Video Girl Ai
Video Girl Ai, known in Japan as simply Video Girl, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 1989 to April 1992. It was followed by a short sequel entitled Video Girl Len, published between April and July 1992. The chapters were collected in 15 volumes.
A live-action film of Video Girl Ai was released in 1991. The series was also adapted into a six-episode original video animation series produced by IG Tatsunoko, released in 1992 by Jump Video. In 2018, a television drama adaptation, Den'ei Shōjo: Video Girl Ai 2018, was broadcast on TV Tokyo. Another series, Den'ei Shōjo: Video Girl Mai 2019, was broadcast the following year.
In North America, the manga and the OVA have been licensed for English-language release by Viz Media. It was formerly published in the anthology Animerica Extra by Viz.
By 2018, the manga had over 14 million copies in print.
Plot
Yota Moteuchi discovers that Moemi Hayakawa, the girl he admires, has romantic feelings for his close friend Takashi Niimai. While returning home disappointed, he encounters an unusual establishment called "Gokuraku", and rents a video titled I'll Cheer You Up! featuring Ai Amano, unaware it contains a "video girl"—a being designed to materialize from television screens to comfort viewers. Due to a malfunctioning video recorder, Ai emerges with irregular traits including the capacity for genuine emotional experience.Initially programmed to support Yota's pursuit of Moemi, Ai gradually develops romantic feelings for him, which he eventually reciprocates after abandoning his affection for Moemi. Their relationship faces challenges when Rolex, a representative of Gokuraku, attempts to retrieve Ai due to her defective state, compounded by the impending expiration of her rental period.
The narrative follows their efforts to navigate these obstacles while addressing other complications, including Yota's lingering attachment to Moemi and his interactions with Nobuko Nizaki. Ai frequently engages in provocative behavior toward Yota, such as feigning sexual advances or intruding on private moments under guises of assistance, generating comedic situations through his flustered reactions.
Characters
; Ai Amano; Yota "Dateless" Moteuchi
; Moemi Hayakawa
; Takashi Niimai
; Nobuko Nizaki
; Natsumi Yamaguchi
Len story characters
; Len Momono; Hiromu Taguchi Toshiki Karukawa
; Ayumi Shirakawa
; Yota Moteuchi
Media
Manga
Video Girl Ai is written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. The manga was serialized in the manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 4, 1989, to April 20, 1992. It was followed by Video Girl Len, which was serialized from April 27 to July 20, 1992. Shueisha compiled the 131 individual chapters into fifteen volumes published between July 1990 and March 1993. Shueisha re-published the series into nine bunkoban volumes between January and May 2003.In North America, Viz Media announced the license of the manga in August 1998. It was first published in the anthology Animerica Extra by Viz until the cancelation of the magazine in December 2004. The manga was originally released in a left to right edition; this version was compiled into seven volumes published between January 2000 and January 2004. The complete series was released in a second edition of all fifteen volumes in the original right to left orientation between May 2004 and April 2006.
List of volumes
Live-action film
A live-action film of Video Girl Ai was released on June 29, 1991.Original video animation
Video Girl Ai was adapted into a six-episode OVA produced by IG Tatsunoko. The series was released in 1992 by Jump Video. It roughly covers most of the material found in the first three volumes of the manga.In North America, Viz Video released the OVA on VHS in 1999 and on DVD in December 2001.