Plastic Little Review By Rashad Moore
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	Audience:	R
	Genre:	Sci-Fi/Adventure
	Contains:	nudity, brief graphic violence
	Rating:	C+

Based on the manga by Satoshi Urushibara, the movie has gained a somewhat undesrving popularity.(especially due to a certain long nudity scene, typical to AD Vision anime.) Plastic Little is quite an ambitious little Sci-fi/Adventure, it manages to be visually appealing, with it's movie quality animation and music, but on the exterior the entire experience seems very rushed and the film is very hokey,cheesy and very, very gratuitous(in some good and bad ways.) While it does have some rather extreme nudity, Plastic Little is no hentai(more of an ecchi title), and actually concentrates on it's characters and plot(what ever remainder of it is.)the anime tries really hard, but it's overall a fun title, and a forgettable experience.

On a distant planet where everything is made of plastic and society is supported among a sea of clouds, a scientist is brutally murdered by the military over a conspiracy that will threaten the entire planet. Her daughter, Elssye barely manages to escape with her life, with the government now after her, she eventually runs into the young Captain Tita and her band of "pet shop hunters" who pilot the flying submarine "Cha-Cha-Maru." With the entire planet in danger and the military in pursuit, will Tita and her crew stand up to the impossible task of going up against an entire army?

The plot itself is very cheesy and predictable, especially for a title that concentrates more on fanservice than an intellegent or suspensful storyline, and what fanservice Plastic Little offers. There's hardly any tension with such a predictable plot. (We've heard this same type of plot a million times, kill the bad guy and save the world, as Brendan Frasier says on "The Mummy") and the bath scene managed to last a little too long, which makes this more of a risque title for younger anime otaku. The villains were very shallow and dull.(Not very suprising for this kind of title.) The main characters were stereotypically interesting, while others seemed underused or just plain annoying. Tita is a great, spunky and likable main character, but under only 60 minutes, character development seems shallow and overly wasted. The action is very predictable, improbable and unrealistic as well, especially the climax(I still can't quite figure out or believe how a small submarine can defeat a large fleet of ships.) The anime is extremely rushed as well, which adds on further to the cheesiness and the climax seemingly came out of nowhere.(Hey! Let's go save the world!) There are some really funny moments, like when Tita panics over her "chest size" when compared to Elyyse's.

For such a stereotypical title, Plastic Little features some really beautiful animation and high-quality production values. The backgrounds are gorgeous and everything has a very misty and cloudy tone to it. There are also some very good effects during the action scenes, nearly rivaling Akira and Tenchi Muyo in Love. The artwork and character design is beautiful as well, and it seems Satoshi Urushibara can do no wrong with her female character designs. The music is very movie-quality as well, but that doesn't make it great. While it sounds good it tries too hard to be emotional, coming off with really hokey results, but it manages to match the action and adventure on screen very well.

Overall Plastic Little is an ambitious and nice to look at, but it's also cheesy, hokey, impossible and gratuatous, fun too. But anything else here isn't worth remembering.

Available from ADV Films. Image shown is not created by atek studios.   Review by Rashad Moore. Sept 99.