Ai Mai Moe Can Change

Wait a minute. Using Smart Phone apps to instantly change your clothes? Wow. Interesting idea. This way, you can try out lots of fashion and clothes before buying the real deal, right? When I read about this concept for the single OVA of Ai Mai Moe Can Change, I was expecting to see lots of girls changing into cosplay outfits. Guess I got ahead of myself. Anyway as this OVA is concerned, the AMB Company is in the midst of hiring Navi Girls (that’s their fancy term for promo girls) to promote their new service call Moe Can Change that allows users to simply change their clothes with a simple touch of your Smart Phone app. Cool or so cool?

Change, We Can!
Kiyan Chie and her friend Anna Moeki are acting out their Navi Girl audition part at a video store. Is it such a good idea? I mean Kiyan may be a lively person buy Anna is a total opposite. I guess for a silly girl like Kiyan, she doesn’t know the meaning of shame and hugs her friend in public. Anna’s sister, Kanna is equally a silly girl, if not, even surpassing Kiyan herself. She is glad to be her partner for the Navi Girl. Only if they don’t ignore her. Anna teases Kiyan that she is too silly to use a Smart Phone. A girl named Sarari scans them and since she finds their data perfect, hands over a Smart Phone to Kiyan. I guess even silly girls like her can easily use the app to change clothes as she tests it out on Anna, much to her display. Sarari returns to her professor, Dr Lamp about her mission’s success. Lamp gets a call from her boss Miki Maya who isn’t happy she’s causing trouble with her experiments again. Sarari reminds Lamp about her other experiment.

Kiyan continues to change Anna’s clothes so she has had it with her and decides not to be her Navi Girl partner. However upon seeing those heartbreaking eyes, she changes her mind. It takes more than this just to make her mad. But I guess Kiyan didn’t learn her lesson as she starts changing Anna’s clothes to commemorate their friendship. Kanna is in the picture again but they ignore her. The only time they didn’t is when Kiyan changes her outfit of that of a wolf (because Kanna wanted so much a recommendation) and Anna chants a spell (she’s in a witch outfit) so that she could fire a big blast at her. While they are at a cake shop, Anna couldn’t believe her clothes changed again. Kiyan says it isn’t her doing. It seems to be the doing of the waitress (Sarari). Then another round of change again, Anna in a school girl outfit and Kiyan a swimsuit (she likes it because she can move around better). Suddenly all the other girls in the cafe start to have their clothes changed. Sarari runs back to the kitchen where Lamp is to tell her the ladies don’t seem pleased about the change. Miki barges in and chides her for another mess.  Because of her, she always has to apologize on her behalf.  Lamp calms her down and offers her a cake. Then Miki’s outfit turns into a witch. Oh? So the cake also changes one’s clothes? Is there an app for that? Since Kiyan and Anna have found them, it’s time to make like a banana and split. Up, up and away!

While walking along, Kiyan and Anna see a girl changing her own clothes with an app. So much so she causes a traffic jam because all the busy bodies couldn’t take their eyes off her changing. Then when she runs away, Anna hijacks Kiyan’s Smart Phone and turns their clothes into of a police woman. Kiyan goes after her while Anna summons Kanna. It isn’t hard since she’s been hiding in the bullets. Transforming her clothes into a kappa, Anna tosses her into the air. Kiyan adds to her velocity and kicks her towards the girl and knocks her out. Lamp orders Sarari to direct traffic as she collects the girl and laments this year’s model is having problems. When the duo bump into Lamp, she reveals she is the one who gave them the Smart Phone. They remember she was one of the judges at the Navi Girl audition. Albeit she was sleeping most of the time and getting ticked off by Miki. Lamp mentions as Moe Can Change Navi Girls, they must be able to cope with anything and invites them to her lab. Outside the door, seems the servers of Ai and Mai are having problems opening the door. But they summon all they’ve got to let them in. Lamp puts the girl down and explains she is one of the Mairoids that AMB Company developed. Kanna somehow sneaked into the lab and is not happy she is the only one left behind after the commotion. She is going to ‘gobble up’ their bodies and is starting with Sarari but she transforms into a different person. Lamp then puts on some pacifier thingy into her mouth and she reverts back to Sarari. The rest wonder if she’s a robot but Lamp corrects them she is a Mairoid. As written in the Navi Girl advertisement, the Moe Can Change service includes Mairoids for all users and Sarari is her personal cute Mairoid. Kiyan gets excited and fired up as she cuddles Sarari. Lamp says she’ll do anything to make the nation acknowledge moe! Yeah, like who doesn’t love Japan’s moe already? A few days later as Moe Can Change launch their service, Kiyan and Anna begin their work as Navi Girls.

