Get murked by a space cop; become a space cop!

---

TSF Showcase 2024-45
Birdy The Mighty (OVA Series) by Madhouse
Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Well, it was only a matter of time before I got around to tackling this girl. One of the better known TSF anime series around, and one that I have more than a passing familiarity with. Well, not this particular version. It might have been overshadowed by its remake, but it’s time to tackle Birdy the Mighty! …The OVA series!

Birdy the Mighty originally began as a manga by acclaimed manga creator Masami Yuki, was on something of a creative tear throughout the 80s, launching numerous series. These include smaller works like Kyūkyoku Chōjin R and Assemble Insert, but his big breakout hit was Mobile Police Patlabor, a name that I’m sure many anime oldheads remember for its OVA and TV series. 

However, next to these works, Birdy the Mighty was the neglected child, seeing only ten chapters over three years, canceled before being compiled into a single volume. I was originally considering covering it as a primer… but only the first seven chapters were translated. Let’s just say I found it to be an idea-rich story from a creator who was distracted, unable to plan or work out what exactly they wanted to do.

However, what could have been an easily forgotten side project somehow managed to get an OVA treatment during the mid 90s. I’d ask why, but the simplest answer is that the OVA scene was booming during the 90s, and anime investors were throwing money around like crazy. This was an era where VHS tapes were cheap to produce, people were amassing collections and the only industry growing in Japan was the entertainment industry. As such, there was a downright deluge of manga series getting picked up for the OVA treatment. It’s part of the reason why 90s anime was so damn weird cool. Because they didn’t need to worry about mass market appeal or broadcast limitations, they just needed a niche!

Animated by Madhouse and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri of cult classic Ninja Scroll fame, Birdy the Mighty ran from 1996 to 1997 across four releases. Where it made enough of a splash to be picked up by Central Park Media back in 1999, thereby granting it a patch in the elegant tapestry of the American late 90s anime scene.

After this brief revival— and after he finished up his horse grooming comic— Masami Yuki rebooted the series in 2002, where it ran until 2012, collected across a staggering 33 volumes. …Which is far too long for a TSF Showcase candidate, I hate to tell you. But most who know of Birdy the Mighty nowadays are more familiar with the 2008 anime adaptation of the reboot, Birdy the Mighty: Decode. It’s how I learned about the series, and… would make for a good TSF Showcase candidate. …Or maybe a Ramble with Cassie.

But today, I’m here to talk about the first fully completed and imagined entry in the series, and the first exposure people outside of Japan had to it. 

Also, I unfortunately could not find any high quality, i.e. laserdisc, transfers of the series, so DVD rips are all you can really find. It’s no longer in print, not streaming anywhere, so feel free to search it out however you can. A lower quality version is on YouTube, and you can find it on Archive.org.

---

Part 0: The Shared Body Transformation

Throughout all its permutations, Birdy the Mighty follows the same core premise. High schooler Tsutomu Senkawa is a regular kid who gets attacked by a space cop by the name of Birdy Cephon Altera. As punishment for her recklessness and to make the situation right, Tsutomu’s consciousness is transferred into her body, where space magic allows the two to exist within the same body. 

I want to say that this ‘two minds, one body’ or ‘shared body’ is a novel premise, but it has been a well-worn concept that has persisted for at least 150 years. It’s just a rather uncommon vessel for TSF, and Birdy the Mighty’s execution is… interesting. 

Birdy and Tsutomu have the ability to freely shift between each form at will, without expending any energy or resources. They are each aware of what the other is doing when they are in control of the body. They both sense everything the other does. They are capable of telepathically communicating with one another. And one can be awake while the other is asleep. While each takes the ‘driver’s seat’ when in their corresponding form, if their will is strong enough, the person in the ‘passenger’s seat’ can take control. Which mostly takes the form of Birdy controlling Tsutomu, either due to a stronger will or the fact that this is ultimately her body.

