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B-ko Daitokuji: A-ko, the depth of my vexation is beyond your comprehension!
A-ko Magami: Today I woke up early. This may never happen again! But you! You! Over a stupid, petty... B-ko, YOU IDIOT!!!

Sometime in the future, Eiko ("A-ko") Magami — a teenage girl endowed with absurdly high levels of superhuman strength and speed — attends Graviton High with her bubbly and childlike best friend, Shiiko ("C-ko") Kotobuki. Also attending class is Biko ("B-ko") Daitokuji, a beautiful and mega-rich, tall Academic Alpha Bitch who is determined to win C-ko for her own. Unfortunately for B-ko, that means having to go through A-ko first.

So each school day, B-ko attacks A-ko with all manner of Humongous Mecha and, eventually, a revealing purple battlesuit. Things become more complicated after an alien warship from the Lepton Kingdom (located in Alpha Cygni), manned by the mysterious Captain Napolipolita, descends upon Graviton City with the goal of capturing one of the girls—or rather, rescuing her, as she seems to be their long-lost princess.

A raucous blend of over-the-top comedy, action, and science fiction, Project A-Ko was one of those films everyone saw during the infancy of the American anime community, notably because it was one of the first theatrically-released anime films that could not be considered an "arthouse" film to also receive a commercial release in The '80s. The general level of goofiness in the film is evident in the names of its main characters: "Girl A" (A-ko), "Girl B" (B-ko), and "Girl C" (take a wild guess). Another character is also named "D". But despite—or perhaps because of—that goofiness, the intervening years between its initial release and now have not lessened the influence of, and love/respect for, A-ko.

A-ko was followed by three movies which continue the story of the first film and an Alternate Continuity OVA series.

  • Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group concerns the aftermath of the battle with the Alpha Cygnans, as their mothership has crashed and is now being converted into a tourist destination managed by the now-pacified aliens. As A-ko and B-ko fight once again, B-ko's father, rich executive Hikaru Daitokuji, enlists the help of the Space Defense Force in securing the ship and its' technology for himself.
  • Cinderella Rhapsody takes place during Spring Break, as A-ko, wanting a boyfriend, litteraly runs into handsome motorcyclist Kei and becomes enamored with him. B-ko, despite her infatuation with C-ko, finds herself attracted to him as well, and begins competing with A-ko for his affection. Unfortunately for them both, Kei is in love with C-ko, who is feeling very lonely because she feels A-ko is ignoring her.
  • FINAL is, as the name suggests, the Grand Finale of the movie series. As the Alpha Cygnan fleet comes to Earth in full force to recover their princess and their lost ships, the girls' teacher, Miss Ayumi, is tired of being an Old Maid and is entering an Arranged Marriage with Kei, set up by Hikaru Daitokuji. A-ko and B-ko, still infatuated with Kei, make plans to sabotage the wedding and win Kei back, while still fighting amongst themselves. C-ko, meanwhile, just wants A-ko to stop ignoring her.
  • A-ko: The VS Grey Side/Blue Side (released in America as A-ko: Uncivil Wars) takes place in an Alternate Universe where A-ko and B-ko are bounty-hunting partners who capture giant sand turtles in a desert planet. C-ko is the daughter of a wealthy executive who runs the Kotobuki Financial Group, a galactic conglomerate. She gets kidnapped by a duo of Space Pirates in service of Gail, a medium and cult leader who desires to use her as a vessel for the cult's founder Lady Xena, but C-ko escapes and winds up with the bounty hunters. When the pirates invade their home and abduct her again, A-ko and B-ko team up with Galactic Policeman Maruten, a tiny alien who wants to avenge his fallen comrades who died fighting the cult, to rescue C-ko.

Together with AKIRA and Bubblegum Crisis, A-Ko was part of the initial wave of anime in the West that started the 90s anime boom. In spite of that, Project A-ko (プロジェクトA子) is a relatively obscure film series to later generations of anime fans, but it was and continues to be an influential work in regards to action-comedy anime with a female-heavy cast—including My-HiME and Kill la Kill, the latter of which could be considered a Spiritual Successor to A-ko in its own right due to similarities in tone and shared elements of both aesthetic and character.

