Cleopatra D.C.

This one of those rare old-school anime that surprised me in so many ways. I honestly found it very interesting and economical in nature, it’s not just about action or style, but about power, wealth, and corporate influence. Watching it made me think that if Cleopatra DC or the Corns Group existed today, it would easily be the BlackRock or Berkshire Hathaway of the modern world.

What really blew my mind was that scene where Cleo buys an ICBM missile just to send a thank-you message for millions of dollars, like, who does that? It perfectly shows how money meant nothing to her because her company ... had that kind of power. The anime does a brilliant job of showing how private or conglomerate companies can control a nation’s economy, influence politics, and even touch global industries like oil and space programs.

For a movie released in 1989, it’s honestly impressive how it portrays economic strategy, corporate control, and business manipulation, things that are still very real today. The Corns Group in the anime even controls Wall Street and OPEC, which shows just how massive their reach is.

As for the characters, Cleo, the young chairwoman, is charming and bold, though she sometimes feels naive. Her secretary, Swen, is the more serious and intelligent type, which balances Cleo’s personality. But I’ll be honest, Swen’s character design really bothered me. The hair covering her eyes made her face look odd and inconsistent. Making her eyes and face show through the hair was bad ther should have just given her another hairstyle. Mind you not just swen character design, the character designs were kind of poor especially the faces of some of the characters like, their eyes lid, I find it too big that some times you can hardly see the eyes of the characters.

The animation and art style are average for its time, but the story and concept carry it. There’s even a small touch of comedy that lightens the tone amid all the corporate and economic themes.

Overall, Cleopatra DC is a unique anime that mixes business, economics, and action in a way few anime from the 80s did. It may not be perfect, but it’s definitely worth watching if you love stories about power, money, and influence.

Rating: 7/10 – A fascinating corporate fantasy ahead of its time.

Manga writer Kaoru Shintani has had an interesting career, having worked on stories of varied genres: military drama (AREA 88), journeys of self-discovery (HIDARI NO CLOCK), and comedy (I DREAM OF MIMI). Renown seems to elude him though, I guess because his work is rather ordinary by anime standards. That doesn't mean it's not enjoyable, though.

This feature tells the adventures of Cleopatra Corns, a corporate heiress who prefers play to work and who has various adventures. The stories focus mostly on corporate thrills and the race against time to stop deadly plots, and in general are adequately written: there are the mandatory comedy and half-naked ... girls common to anime, balanced with Cleo's fast thinking and employment of resources as she outwits her enemies; however, there is one above-average story involving a dangerous but lonely girl whom Cleo befriends and tries to help, that is well worth watching.

The artwork is beautiful, featuring elegant character designs and stunning backgrounds of cities and vistas. The voice cast is also very good; Maria Kawamura leads an all-star cast as the bubbly beauty Cleopatra. And there is a distinct 1980s vintage atmosphere throughout the feature, which is very nice (in my opinion) or very dated, depending on your view.

All in all, it's a generally decent and fun watch.

“Cleopatra D.C.” tries to be a fun, action-filled series, but falls short due to its messy, disjointed plots and poor attempts at humor and fanservice.

The three episodes, which are self-contained but linear, follow the adventures of Cleopatra Corns, the CEO of the titular company, and her “four aces” or company executives/friends working with her, as they get involved in all manner of global-scale events befitting an action series.

It’s not explained why a 16-year-old is the head of a company that supposedly runs half of the US economy, or how these other people came to work with her, or even who their main enemies are, exactly. ... Perhaps there are details about all of that in the manga. These people own or have special privileges with OPEC, the UN, NASA, NORAD, and even Coney Island, and you’re just expected to roll with it.

The unrealisticness of the premise aside, the stories themselves are messy, and tend to have jumpy progress that isn’t logical. Some of this is done in an attempt to be funny, but the jokes usually fall flat. Key elements of the stories also do not make sense sometimes. For instance, in the first episode, Cleo calls President Bush (really) to ask him to fire a missile at an oilfield in Saudi Arabia that’s on fire, in an attempt to put out the fire. How would that even work? But somehow it does.

The first two episodes are 37 minutes long and based on manga chapters, while the third is 50 minutes in length and is mostly anime original. In contrast to the strictly action-thriller style of the first two episodes, the third one adds in a sci-fi twist and is a bit more serious in tone. However, it’s still full of plenty of “humor” and nonsensical deus ex machinas.

Although the episodes are linear, no real character development takes place, and most of the characters besides Cleo, Suen, and whoever the main person they’re dealing with in that episode is get little screentime.

The art of “Cleopatra D.C.” is unique. While the male characters look generic, the female characters are oddly proportioned, and have massively thick eyelashes. This style has the potential to be appealing, but due to the shoddy animation, it’s difficult to look at at times. There’s another review here that touched on this, but one of the characters has an eye that’s drawn over her hair, which is somewhat distracting. By the way, Cleo is supposed to be Black, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at some of the promotional art for this series. At least her skin tone is largely consistent throughout the series itself.

The voice acting is okay, but nothing special. Cleo’s voice can get a bit irritating. The dialogue tends to be corny, even during the “serious” moments. The three ending themes and background music are forgettable.

Despite the lighthearted nature of this OVA, there is plenty of objectionable content, with the most obvious being the fanservice. There are butt shots galore in this one — even one of the male characters’ bare butts gets shown. There are also almost-but-not-quite bare breast scenes a few times, and Cleo in particular is almost always wearing revealing clothing. There is some violence, with a few minor character deaths and some blood shown. There are scenes of a plane flying into a building in New York City, and a space shuttle exploding — these are reminiscent of actual events, so sensitive viewers may want to avoid this one.

Overall, I found very little to be appealing in this OVA. It certainly wasn’t the worst I’ve seen, but due to the convoluted, farfetched plots that were likely a result of trying to cram way too much into a short runtime, and the attempts at “comedic” fanservice, I found it difficult to watch. Not recommended.