Battle Athletes: Ready... (OVA volume 2)

Training continues for 16-year-old Akari Kanzaki, who hopes to win the "Cosmic Beauty" competition. With her teammates Kris and Anna, she must complete a 40-kilometer obstacle course run through a 1,000-year-old abandoned satellite in "Screaming Advance." They're off to a record-breaking start when the evil Mylandah sabotages the school's computer system, threatening not only the success of Akari's team, but their lives. The trio manages to escape through a combination of pluck, daring, and athletic prowess, although the girls still require the aid of Grant Oldman, the sky-surfing headmaster. The enormous satellite used as a test course crashes to Earth but causes no damage aside from the splash it makes when it hits the ocean. To recuperate, the girls go to a hot spring in the satellite that serves as their training camp/dorm, where they make a shocking discovery about Anna. "Match Unexpected" centers on the annual boys' school vs. girls' school competition, with Akari, Tanya, and Mylandah representing their alma mater in a game of Acro Spike, a cross between soccer and volleyball. The sexual undercurrents move into the open as Headmaster Oldman dresses his players in skimpy outfits and encourages them to pose provocatively to distract the boys. (The strategy backfires when the boys' school sends gay athletes to the contest.) Anna appears with a new identity and Kris, who continues to run around naked, gives Akari a full-body massage. --Charles Solomon

Gradually Akari and her friends come closer to attaining the status of "Cosmic Beauty." First they must confront the mid-term exam: A.R.M.S. Orienteering in an orbital elevator. Kris, Anna and Akari overcome various obstacles. However, they soon find themselves in deep trouble. Now their true abilities will be tested in the coldness of outerspace...