Discotek Media currently holds the license in North America. Due to the original 35mm master print being believed to have been lost, they planned on instead using a promising AI-upscaling technology called AstroRes to restore the film for release on Blu-Ray... and then announced they were cancelling it because they had found the original masters, and were going to use that instead! This much-anticipated Blu-Ray, which includes the newly-restored version of the film and a ridiculous number of bonus features, ultimately released on December 21, 2021. In addition, remasters of the second and third films, also made using new scans of the original master films, have currently been confirmed, with the second film set for release in August 2022 and the third for later in the year. The AstroRes technology was used to upscale many of the vast number of bonus features. The Series is hosted for streaming by Retro Crush.

Please go to the character sheet for all character-specific trope examples.


Project A-ko, its direct sequels, and A-ko: The VS include the following tropes:

  • Action Dress Rip: One of the DVD covers for the original film depicted A-ko with one of these. In the film, it happens during her showdown with D: A-ko narrowly avoids one of D's sword swipes, which cuts A-ko's fuku right down the middle.
  • Adaptational Friendship: A-ko and B-ko are enemies in the movie continuity. In the Uncivil Wars OVAs, they work together as Vitriolic Best Buds bounty hunters.
  • Affectionate Parody: The series was a send-up of just about everything in Japanese pop culture up until the 80s.
  • After-School Cleaning Duty: A-ko is assigned to clean the classroom as a punishment for being late again. It was going well until B-ko staged a run-in between C-ko and Mari. A-ko thus tore across campus in a hurry—and demolished the classroom in her wake. That earned her a harsh reprimand and an even stiffer punishment the next day.
  • Alien Princess: C-ko Kotobuki (Shiiko), though ignorant of the fact at first, is the lost princess of the Lepton Kingdom of Alpha Cygni, a seemingly One-Gender Race of women warriors (though it can be hard to tell with some of them at first). C-ko eventually turns down all efforts to be returned to her home kingdom, electing instead to remain on Earth with her close friend, A-ko.
  • Aliens Speaking English: The Alpha Cygnans are amazingly fluent in Japanese, though no one ever comments on it in-series.
  • All for Nothing: The endings of Cinderella Rhapsody and Final render all of A-ko and B-ko's fights over Kei pointless: He only has eyes for C-ko.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Maruten laments this fact in The VS, but considering he is not that nice of a guy himself, it is a bit hypocritical.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: A-ko, B-ko, and their homeroom teacher Ms. Ayumi are all in love with Kei; they all squabble over him, too. His heart, however, is set on C-ko—who hates him for taking A-ko's attention away from her.
  • All There in the Manual: Some info about A-ko, B-Ko, and C-Ko is only mentioned in art books.
  • Alphabetical Theme Naming: The names of the three leads can be taken to mean "girl A", "girl B", and "girl C". We also have "D" and "Kei".
  • Alternate Continuity: The VS takes place in a distant future, on a dune-covered alien planet, where A-ko and B-ko work and live together as bounty hunters.
  • And the Adventure Continues: Uncivil Wars ends with A-ko and B-ko, having returned C-ko to her father and saved the multiverse, going off to confront Maruten for taking all the credit.
  • Battle Bikini: Akagiyama-23 is a power suit, designed specifically to enhance B-ko's speed and reflexes to match A-ko's. It resembles an armored bikini that includes a matching pair of boots and gauntlets and is usually worn beneath her clothing.
  • Berserk Button: Each of the girls has one:
    • For A-ko, it is having to constantly deal with B-ko's gadgets, since it usually makes her late for class. She also takes pride in her appearance, so even a minor cut on her cheek or ripping her skirt will set her off.
    • B-ko cannot stand A-ko for monopolizing C-ko's time and hates seeing A-ko defeat another of her mecha.
    • C-ko does not like anyone taking A-ko's attention away from her. She definitely hates Kei—and flatly tells him so both times he tries to confess his love for her. She also starts to grow concerned when it seems A-ko has begun to enjoy her rivalry with B-ko a little too much.
    • And for Captain Napolipolita, it is sobriety.
  • Big Bad:
    • Original film: B-ko Daitokuji becomes A-ko Magami's rival and is the antagonist for most of the film, scheming to defeat A-ko so she can take her best friend, C-ko Kotobuki, for herself. Around two-thirds in, she gets overshadowed by Captain Napolipolita, leader of the battleship of Alpha Cygnans who wants to take C-ko, actually their long-lost princess, back to their home planet by force.
    • Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group: Hikaru Daitokuji is the head of the titular Daitokuji Financial Group who plots to steal the Alpha Cygnan mothership from them and get its advanced technology for himself.