Wardrobe Malfunction!
I’m sure those different outfits featured are those you would see in the game that this OVA was based from. I haven’t played the game before but I guess I can picture what kind of things that will happen for a bishoujo-raising game. You pick a cute girl (or girls) and you raise and dress up the girls with all the cute outfits. Well, not my kind of tea. So I’ll pass. This OVA isn’t really much except perhaps just to advertise the game. Whether it will get its own anime adaptation or not is another story since we’ve seen some potential of the concept and a little bit about the characters. Plus, it’s not that the outfits that they change into are thaaaaaaat ‘appealing’ either. It just feels ‘normal’.

While it is interesting that the concept of Smart Phone apps are able to change the clothes you wear physically and you don’t have to resort to any simulation or mock model to review them, but I guess there will be a few downside to it all. Firstly, the fabric industry will go bust since the demand for cloth will drop dramatically. And those illusionists who perform changing into different costumes will also be out of a job because there’s no more ‘thrill’ in it when you can change clothes so easy with technology. Secondly, if this app picks up and gets popular, what happens when there is a major malfunction? Will your clothes suddenly ‘disappear’ while in public and leave you stark naked? Unless you are wearing your original clothes underneath, which leads to this next point. Based on what I have seen in this anime, changing your clothes will also mean having the ability of whatever that clothes permit and in this anime, a witch. So not only the clothes, but the broomstick accessory and the ability to fly and shoot energy ball are also possible? I know this is anime so they might have put some exaggerated stuff in. Heck changing clothes immediately using an app seems far-fetched already. So what happens if I want to change into a ferocious dragon? I can burn an entire city down, right? I feel like becoming God today. What kind of clothes God wear? Oh? Nothing? So you become invisible because nobody can ‘see’ Him?

And when the clothes are changed to your desired ones, I’m sure they are not just hologram and you can touch and feel them too, right? Because if you’re using some light bending theory to trick the eyes then if you touch the clothes, you would actually be touching the skin, right? And I’m sure if the outfits do materialized, they aren’t piled onto your original clothes, right? So I’m thinking they must be swapped and be kept in some time-space dimension while you wear the current one. Again, when there’s a virus or malfunction… More dangerously, you can use the app to change the clothes of a friend. Wow. How dangerous is that? So what if your friend is a pervert? What happens you just walked by some strangers and they think you’re pretty cute and just key in some commands. Wahlah! You don’t even know what went missing. Then if you want to just waltz into the army camp, you just need to press a few buttons to wear some fatigues and loose the worries on disguise. The list of sneaky infiltrations could go on and on. I’m sure they’ll have some security firewall thingy but that’s a different story. Then there’s the case of trademark and plagiarism… Oh, so many things and most of them not even are being touched by the series.

The people who would benefit most of this service would be the fashion industry. Designers don’t need to waste material to come up with visual representation nor do they need to slog it out for hours putting it on paper the creativity that is bursting inside their head. And for those who love to be trendy and keep changing fashion with a fickle taste, this would be a good idea too. For me, I think I’ll still stick with the conventional clothes on my back because it feels much safer and warmer. And if I want to watch people change into different costumes, I might as well watch people in a speed cosplay changing competition. Unless they make an app for maid outfits then maybe… Just maybe…