The two maintain a symbiotic relationship where cooperation is necessary and they both experience the other’s life. Birdy gets to see an alien world and live as a seamless member of this society, while Tsutomu gets to experience being a superpowered heroine who engages in  routine death defying encounters. Though, it is also a bit more complex than just that, as Birdy is an alien that’s basically a human— her only tell being her unusually colored hair. But even in 90’s Japan, that’s not seen as too unusual. Thereby allowing her to gawk around and live in this foreign world, be seen as a human, while allowing Tsutomu the ability to vicariously experience life as a woman, seeing the world through one’s eyes. 

It is a relationship and form of transformation with a lot of depth and room for exploration, especially when questions of privacy are brought in, as privacy cannot exist when sharing a body. However, while there is some light bickering and tension between the two, there isn’t much animosity, both quickly learn to trust the other, and neither are too bothered by this situation. It all has a lot going for it, and despite not seeing this OVA series before now, Birdy The Mighty’s core ‘shared body’ idea inspired a lot of my earlier works. Just off the top of my head, two novellas, one novel, and at least two chapters in other works. So I naturally find it to be a deeply rich concept. Which begs the question… does the OVA make the most of this concept? Let’s find out!

---

Part 1: Two Hearts in One Body

The story proper begins on the night before university entrance exams, where Tsutomu is heading out to the nearest vending machine to grab a canned coffee for his cram session. Meanwhile, Birdy is on the prowl, searching for some alien freak on this world for some nefarious purposes. The freak, ever the opportunist, uses Tsutomu as bait, literally throwing him at Birdy, where she thinks fast and fries him until his eyes go white.

Following a sequence where a barely conscious Tsutomu hears Birdy talking with her commander, Inspector Magius— a giant bug— the teen wakes up in his bedroom, as if nothing happened. Before he can ruminate on what happened though, he realizes he’s late for his entrance exams and rushes off to school. Following a run-in with his obligatory crush, Natsumi Hayamiya, Tsutomu sts for the exam… but cannot make sense of it. He crammed and crammed, but after a bad night of sleep, all these weeks upon weeks of prep work have gone down the drain.

As the despair that he ruined his life begins to eat away at him, Tsutomu’s hand begins moving on its own, answering questions at a rapid rate, and I just adore everything about this scene. The frantic scribbling, the insertion of the upbeat soundtrack, the way that the numbers appear in a clean yet realistic script, and the sheer bafflement on Tsutomu’s face before he tries to stop his hand, only for it to keep moving on its own. It’s both a surreal image, losing control of one’s dominant hand, and a deeply relatable superpower that basically everybody has wanted on some level. The ability to just magically write the right answer. A lot of anime is set in school, but seeing one tackle such a universal experience is a something that I deeply appreciate.

After presumably acing his test, Tsutomu gets jumped by the alien freak who tried to kill him the other day, taking him… eight stories high at a construction site. The freak asks Tsutomu where Birdy is, ready to kill him… again, but as Tsutomu trembles, Birdy’s voice echoes through his mind and switches with him, leading to the first ‘transformation sequence.’

Despite being a critical element, the transformations are executed inconsistently throughout the series. This first one is a fast yet deliberate transformation between Tsutomu and Birdy, showing their face shift as their school uniform adjusts to their new frame. It is only a second-long, maybe not even that, but is just enough. Other times though, the transformation will be represented as a glowing line across their body, or will be a cross-fade between Birdy and Tsutomu. As a lover of detailed TF sequences, it’s disappointing, but I’m more surprised they couldn’t decide on one approach, even within the same episode.

Though, I do have to say that I love the creative decision (originating from the 80s manga) to not always depict Birdy in her signature outfit, and sometimes show her in Tsutomu’s clothes. There’s just something about seeing powerful women in baggy, ill-fitting men’s clothing. 

Going back to the fight, Birdy promptly kicks the alien’s blood out and uses her headband thingies (term of art) to send him to space jail by encasing him in a black sphere. Which is probably a pastiche to something.

