Maps 3/10

I've seen a few sci-fi anime where the spaceships in the show are represented by girls, meaning the show has girl characters who represent the ships or the ship's computers. Lost Universe, Infinite Ryvius, Megazone 23, World of Narue are examples of this. Maps takes this idea to a strange new place. There are like 5-6 ships, shaped like angel girl statues, each with a girl as the representation of ship. It's a unique idea as far as I'm aware so I thought I'd point it out. Having seen as much anime as I have, unique is good.

Maps is an OVA from the days when money flowed like urine after a Big Gulp and the OAVs spread across the market like brains on toast. Days like 1994. Since I usually like these old school, hand drawn, short little shows not based on an existing manga or show I went into this disc not looking for much plot-wise but for a great looking, old-school OAV with some fan-service to sell the thing.

I was not disappointed. The animation is great throughout, the Japanese VAs are up to par, and the music is pretty good. There is some fan-service for you keeping score, but not much. This show actually stands up pretty good in the plot department but suffers a bit at the end as you know no more shows are coming after the four here. This is to bad as the last episode really leaves the show open for more. Ah, well. I've got better OAV's I want more episodes of first. (Dragon Half anyone?)

The plot is basically that some "spaceship" comes to earth a picks up this kid who has some space map in his DNA. (Major Disarray says "Flight of the Navigator did it!") Fight with some other "spaceship" ensues. The next 3 episodes involve the guy, his girl, and the spaceship girl running around the galaxy looking for pieces of an interstellar map and battling other spaceship girls. (Kryten says "It's a classic tale.")

Recommended if you dig average old school OAVs. If you want tons of fan-service, shiny new looking computer coloured art or a vast engaging storyline, look elsewhere.