    • Cinderella Rhapsody: B-ko becomes the antagonist once again, this time fighting with A-ko over the affections of Kei (who is in love with C-ko) and making plans to steal him for herself.
    • FINAL: B-ko and Hikaru are the antagonists, as Hikaru personally oversees the preparations for Kei's Arranged Marriage with Miss Ayumi, while B-ko plans to crash the wedding in a last-ditch effort to steal Kei for herself and continues to fight A-ko over him.
    • Uncivil Wars aka The VS: Grey Side/Blue Side: Lady Xena is the ancient sorceress who founded the cult of Space Pirates that kidnapped C-ko, who they intend to use as a vessel for her spirit to possess, and she desires to destroy all universes to create a perfect new one.
  • BFS: D wields one during her fight with A-ko. Except in D's hands, her sword appears normal length. But when A-ko takes it from her, the blade is nearly 1.5 times her body length; excluding the hilt.
  • Booked Full of Mooks: Played with in the second film. All of the guests at the "hotel" built from the wrecked spaceship turn out to be members of one foreign intelligence agency or another, all intending to get their hands on C-ko and force the Leptons to hand over the secrets of their technology. Fortunately for A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko, it becomes a case of We ARE Struggling Together, as each agency wants to be the one to take the girl, and they're not willing to share.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Played with in the OVAs. In Cinderella Rhapsody, A-ko is looking at "the camera" when she admits she lied. In Vs. Blue Side, A-ko is talking directly to the viewer. Even some of the promos break the fourth wall.
  • The Cameo:
    • Yawara Inokuma and her grandpa Jigoro appear as customers in the burger joint A-ko works at in the third movie.
    • Kaneda, Kei, Yamagata and his girlfriend are seen with their backs turned, watching the broadcast of the alien invasion in Final. Blink and you'll miss it.
      • Pausing the shot seems to reveal not only the main three, but the Colonel, and others of the Capsule biker gang with their girlfriends. They didn't mess around with this one.
  • Cultural Cross-Reference: Halfway into the first film, A-ko and C-ko watch a horror flick starring Colonel Sanders as its villain.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: The Earth space forces are completely trashed by the Alpha Cygni aliens. They barely even make a scratch on their battleship.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: In Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group the newspapers the spies use as their "disguises" are titled "Mainichi Daily News". Mainichi is Japanese for "everyday", making the paper the Daily Daily News. For a time, this was actually the name of the website of the English version of the Mainichi Shimbun.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Mr. Daitokuji gets one at the end of Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group. He attempts to catch an entire spaceship with his bare hands. He was wearing Powered Armor, true, but even he should know even that it couldn't hold up the weight of a space fortress the size of a small island!
  • Did They or Didn't They?: At the end of The VS, A-ko asks B-ko "how far" did Gail manage to get with her. B-ko tells her nothing happened, then smiles vaguely over her shoulder and adds, "nothing at all".
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Happens to one of the fighter pilots during the dogfight in the first film. A-ko lands on the canopy of his jet, with her legs spread eagle, which gives the pilot and the audience a close-up view up her skirt. The arrows of his HUD are even positioned at both points of entry at A-ko's privates. The pilot smiles goofily as he enjoys the view, until he gets shot down moments later due to not paying attention to the ongoing battle.
  • The Ditz: C-ko (though she does seem to have moments of insight) and Miss Ayumi.
  • Doppelgänger Spin: An Informed Ability of B-ko's Max 5000 mecha is the ability to replicate itself five times.
  • Dramatic Spine Injury: Played for laughs in "Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group". B-ko's father, sporting a copy of his daughter's Akagiyama 23 power suit that hasn't been altered for a male physique, attempts to catch a falling alien battleship using only the power suit. An X-ray of Daitokuji Sr.'s vertebrae snapping like kindling shows up; he gives a pained, wide-eyed expression, and drops the battleship. He's fine by the next OAV, though.
  • Fan Disservice: We can safely assume no one wants to see D in a Battle Bikini, or Mr. Daitokuji wearing a copy of B-ko's battle armor.
  • Fanservice:
    • Most of it comes from A-ko. Her opening scene has sunlight filtering through her nightshirt, revealing she isn't wearing a bra underneath; moments later, she removes it and rummages through her closet in nothing but panties, with nothing obscuring her chest. She's often subject to upskirt panty shots, including one instance where a lucky fighter pilot gets an extended look at her undies while she's seated on the canopy of his plane with the arrows of his Heads-Up Display positioned directly at A-ko's groin and her ass.