After this primer scuffle, the show offers a glimpse into its overarching conflict. A notorious space criminal, Christella Revi, has made Earth her base of operations and is planning something with the aid of her various cohorts. Namely George Gomez, a mountain of a man with a blonde mustache and sunglasses affixed to his, likely alien, face. And Seichiro Hikawa, a veritable mad scientist in the most 90s way possible. Meaning he’s into genetic modification and ‘unlocking the next stage of human evolution.’

Returning home with a battle damaged uniform, Tsutomu gets his proper introduction to Birdy, explaining who she is while he remains bitter and disbelieving. Even after Birdy punches him with his own hand and forces him to run out of his house and to her hideout. An abandoned lot filled with derelict cars left to rust, piled on top of each other. It’s an odd and highly suspicious site, especially right next to a residential area, but it does make for a compelling scrapyard visual.

Inside the hidden spaceship, Inspector Magius explains that “every cell in [Tsutomu’s] entire body is already dead.” Which is something unique to this adaptation, and this adaptation alone, as while his body was almost dead in every other version, this one is openly saying that he is just dead. There is no allusion being made to him ever returning to normal, and that is a very… odd creative choice. Hell, it might be a mistranslation, as this was the early years of Central Park Media. …And they did not put a lot of money into this project.

Normally, I enjoy the cheesiness and passion of a lot of early anime dubs, as it’s what I grew up on, and part of me will forever be a 5-year-old.. However, Birdy the Mighty might have one of the weakest dubs I have ever heard, if only for the voice actors for Tsutomu, Birdy, and Matty O’Shea, voiced by Justin Thompson, Alex McCord, and Matty O’Shea. A trio of voice actors who only worked on a morsel of other anime roles before leaving the scene forever. And after listening to their performances, I can see why. They sound like newbies who received little direction, were handed the script the day of, not allowed to look at the show they were dubbing over, and only given one take for each line. It’s not funny bad, it’s just bad. The other supporting actors generally do a better job, because they are actual anime VAs, but when your leads are bad, your dub is bad.

Tangent aside, this is followed by a shared memory of Birdy’s that Tsutomu somehow gains access to, where one of Revi’s companions kills a woman named Violin. Who I think is meant to be Birdy’s big sister, but their relationship is never stated. Also, this flashback is full of 90s anime ‘rapidly flashing lights designed around CRT filters.’ This crops up a few times throughout the series, so if you have a history with epilepsy, please be careful watching this.

Once that flashback is over, the episode revs up to its premiere fight scene against a new alien thug by the name of Bachilus. A slime based creature who creates a body by devouring a scattering of stray dogs running around the streets of suburban Tokyo. Morphing into this vicious, impractical beast that looks as if it is in constant pain, yet continues to crawl forward as it seeks its goal. 

While taking a bath, Birdy literally smells him coming closer and transforms into herself… but without her battle suit. Because the show needed to have a scene where Tsutomu’s father walks in on a naked Birdy. The lewd quota met, Birdy then dons her suit and hops across rooftops as she approaches Bachilus, starting an extended multi-stage fight scene that is probably the best part of the entire series. 

Birdy tries to fight this slime monster, but punching does nothing, leading Tsutomu to make himself useful by figuring out its weakness is dish soap. (The dialogue indicates that the actual weakness is a surface-active agent, basically weed killer, but I think that was just a mistake tracing back to the 80s manga.) And rather than have Birdy take Bachilus freak down, Tsutomu is determined to do it himself. Even if he is terrified, even if he is holding onto a baseball bat for dear life while lying in literal garbage, he still fends off for himself and shows that he has some guts.

This is a compelling spin on his character, presenting him as someone of a heroic temperament while lacking the conviction of his alter ego. And this idea is furthered when he is approached by an android in the next scene. A Terminator-esque robot dressed in a trench coat known as an Arkazoid, effectively Revi’s foot soldiers. Once more, despite being scared, Tsutomu still tries to beat it up with a metal baseball bat, going on about how he never gives up. He sacrificed his weekends and vacations for years, neglected everything for his entrance exams, and is not the sort of person to just take a handout like this. 

