Sailor Victory

—by Michael Poirier

Five young women and one android, but only three giant robots between them? SAILOR VICTORY offers a slightly slanted take on the female robot pilot genre, ultimately presenting a fairly entertaining sixty minutes of anime.
SAILOR VICTORY follows the exploits of this team of girls as they protect Mikado City from criminal assualts, both mechanized and magical. Their three robots are enormous, samurai-esque creations that wield throwing stars, staffs and even a giant drill. Amongst the girls, Reiko is the zealous, speech-making leader of the team who designed the mecha alongside the soft-spoken but sneaky Shizuka. Kiyomi is the hot-tempered pilot of Sagano who also works "undercover" as a clumsy temp in the inept Mikado police department. When Mika is not working as a delivery girl, she pilots Momoyama.
Mami is simultaneously the most irritating and humorous member of the team. She is younger than the others, and unsurprisingly prone to fits of immaturity as she breaks into tears or laughter constantly. She is also not a very accomplished mecha pilot (which makes you wonder why she controls Gion in the first place). However, Mami's saving grace is her far more capable android clone, Annie, and the interactions between these two create some of SAILOR VICTORY's funniest moments—particularly when Mami challenges Annie to a cake eating contest.
The light-hearted nature of SAILOR VICTORY is what makes this anime worthwhile. The girls are funny, and except for the intentionally ironic exception of Reiko, they don't take themselves too seriously. In fact, the entire show doesn't take itself over the top and this show would be essentially unwatchable if it wasn't a comedy first and an action-adventure second. Like with all other team anime, there are the regulation poses and the hokey proselytizing, but even the main characters know how goofy this is (especially Kiyomi who can't help but jump into Sagano when's she's supposed to be listening to Reiko's spiel.)
The animation is at some points exceptional and at others times completely unremarkable. Even within the same mecha combat scene, I found myself delighted by a quick and well-choreographed move one moment, then immediately unimpressed by a lifeless frozen panel with a cut-in of a screaming pilot. The Sailor Victory mecha designs are intriguing, however, particularly in light of the distinctly Asian influence which is also evident in the backgrounds and musical score. The designs of the villains are less interesting, but I found the boxy and siren-faced police robots to be visually hilarious as representations of the helpless Mikado P.D.
While I found much of the comedy of SAILOR VICTORY to be in the characters reactions and movements, the director of the English dub clearly took some creative license with the translation. I watched both the subtitled and dubbed versions, and found myself occasionally irritated by the dub's heavy use of English vernacular. For example, at one point Mika reacts to a nifty move of Annie's by saying "Sugoi!" (Amazing/Awesome!), but in the dub Mika says "You go girl!"
The translator's extensive freedom was also evident when a criminal stumbles out of his wrecked mecha and in Japanese, he confusedly asks what happened, whereas in the dub he mutters "I need a hug." The dub also presents a lot of misogyny by the bad guys (calling the girls "bitches" and "bimbos") which I think was absent in the original Japanese. In the end, this is a matter of taste. If you like your anime sounding like outtakes from THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW, then you'd probably enjoy the dubbed version.
All in all, SAILOR VICTORY offers most of the things you might expect in a female mecha team anime (obligatory cuteness, powerful robots, inexplicable but brief nudity), but also a few features that are a cut above average (Mami and Annie, the tongue-in-cheek irony). If you appreciate the genre, I can in good conscience recommend that you go laugh with the subtitled version or go laugh at the dub. I can think of worse ways to spend sixty minutes of your time...

Released in North America by AnimeWorks
VHS, 60 minutes, Suggested for ages 16 up
Dubbed: AWVD-9940, $24.95
Subtitled: AWVS-9941, $24.95
Available now in the U.S.A.
Where to buy