I decided to watch random anime OVAs from the bubble era, and this is my first of my reviews during this.

What is This?
Meisou-Ou: Boarder (Drifter King: Boarders) is a seinen manga which began serialization in 1986 and ran until 1989 for 151 chapters and 14 volumes in Manga Action. This OVA is based on the first arc of the manga, the Return to Society Arc (which is the OVA's subtitle), which is 3 chapters in length, and it covers that material with few changes. This is pretty unique among such OVAs as far as I know. These were made specifically to advertise the manga in question, but often more for people who have already read the manga, as opposed to any new fans. This isn’t much different than most anime until very recently, but combined with the fact most of these OVA only get a few episodes and tend to cover random arcs (at least from the perspective of one who hasn’t read the source material), it was pretty shocking to find after watching the video that this was the beginning of the story.

Plot and Characters
This thing was a fun watch from start to finish, but while I enjoyed it, I don’t really get what was the point of the whole thing (without having read the Japanese Wikipedia article). Both titles of “Meisou Ou”, which is a word for one that has strayed from the proper course in life combined with “king”, and “Boarder” a possibly made up word seem to describe the protagonists. Both Kubota and Hachisuka (understandably, but erroneously referred to as Hachitsuka in the subs) are basically drifters or vagrants. They don’t seem to have stable jobs and live in an apartment complex that’s falling apart, seemingly from paycheck to paycheck and as what we could now call hikikomori. Kubota is even described as a hardcore virgin, but our first introduction to Hachisuka is him having sex with the cashier of the nearby convenience store. While their first introductions to me don’t paint them as particularly scrupulous characters (which is probably the point) and frankly not people I’d have much interest in, they’re also steeped in mystery. Kubota first describes Hachisuka as someone he met on his travels from the Middle East to India. Playing into the vagrant imagery, there’s a really cool scene here as he reminisces to his time in the desert. That’s something this anime does really well: slow shots to establish setting or mood/vibe. Another instance of this is when the two arrive in Dotenbori, Osaka, which Yakuza / Like a Dragon fans will recognize as the basis for Sotenbori in that game series.

The plot is basically like a whacky “day in the life” of these two drifters, or Boarders, and takes place during the 80s when it was serialized. Kubota is offered a lucrative job paying ¥100k (which, accounting for inflation of the Yen and then converted to USD, would be ~$820 in 2024). Hachisuka is so down with this idea that he never asks about what kind of job it is, and thus we never find out until they’re en route to Osaka via shinkansen. There seems to be a war among yakuza and they’re tasked with reporting on it in some capacity, but this job is naturally not as sweet as it seems. Their client awaits them with prostitutes, intending to seduce the protagonists in order to force them into a terrible situation of some sort. When the Boarders arrive in Shin Osaka Station, their client tells them the prostitutes (who aren’t described as such) will accompany them for a night on the town, so they do exactly that. Since these two are not quite middle aged yet and apparently hot, and they didn’t just take the prostitutes to a hotel immediately, the prostitutes take a liking to them, deciding to let them escape while adjusting their makeup in the restroom. Unfortunately, the client whisks them away before they leave the restroom.

The two are given a package and told to walk in a dangerous part of town. They soon find out the package contains a baseball bat, but are oblivious to the fact they're in yakuza territory, and many people around them assume them to be hitmen sent to take out the family based in that area. After successfully fending off a few yakuza, they decide to run away figuring they shouldn’t get in deeper shit than they already are. After having run away and taken some to relax, they discuss how to get back home. After trying to hitchhike fails, Kubota says he’ll take the shinkansen back. Hachisuka is opposed to this waste of money, so he jumps into the back of a truck, expecting he’ll end up in Tokyo if just jumps into a couple other trucks. However he falls asleep and wakes up on a ferry to Hokkaido. I’ll end my summary here, because from here it was especially interesting and fun to watch.

Animation, Music, and Production
While watching the video, I didn’t really get what I was watching, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The animation seemed low budget, but they put effort into small details, and the backgrounds and lighting did a great job in creating atmosphere. The music was also good, using city pop esque songs as well as rock music. Once atmosphere was not a focus, the comedy began to hit more for me and I began to care for these characters at least a bit, so I’d say they succeeded. The only real issue I have with the OVA was the ending. I found after the fact when skimming the manga (the first volume of which is available for free on Manga Action’s website) that the ending was taken directly from chapter 6 and was probably there to create more intrigue, but just left me confused. I would have preferred if they adapted chapter 3 as is, as then this would feel complete, but then perhaps now one would buy the manga.

A cursory search of those involved didn’t bring up much that caught my eye. Many of the creators influenced by this work and referenced in it aren’t well known at all outside of Japan, and perhaps not even in Japan anymore. The director however, Noboru Ishiguro, actually has quite a few credits and is somewhat known overseas. Among his directorial credits include Space Battleship Yamato II, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. He also continued to be involved in projects until his death in 2012 related to the Hitman Reborn! and Mushishi series. The author, Marley Caribu passed away in 2018, but the artist, Akio Tanaka, is still alive as of writing.

Impact and Final Thoughts
It seems despite the fact information is basically nonexistent in English, and this series doesn’t have a Pixiv Encyclopedia entry, unlike most bits of pop culture, it seems to be well loved among a certain set of Japanese fans who are nostalgic for the 80’s. The manga seems to be very easily available digitally from multiple storefronts and reviews are high praising the way the bubble era was portrayed. According to Wikipedia, this series was meant to be a counter to the overflowing money during the bubble era being to make all electronic devices more and more compact and easy to mass produce. Evoking this idea seems to be a form of postmodernist countersociety message in art at the time, based on my limited research and lack of understanding of the term and the time. Perhaps focusing the story on people that are left behind during rapid progress furthers that goal. Regardless, this was quite the interesting watch, and I’m heavily considering picking up the manga after diving into watching and researching this seemingly underrated work!