Battle Athletes Victory

Overview

In the distance future (the year 4998), young women compete for the Cosmo Beauty title.  Regardless of how the title sounds, the competitions actually involve crazy sporting events, like some kind of insane Olympics.  Battle Athletes Victory follows several girls who are training to compete to enter the final competitions at University Sattelite.

It's obvious that none of the girls involved are ordinary, at least by 21st century human standards.  As the series starts, over 200 girls are having a footrace that involves pulling a huge bulldozer type roller cross-country, down cliffs, and through mine fields!  The "World's Strongest Man" competition that is sometimes shown on ESPN is nothing compared to these competitions! ^_^  In the second episode, competitors face off in a bicycle race, using a roller coaster track as their racing platform!

Battle Athletes Victory appears to be a TV series that was released after the OAV series Battle Athletes.  This is basically a remake (alternate version), much in the way of El-hazard or Tenchi Muyo.

While not perhaps the best reason to get this series (but definitely an incentive), Battle Athletes Victory often sells for only $13 on DVD!  This includes 4 episodes, with both English and Japanese audio tracks.  Speaking of which, the English voice cast does a great job.  The English language track is just as enjoyable (if not more so) as the Japanese track, something not every anime series can claim.

Characters

The show focuses on several girls, each from a different part of the world.  The main character is Akari Kanzaki, the daughter of the most famous Cosmo Beauty of all time.  While Akari is obviously gifted, she isn't high in self-confidence and as a result doesn't motivate herself to bring out her own full potential.  She's very kind hearted, but timid.  A typical main character with high potential.

Ichi-chan is Akari's best friend at the training school.  She's extremely tough and athletic.  She has a "never give up" spirit, and doesn't have any reservations when it comes to expressing herself, either physically or vocally.  She's a bit of a tomboy, always ready for a fight, and Akari often teases her by making comments about her rather flat chest. ^_^

Ling-pha is a young girl from a rich family.  While she doesn't really have enough athletic skill to compete against some of the other students, she makes up for it with sneaky tricks like having her hired help dig pitfalls. ^_^  Tanya is sort of wild girl (wild as in Tarzan jungle-wild) who has animalistic agility and speed.  She's not extremely bright (at least in terms of speaking English) and sleeps outdoors, but she's pretty good with a spear and runs faster on all fours than most others on two feet.

Ayla and Jessie are considered the two best athletes attending the Antarctic Training School.  They tend to represent a strong Russia vs. USA rivalry (even almost 3000 years in the future).  While each of them pretty much outclass the other students, neither takes it for granted. 

In general, it's a pretty diverse and interesting cast.  One might point out that none of the characters is truly unique but everything is well done.  It's also really funny to see them competing in some of the bizarre events.  It's almost like watching a Nuku Nuku/Saber Marionette sports competition for the Olympic medal. ^_^

Conclusion

One funny line I love comes when, Ichi-chan's alarm clock goes off.  She slaps it off, and jumps out of bed exclaiming, "Ha ha ha!  Instantly awake in nano-seconds!  I challenge anyone to do it faster!"  I wish I could wake up that easily. ^_^

Battle Athletes Victory is fun, cute, and exciting.  There aren't any violent action battles, at least from what I've seen so far, but the series is still bizarre enough to easily keep your attention.  Additionally, the DVDs aren't very expensive (at least when compared to other series that generally sell for $20+).

Rating: 8

Recommended to fans of Saber Marionette J and Cat Girl Nuku Nuku.

More Screenshots of Battle Athletes Victory