Zetsumetsu Kigu Shoujo: Amazing Twins

Zetsumetsu Kigu Shoujo is a two part OVA where the first part was released very late 2013. It was written by Okada Mari. Who's also done good work for anime like Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans, mediocre work on anime like Toradora & shit work on rubbish anime like Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo. Although, in all fairness, the mediocre and terribly written examples were both adapted from light novels. And this is an original work from Encourage films. You may know them as the driving force behind... nothing I've seen. Story: Todoroki Amane is an esper or an "ISH" if you want to use the anime's terminology.She desires one thing and one thing only, to use her powers to entertain people and give her bodyless twin sister a purpose. Their entertainment group has a small fan base but they're trying hard. Unfortunately, her powers draw the attention of a shady man who experiments using espers. And he sees her multiple esper abilities as a grand asset for him. The biggest issue with this OVA is that the story does somewhat rely on clichés. Take, for instance, the big confrontation Amane has with Aya. There's nothing in the OVA to show any real friendliness between them, but they have to have a stereotypical "convert the villain with the power of friendship" moment that relies entirely on the trope being common to work. It's also a bit disappointing that they spend so much time building Hasudou up as a shadowy puppet master and grave threat only to just kind of drop it in the end. It's like they were going to have three episodes and canceled the last one. To the OVA's credit, Okada does do a good job of using the time effectively. She sets up the scenario and gives you all the essential information pretty quickly. She also provides compelling reasons for a conflict between Amane and Aya. She also does a pretty grand job of building the world enough that it feels much larger than it actually is. And the comedic scenes are pretty well handled. The Captain Japan super hero parody segments are especially memorable. Characters: The big problem with the characters is that there are just a lot of one note ones who don't do much. Take the dude with teleportation abilities and the girl with super strength. Their purpose is pretty much "part of Amane's entertainment troupe." Or how about the girl who shows up with their sponsor? She's such a nothing character I'm not sure why she's even here. Okada does a pretty good job with the major characters. We get a strong sense of what Amane, Lilian and Aya are like. Even if the dynamics are a bit trite. Art: Encourage did a pretty decent job. The animation isn't the highest budget out there for certain, but it looks just fine. The best part of the artwork is definitely the action sequences. I gave Mob Psycho a hard time for their overly busy, messy esper battles. This presents much cleaner and better sequenced esper fights while still taking advantage of the unusual abilities for a unique feel. Am I saying this two episode OVA is artistically superior to Mob Psycho 100? Yes. My biggest issue with the artwork is the way they sneak in some rather crass fan-service scenes. They Put Amane in a school swimsuit and have her strapped in a chair for an examination while Aya a similar examination with only straps to cover her private areas. These girls are probably supposed to be all of fifteen. We should not be seeing them scantily clad. Sound: There are some strong actors in this. Sato Satomi, Uchida Aya and Touyama Nao all deliver fairly strong performances. The music was composed by Conisch and he did a great job with it. Ho-yay: There's a bit. Amane's female sponsor very blatantly has a thing for her. And probably shares around a Mamoru/Usagi age gap with her. So, pretty questionable. Aya and Amane also come across as a bit homo-erotic in a couple major scenes. Areas of Improvement: Lose the extra performers. Just give Amane a solo show. You can still have the same ending, just without the superfluous characters who don't really add anything. Ditch the fan-service of young teenage girls. Bad Encourage, bad. You sit in your room and think about what you've done. Actually build up the dynamic with Aya and Amane to make the ending trope work. Final Thoughts: This OVA is actually pretty good. For an hour long work, Okada and the folks at Encourage put together something quite solid. If a comedic bent little story about espers seems interesting to you, maybe give it a watch. For me, I'm giving it a 7/10.