High School Agent

Continuing our exploration of 1980s OVAs "left behind" on old media, here is M74's High School Agent. This cheerfully loopy action show features Kanamori Kosuke as a high school student who is dragooned by the UN into being a secret agent. Kosuke apparently made the mistake of hacking into the UN's network and accessing secret files, so they offered him a choice: be an agent or be killed. Now Kosuke spends his weekends taking orders from Ms. Ishii and pursuing criminals and terrorists world-wide, instead of going on a date to Tokyo Disneyland with his crush, Satonaka.

High School Agent never made it past VHS, and that's sort of understandable. The premise and plot are completely bonkers. In the first episode, Kosuke confronts an evil colonel who stole an ancient gypsy stone that possesses amazing properties (Temple of Doom, anyone?). The second is even more over-the-top, involving a dastardly plot by neo-Nazis in South America to seize power again. Nonetheless, the show is a hoot. The action moves along swiftly, there are satirical salutes to other shows, and Kosuke remains true to his adolescent self, constantly whining that he wants to be somewhere else even as he battles the bad guys and saves the day.

The voice cast includes:

• Yao Kazuki (Kosuke) is best known for his lead role as Dark Schneider in Bastard!! and his recurring role as Franky in One Piece. He also played Sofue in Boyfriend and Date Ikkaku in Akai Hayate, both Orphan releases.
• Koyama Mami (Ms. Ishii) played the female leads in two Tezuka specials, Bander Book and I Am Son Gokuu. She also played Arale in the Doctor Slump & Arale-chan franchise, the mature version of the title character in Millenium Actress, and the title role in the Minky Momo franchise
• Toda Keiko (Nina, the duplicitous assistant in episode two) starred as Kitarou in the 1980's versions of GeGeGe no Kitarou, as Anpanman in the Soreike! Anpanman franchise, and as Hitomi, one of the leads, in Cats Eye. She also appeared in Hi-Speed Jecy, Oz, Bavi Stock, and Hoshi Neko Full House (all Orphan releases). 

The translation was done by an anonymous contributor. M74 timed and QC'd, while I edited and typeset. The raws are from ARR and are about as good as a VHS source is likely to be.

Enjoy another forgotten OVA from the 1980s! High School Agent is available from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.