Then, after the Akrazoid destroys his bat and calls in another Arkazoid, Tsutomu realizes he is way over his head and gives control over to Birdy. Thus kicking off five minutes of perfection! Birdy runs across rooftops, greets the two androids on the train tracks, sees them strip to their metal bodies, and rush toward her. But Birdy is a pro and effortlessly styles on them, ducking, dodging, kicking, smashing them to sparking bits. When one tries to grab her, to take her down with a train, she leaps out of its grasp, yanks its stretchy wire-filled arms, flinging them into their ally and knocking the pair of them into the river. All while the train zooms past her, illuminating the dark blue night around her as she strikes a pose, her hair flowing in the wind.

As it seems like this deal is done and dusted, Bachilus crawls out of the sewer he hid in and merges with the robot husks at the bottom of the river, becoming a slime robot abomination! He bubbles from the river, launching up as a wrecking ball that reveals itself to be a four legged, two armed, two headed freak held together by goop.

Birdy gets slimed on, narrowly escapes after a desperate ploy, and with no reliable way to stop something like this, she relies on Tsutomu. Thinking back to the start of the episode, he directs her to a narrow alley. This is enough to prevent Bachilus from pursuing her, but she’s still trapped here. …Fortunately, Birdy actually dropped a metal girder here last night, and there was a gas canister stored there— for some reason. With these weapons, Birdy launches the girder into Bachilus’s neck, and with his robotic body sparking, she douses him with gasoline, causing every last bit of him to burn to bits! He fidgets, he flails, he falls apart, casting Birdy in the light of his flames before slumping down to the floor, phasing out to Tsutomu’s body.

The two worked hard tonight. Neither of them could have done this on their own. And with their shared body exhausted and a bond forged, Tsutomu walks past the wreckage, back to his home, as it begins to snow. On this high, the show then cuts to credits and gives the viewer a DOPE ending theme. In fact, the entire soundtrack for his show kicks ass! It is very much of its time, poppy, energetic, tense or atmospheric when it wants to be, and does oodles to enhance the personality of this show. Whenever it hits, it hits hard! Which shouldn’t be too surprising, as this was a Kow Otani joint, and that dude’s a real one! I’ve already put it in my musical rotation and you should too. Just check Archive.org! (I’m not going to link it, since the last upload got erased.) 

It’s actually a two disc album with over 90 minutes of music, a lot of which I don’t think is even in the series. Which… is some real ambition, and I love to see it!

---

Part 2: Double Trouble

The second episode of the OVA— entitled Double Trouble despite there only being one form of trouble— is a lot more narrow in its goals. After the excitement of last night, Tsutomu is dead tired, but Birdy is still able to pilot the body while in Tsutomu’s form, having him effectively sleepwalk onto the train and to school. And because they’re sleepwalking, there’s no way for Birdy to see what’s in front of her, leading her to nearly get them both killed by walking onto a train track and crossing a busy street. It’s a refreshing bit of comedy that is more inline with the antics of the original manga, and a way to relax and lull the viewer between bits of intense action.

However, before getting to that, there’s still an episode of story to get to. While on her way to school, Birdy spies Revi sitting in a car across the street, joined by her robot assistant, Ordine. Birdy naturally rushes forward, only to get taken out in one blow by George Gomez, effectively Revi’s right hand man. It’s a good scene to show how, despite being so close, there is still a world of difference between Birdy and Revi. It would be an appropriate first of many near encounters as Birdy grows in strength and Revi’s resources and patience are drained… but this is the only time they meet each other in the entire series.

This is followed by a conclusion for the entrance exam subplot from the first episode, where Tsutomu is wracked with anxiety over whether he passed. To the point where he needs to have Natsumi check for him. She informs Tsutomu he passed, and he hugs her with joy, only to regret his actions immediately afterwards, to which she walks away. Tsutomu panics, thinking she hates him while Birdy says he’s hopeless in love. This is clearly meant to be part of a romantic arc between these two… but again, this is a four episode OVA, so there’s really no time to expand upon their relationship. This just goes to further illustrate that Tsutomu is a nervous, anxious everyman, but that’s already been well established. 

