Video Backlog: "Phantom Quest Corp."

Publisher: Pioneer (Geneon, USA)
Format: Region 1 and 4 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 4 Episodes x 30 minutes
Production Date: 1994 - 1995
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

Story Outline: Ayaka Kisaragi, a woman in her late 20’s who comes from a long line of Japanese exorcists, runs a company named Yuugen Kaisha or “You-Gen-Kai-Sya” as the English titles reads on the opening Japanese credits. Her job is get rid of occult problems for her clients (when she has clients). The company’s name is a pun meaning limited liability company as well as the occult, something which is alluded to in the opening crawl in the credits, but never explained in Geneon’s English version of show. Ayaka is helped on the accounting and client relations side by a young boy named Mamoru Shimesu, though it is never explained what his relation is to Ayaka. Methinks some child labour laws are being broken there. Despite almost always being broke as she is a bit of a lush and is a spendaholic, they have a house and office smack dab right in the middle of Shinjuku’s skyscrapers. The stories in the show revolve around her solving supernatural problems for her clients along with some hired specialist help and with the help of bedraggled detective Kouzou Karino, who is part of the local police’s specialised supernatural division, U Section. Karino is abit smitten with Ayaka, naturally.

Mini Review: Look, it is a complete rip off of "Ghost Sweeper Mikami", however it’s really, really fun. Fantastic fluid 1990’s OVA grade animation (with Yoshiaki Kawajiri doing the opening animation) with four really good stories. Plus Ayaka is a complete babe. A tall gorgeous, leggy redhead. Yowza. Even though there is a bit of fan service as you’d expect with Ayaka wearing a lot of short skirts and rather inappropriate clothes to meet clients and a small fleeting shot of her nipples as she falls out of bed, the show seems really tame when compared to modern day stuff. Fun 1990's OVA fluff really. I still have the video tapes I bought back in the 1990's from the US. The show brought back a lot of memories from the 1990’s when anime was in short supply and I was buying tapes from the US like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately a lot of the material from the subbed US tape sets aren’t present in the DVD version, like the laserdisc sized inserts and the You-Gen-Kai-Sya business cards. So glad I kept the video tapes. Some parts of the OVA were a bit weak, so it's a 7 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 20 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).