OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *801 T.T.S. Airbats

Shimizu Toshimitsu created a limited manga series in 1991 about military and fan service that was turned into an OVA series in 1994. 801 T.T.S. Airbats was put together by Studio Fantasia that fits into their catalog of other OVA staples of the 90's like Sailor Victory and Project A-Ko. The 7-episode series got a U.S. release from ADV Films first on dubbed and subtitled VHS, then on DVD, although its currently not on streaming or available on Blu-ray. It caters to fans of anime love triangles and characters with insane personality quirks.

Isurugi is a mechanic for the Japanese air force that gets assigned to the training squadron labeled "Airbats", which is later revealed to be an aerobatics team made entirely of female pilots. The two main pilots are the even-tempered Haneda and the feisty Mitaka who are constantly trying to outdo the other, both of which become romantically attached to Isurugi. The rest of the team includes the buff Captain Konishi who never takes his sunglasses off, the gambling second officer Sakura, and the flaky pink-haired Yoko who is their bumbling backup pilot whose main job is to whine and hold onto the team's standard anime mascot, a small daytime bat called Chi-Chan. The first story arc has Isurigu trying to keep the team working together long enough to pass their latest inspection so they can remain as an active squadron, then the rest of the episodes are a series of standard one-shot stories where the crew either goes to a haunted resort, get involved in an eating contest, or an entire episode flashbacking to Konishi and Sakura's unresolved relationship.

Airbats is a conventional 90's anime with characters getting riled up at the drop of a hat, and trying to make a simplistic plot which gets dragged out into aimless installments. You would think this would be entertaining for the rare niche of military otaku, but most of the focus is on the regular anime cliches you would see in other OVAs of the time like Nuku Nuku or Aika. If this title gets a rescue from somewhere like Discotek, you might want to give a quick watch, but it isn't worth the hundreds of bucks it would cost for a used DVD on Amazon.