The next stretch of this episode is centered around a subplot not really worth spending too much time on. A pair of Tokyo detectives are investigating a bizarre murder that is the result of the aforementioned Hikawa being a mad scientist. In short, he is developing a serum meant to reshape the human brain and body to become something more reptilian and with access to psychic powers, or psy powers as the English release refers to them. This is a completely original addition to the OVA and, as mentioned earlier, this was a very en vogue concept during the mid-90s. Back when popular science was becoming more mainstream, news of cloning was wafting through the air, genetic advances were being made, and technology was improving at an exponential pace. 

It’s a choice clearly inspired by popular anime of its time— particularly Akira (1988), because Akira influenced everything and everyone. Even me! However, it is also a rather peculiar inclusion in a space-grade sci-fi story like this. There is a mass produced quantity of androids. Parasyte-esque monsters in human guises, and just straight up alien monsters who can be thrown in for good measure. As such… why psychic powers? Why mutate humans? Why add this to what is ultimately an ‘aliens on the battleground of Earth’ type story?

Hikawa, a human, is the one leading these experiments, and we later learn that this is based on research dating all the way back to WWII to create super soldiers. Except… what good are human super soldiers to Revi or her alien cohorts? It’s never explained what they are getting from all of this, and I think that’s simply because there is nothing in this for them.

Point is, the aliens are working to create these psy power soldiers by experimenting on humans and, to test their latest experiment, they decide to lure Birdy to action. …By sending an Arkazoid to Natsumi’s house— they must have spied on Tsutomu to learn they were close. Waiting for Tsutomu to call Natsumi and have her explain that she is being stalked by an android. Staging a fight that is practically designed for Tsutomu to reveal his transformation ability to Natsumi. And having the Arkazoid make a mad dash through Tokyo before finally luring her to a massive skyscraper. It’s one of those sequences that makes sense when you are watching it, but simply does not hold up to scrutiny.

The point is that Birdy is lured into an aquarium located in this office building (Japan has weird zoning laws that allow things like this), where she faces off against the opponent for this episode. Kanji Suzuki, a 24-year-old who has been medically abused to unlock latent psychic powers within his brain, and uses them to stage another dope-as-hell fight sequence. 

You’ve got psychic water manipulation in an attempt to drown Birdy, gravity-defying stunts as the characters fight on the side of a building, and as things settle down… Kanji becomes a lizard-man! One with immense strength in his body, able to toss around Birdy and everything in his vicinity… before his body starts to reject this alteration. He crumples down, clenching his head, and before Birdy can help him, Hikawa shows up in a helicopter and swiftly fires a bullet through his mutated guts.

Birdy tries to go after him… only for Gomez to show up again, incapacitating her and leaving Tsutomu to find his way back home for the night. Knowing that things will be interesting around Natsumi after he revealed his other half to her.

---

Part 3: Triangle Trial

Episode three, Triangle Trial, does not feature three trials or anything of the sort, and before I get started, I need to highlight a frankly befuddling creative choice. One that I did not pick up on until I was writing this article. The first two episodes of the show take place sometime in February, as that is when university entrance exams are traditionally held. However, in episode three, Tsutomu is seen wearing his plain clothes to school for a single scene. This is meant to communicate that he started university, but the only other indication he started university is an untranslated, unsubtitled, sign at the start of the last episode. 

I guess this does explain his looser schedule in episodes three and four, but it is still a bizarre way of handling the pacing. I thought the entire series took place over the span of a week when watching it, but now it must take place over two months, if not longer. Very strange.

Anyway, while heading out of school for the day, Tsutomu runs into Natsumi at school after avoiding her for weeks after she saw him transform into Birdy. Yet rather than confront him about this, she hands him a ticket to visit a local theme park tomorrow at 10. Tsutomu does not really want to go, even though it is the most obvious ‘indirect’ way Natsumi could possibly say she likes him, but he doesn’t really have a choice. Similarly, he doesn’t have much of a choice when Birdy decides it is time to go out on patrols. 

