NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
Ah! There’s nothing like being able to turn to a good anime after you make a wrong turn and watch a terrible anime by mistake.
 
The Story
 
This is it! Akari has been training hard and after winning the triathlon on the previous volume and taking first place with the encouragement of her best friend, Itchan, Akari is now ready to enter University Satellite and compete against the best athletes in the solar system for the title of Cosmo Beauty, just like her mother did.
 
Three episodes are shown and not a single bit of this goes like Akari had hoped it would. In the first episode, the journey to University Satellite goes no where near as planned as the ship taking everyone there is hijacked by morons. Things only get worse from there after Akari finally makes it to her room and discovers that her team mates for the preliminary battles are Kris Kristopher, who has fallen in love with her and has brought her pet cow with her and Anna, a girl who seems to have no sports talent what so ever.
 
Combine that with an instructor literally named Mr. Miracle who supposedly has the talent to turn them all into winners but refuses to do so and starting off the competition with 11 straight losses and you can imagine that Akari isn’t feeling so hot by the end of the volume.
 
 
The Good And The Bad
 
When I put this DVD into my player I was quite worried. This volume picks up exactly where the three disc OVA (Battle Athletes) did and so I was worried that this was just going to be a complete re-hash of those episodes and that I wasn’t going to see anything new at all. You can imagine my shock and happiness when I saw these three episodes which, while having similar themes and some of the same characters, for the most part they were done in a completely new way which brought a brand new freshness to the story and characters that I had grown to adore from the OVA. Very well done!
 
I can’t really think of a single thing to really complain about. While I am still a little annoyed at terrible idea to put all three episodes back to back and then put all of the episode previews at the end of the volume, this is a very old complaint and this DVD is old enough that mentioning it would just be beating a dead horse.
 
 
Music
 
With a brand new setting comes brand new music which I also found very refreshing and fun. A lot of the music used in this volume was great because it reminded me of the great Olympic style theme song used for the OVA but instead it was used as background music throughout the volume giving it a very majestic feel to it. Very cool!
 
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
I really enjoyed the dub track this time around. I thought that Akari was hilarious in this volume while still showing a brand new side of her that up until now had lain dormant within her. It was quite interesting how well she was portrayed when she started to see parts of herself in her team mates. The sub track was good, the dub track was better.
 
 
Extras
 
None. Not surprising.
 
Overall
 
Maybe I’m giving this volume too much credit because I used it to help pick me back up after I sat down to watch an absolutely terrible anime that I couldn’t even watch enough of to write a review about it (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure if you’re wondering) or maybe it really is as good as I think it is but either way I’m really liking what I’m seeing and I can’t wait to see more. This anime is headed for a major twist later on (unfortunately I was spoiled on this many years ago) and so if you’re an Akari fan at all you’ll want to stay tuned for the incredible final volumes!
 
 
Final Grade: 89% – B