Najica: Blitz Tactics Volume 1

Reviewed By:  Andrew Kaplan

DVD (single disk) ADV Films

ISBN 1-57813-562-1

What it’s (basically) all about: Najica Hiragi: perfumier by day, secret agent by night.  And she wears white panties.  We first meet Najica when she is sent to rescue an apparently innocent young girl, Lila, from the clutches of an evil woman (with lesbian overtones) and her gun-wielding army of girls in French maid outfits.  But it turns out Lila is no ordinary girl (although she does wear white panties).  She’s a humaritt, an artificial being designed to be faster and stronger than any normal human.  However, her physical superiority doesn’t necessarily make her any less innocent.  To Najica’s disgust, Lila is assigned to her as a partner, to complete her training.  Together, the two of them protect a judge’s daughter from an attractive, scantily clad female assassin, they battle an arms dealer—and his own humaritt lover—for control of a killer satellite, and they investigate a group of cute female pop singers to discover which of them is secretly a humaritt.  Which involves searching for an identification barcode tattooed on their rear ends.

Nitty Gritty: A true work of art can be read on multiple levels, and that’s certainly true of Najica: Blitz Tactics.  On one level, it’s an exciting, well-told action adventure story, almost a series of female James Bond adventures.  On another level, it’s a chance to look at girls’ panties.  A lot of chances, in fact.  Low angles predominate, allowing the viewer to look up every single female character’s skirt.  Lila needs to rest in a bathtub full of some sort of regenerating liquid.  Naked.  Najica and Lila fight several battles wearing swimsuits, and even those feature plenty of shots of them leaping over the camera, to better showcase their crotches.  The sexual fetish elements here aren’t subtext; they’re text.  They’re about as subtle as the undercurrent of angst in Hamlet, and the simple fact is, if this is the sort of thing that bothers you, then it will bother you a whole lot throughout Najica.

However, if it weren’t for the cinematography, Najica would be a fantastic action-adventure series for teen viewers and up.  The science fiction elements are downplayed enough that it would appeal to a broader audience.  The plots, at least on this first disk, are straightforward and easy to follow without being overly simplified or predictable.  And each episode easily has enough twists and surprises to keep the viewer on his toes.

The animation is detailed and very contemporary looking.  In keeping with the tone, the design is bright and colorful, and the action sequences are particularly well-staged.  The comedy, which mostly comes from Lila’s innocence and unfamiliarity with the world, is also played well, and is funny without being too broad or exaggerated.

The English voice work manages to be subtle and appropriate, with the two female leads as the true standouts.  Monica Rial, as Lila, is particularly good, able to play the character’s naïveté at just the right level, making this artificial human come across as very real indeed.

Extras include clean (credits-free) versions of the opening and closing sequences.  (The closing credits play out over a slow pan across Najica swimming naked.)  The disk also includes a collection of production sketches, which, unsurprisingly feature the main characters topless in some sketches, though without any nipples.  (What’s that about?)  There are previews for six other ADV DVDs, all appropriate for all audiences. 

Finally, episode 3 includes a commentary track by lead voice actresses Kira Vincent-Davis (Najica) and Monica Rial (Lila).  This is the first anime commentary track I have ever listened to, and I only wish it was as much fun to listen to as it sounded like it was to record.  I didn’t learn anything about the show; it was like sitting with my friends joking about what we were watching.  Except these were strangers, and I wasn’t included.  (I did, however, learn that in Japan, apparently men can buy new and used women’s panties from vending machines.  So there’s a bit of cross cultural information there…)

Survey says: ADV recommends this for ages 17 and up, and I agree.  And it’s got nothing to do with the story, language, or violence.  If this had been directed differently, it would have been about as mature as an episode of ABC’s Alias, and appropriate for teen collections.  But, at the end of the day, you can’t just evaluate it as a cool action-adventure/science fiction story.  You have to acknowledge all the fan service elements running through the entire piece.  And while it doesn’t feature full-frontal nudity or graphic sex, the fetishistic imagery is impossible to overlook.

Personal Ad: I’m a complete sucker for this sort of story.  I love the action, I like that it isn’t too science fictiony, and yet still has that element to keep things a little different.  And the humor is on a human enough level that it isn’t annoying.  I want to watch the next two disks, but all the panties and crotch shots make me feel just a little uncomfortable admitting that.