Call Me Tonight - 1986

Call Me Tonight was made in 1986 and was the first in a series of fanservice OVA's from Pink Noise in the mid 80s. While most shows that use fan service as it's core are often shallow and repetive, Call Me Tonight breaks the mould and makes it's an integral part of it's heart warming and comical story. Infact i loved the story and characters so much that i've watched this anime quite a number of times now. Although it only has a short running time of only 30 minutes, i actually felt it was the perfect length and achieved everything it set out to do.

Visually this is a very beautiful anime and defintly one of my favourites to look at. The character designs and colour pallete seem to be almost a combination of Megazone 23 (Part I) and Dirty Pair TV. The soundtrack is mainly upbeat 80's style jazzy J-Pop with the standout theme being the song 'Please Call Me Tonight' which plays at both the very start and end of the OVA.

Sadly like so many other great OVA's of it's time this title has not been reissued for release on dvd in Japan. I do expect this anime to get released eventually though as most of the AIC catalogue is gradually finding it's way out on to dvd slowly but surely.

Overall i'd say that this is very much a personal favourite of mine. It's one of the few shows daring enough to blend an unique variety of genres including romance, comedy, science fiction and horror. Also with the bonus of it being a one shot OVA, it makes great replay value with very little time commitment needed. Infact I recommend all the Pink Noise OVA's especially Body Jack (OVA 4) which comes in a close second place to Call Me Tonight.

Here is a list of the whole Pink Noise series:

Pink Noise OVA 1: Download - Call Me Tonight (1986)
Pink Noise OVA 2: Download - Campus Special Investigator Hikaruon (1987)
Pink Noise OVA 3: Evil Dragon War Chronicles 1 (1987)
Pink Noise OVA 4: Body Jack (1987)

Overall Grade/Rating: A
Commercial Availability: VHS (Japan), Laserdisc (Japan)