    • B-ko is naked—and her bare chest is shown—during her bath scene in the first film.
      • And her form-fitting battle armor leaves little to the imagination.
    • In Cinderella Rhapsody, a yuri scene at a movie theater is preempted by a city-wide evacuation order.
    • In The VS, A-ko spends the entire first fight against Liza in nothing but her underwear.
    • Although A-ko has the most panty shots, other girls in the series have their moments as well.
    • C-ko's princess outfits are both more revealing than her usual attire. Her pink dress in the first movie is designed so it is split down the middle from the waist down, revealing her legs. It also shows off some of her back. The other outfit is seen in Final—it is initially covered by a cape, but later revealed to be a tight, high-cut leotard that exposes her legs and shows some hip.
  • Fashion-Shop Fashion Show: Late in the third film, A-ko tries on a bunch of different dresses, since B-ko bought the one she had been saving for and gave it to Mari.
  • Fiction 500: The Daitokuji Family is renowned for their wealth and influence. The second film onwards makes a point of showing B-ko's father bankrolling Graviton City's defense force and providing them with new aircraft and mecha designs.
  • Flung Clothing: Which is how B-ko first reveals her Akagiyama-23 battle suit.
  • Follow Your Heart: The theme of C-ko's character song from the original film "Follow Your Dreams".
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Midway into the first film, B-ko vows to take A-ko on herself, even if it means revealing her "true power". She does not show it off until Cinderella Rhapsody, when she briefly matches A-ko without her battle armornote .
    • Subverted for laughs in Final. The prophecy foretelling the end of the world was just a coincidence when the aliens arrived. And Ms. Ayumi wasn't possessed by her charm; she only did the incantations because she was told it would bring her luck.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: The first film includes some very close panty shots and some fired missiles actually being soda pop cans (as a Shout-Out to the Super Dimension Fortress Macross film).
  • Funbag Airbag: Played as an Oh, Crap! moment in addition to a gag, as it's A-ko running into Liza after having kicked her through a wall. [1]
  • Funny Background Event:
    • When B-ko's flunkies interrupt her first fight with A-ko, B-ko can be seen in the background signalling them with a pair of paper fans before quickly putting them away.
    • In Final, one sequence involves rumors about Ms. Ayumi's marriage meeting spreading around the school; in a scene set in the girl's restroom during this sequence, an unnamed brunette is seen using one of the urinals (yes, really).
    • In The VS, when A-ko finally catches up to B-ko at Gail's lair, Grash is semi-conscious on B-ko's back. This causes A-ko to assume they are together, sparking an argument between the two ladies. Grash realizes his hands are on B-ko's boobs and sees she is distracted, so he starts groping her as much as he can.
  • Go-Go Enslavement: In The VS, Maruten promises A-ko that he will bring B-ko back to life...for a price. A-ko assumes he wants her body and imagines being doomed to a life of sexual slavery—an idea that Maruten flat-out denies.
  • Good Morning, Crono: The first movie begins with a morning radio broadcast as A-ko prepares for school.
  • Hammerspace: A rare instance where a pair of males use hammers out of nowhere on another male happens in Final.
  • Humongous Mecha:
    • In the film, B-ko uses numerous mechs in her plans to crush A-ko. When they all fail, B-ko designs the Akagiyama-23 battle armor.
    • Graviton City's defense force has many of their own mechas thanks to B-ko's father—only theirs are used to protect the city from the destruction caused by her and A-ko.
  • Iconic Outfit: A-ko's Transfer Student Uniform is this. When Central Park Media published comic adaptations of the series, they changed her outfit in their version of The VSnote  to the sailor suit as a way of increasing sales.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: In The VS, A-ko and B-ko realize that C-ko is Fighting from the Inside of Xena's Demonic Possession, so they attempt this—only to descend into enthusiastic bickering. As C-ko watches the two become Unstuck in Time shifting between alternate versions of themselves (including their classic incarnations) as they fight, she awakens because of her Intrinsic Vow: she does not like it when A-ko and B-ko fight.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes:
    • B-ko's Akagiyama-23 battle armor is a sleek armored bikini.
    • A-ko and B-ko receive redesigned outfits in The VS that consist of leotards, boots, and knee pads.
