Ariel

Genre: Mecha / Action
Parental Guidance Recommended
1989 Junichi Watanabe (director), Yuichi Sasamoto (creator)
Screenshots courtesy of AnimeArt

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Ariel DVDs Everything Ariel

Cover Description:
To save the Earth from alien invaders and their giant monsters, Dr. Kishida does what any other red-blooded mad scientist would do: he builds a giant robot - ARIEL - the ultimate feminine fighting robot! Unfortunately, his granddaughers refuse to pilot it! Apparently, they've got more important things to do than becoming teenage super-heros. Besides, how are you supposed to study for your college entrance exams while getting beaten-up in battle?

Fortunately for Dr. Kishida, things aren't too well for the invaders, either. According to their reports, the Earth was the perfect target: lush, peaceful, and relatively defenseless. Theoretically, the planet should've surrendered long ago. Now, the war is at a standstill, the dreaded Accounting Department is warning about the serious cost overruns, and the head of the home office has arrived from Galactic Headquarters to personally oversee operations. Has Headquarters decided to unleash..The Audit - or do they have something even more evil in mind?

The fate of the world rests upon two people: Aya Kishida, one of the doctor's granddaughters, who may have to give up prep school to pilot the mighty (and lovely) ARIEL; and a mysterious alien named Saber Starblast, who may have the power to defeat the invaders once and for all...

At first I thought it was such a corny concept >>> by firesenshi
The synopsis was right. There could be no better word to describe Kishida-sensei except for "mad." Only in the beginning though, folks. Only in the beginning. Mad branches out into hilarity and later, Kishida-sensei will seem very endearing to you. Especially if you know how he designed his premiere robot, Ariel. In fact, characterization is one of the good key factors in this movie. Kishida-sensei's three daughters have distinct personalities where their problems are real -- how to deal with enormous school work along with responsibility to pilot Ariel. Albeit of course, not everyone has this dilemna but you can see very clearly how something as real as school work isn't discounted as a factor in the lives of the characters.

EVA this is not. Piloting Ariel is actually like most sentai hits Bioman or Maskman where three pilots are needed simultaneously to get their grandfather's mecha up and running. Maybe the concept of that kind of mecha is one you have seen before but Ariel is different. Even Kishida-sensei is surprised at his own invention's abilities that discovering this along with his three amateur granddaughter pilots makes the battle scenarios fun to watch. My main complaint? There's only one movie. Haven't seen a lot of female looking mechas that are actually fun to watch so I was expecting the storyline to be stretched further.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 8; Story 8; Characters 8; Sounds 8