Cyberteam in Akihabara Vol-1: Cyber Genesis (1998)
Animation Production: Ka. Non/Kodansha
Released by: ADV Films
Episodes: 1-5
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Take the very popular Sailor Moon TV series, mix in the armored heroines of the classic Bubblegum Crisis OVA series, Final Fantasy’s flashy special attacks, and a hint of the ever popular Pokemon, stir it together and you end up with Cyber Team in Akihabara.

Sounds like an interesting mix? It is; let’s take a closer look and see what this show is all about.

Story

"Like all girls, Hibari Hanakoganei covets the latest fashion in mechanical pets – a PataPi to call her own! But when a strange White Prince provides one, an equally mysterious Black Prince plots to steal the prized pet. It’s PataPi Densuke to the rescue, however, transforming into a powerful Diva with astonishing battle agility and amazingly bears a striking resemblance to Hibari herself! Together with the Cyber Team, the Black Prince will certainly get a run for his money!"-- DVD Box

Review

Volume one of ADV’s domestic release of Cyberteam in Akihabara contains the first five episodes in the series which include:

Episode 1: Diva
Meet Hibari Hanakoganei, a young girl who dreams of one day meeting her handsome prince. Today is her first day attending Junior High School and more than anything she would like to have a PataPi to bring with her. These mechanical pets are the current craze among her friends and schoolmates and not having one makes Hibari feel left out. However, when one mysteriously floats down into her arms in a hill outside of town, she ends up not only with PataPi of her own, but also a calling card to an adventure she could have never anticipated.

As it turns out Hibari’s PataPi, is not a normal version of the mechanical wonder that's sold in shops around Japan because when she finds herself threatened by evil monsters it has the power to transform into a new form, that of an armored woman, known as a Diva. With this newfound power Hibari soons finds herself leading the charge against the forces of the mysterious Metatron and Master Shooting Star.

Episode 2: The Black Meteor
Suzume is Hibari’s best friend and the owner of Francesca, a strange looking PataPi that she has heavily modified with several additions such as offensive weapons and parachutes. She finds Hibari’s tale of her transforming PitaPi to be strange and rather hard to believe, however when her friend finds herself in mortal danger she is shocked to learn that her Francesca can also transform into an armored avatar, with the power to take on even the biggest challenges. Will Suzume and her PitaPi be able to save the day before its too late!?

Episode 3: Homunculus
Tsugumi is an atlethic young girl, and part of a family that specializes in the battle arts such as her mother, who takes part in the wrestling circuit. However, her true passion doesn’t reside in atletics, instead she dreams of the day she will become an Idol Singer, who will be popular, fashionable, and number one in the music charts.

One morning as she makes her way to school Tsugumi notices that a PataPi is about to get run over by a car; with a quick dash of speed she's able to save it and return the PataPi to its owner, Hibari, who finds herself amazed at the feat of heroism and skill that Tsugumi displayed in saving her Densuke. In her effort to thank her for this deed Hibari quickly becomes friends with Tsugumi, however this new friendship is quickly tested when the Metatron show up to harm our heroines! Will Tsugumi’s PataPi be able to transform and save the other Divas?!

Episode 4: Death Crow
Having discovered that their respective PataPis have some amazing powers that could be used for the good of the wolrd our team of heroic girls join together to form a new group! That is, if they can work our their differences on who will be the team leader and what the name of the group will be. Can they pull themselves together in order to overcome a new adversary!?

Episode 5: Cockatrice
A PataPi contest to determine which one is the best in town! This is the opportunity our young heroines have been looking forward to as a way to show everyone their skills and abilities in their respective areas of interest. Unfortunately when the headliner Pop Idol turns out to be a general for the forces of the Metatron, it puts on holds their dreams of winning and instead pushes them into their most challenging battle yet!

What an interesting show Cyberteam in Akihabara turned out to be. While it does contain many elements from Sailor Moon and influences from several other types of shows and even popular videogames, it manages to mix these together to form a rather unique take on the Mahou Shoujo genre, which is what I would generally classify this show as belonging to.

The story itself is a familiar one, featuring a cast of young students, who have to balance their personal lives with the responsibilities that come with the power they inexplicably find themselves holding, however there are enough new angles and distinguishing aspects to the overall setup as to make the story an interesting one. I think that what makes it compelling is the mystery that surrounds everything that's happening onscreen.

Enough hints are dropped to make us as an audience realize that there is a lot more to what appears to be going on here on a superficial level. By the end of episode five we’re still not exactly clear on why our three heroines’ PataPi’s have these amazing powers that allow them to transform into armored avatars of their human counterparts, nor are told explicitly what the evil organization’s plan is or why it’s after the Cyberteam’s PataPi's. This makes each episode more compelling as we end up looking for clues that may hint at the true nature of the story. Overall the plot and the way it unfolded was a lot of fun to watch.

The quality of the production itself is very much in line with other programs from the time it was made in. The frame rate is solid and makes everything move smoothly on-screen. The overall palette is colorful and features a good variety of colors, although there seems to be a very light yellow-ish layer that run atop of everything we see, giving the show a strange tinted look (Somewhat similar to films like the Minority Report, which have a blue tint to them).That being said it doesn’t really take away from the series and looks more to be an artistic choice on part of the creative team behind Cyberteam in Akihabara than a video transfer issue.

The soundtrack featured in these episodes was rather good, with the opening and closing themes being particularly good. The BGM featured in the actions scenes also came as a nice surprise. The voice acting was superb and made the characters come to life brilliantly.

The DVD itself featured a good looking transfer of the original series with no real noticeable issues that I could detect. The overall image quality was not as sharp as some more recent shows, but it was good nonetheless. The Dolby Digital audio came through beautifully, with no noticeable problems. Extras on the DVD included production sketches and clean versions of the opening and closing themes. There is also an insert inside the box with the episode titles.

Final Thoughts

If you find yourself looking for a something along the lines of Pretear, Sailor Moon, or Wedding Peach, Cyberteam in Akihabara is must watch for you. Featuring classic Mahou Shoujo elements, this is the kind of series fans of this very popular genre might really enjoy. Look forward to seeing how the story further develops in the next set of episodes.

Jeffrey Couto