Raiding the closet of Tsutomu’s sister, Hazumi, Birdy dresses up in a simple yet fashionable outfit. A collared navy dress and beige jacket with a red interior, folded and exposed, looking almost like an open scarf. Combined with her spiky anime hair with its pink and white color scheme, this is one of the most 90s-ass fits that I have ever seen in anime, and I love everything about it. She is stylish, confident, playful, threads the needle between casual chic and business fashion, and navigates this world with both poise and a childlike wonder. Her amusement at the crowds, the sights and architecture of the city really do a lot to ground her as just another person despite being out of this world. …While being the sort of person who will toy with a Tokyo cop. She might be a cop… but she’s a teenager first, damn it!

However, the good times come to an end when she’s at a street festival of some manner and everybody who drank a free wine sample suddenly pauses, their eyes going white. Their minds being used as a channel for psy powers that target a signage fixture on top of a nearby building, causing it to crumble and fall, leaving several people injured. It’s a threatening display of what Hikawa’s in-development serum can allow people to achieve if their psychic powers are used simultaneously. This was just a few dozen people, but imagine if everybody in Tokyo was channeled? One could probably destroy a whole city! …Though, again, it’s not clear how this benefits Revi.

The following day, Tsutomu arrives at the amusement park, where it is shut down due to the rain, with nobody else present, not even security staff. Still, he patiently awaits his date, only to get distracted as he sees a strange girl in a yellow raincoat. Revi’s android assistant, Ordine. As a character, Ordine is just a machine with no overtly stated personality traits, but I have to say that I just love her design. 

Ordine’s modeled to be a rival character for Birdy, but everything about her is slightly off. Her hair is short, dark, and plain. Skin is starkly pale, for it is merely a protective coating for her machinery. Body is dressed in a leotard so plain it looks like she bought it from some store, along with bulky matching boots and gloves. She looks like a wrestler, and that athletic look is only supported by the inspired design of her frame. She is slender, has a modest chest, but also has very emphasized shoulders and neck muscles, giving her the look of a powerful athlete. And everything she does carries with it a sense of strength. Where Birdy bounces off of objects and walls, Ordine crushes them on impact. She is stoic, never saying a single word or grunt, yet pursues her with a deliberate machine-like precision. 

Birdy takes a few hits as they crash through the amusement park, leaving wreckage in their wake, but as the fight crescendos, she lures Ordine to an out-of-season water slide— usable thanks to the downpour going on outside. Birdy turns the table, distracts her with punches, and as the slide ends, she leaps away while Ordine shoots out and collides with the tiled ground below. It is a crafty maneuver, enough to scratch up Ordine’s face and reveal the Terminator eye behind it, but it is not enough.

Ordine overpowers Birdy yet again, throwing her into a utility room with an electrical box, but despite being cornered, this gives Birdy the upper hand. She calls forth Ordine, counters her punch by twisting one arm off, and sends the other crashing into the electrical box. A second later, she’s sparking, yet that is not enough to end her. She can still function, still walk, but she walks past Birdy. 

Ordine, as a machine, recognizes that she is damaged and can no longer fight, let alone win. She is no longer of use to her master, so she merely walks away, looking for a ditch she can dispose herself in as her components fail. All indicating that, despite her robotic guise, perhaps she had some sentience and now… now that’s gone.

As the fighting ends, Natsumi approaches a relaxing Tsutomu, explaining she left to get an umbrella before asking him… who he is, why he transformed, and what is going on with him. Tsutomu says he will not tell her and that it is better she does not know. A response that is ballsy to say the least, as she knows about his secret identity. But Natsumi accepts this, understanding there must be a good reason for Tsutomu’s secrecy, before sharing her umbrella with him as they walk home. Thus, effectively, ending their relationship.

…Okay, she does show up for a short scene at the start of episode 4, where she has a video camera and is suddenly part of the cinematography club. If that sounds random, it’s because it’s a clunky callback to her role in the original manga, where she was camera girl. 

