Plastic Little

I remember trying to find this anime about 6 or 7 years back now. I saw a commercial for it somewhere and was instantly sold. Back then, I was really into shows like Slayers and since the animation style in this was very similar, I didn't pay much attention to what the story was about. Now I find myself a number of years later finally getting the time to watch Plastic Little and seeing if it met my expectations.

The story begins with a 17 year old captain of a pet shop ship named Tita. She has inherited the ship from her father who is eluded to in the story as being either dead or missing (neither of these is said for sure though). Tita makes friends with a girl who is the same age named Ellyse after saving her from a rogue military faction. Through the story Ellyse explains how her father has invented a new type of gravity belt that helps the cities float in the sky. Ellyse's father wouldn't give up the gravity belt to the military because he wanted his invention to benefit people not harm them. Subsequently, the leader of the rogue military faction kills Ellyse's father and they begin pursuing her. The remainder of the story is spent with Tita and her crew fighting the rogue military faction with their pet trapping ship and trying to protect Ellyse from the military.

The 1 episode OVA is 45 minutes so there is not much that can be done with a story in this time frame. I tend to find this is the case with many 1 hour or less OVAs. There weren't too many elements and themes being addressed through the story which always helps to keep the story easy to develop and understand. The story did not have a great deal of depth, but enough to be satisfactory for a short OVA.

The animation was one of the stronger aspects for me when watching this. I enjoyed the style of animation used because it is in line with the same mid-90s type of animation used on shows like Slayers. I did tend to find that the topless aspect on the girls in the film was a little overdone. It seemed that this was used at times to draw attention away from weaker aspects of the story. A lot of emphasis in the animation is placed on the sex appeal of the female characters as well.

The music in this film was almost non-existent. I don't find myself remembering anything in the soundtrack that really stood out. The voices chosen for the characters were reflective of Eastern European and Russian accents. It was a little difficult to understand how the characters fit together because the accents were similar enough but all over the map at the same time. This caused me to ask the question of where exactly this film was taking place geographically.

When weighing out all of the elements in this film, Plastic Little was not a bad watch. It was short enough to pass the time without having to make a significant investment, but not so long that I needed to get comfortable for hours. I did have higher expectations of the film, mostly because I was aware of it at a younger age and my ability to be objective when watching anime was not present. Having looked at this film now and understanding that there are good and bad anime, I can respect much of the work that has gone into this film without saying it is the most amazing thing ever made. I would recommend it for someone looking for a lighter story to digest.