  • In Their Own Image: In The VS, Xena and Gail want the Dragon God to destroy the current "degenerate" universes so they can create a new one where everyone is pure.
  • Jerkass:
    • B-ko is initially the antagonist to A-ko, who recounts how she used to bully C-ko when all three of them were young children. Most of the students at Graviton High share A-ko's opinion, which makes her their hero for standing up to B-ko.
    • The VS reverses this: A-ko is the selfish one who is only motivated by greed and personal gain.
  • Lady Looks Like a Dude: Despite what Captain Napolipolita and D would make you think, there are no male Alpha Cygnians.
  • Large Ham: Xena's monologues in The VS become increasingly melodramatic, especially once she reaches the Talhoe Sector.
  • Late for School: This is used as a running gag throughout the film, with A-ko always being late for class due to either oversleeping or B-ko picking fights with her. It continues to happen in the sequel OVAs, though not to the same extent.
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: By Superman and Wonder Woman, and it is not at all subtle. The graphic novelization even gives them the first names of "Clark" and "Diana".
  • Leitmotif: In the first film, A-ko has "Dance Away" (which plays in full when she and C-ko skip school), B-ko has "In Your Eyes" (which plays in full when she bathes), and C-ko has "Follow Your Dreams" (which plays in full over the closing credits).
  • Leotard of Power: A-ko and B-ko both wear leotards in The VS; A-ko's includes a removable skirt.
  • Love Dodecahedron: A-ko, B-ko and Ms. Ayumi all fancy Kei, who turns out to only have eyes for C-ko (although the affection is not returned). Not counting the subtext with A-ko, B-ko and C-ko themselves.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: B-ko pulls this off with the Akagiyama Missiles. Several spaceships in the series also do this.
  • Made of Explodium: Most of the mecha that A-ko fights—notably B-ko's mecha—are afflicted with this. (Or maybe A-ko has tactile thermokinesis.)
  • Made of Indestructium: By Final, the desks in classroom 2-E are made of this. Good thing, too: The students have learned to use them as cover during A-ko and B-ko's fights. Too bad the rest of Graviton High did not get that upgrade.
  • Mage Species: Gail and Xena in The VS are part of a species of witches.
  • Mile-Long Ship: The initial shots of the alien ship in the film are blocked to make it appear to be about the size of Space Battleship Yamato or the Arcadia (which it resembles on purpose). When the whole ship is shown later on, the "Yamato" part is revealed as the figurehead, though the blocking wasn't perfect: in the space scene with the Earth fighter jets, one of the long spires of the ship is seen against the distant figurehead portion, and when the main gun is fired the beam is clearly seen coming from above and behind the fore portion of the ship.
  • Newspaper-Thin Disguise: The second OVA has an entire flock of spies in identical trenchcoats reading newspapers while observing everyone and waiting for a signal.
  • No One Could Survive That!: Near the end of "Final", B-ko's battle armor loses power, which sends both her and A-ko plummeting back into Earth's atmosphere. Both girls survive re-entry—and they are not even fazed by it; B-ko calmly quips about it being "a lovers' suicide" with A-ko, mere moments before they slam into the surface. After a brief cutaway scene, A-ko is shown back at home, where she collapses on her bed, with no sign of injury other than her slightly tattered uniform. B-ko is shown staring wistfully at the night sky from her veranda, in her nightgown...and none the worse for wear.
  • Panty Shot: As mentioned elsewhere on this page, A-Ko gets a lot of these. Many of them come from her skirt waving in the breeze, making them easy to overlook if you don't realize it.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: In The VS, B-ko wears one as a disguise. A-ko comments on how odd that is, since they are trying to break into the villain's lair, not attend a party.
  • Playboy Bunny: The waitresses in Love and Robots, and B-ko in an alternate universe in The VS.
  • Please Wake Up: A-ko does this to B-ko after Gail blasts her near the end of the first half of The VS
  • Poor Communication Kills: Had the aliens communicated that they weren't heading to Earth to invade, Earth wouldn't have made an unprovoked attack on them. Unfortunately (for Earth) they were in too big a hurry and thought us too primitive to bother.
  • Powered Armor: B-ko's Akagiyama-23 battle armor is more like a powered bikini. Her father has a similar suit.
  • Power Limiter: A-ko's bracers are revealed to be these in Cinderella Rhapsody.
