After years of fans demanding an improvement over the oft-maligned Project A-Ko DVD, Central Park Media has finally reclaimed the DVD rights from their long-time contracted authoring company Image. Because of this, CPM was able to release the film in a form that was more fitting than it originally was. Even though a few feared the worst, the finish product HAD to be better than the monstrosity from Image. Fortunately, the folks at Central Park have done a stellar job with this release, giving a total overhaul to every aspect to create what has to be the best DVD release of the year.

The story itself focuses around three girls: Eiko (A-Ko) Magami, Biko (B-Ko) Daitokuji, and Shiiko (C-Ko) Kotobuki. The (main) story begins with A-Ko and C-Ko transferring to Graviton High School. Coincidentally, the school is also where B-Ko attends. Naturally, B-Ko sees C-Ko as something she MUST desire, even though she cannot have her. Of course, this means that B-Ko will stop at nothing to get her now-beloved C-Ko, even if it means deploying wave after wave of mechs or fighting in a high-powered, extra-revealing battle suit to destroy A-Ko. At the same time, a race of female aliens is heading toward earth, seeking to reclaim their missing princess that crash-landed there sixteen years before. Of course, this does not fare well with the Global Defense Force, who is dead-set on preventing another disaster. Not surprisingly, this leads to a conflict that involves C-Ko getting captured, Now it is up to the two rivals to try to put their differences aside to save their blonde friend. Will they be able to do it?

For the review, this reviewer listened to all three (yes three) tracks on the disc. Central Park did a wonderful job in the audio portion of the disc. All of tracks are very clear with good direction between channels. Also, none of the tracks show any problems that plague older films, such as crackling, popping, or distortion. sound effects and audio tracks all seem to be spot-on, with no delay in timing. Also, there seems to be absolutely no audio degradation or static. Of course, the English dub sounds a little muddier than the other two, but this seems to be more of a flaw in the initial recording, rather than the DVD authoring, so it really cannot be factored into the score.

C-Ko is famous for two things: her loud mouth, and her horrid lunches.	D sports a stylish battle outfit that makes him look like he'd rather be performing in Rocky Horror.

CPM has really outdone itself with this release. Everything, right down to the menus, is very well done. The menus are all very nice, with bits of animation and music running through all of them. All of them are easy to navigate, and quick to load. Transition between menus is also vey nice, as it is quick and moves from menu to menu with a nice animation effect. It is easy to see the improvement over the past release in this disc, with improvements in even the menus, which was one of the weakest aspects of the original.

The biggest improvement of all would have to be the most maligned, that being the video quality. For this Project, the folks at Central Park Media managed to hunt down an original fullscreen master that was said to be as hard to find as a live dodo. On top of that, the folks went that extra mile, and remastered the entire film, giving it clarity and vibrance that has not been seen in over ten years. Gone are the shimmer lines and macroblocks of the original DVD, replaced by beautiful sharp outlines, and wonderful solid colors. On top of these wonderful improvments, any and all traces of grain and decay in the masters has been eliminated, making the overall visual seem like it was created just last year. Overall, the A-Ko remaster has to be the greatest restoration fo a classic film ever performed.

Of course, what would a Central Park Collector's release be without a boatload of extras? This release certainly does not fail to please the rabid otaku, offering extras that would make even certain Japanese fans envious. To start, the extras menu offers is A "Trailers and TV Spots" category, which contains an unprecedented collection of seven trailers and TV spots, and one semi-synopsis of the film from various parts of the world. Following the trailers is a "Comic to Film Comparison", whih is a very interesting extra that takes five parts of the CPM Comics release of the A-Ko comic book, and puts it against the English dialogue to show the similarities and differences between the two. Also included is a collection of fanart for the "Project A-Ko Tribute", which is displayed as a fan-karaoke version of "Get a Chance!" is played along with it. Arguably one of the best extras on the disc has to be the "Behind the Scenes" segment, also known as "Project A-Ko Secret File", which gives a behind the scenes view at the production of the film. Another nice segment is the "Restoration of a classic," which gives an inside look at the remastering process that A-Ko went through before its release. the final "listed" extra is a short, yet sweet interview with Yuji Moriyama that highlights several interesting points, including the film's original aim. Of course, the best extra on the DVD is not listed in the Extras menu, but rather the Language menu, and that is director's commentary to accompany the film. The commentary is indeed a running commentary from the man himself as he talks about the film, the crew, and everything in-between. However, there is one extra that tops even that, in the form of a full OST that is packed in with the DVD. Of course, this is only half of the mind-numbing number of extras, as there is still a hefty amound packed into the DVD ROM section of the disc.

Even after the smorgasboard of extras offered in the main section of the Disc, the folks at Central Park went that extra step and packed every crevice they could with wonderful DVD-ROM content. The most interesting DVD-ROM extra would have to be the full comic book that was made by CPM and Malibu Comics. Also included is a set of two galleries: One for the fanart collection, and one for various character and mech sketches from throughout the film. Another fine addition is the full script for the subtitled version of the film, which is a welcome change to the normal dub script. The final extra that rounds things out is the list of movie and DVD credits for this difficult undertaking (Hey, they deserve mention too!). Wehn everything is all stacked up, Project A-Ko definitely shows an impressive amount of extras that any fan would enjoy.

No self-respecting fan should be without the masterpiece known as Project A-Ko, and now that it's been remastered and released with such flair, there is no better time than the present to pick it up. The A-Ko Remaster disc is truly a shining example of what American companies could be doing if they decided to put enough effort into their projects.

Distributor: Central Park Media
Creator: Soeishinsha/Final-Nishijima
Released: 1986

Plot: A-
Character Design: A
Animation Quality: A+
Music: A-
Overall: A