Its the year 4998...Need I say more?

Training is the first volume of Battle Athletes Victory, and as such it serves as an introduction to the characters and the world they inhabit. This DVD lays a solid foundation and I can't wait to see what will be built upon it. Based on an earlier OAV, Battle Athletes Victory is an interesting mix of melodrama, science fiction, comedy, and athletic action. This series does not appear to take itself too seriously, and I feel that this is definitely  a good thing. This first volume follows the adventures of a group of girls who are working their way through a prep school located in Antarctica (which, for some unexplained reason, is now a desert). This prep school is focused on preparing these young teenage beauties from around the globe to compete in the Cosmos Beauty competition on the University Satellite.

The characters of this group are an eccentric bunch. The protagonist is a Japanese girl named Akari. Her mother was once the Cosmos Beauty, so she has a lot to live up to. However, she often appears to be lacking in the athletic ability and the self-discipline to meet her potential. Fortunately, her good friend Itchan pulls no punches in her motivational techniques. The other characters include an American named Jessie and her Russian rival named Ayla (ooo...Cold War style tensions!). The one character that I found really interesting is an African girl named Tanya. She is very outlandish in her mannerisms and actually behaves like some sort of cat, although she doesn't have the claws, ears, and tail that many other anime cat-girls have. She is the source of many of the more entertaining visual gags over the course of this disc.

There are four episodes on this disk. The first episode picks up midway through some sort of fiendish midterm exam, where the girls are puling large rollers through minefields, over cliffs, and through trenches. Goodness! And I thought the PRT was tough! The second episode deals with Akari attempting to take a  make-up exam that has been rigged by another girl to make her lose (she failed to finish the first mid-term, and so must complete another test). The third focuses on Tanya running amok in the girls' dormitory one night, and included some rather hilarious scenes (including one of the other girls hitting on Jessie!). The final episode deals more with Jessie's and Ayla's rivalry through a swimming competition. Overall, these first episodes did a good job of introducing a large number of characters and enveloping the viewer into the series' world. Humor is very apparent in all the episodes, with only the fourth episode containing serious moments o fany kind  .

Technically, the animation is fluid and the colors are sharp. The DVD is not divided into chapters as thoroughly as I would like (you can skip between episodes only), but I can live with that. Unfortunately, there are no extras present on this disk. I hope that later disks in the series will feature some kind of bonus material.

 I really enjoyed this first volume. I had heard a lot of great things about this series, and I wasn't disappointed. There is some strong language used in the dub (which, strangely, isn't present in the sub), and there are a few situations that may not be appropriate for the younger crowd, but overall I can easily recommend Battle Athletes Victory to anyone looking for a fun and entertaining experience.

By Andy Rucker