---

Part 4: Final Force

It’s finally time for the finale, Final Force, is home to many revelations involving the de facto antagonist, Hikawa, and how exactly he is involved in this storyline. 

In short, Hikawa was originally a Japanese soldier and scientist in WWII who was working on a shady ‘nuclear medicine’ project to create Japanese super soldiers. This project ultimately failed to bear fruit before the end of the war, thus relegating him to become a bitter old man in the ensuing 50 years. However, his fate changed as he met Revi (somehow) and she offered to help him with his research by providing him with a “molt”. So, presumably, a clump of alien DNA that he is able to extract something valuable from, possibly meaning these mutants are merely human/alien hybrid, but who’s to say?

Opting to test his findings on himself first, Hikawa is able to somehow both give himself psychic powers and reduce his body’s age by 50 years. This would be great… if not for the side effects, which have gathered around his right hand, turning it scaley and derelict as his body starts to morph beyond his wishes. Despite this obvious shortcoming, he still insists his psy power serum is ready to be deployed to the masses. And to do so, he plans on unloading a tanker truck of this stuff into the Tokyo metropolitan water system. Which… damn. That’s hardcore. More (fictional) terrorists should try to taint the water supply!

This storyline ultimately works, but I am not fond of how it is ultimately told to the viewer. Birdy might be a cop, but this entire subplot is revealed by the aforementioned Tokyo detectives. I understand that this makes the story feel bigger, makes its mystery more sprawling, but it feels so disconnected from Birdy that you could cut all of their scenes out and not lose much of value. You really just need the backstory narration from Hikawa.

With that out of the way, the core of the episode is just Birdy rushing to find out where Hikawa is and what he is planning. First by using a tracking device in Ordine’s discarded arm, and after getting blown up by a booby trap, following a map to the Tokyo water reclamation center. A heavily secure and fortified establishment where a legion of Akrazoids storm in, taking out everyone they see with smoke grenades before bringing in a truck loaded with serum. All while Tsutomu/Birdy are forced to rely on public transit before infiltrating the facility. And by infiltrate, I mean slowly shuffle in front of the front gate, run into a guard, before finally taking the scenic way in by going through a drain.

At this point, the serum has already been drained into the water and needs to be released to the public. Gomez is given the authority to determine this, but after seeing how Hikawa’s body is falling apart, he resists, and is promptly shot repeatedly. Except before Hikawa can execute his plan and mutate the world, Birdy barges in. She beats up his robo goons like the jobbers they are, make the most unsettling smile I have seen in years, and prepares to face off against Hikawa.

This is the final fight of the series… and like the prior three, it’s great! Hikawa unleashes his true psychic power, shifting into an over-muscled brute with telekinetic powers that are seemingly without limit. He fires pipes like they’re bullets, lifts Birdy up, flies at her with fists of immense psychic energy, crashing her into a wall, and just wails on her. Only stopping when he decides to show her the extent of his power, psychically activating the machine and unleashing the contaminated water into the system. The floodgates open, water surges forward, and as hope seems lost with the water viciously contaminated, Hikawa throws a damn truck at Birdy! He is brutal, uncaring and bears so much power he seems truly unstoppable.

However, for all of Hikawa’s might, he is dealing with forces beyond his understanding, and his body quickly begins to deteriorate. Vicious tumors the size of his head grow from all parts of his form. These deformations spurt out blood as he is brought to the floor, writhing in searing agony as his body reshapes itself and loses its humanity.

With Birdy incapacitated, her form and mind too worn to maintain herself, Tsutomu is left with nothing more than a vague idea of what can stop the hulking behemoth before him. He needs an absurd amount of electricity to fry him to bits, and wouldn’t you know it? This is a solar-powered water facility! How progressive! Tsutomu takes the initiative and climbs up a horrifically tall ladder as he aims to channel this power for himself… only to abruptly fall. 

