tsutomu Ishigaki
Cinematography: Akihiko Takahashi
Sound Effects: Fusanobu Fujiyama
Music: Tamiya Terashima

End Theme: "You are Everything"
Written and Performed by Keiko Toge

Animation by Movic and Sony Music

Availability

Available in North America from AD Vision on an "anime essentials" bilingual DVD, which is a re-release of an earlier disc (buy from RightStuf). Was previously available on subtitled VHS.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Amazon