  • Psychic Link: In The VS, A-ko and B-ko seem to have one, as A-ko knows something has happened to B-ko after Gail shoots an energy beam through B-ko's chest.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: "Get A Chance!" (the ending theme for Project A-Ko 3) was originally the first ending of the live-action TV adaptation of Hana no Asuka-gumi!
  • Red Herring: Played for Laughs. The climax of Final, the Grand Finale, shows that all the supposedly ominous signs predicting an apocalypse of all existence, apparently connected by the hexagram symbols, which we were led to believe was connected to the Alpha Cygnan fleet and would lead to an epic final battle for the fate of the universe... was all just a big coincidence.
  • Redshirt Army: The Graviton Defense Force serves mainly to get nearly annihilated by the Alpha Cygnans.
  • Reference Overdosed
  • Required Secondary Powers: The whole series plays with this trope. A-ko is shown several times to be hurt by fairly mundane things... before she kicks a giant robot without hurting her leg. The Rule of Funny fully applies here.
    • Project A-ko: She hits her thumb with a hammer with full cartoonish reactions, which are just as easily forgotten, and she trips on an ordinary piece of flawed sidewalk.
    • Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group: She tires out after failing to get a piece of the Alpha Cygnian ship back in place. The pool incident does not count as "mundane".
    • The VS: She gets a cartoonish injury from being bonked by B-ko's hammer.
  • Running Gag: A-ko constantly runs over D on the way to school. C-ko even begins greeting her each morning starting with the second movie.
  • Sand Is Water: In The VS, A-ko and B-ko live on a desert planet. B-ko has to build a sand-ship from the ruins of their destroyed home once the plot begins.
  • Self-Censored Release: The series began life as part of the Cream Lemon series of hentai before becoming a full-fledged feature film; the In-Universe hentai short that appears in Cinderella Rhapsody is actually recycled from the first film's initial storyboards.
  • She Is All Grown Up: The first film has a non-romantic version (and possibly an inversion, as it involves a childhood enemy rather than a Forgotten Childhood Friend): according to A-ko's flashback to their childhood, she and C-ko used to look more or less like chibi-versions of their present day forms. B-ko, on the other hand, was described—accurately—as having a "basin haircut, piggy eyes and dumpy legs" but grew up into easily the most beautiful of the three girls. (A-ko is an Amazonian Beauty and C-ko is The Cutie, but B-ko is more classically gorgeous.) No wonder A-ko failed to recognise her at first.
  • Shout-Out: More than can easily be counted...
    • A-ko's parents are apparently Superman and Wonder Woman.
    • B-ko's father bears some resemblance to Tony Stark.
    • Captain Napolipolita is an obvious parody of Captain Harlock, in the same way that the bow of the Lepton mothership looks like the Arcadia. Alternately, Napolipolita is Leader Dessler dressed like Captain Okita, flying the Yamato.
    • D is a parody of Vampire Hunter D's title character both in name and looks.
    • The lead heroine from Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl briefly appears in the third movie.
    • The title itself is a reference to the Jackie Chan movie Project A.
    • The design of teacher Ms. Ayumi is a Shout Out/Homage to magical girl series Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel.
    • Mari, B-ko's underling, looks—and fights—like Kenshiro with pigtails.
    • The plot of the first film is a rough re-hash of Super Dimension Fortress Macross.
    • The weaponry in the film includes transforming mecha, a Wave-Motion Gun, and Macross Missiles.
    • King Ghidorah is first referenced in Cinderella Rhapsody in one of the outfits A-ko tries, whereas the Three-Headed Dragon God in The VS is a much more obvious reference.
    • The movie that A-ko and C-ko watch, in which Colonel Sanders ominously walks out of the shadows, is a parody of the 1983 movie version of Genma Wars, known in the West as "Harmageddon".
    • The comic opens with the narrator referencing a few well-known sci-fi works:
  • Shown Their Work: The homeworld of the aliens, Alpha Cygni (more commonly known as Deneb), is a real star. The estimated distance from Earth, with a 10% margin of error, is 1,550 light years, so it is reasonable that they could arrive here in a short time.
  • Space Opera: The Vs. leans towards this, with its tale of a cult seeking to summon a dragon god that will wipe out all civilizations in order to cleanse the universe of sin, and the Space Police trying to stop them.
  • Space Police: The Space Patrol from The VS were presumably this. They were nearly wiped out by Xena and her followers; Maruten is the only one left.
  • Spoiled Brat: C-ko shows shades of this in The VS
    C-Ko: I'M BORED, I WANNA PLAY A GAME NOW!!!
