Wanna-Be's

Production
AIC, Artmic, MOVIC, Sony
Country of origin
Japan
Format
OVA
Year
1989

Wanna-Be's

By Mark McPherson
31st May 04

Well, here's an interesting genre. Wrestling has become a very popular sport mainly geared towards a male audience. However, Wanna-Be's tosses the demographic right out the window by appealing to the female audience. Despite how this OAV sounds, it manages to avoid the mistakes made by Airmaster.

This OAV begins with a tag-team battle between the elegant girls of Dream Team and the heavy-face-painted women of Foxy Ladies. Naturally, the Dream Team gets the crap kicked out of them, but not before one of them makes one strong attempt at lifting the 250-pound Foxy lady over her head. The one's to take their place are Eri and Miki of the Wanna-Be's team. Miki and Eri are both just fun girls who want to have fun, but once they begin their new training with the mysterious Kidou Corporation, the same corporation that trained the Dream Team, they discover that there is something deeper behind their "training". Yes, they are being given drugs, but not steroids. These drugs are used to increase the strength of a person, but have the side-effect of extreme exhaustion. After being betrayed by their coach, Miki and Eri must stop the evil Kidou Corporation.

Wanna-Be's did have the great potential of becoming a female-oriented sports anime. It's just too bad that the story had to go into something as complex as an experimental drug conspiracy. Everything else in this OAV seemed to work perfectly. The humor and energy of Miki and Eri provides a good amount of comedy that does appeal to the it's demographic. I will admit I am not a huge fan of wrestling, but I enjoyed watching these girls beat the crap out of each other. This isn't typical wrestling so don't be surprised if you see a wrench swinging around or one of the girls bite someone's forehead (ouch). Surprisingly, there is very little blood, but is a bit painful to watch. I was actually hoping this would turn into a typical sport anime ending with the cute girls triumphing over the ugly chicks (the OAV gives you this impression about half-way through).So what is the main problem with Wanna-Be's? The third act begins to lose total focus of the story. Just when you think Eri and Miki are about subdue the evil Kidou; he unleashes a purple monster who is apparently his father. This was completely random and immediately switched into a monster movie. Yes, I do like seeing the girls using their newly acquired strength to fight back at the organization that made them, but having them fight a purple monster is going a bit too far. Had this fight been removed from the OAV, it would have been perfect. This final fight comes in without warning and completely separates itself from the rest of the show.

Despite the slapped-together ending, Wanna-Be's proves to be a decent anime with a creative premise. The character designs are great, the animation is above average, the music is pulse-pounding and the action is well-choreographed. Fans of the wrestling will definitely get a kick out of this as well as a few fans of Dirty Pair. If you like seeing cute girls getting buffed and kicking ass, Wanna-Be's delivers the goods.

Pros: Cute and ugly girls beating the crap out of each other; cute comedy.

Cons: Story begins to lose focus in the third act.

Grade: C+

-- Mark McPherson 31st May 04

Wanna-Be's Images