Natsuki Crisis

Do you want to see girls of the old school kicking ass? Then yeah, you have got to check out Natsuki Crisis. In a time when guys think they are pretty tough because they can throw a few punches, boy they’ll be surprised when a hot chick suddenly throws them over their shoulder. I mean, who could defeat such a chick too when she can shoot off some energy blast! Hey, wait a minute! What kind of martial arts is that?!

Episode 1
Natsuki Kisumi is such a great karate fighter that the other guys in the club don’t want to fight her. Only the captain, Masaaki Yanagisawa is more than happy to do so. One day, Rina Takaoka is the new student transfer into her class. Natsuki tries to make friends with her but she remains distant. Later Naoya Hondou tries to flirt with her but she shows her martial arts chops and beat his ass down. So much about teaching her about manliness, huh? Coward. Later Rina tries to take a smoke but Natsuki interferes and they get into a petty quarrel. When school is over, Natsuki wants to walk back with her but they are surrounding by masked men. Holy f*ck, are they all clones? Anyway, they want to teach Rina a lesson for some betrayal. Rina is not afraid of being outnumbered by these goons but worries if she can protect Natsuki. Don’t worry. As she will soon see, Natsuki can kick ass like her too. When one of them accidentally damages her bike, she goes into rage. After putting him down, some flashback shows she was wrestling with her boyfriend, Keiji Muto. However he wouldn’t give up and this forced her to go overboard and broke his bone. Natsuki tries to advise her martial arts isn’t supposed to be used this way but she won’t listen. This riles her up because each time she fights, she loses something. Now she has lost everything so why does she have to keep fighting. My opinion is that you have lost everything lah! Oh, Rina looking so sad. Not good time for jokes. Meanwhile the baddies report to their boss, Kyoutarou Himuro about underestimating Rina. Tetsuo Daigou believes it is his turn.

That night, Natsuki calls Yanagisawa about Rina. Apparently he knows the back story. Rina and Keiji were from the same Jotoh Academy that is famed for their martial arts. Because of an accident, Keiji left the school and Rina gave up wrestling. He advises Natsuki not to fight Rina because of her wrestling technique that locks joints. Obviously Natsuki believes nothing can hold her down. I don’t know how, but suddenly Rina and Natsuki are like best friends. Did I miss something?! Even if Rina thinks everyone around her are airheads, I get a feeling she might not dislike the idea of being influenced and become an airhead herself. Meanwhile Daigou wrecks Rina’s bike. So when Rina see it and a mocking note from Natsuki, she goes to confront her best friend about backstabbing. Long story short, Rina will fight her if she wants to fight so much and will break every bone in her body. So as we see Rina trying to grapple and lock Natsuki, the latter somehow manages to push her away and get out of such situations. In the end, Rina gives up and believes she can’t be the culprit. Speaking of which, Daigou shows up, disappointed he couldn’t kill 2 birds with a stone. He tells the truth why Rina bested Keiji that day was because Keiji got ‘educated’ prior to their fight. Something about him defied some orders given by Himuro. It seems Keiji cannot forfeit his match and if he resisted, Rina would be punished. Rina attacks cocky Daigou who knows all her moves. Rina is on the verge of losing but despite telling Natsuki to stay out, Natsuki knocks out the guy. Well, Daigou did say fair play is so old fashioned, right?

Episode 2
When Natsuki learns Rina has been kidnapped, she rushes out to find her. Uhm, WHERE?! Lucky for her, she finds Rina being beaten up by Akira Kandori who in turn challenge Natsuki to a fight. No reason to accept? Well, do you not want to save your friend? Natsuki accepts but it seems her karate cannot best her judo. Until Yanagisawa arrives. Next thing we see, the ladies are being patched at his place. Time for a little back story. Obviously Yanagisawa knew Akira as they were from the same martial arts institute. She was the judo champion 2 years ago until she joined Jotoh and went all silent. They believe she has become enslaved by that ‘demon’. Flashback when Yanagisawa stopped Natsuki’s fight with Akira, Akira blamed him for changing. He had the potential because his fighting style trembled everyone. Because he didn’t go to Jotoh to become stronger, it’s like he gave up on winning. Worse, why did he leave her?! Yanagisawa stands by his ideals so Akira vows to open his eyes by defeating his favourite pupil. Her goal is to become the best of the best. Natsuki becomes distracted about martial arts being used to kill people that she loses to a mock fight with Hondou. Date as promised? Sure, make it a threesome because Yanagisawa also tags along to make Hondou a punching bag for Natsuki to practice. She must find and create her own technique to defeat Akira. After training, Natsuki asks why he didn’t go to Jotoh since it is better equipped and he could’ve been much stronger. At that point, he was pondering if he became the strongest, was it because he accomplished the art of killing. He lost his reason to study that. But Akira was tempted by such power. He thanks Natsuki for saving him. Thanks to her, his reason for martial arts is to defeat your opponents but not kill them.

