OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Spirit Of Wonder: The Scientific Boys Club

A second anime of Spirit Of Wonder was made nearly a decade after the original OVA one-shot, but this time as a 2-episode series, each one split up into two-separate parts. Still produced by Ajia-do Animation Works, the anime is still based on Kenji Tsuruta's anthology manga which is a sci-fi romantic comedy.

The series is split into a 2-part story of The Scientific Boys Club which is set in the same world as Miss China from the first OVA. This spinoff has a trio of eccentric old amateur scientists who decide to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their club by planning an expedition to Mars based on the works of their idol, astronomer Percival Lowell who believed the red planet had canals and that there was still life there. The SBC gets help from their youngest member, who happens to be married to one of the club founder's daughter who they keep bugging for her expertise on calculations, even though she wants to live the life of an average housewife. The crew manages to create their own space zeppelin that rides the mistaken ether streams between Earth and Mars, although they are underwhelmed to discover there are no canals there or any sign of life.

The other two segments of the OVA series returns first to a short of Miss China who has begun to slowly shrink thanks to Dr. Breckenridge's latest invention. Jim is able to restore China to her height, but only resulting in China growing so big she tears the roof off of her restaurant. The second installment takes place sometime afterwards with Breckenridge using his space reflector telescope to project the surface of Mars, but because the planet is so far away its all blurry. That doesn't stop China from dreaming up an intoxicated-fueled 3D mirage where she is karate chopping a Godzilla-sized Martian monster. There are plenty of callbacks to the prior OVA, even though they never show the ring around the Earth that was made in the original story.

The quality of animation has gone up for the production company in the OVA series in turn from the 90s one-shot, including some impressive CGI. The only down point is a majority of viewers might be put off by the Miss China segments if they haven't seen the original OVA. This also has a completely separate dub as it was released through Bandai instead of Animeigo, but the acting is still on an exceptional level. There is also lots more fanservice which is a bit of a detour from the prior family-friendlier outing.