  • Stranded Invader: Capt. Napolipolita and Agent D, of the Leptons of Alpha Cygni, are stranded on Earth, along with the surviving members of the warship's crew, after A-ko and B-ko smash up the ship rescuing C-ko. They try their hand at running a hotel with posh restaurant, and later a theme park using the remnants of the ship, but all their ventures are destroyed in the crossfire between A-ko and B-ko over whatever petty argument the two are engaged in at that particular moment.
  • Supernatural Gold Eyes: A-ko's gold-amber eyes are a sign that she is not exactly a normal human.
  • Technicolor Eyes: Liza's eyes are silver, indicating she is not a regular human.
  • Theme Naming: The three main characters are named in a way that is indicative of extras instead of main characters.
  • The Three Faces of Eve: C-ko is the "child" (the innocent and childlike figure), A-ko is the "wife" (she is the protective big sister figure looking after C-ko), and B-ko is the "seductress" (she has a curvy figure with penchant for wearing a revealing power suit and has a certain obsession with C-ko).
  • Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: The radio show in the opening of the film refers to Graviton City as the high-tech capital of the world because of the captured alien vessel that serves as its central landmark. The city also becomes the target of both invasions by the Alpha Cygnans.
  • Tormented Teacher: Ayumi-sensei has it rough. The school is frequently being demolished by the spat between A-ko and B-ko. What's more, B-ko, a Teen Genius, and with the money to back it up by actually building the machines she can dream up, frequently makes backhanded remarks about Ayumi not keeping the class busy enough. And on top of all that, the final movie reveals that she's worried about becoming an Old Maid and is trying to hold an Arranged Marriage with Kei to avoid that fate, only to learn that Kei is the object of lust to A-ko and B-ko, and that Kei is obsessed with the childish C-ko. Her marriage is crashed by A-ko and B-ko trying to steal Kei, and by C-ko's alien family showing up to collect her. Poor, poor Ayumi-sensei.
  • Transfer Student Uniforms: A-ko and C-ko wear these throughout the film; they switch over to the proper uniforms at the end of the film, then wear them regularly in the sequel OVAs, though A-ko does switch back to her Iconic Outfit for the climatic battle in Final, apparently just for the express purpose of irritating B-ko (which she does).
  • Transforming Mecha: One of B-ko's mechas is this—only B-ko failed to plan out how the cockpit would work in both forms.
  • Tron Lines: In the film, the elevator in the alien ship has these.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: The original film starts with the Military Science Fiction plotline of Earth sending a space probe out after Graviton City is built from the ruins where an alien spaceship crashed. The film occasionally returns to this plot with Coincidental Broadcasts while A-Ko's story goes on, with the only direct link being D broadcasting to the Alpha Cygni dreadnought. The space plot returns to the forefront literally as soon as A-ko and B-ko start fighting in earnest; the first alien attack sequence lasts for several minutes before the fight at school literally continues where it left off. The plots finally join once A-ko and B-ko wander into the battlefield between the invaders and Earth's defense forces, and the Alpha Cygni capture their goal — their lost princess, C-ko.
  • Unknown Rival: B-ko starts out as this to A-ko, with her attempt to win C-ko's attention foiled without A-ko knowing it was involved. Even after B-ko starts trying to settle their old score from kindergarten, A-ko is mostly annoyed until she tries to go to school early to avoid everything — and still finds B-ko waiting. That's when things get serious.
  • Wardrobe Malfunction: A-ko suffers from these, and often. When she is particularly embarrassed, one of her bra straps will slip down her shoulder, often with some of the shirt accompanying it. She also often gets into situations that become an innocent panty shot, not that she takes it that way.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: After Earth tries and fails to intercept the Alpha Cygni mothership in space, Captain Napolipolita destroys the space station home base
  • Whole Costume Reference: B-ko's father dresses like Elvis when he pilots a mecha.
  • Wingding Eyes: In The VS, Maruten tries to convince A-ko to help him defeat Gail, Xena, and the Dragon God, but he is unable to sway her. When he finally mentions the reward, A-ko gets dollar and yen signs for pupils and says, quite deadpan, "It is my duty."
  • X-Ray of Pain: In Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group, B-ko's father dons a copy of his daughter's Akagiyama battle suit and attempts to catch the falling alien battleship. The audience is treated to an x-ray of his spine snapping like kindling.

 
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Project A-Ko 4: Final

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