Rescue Me: Mave-Chan Anime Review

Fighting Fairy Girl Rescue Me: Mave-Chan
Bandai Entertainment
Original Video Animation - 1 disc
25 mins. - 1 episode
$9.98 (2007)
ISBN 9781594097461
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Takeshi Mori
Studio - Studio Fantasia

Synopsis: Rei Sugiyama is a timid teenager who never takes chances in life and hides in the escapism offered by anime.  He took a small chance one day and entered into a contest from one of his favorite shows - Stratos 4.  Now it appears his luck has changed as he wins the contest and attends his first anime convention.

A wide-eyed Rei attends his first anime convention

The convention is a tumultuous gathering of odd, excited fans and Rei is a fish out of water in the crowds.  Taking a break in a convention center hallway he accidentally falls into another dimension where powerful girl cyborgs battle alien invaders.  The girls have powers, abilities, and names corresponding to fighter planes from two of Rei's favorite anime: Battle Fairy Yukikaze and Stratos 4.

Rei falls into a fictional dimension where he meets Mave - she
thinks he's an enemy and wants to stick him with pointy knives

Apparently the girls are fictional representations (i.e. mecha-musume) of the fans' enthusiasm for the respective anime shows.  Large gatherings of anime fans (like at conventions) energize the fictional embodiments and also weaken the barrier between the real world and imagination.  The girls are fighting the JAM who are led by an evil fictional representation of older mecha anime shows.  Once fans' interest in an anime show wanes then the fictional representations will lose power and eventually fade away.

Rei helps the girls battle "The Forgetter"

Now Rei must survive in an imaginary realm where reality is considerably bent and the clock is ticking for the world's demise.  Can the nervous teen find his inner strength to help Mave, Super Sylph, Sylphide, One-Chan and Two-Chan against "The Forgetter"?

Rei must choose - save himself and forever remain a coward -
or he can help Mave and Super Sylph stay corporeal

Pros: Small amount of ecchi/panty shots, had a few funny and slapsticky bits, decent animation


Cons: Too short, Forgetter was a corny villain with terrible character design, aimless harem show, doesn't stand on its own, Rei is a typical milktoast nerd

The lovely girls of Rescue Me: Mave-Chan (clock-
wise from bottom): Mave, Sylphide, One-Chan,
that loser Rei, Two-Chan, and Super Sylph 

Mike Tells It Straight: I randomly found this anime in a bargain bin at the mall and thought "what the heck, the price is right to take a chance".  Well, the price was exactly appropriate for the product - an incredibly short OVA parody of two other anime: Battle Fairy Yukikaze and Stratos 4.

The plot, main character (Rei Sugiyama - similar to Rei Fukai from Yukikaze), and villain were terrible.  This show serves as a random one-off mostly from Yukikaze, which was a fairly decent sci-fi anime released by Bandai in the US in 2007.

My guess is Bandai put this show out as a complement to Yukikaze, but it really serves no purpose and felt completely unrelated.  This show should never have had its own release - period.  Bandai should have added it as a special feature on the last disc of Yukikaze for a nice extra.

TO BUY and Recommendations: