OL Kaizou Kouza

Here's a ripe/overripe/rancid piece of Japanese misogyny from 1990, OL Kaizou Kouza (Office Lady Remodeling Course). The AniDB blurb attempts to cast it as a wacky comedy. It's not. At best, it's sarcastic. At worst, it's just bad. How offensive is it? Well, it's based on a monthly column from Weekly Gendai magazine called "Drop Dead! Stupid Office Ladies." The source gives the game away.

The premise of the OVA is that female office workers (derisively called "office ladies" or OL) don't know their place and don't act as subservient robots to the hardworking men who keep Japanese business humming. 

They want to have fun, keep normal hours, travel, and of course, get married to good-looking men with money. 

The OVA is divided into ten "chapters", and each chapter consists of several skits. There's no plot or through line, and most skits are punctuated by a condescending or outraged male narrator chastising the female characters for their actions.

The ten chapters are somewhat topic-focused. Roughly:

1. New employment.
2. The reception desk.
3. Daily work.
4. Beauty.
5. Money.
6. Love.
7. Recreation.
8. Travel.
9. Marriage.
10. Interactions.

A lot of the skits are funny, but I found it a long slog. This was compounded by the vast number of signs, almost all of which had to be motion tracked.

The script is 95% typesetting. Still, the OP and ED are energetic and funny.

Translation notes:

• "Long is the life, fall in love, office ladies!" This line in the OP/ED parodies an early 20th century song, "Short is the life, fall in love, maidens."
  
• FOB, FAS. These are incoterms, denoting the limits of a seller's responsibilities. FOB (free on board) means the seller's responsibility ends when the goods are loaded on a designated ship. FAS (free alongside ship) means the seller's responsibility ends when the goods are on the dock at the destination port. 
• "A ghost and a mutilated woman." The narrator uses the terms nobbera-bou, meaning faceless ghost, and kuchisaka-onna, meaning a female spirit with a slit mouth.
• "Tampon checker." He actually says "Anne checker." There is a Japanese brand of tampons named for Anne Frank.
  
  
  
  
  
• Book title "How to Marry an Elite Man." Literally, "a man of three highs," meaning high education, high income, tall.
• "You call me Tama, but my name is Tamamoshirosu." A parody of Tamamo Cross, a famous Japanese racehorse.
  
• "God bless consolation money!" In Japan, the spouse causing the divorce may have to pay consolation money to the other party for the breakdown in the relationship.
• Sakamoto Ryouma was a famous figure in the late Bakumatsu. A westernizer, he was assassinated by a pro-Shogun special force, the Mimawarigumi.

Thanks to Pervodildo and Uchuu for these notes.

As a sketch comedy, there are no named characters. The credited voice cast is quite small:

• Ishimaru Hiroya starred in Koiko Mainichi and gave a bravura performance as the "interpreter" dog Allegro in Bremen 4, both Orphan releases. He also played Rodimus Prime in the various Transformer TV shows, Sengoku Shunsuke in Cyber City Oedo 808, and Kabuto Kouji in the Mazinger Z franchise.
• Sasaki Yuuko played the title role in Desert Rose and Gilbert in Kaze to Ki no Uta SANCTUS. She played Sayoko in Aoki Honoo, Akiko/Keiko in Wolf Guy, Yuki in Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, and Exper Jiff in Exper Zenon, and she appeared in Amaama to Inazuma, Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and Yousei-ou, all Orphan releases.
• Ootsuka Houchu played Satou in the Ajin properties, Bookman in D.grayman: Hollow, Rob in Shinigami no Kuro Maid, Ziggy in Edens Zero, Tsurumi in Golden Kamuy, the announcer in Yawara!, and Ikezu Daisuke in Asatte Dance, an Orphan release.
• Utsumi Kenji is best known for his roles as Roah in Fist of the North Star, Kaioh in Fist of the North Star 2, and Senbei Norimaki in the Dr. Slump and Arale-chan franchise. He appeared as the village chief in Watt Poe and Alex Louis Armstrong in both versions of Full Metal Alchemist. He played the title role in Don Dracula and appeared in in Nora, Bavi Stock, Stop!! Hibari-kun!, Techno Police 21C, Sanada 10, and 15 Shounen Hyouruuki, all Orphan releases.
• Hoshino Mitsuaki played Carl in Next Senki Ehrgeiz, an Orphan release, and Ryuunosuke in Rescue Wings. He had featured roles in numerous other shows.
• Arikawa Tarou appeared in Blue Sonnet, Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, and Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, all Orphan releases.
  

OL Kaizou Kouza was Kamegaki Hajime's first directing assignment. He went on to direct many other projects, including Fushigi Yuugi, Air Gear, Ayashi no Ceres, Hanasakeru Seishounen, and several Lupin III movies/TV specials.

Like many recent Orphan projects, this one has a long backstory. Iri (I think) bought the VHS tape aeons ago. After encoding, it sat around for a long time and was eventually released as a raw. Perevodildo picked it up, translated it, and rough-timed it. ninjacloud fine-timed. I edited and typeset. Rezo and Uchuu QCed. The encoder was an anonymous friend. The source is a second-hand video tape; it was never released on laserdisc or digital media. You can understand why. There's a sequel, of sorts, Oji-san Kaizou Kouza. WOWmd is threatening to buy and encode it.

I can't really recommend OL Kaizou Kouza, although I hope you'll admire the typesetting. It reflects attitudes that I wish had changed and probably haven't. There's a tiny amount of sex and nudity, not enough to condemn (or redeem) it. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.