When Asuta Jimon, a runaway middle school student with no home and no money runs into a young girl named Kate Hoshimiya in the middle of the night and is offered a position in her world conquest organisation, he accepts. It means a meal and a roof over his head at least, but this little girl can’t possibly be the head of an organisation bent on world conquest… Can she?
It turns out she’s for real – Kate Hoshimiya, otherwise known as Lady Venera, dreams of world conquest and along with her like minded squad of devoted followers in the secret organisation Zvezda she will do whatever it takes to make her dream a reality. Her squad is made up of people who’s lives she has had some profound impact on – Tough-girl Itsuka, Child prodigy and robotics expert Natasha, former Gangsters Yasu and Gorobane and the mechanical Roboko all form the core of the mysterious Zvezda’s world conquest team. Opposing Zvezda are the equally mysterious White Light – a team of girls tasked with upholding the justice Zvezda are intent on disrupting. Unfortunately for Asuta, now known within Zvezda ranks as Dva, the Second Lieutenant of White Light just so happens to be his school crush, Renge Komodori.
Set in the self-governed Tokyo region of West Udogawa, Zvezda never takes itself too seriously. Asuta and Renge skirt around their duties to their respective organisations and their feelings for each other, Zvezda and White Light both set out on various plans to stop each other, through schemes or the occasional giant monster and comedy ensues. All the members transform for combat into pretty over the top outfits, including Kate’s too-risque-for-her-age combat uniform (which does get a fairly amusing magical-girl style transformation scene at one point).
Zvezda themselves start out with attempting to conquer some pretty small-time targets, including the smoker population of the region, before setting their sights higher and higher. It’s all pretty lighthearted stuff as Zveda and White Light battle back and forth. For the most part it plays out as a twist on the Slice of Life anime formula, then the climax of the series kicks off in episode 10 when the power-mad Governor of Tokyo (which now comprises most of Japan) comes into the picture to bring West Udogawa into the fold and a Zvezda on the run must rally for their cause. Collecting the cast from various organisations and links from characters pasts, it does a decent job of wrapping up the immediate story, but plenty remains unanswered.
There’s some deeper lore and history glimpsed that the show never really explains, such as who exactly Kate is or how she came to be so powerful. Where it does shine is in devoting ample time to the characterisation to its enormous cast. We get to know each member of Zvezda, White Light and the Tokyo Government including their past and a tangled web that links many of them together. World Conquest Zvezda Plot delivers an interesting and fun romp for its 12 TV episodes. The 13th OVA episode hurriedly wraps up some loose ends and then goes off on an entertaining tangent I was absolutely not expecting.
Released by Madman Entertainment on two discs collecting the 12 episode TV series and a single OVA episode, World Conquest Zvezda Plot is presented in Japanese audio with subtitles only. It’s a fun series with a large but interesting cast with great character designs and it all moves at a pretty decent pace, but the focus is more on delivering comedy than a coherent story. It’s not going to blow minds, but its a fun series to kick back and enjoy some silliness with. I had a good time with this one. The light of Zvezda will shine upon the world!
A review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment to the author for the purpose of this review.
