Anime Parodisio: Assemble Insert (1989)

 Before I have to go full Horror in October, I might as well get the silly out of the way.

Back in 1989, the man behind Patlabor decided to Parody his own work and those of his peers.
That gave us the 1985 Manga and the subsequent Anime I'm looking at today...

We get a fake-out Intro and then see it was actually a tape watched by our Heroes.

Touché.

The group we see is a Branch of the Police Department who's future/funding relies upon success.

The problem- the pitch is a crazy one that was made by its Chief while he was drunk.

They decide to have an open Audition for anyone in the City to be gifted a Mecha-Poser Suit.

Just like WCW, they say that there was a big Tournament...but they only got 26 people to show up.

Oh, hold on...

Random Live Action Scene combined with Parody Commercial.

The winner is a young girl- she's 13 in the Japanese Script, but 18 in the US Version- and she's given the suit.

Thankfully, the villain- Dr. Demon and his Demon Seed- scheduled the robbery.

She finds her inner confidence and, well, kicks some Mecha ass!  Mechass?

In Part 2, three months have gone by and Demon has not reappeared.

As such, the Department is facing de-funding yet again.
Repetition repetition.

Time to go with Plan B- make our Heroine into a Pop Star/Idol.

With no use for his inventions and annoyed at the new use of his tech, the Inventor gives his previous Mecha Suits (based on the ones in Patlabor) to the bad guys.

He's not evil- he just wants the good guys to have some good to do.

Merry ChrisMechs.

The drama in the 3rd Act revolves around the rain keeping up (since the bad guy will reschedule his attack in case of rain) as our Heroine is at a big Awards Ceremony.

She makes the right choice- choosing to stop the bad guy (off-screen).

A fun and silly time.  Let's put this into full context, shall we?  

The Film/OVA was a Parody of 1980s Anime.  If you recall, my only experience with Patlabor was a random Patlabor Film I watched.  

That one was from after 2000, so it has no bearing on this one.  I still haven't seen any more Patlabor stuff yet, by the way.  

The idea here is that they wanted to have some fun with the silly conventions of the day.  I don't have any context for pretty much any of that.  

Instead, here I am as a casual/sometimes Anime Reviewer over 30 years later watching this for the first time. 
Hell, even the DVD I have is 20 years old!  

So how is Assemble Insert on its own?  Much like Airplane, it works pretty well on its own.  You don't have to know the conventions of '70s Disaster Films (specifically the Airport Films) to laugh at things.  If you do know that, you get more out of it.  This one is still pretty funny on its own.  The look and feel of it is dated- no question.  The Plot is silly.  The Parody bits- like asking if it was okay to include a 'Live Action Sequence' - are funny.  

If you're into Retro Anime, give it a watch.  If you might actually get the more subtle and direct Parody bits, check it out. 
If I lost you the first time I said 'Anime,' this won't change your mind.  

On the plus side, it's a rare case of a Film that was released on VHS trying to sell you the same Film on VHS...

Next time, I get one last non-Horror Film in before my legally required to cover nothing else.  It's singing and dancing...and Pirates.  Stay tuned...