Assemble Insert...
A while ago, I picked up Assemble Insert...
Assemble Insert was created by Masami Yuuki, creator of "Patlabor". Mecha Design by Yutaka Izubuchi, designer of "Lodoss Wars". Design Assist by Takehiko Ito, creator of "Outlaw Star". Follow the exploits of Maron Namikaze as she uses her super-human strength to take on the Demon Seed gang. Along the lines of Abashiri Family or Cutey Honey, but only modestly entertaining. It has some humor, no naughty bits and no gore. I gave Assemble Insert a 2 out of 5. For some reason that defies description, Right Stuf, produced two different versions of the cover art.
According to Wikipedia...The local cops have a problem: the Demon Seed - a small but surprisingly capable gang with a charismatic leader. Their mecha body suits allow them to undertake spectacular crimes that regularly rampage the city and totally humiliate the local police. Desperate, the police have created a special branch just to deal with them. However, these unlucky few aren't having any better results than the regular police and the public is turning against them. If they could just foil the Demon Seed once it would make their careers much easier...They just need a plan...
Now chief Hattori has come up with...um...well... something the Demon Seed gang will definitely never expect. Hatched from chief Hattori's alcohol-induced mind, it's just so bizarre that it's just got to work! Find the perfect crime fighter that's so super, so fantastic and captivating that even if they don't beat the Demon Seed gang, the public just won't care! And who could this person be? An Idol Singer of course!
Enter Maron Namikaze. Cute and innocent; she can't sing or even dance but she has the only talent the job really requires: super-human strength! Now Hattori and his crew must mold her into the perfect Idol Singer and turn Maron into their ultimate weapon... but at what cost? Can she really survive the Demon Seed's onslaught? The story is somewhat reminiscent of Project A-ko in its innocence but its one of the most brilliant parodies of anime and Japanese Pop-Culture you're likely to find... complete with it's own commercials!
What the world really needs is a super cute, super strong Idol Singer who can smak the tar out of the bad guys.
So, what's an "Idol Singer", anyway? In Japan, a very specific kind of female singer makes her debut every few months. All of them are about 14 (and usually wear huge, puffy dresses), and typically shoot up the music charts for about six weeks then disappear. Most are never publicly seen again. During those weeks, though, they appear on every talk and music show available and are conspicuously placed in every advertising venue imaginable by their record companies.
While a few of these girls do have real staying power (producing hit after hit for years), the vast majority of these "manufactured" singers vanish into obscurity once their one or two big songs are played out. By that time, the cycle has repeated with another girl.
Anime has featured the idea of the Idol Singer in one way or another for years (particularly in shows like the "Macrons" series and "MegaZone 23"), and "Assemble Insert" takes a few shots at this institution. It ruthlessly skewers the idea that a little girl with limited talent (but with the right image) can be manufactured by people who the public never sees and made into a pop icon overnight. It takes the idea even further by making the heroine a crime-fighter with incredible strength and simultaneously the last hope of the police. The result is a firmly tongue-in-cheek parody of not only anime but most of Japanese pop-culture.
The two actresses in the vitamin drink parody commercials are "Assemble Insert" voice actresses Hiroko Kasahara (Maron's voice actress) and Maria Kawamura (Kagiri's voice actress).
In 1989, two live concerts were held in Tokyo and Osaka called "Maron-Chan Concert Ohirome" featuring the vocals of Hiroko Kasahara, Maron's voice actress. The concert was done to promote the anime. A CD recording of the concert was released on March 25, 1990, with a final track featuring fans talking to Kasahara.
The "Kougaman" anime segment at the beginning of OVA 1 is a parody of sentai (super team) anime. The characters used are from Masami Yuuki's Kyūkyoku Chōjin R series, with the character R Tanaka reappearing twice in the rest of the series. In turn, Chief Hattori originally appeared in the first volume of Kyūkyoku Chōjin R as a detective who was hunting down R, because of rumors that R was actually a weapon of mass destruction.
Assemble Insert was created by Masami Yuuki, creator of "Patlabor". Mecha Design by Yutaka Izubuchi, designer of "Lodoss Wars". Design Assist by Takehiko Ito, creator of "Outlaw Star". Follow the exploits of Maron Namikaze as she uses her super-human strength to take on the Demon Seed gang. Along the lines of Abashiri Family or Cutey Honey, but only modestly entertaining. It has some humor, no naughty bits and no gore. I gave Assemble Insert a 2 out of 5. For some reason that defies description, Right Stuf, produced two different versions of the cover art.
