Video Girl Ai Anniversary Video Girl Ai Evolution Colored Video Girl Ai Pictures Video Girl Ai Illustrations Manga Translations Video Girl Links
Summer 1990. I received my first issue of Shonen Jump. A few stories looked very nice, a few very bad. And as I came to the middle of this issue I came across the picture of a very beautiful drawn girl in strange clothing and very sad eyes. The title was there in English: VIDEO GIRL AI. The story that followed simply blew me away...
Masakazu Katsura created Denei Shojou (Video Girl) in 1990 and it ran until Summer 1992 with a follow-up series that ended in the beginning of 1993.
The original series, the story of the Video Girl Ai Amano is collected into 13 manga volumes, while volumes 14-15 cover Video Girl Len's story, they're published by Shueisha. The series proved so popular that a novel, a live action movie and a 6-part OVA were made out of it. But all of them only cover a very short part of the story.
The premise of the story is actually pretty simple, A heart-broken boy, Youta, rents a video tape at a strange video shop. And as he plays the tape on his VCR the star of the film, Ai, comes right out of the TV screen. She's a Video Girl, her purpose is to comfort Youta. But due to the fact that Youta's VCR was faulty Ai herself is faulty. She learns a feeling that is forbidden to Video Girls: Love.
As fantastic as this setting may seem the real power of the series is the way you will feel with the characters. You will feel their happiness, know their fears, laugh with them, experience their pain, go with them through the ups and downs of love.
And all of this is accompanied by art that is so beautiful that you will lose yourself in a panel for hours, you will enter this other world.
There's one word that is crucial in the description of VGAi: real. Every action has a real consequence. Everything may seem fine, but then an event may happen that may seem so senseless, but it will forever change their lives. The feelings trigger memories in you, of exactly the same feeling you once had.
The character are unforgettable, Ai, Yoota, Moemi, Takashi, Nobuko or Natsumi. You can count yourself lucky if you have friends like these.
You want to read a story that has the power to make you cry when you read its final chapter ? Try Video Girl Ai.
This is the 10 year anniversary, of my having found the wonderful story of
Video Girl Ai !
To celebrate this I have put up a page with some pictures that have not made
their way to the web yet.
In 1991/1992 I experimented with coloring b&w manga panels. I scanned them in and spent hours coloring them, having only 8 colors available at the time...
I always played with the thought of touching them up and making them available to other people. Well, since this might never happen I will just put them on a page as they are. Enjoy !
On this page you can find some rare color illustrations by Masakazu Katsura himself.
His new artbook 4C is featured here.
A fan-translation of all manga books into English has been made possible by me and Kaori Hasegawa. Warren Fernandez did a great job of making these accessible through the Web, but that page does not exist anymore. Thankfully Kelvin Goh has now uploaded them to his VGA Manga and Anime Resources - Translations page.
This page has been accessed
times since Jan 14, 2000.
Older Page counts:
Dec 20, 1996 - Sep 26, 1998: 5678
Sep 26, 1998 - Jan 14, 2000: ??? Compuserve deleted its counters without warning.
Created Dec 20, 1996
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