They spot Daigou and his goon heading towards Rina’s place. So before they can get even with her, they ambush the numbskulls. WTF can Rina sleep through all that racket? Daigou escapes as Natsuki goes after her. She corners him but he takes out a sword. Just when she is about to get slashed, Yanagisawa protects her. He gets a little slashed and this worry has her counterattack with a newly created special move. OMG she’s shooting some sort of Hadouken now?! Enough to send Daigou flying. Meanwhile Akira has beaten all her sparring opponents and believes she is invincible. Toshiyuki Satake who is a karate champion disagrees. Well, he’ll be eating his words because damn, his metal leg guard got disintegrated! Next day, Akira marches into school to have her fight with Natsuki. WTF, is this some communist army?! Yeah, those goons create a human ring so no outsiders will interfere. Rina is here to stop her but she became Akira’s warm up. By the time Natsuki arrives, Rina is down for the count. It’s time for the big battle. Akira is so strong that Natsuki is reduced to defending and running. Oh damn, they’re running all over the place and destroying everything! Where are the teachers?! Did they flee?! Natsuki is so mad but she still can’t beat Akira. That is when Yanagisawa tells her to not let anger fill her heart and mind. Martial arts is not for killing! Akira calls this BS as Natsuki continues explaining martial arts is for self-protection and not killing. Akira won’t listen to losers so when she uses her ultimate technique, Natsuki overcomes it and uses her special attack and blasts her away! The gym is going to have a hole in the roof! Himuro who has been watching is satisfied. He isn’t panicking yet as he notes Akira is not the only strongest player he has. To Natsuki’s relief, Rina isn’t dead. She mocks the latter for loser and so the girls resume their friendly rivalry and settle their match.

With Karate I’ll Kick Your Ass!
Once again, I am guessing that such OVAs in the 90’s are ‘incomplete’ only because it is to serve as some sort of introduction and exposure for others to go and read the manga of the same name. After all, with only 2 episodes, how much can be fleshed out. There seems to be a potential story but as we have seen, the OVAs do not cover anything much and leaves a lot to be desired. I am also thinking that perhaps the OVAs also work as some sort of promotional stint because a year after its release (1995), a video game based on the OVAs was released. I won’t be surprised if nobody heard of Natsuki Crisis Battle as it was only released exclusively in Japan.

Obviously the draw of the series is to see our hot chicks do some ass kicking. I won’t say it is a masterpiece but it is not a disappointment either. At least they are interesting and intense because they want to showcase the karate and judo skills here. Obviously that Natsuki special projectile is BS. Sorry girl, you’re not playing Street Fighter II here! And of course you know, the other real reason why they have hot chicks doing high kicks is so that they can flash their panties at certain camera angles. Oh yeah. Martial arts fanservice, thank you. But sorry you horny otaku boys, no bare tits at all. Heck, no shower scenes even. But yeah, still good enough when they flash them. No wonder the bad guys got distracted and lost! However some are a bit too fast so it’s like blink or you’ll miss.

It is also because of the art and animation quality that also makes the fights entertaining. Yes, despite reeking typical 90’s style animation from the character designs to the backgrounds (the colouring and hues are a bit bland too), it is still good quality overall. The fight scenes don’t skimp on the details and they are pretty smooth so it really feels like they’re having a real believable fight. Of course until Natsuki starts using her energy blast! I guess that was the unexpected surprising move for me. And for those bringing in a weapon into a martial arts fight? You’ll taste the fist of fury of your defeat! In this world, martial arts is probably the apex of being the strongest. This anime is done by veteran Madhouse who has done lots of action animes over the years like One Punch Man, Hunter x Hunter, Trigun, Highschool Of the Dead, Btooom, Overlord and Black Lagoon so it’s no wonder why this one looks good.

But if you’re looking for character development here, you’ll be sorely disappointed. After all like I have said, how much can be fleshed out in just 2 meagre episodes? Once more, it leaves a lot to be desired. Seeing the OVA ends in an ‘incomplete’ fashion, we’ll be left to wonder about the ‘bad guys’ of Jotoh especially Himuro who feels like he is going to be a typical final boss character. What are his goals? Why is he doing all this? You’ll never find your answers if you watch these OVAs. Also, don’t be fooled by his pretty face because I’m sure he has some secret dark arts that makes him invincible and hence I believe that’s why they call him the invincible demon of Jotoh. Yeah, maybe he can shoot triple Hadouken at lightning speed! Yikes! So basically it’s like a showdown between 2 different martial arts school of thoughts because one learns them to protect others while the other does it to show off and kill. Guess which style is being made the antagonist. And hence I can foresee that Natsuki and her friends are going to defend themselves against the mighty hordes of Jotoh and beat them one by one to prove to them that their way of fighting is the true justice. The power of (self-protecting) karate and the power of friendship will save the day!

Overall, I can say that this is one of those watchable retro OVA series and is quite decent compared to the few that I have caught recently. However it doesn’t bring much to the table and it leaves a lot to be desired. Had it been adapted into a proper TV season, it could have been a lot better. But that is just me being nostalgic and for the most part, this obscure series plays a big role in bringing back nostalgia from the 90’s. Well, if you are that old. For better or worse, a couple of OVA episodes are the only thing we have for this series and honestly I don’t want it brought back up from the dead, revived to be remade or rebooted. That will be a real not-so-keen crisis then! (Sorry, bad Natsuki pun). I hope Natsuki will have enough energy blast to blast that blasphemy away.