Trivia / Project A-Ko

• Acting for Two: In the Manga UK's dub of the movies, Liza Ross pulled double duty as both Miss Ayumi and Ume.
  • In the OVA dubs, Scott McNeil voices Captain Napolipolipolita, Kei and Mari, Venus Terzo voices B-ko and Ine, Cathy Weseluck voices C-ko, Ume and Xena and Lynda Boyd voices Miss Ayumi, Asa and also Liza Chichi from VS..
• B-Team Sequel: The movie was directed by Katsuhiko Nishijima, however Yuji Moriyama ^note  the (credited) character designer and animation director took over directorial duties for the sequel OVAs. However Nishijima did return for its alternate universe spinoff, A-ko the VS.
• Colbert Bump:
  • Many modern anime fans know this franchise only thanks to Kill la Kill.
  • While this series isn't very known in Brazil, it later had some notability there since some of its anime's background music (most notably the track "Explosion") was used to promote the U.S. Manga Corps-branded programming block for a TV channel there, which ironically didn't air Project A-ko. And the notability is justified: those songs got lyrics! Funnily enough, the lyrics have nothing to do with the anime, but are essentially a meta-musical about the content of the anime aired on the block, as well as about the programming block itself. There's even an entire soundtrack album dedicated to those songs.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: The "Love and Robots" DVD has a character listing giving brief character profiles for A-ko, B-ko and C-ko. On C-ko's, it lists that she hates B-ko and doesn't understand why she wants to get with her so badly. This is completely incorrect, as C-ko is shown to have a friendly relationship not only with B-ko but her subordinates as well. She even wishes at the end of FINAL for her, A-ko, B-ko and all of B-ko's gang to all be friends and not fight anymore. If anything, they were referring to Kei, who is the only character C-ko outright hates.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Subverted by D, Mari, and Captain Napolipolita. Mari also plays it straight: when fighting, Mari sounds like a deep voiced male, but when actually talking, she speaks in a very high pitched girl's voice.
• DVD Commentary:
  • Central Park Media's re-release of the movie has one with Yuji Moriyama, the character designer ^note  Well, he's credited but it's not entirely true since A-ko, B-ko and C-ko were all designed by different people , animation director as well as the director of the sequel OVAs.
  • The 2003 Japanese DVD release includes commentary by Miki Itō, Emi Shinohara and Michie Tomizawa (A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko's respective Japanese VAs), this and the above mentioned commentary with Yuji Moriyama are included on Discotek's Blu-ray.
• In Memoriam: Discotek's Blu-ray release of the movie is dedicated to Jay Benedict (Captain Napolipolita in the Manga UK dub of the movie) who died in 2020 due to COVID.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Especially at the time, at least; female urinals are still a thing in some parts of the world.
• The Other Darrin: Due to the Canadian-based studio The Ocean Group taking over from the original British studio, the entire English cast was replaced for all the sequels.
  • A-ko was originally voiced by Stacey Gregg. Teryl Rothery voiced her from the sequel OVAs onwards.
  • Similarly, C-ko was voiced by Julia Braams in the original movie only, Cathy Weseluck voiced her in the sequel OVAs and also replaced Liza Ross as Ume.
  • For the rest of the cast, Venus Terzo replaced both Denica Fairman^note better known for playing Eva Braun in the notorious Heil Honey I'm Home! and Anne Marie Zola as B-Ko and Ine respectively, Scott McNeil took over as Captain Napolipolita and Mari from the late Jay Benedict, Marc Smith and Anne Marie Zola respectively , and the late Robert O. Smith replaced Marc Smith as Operative D.
  • Elisabet Bargalló replaced Graciela Molina in the Spanish dub of the first OVA (as Spain only got the the movie and first OVA).
• Studio Hop: the original movie and Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group were animated by APPP (the movie being the studio's first major project, in fact); the other sequels beginning with Cinderella Rhapsody are animated by Studio Fantasia (ironically, with it being their first production as well).
• Those Two Actors: B-Ko and C-Ko would later be Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mars ^note  in the 90's anime anyway, as they're voiced by different actresses in Crystal respectively and A-Ko herself would make guest appearances as various monsters of the week and characters of the week throughout Sailor Moon's 200 episode run.
  • With the rest of the series being dubbed by Ocean Media in Vancouver, this would naturally be the case as many of the actors from that talent pool have worked on many of the same shows and movies throughout the years.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In the mid-90s, a CD-ROM game intended for western markets was in development by Vanguard Media (no relation to any existing company). It would have turned the events of the original movie into a fairly ambitious non-linear adventure, featuring new animation and a new voice cast, although the developers also experimented with using sampled dialogue from the original Japanese version of the film. However, due to the publisher, Media Vision, becoming the subject of a massive securities fraud case, the project was cancelled. If you're interested in what the game might have been like, one of the developers uploaded footage of the game's prototype to YouTube. Discotek Media also got their hands on a copy of the prototype, and a showcase of it was created for their Blu-Ray release of the film. One of the animators for this proposed game was a then up-and-coming Chris Prynoski, eventual founder of Titmouse.
  • As mentioned on the main page, due to the film masters for the original movie being believed to be lost, Discotek Media's Blu-Ray release was planned to be their first use of an AI-upscaling technology known as "AstroRes", which was specifically designed for hand-drawn 2D animation. Early results- made by assembling and cleaning up new masters created from copies of the film's LaserDisc release and then putting those through the AI- were promising, but when the film masters were eventually found, it was ultimately deemed redundant and work was restarted with the film masters as the basis for their restoration. However, this work wasn't all for naught, as Discotek took what they'd learned and used this process to upscale various trailers, commercials, and other video materials that they didn't have good sources for.

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