But of course he’s fine! Birdy comes back, takes control, and together, they harness the power of this facility, becoming a radiant goddess of electricity. Power goes out, Hikawa is more reptile than man, and with a conduit of water before her, she fries him to bits. The water in the facility erupts in an electric surge, a blackout goes across Tokyo, and presumably, all semblance of the serum is rendered inert. Because, otherwise, the water is already contaminated and people taking showers should be turning into monsters right about… ten minutes ago.

The following day, Tsutomu wakes up, his hair still standing up after getting electrocuted, and he goes to resume his college student life. …At least before running into Gomez, who survived Hikawa’s attempted assassination and appears to offer what I would generously call a sequel tease. He says Birdy is no match for him at her current level, but they will meet again someday. …Except they never do, and I’m not sure if there was ever a plan for that.

I cannot say how successful Birdy the Mighty the OVA was in Japan or abroad, but as a limited four episode series, why bolt on the possibility for more here? There was no source material for the majority of this series, no real continuation that people could buy, and many of the ideas it boasts are never followed up on. While a conflict was resolved, this feels more like the end of an initial story arc than an entire series.

---

Part 5: Wrap Up Work Shift!

Taking the series as a whole, Birdy the Mighty the OVA is rough in some spots. It’s not the most refined, and I think its two hour runtime could have been better balanced around a more focused narrative. However, its execution shows both a high level of passion and competence from the creative team. I can plainly tell that someone had a vision with this story, and a lot of people put their all into bringing it to life. 

The delightful vistas with a dense atmosphere, the bopping soundtrack, the light drama and tension between the two leads, and the excellent action scenes that bookend each episode. It looks great, sounds great, and I cannot overstate how wonderful I think its core premise is. There are a lot of things to love about Birdy the Mighty the OVA, and while it is definitely not the best anime of its genre and era, I thought it was a damn fun watch. A flawed gem if you will, and the sort of thing that would be a great choice for a retro anime night… so long as you avoid the English dub. Because as a lover of 90s anime voice acting, this dub is boring-bad. 

However, as is always the concluding question, how does Birdy the Mighty fare as a work of TSF? Well… that’s more complicated than I would care to admit. I already explained the shared body dynamic of Birdy and Tsutomu in the first section, but the problem is that neither are particularly invested in the prospect of living or embodying another gender. Birdy is an alien, so who knows what her perspective of gender is. But despite regularly existing within a female body, Tsutomu is not too invested in Birdy’s form. Despite his ‘friends’ shoving a porno mag in his face most episodes, he is not the perverted sort, and his interest in Natsumi is presented as a romantic one. She is a cute girl. He wants to get closer to her, yet he lacks the social literacy needed to know how to convey his feelings. A societal devil that people still haven’t found a good way to squash. 

Viewing the text and the OVAs on a literal level, I would say there is little TSF-ness to this work, despite, by my personal definition (there is no official definition), being a TSF work. However, a work is not strictly meant to be read on a purely literal level, and while Birdy the Mighty might not make many explicit references to Tsutomu’s ‘transsexual experience’, it definitely manages to capture the spiritual essence, or vibe.

Tsutomu is a regular boy whose life gets flipped-turned upside down as aliens, i.e. an aggressive, mysterious, threat to his world, suddenly appear, and to combat them he morphs into Birdy. A confident woman, strong in both her body and resolve, with pink and white hair, dressed in an indigo, white, and gold outfit. It’s revealing, definitely not the most practical thing, yet it bears a distinct athletic quality, as if it is something you would expect from a lightweight female wrestler. 

He might not be the one performing the many feats his shared body performs, but he feels them all. Leaping from rooftops, beating alien freaks, doing superhuman feats, or just walking around as a fashionable girl going through a mall, a street festival, and casually enjoying some ice cream. Having this reassuring female voice guide him, help him through his life, while urging him to go on despite the immense odds before him.  It is not overly saying something, but it is definitely showing something. In fact, someone could probably do a more thorough analysis trying to paint Birdy the Mighty as a ‘trans narrative.’ But that’s a bit beyond my ambitions here.

---

…And that’s over 6,500 words spent talking about what is effectively a two hour movie. I really need to stop doing that.