The Movies:
The original Dirty Pair TV series was a fairly big hit in the
early days of anime. Though they might not have been the first, Yuri
and Kei soon became the poster children for the girls-with-guns genre,
and their success allowed for other similar shows to come over to the US.
Now ADV has collected the girl's theatrical movie and two OVA features
all in one nice boxed set. Billed as the Original Dirty Pair Movie
Collection, these three features are a mixed bag, but still enjoyable
for those who like old school anime.
When there's trouble that the local police on a world can't handle,
they contact the World Welfare Works Association, or WWWA for short. Yuri
and Kei are a pair of Trouble Consultants for the WWWA, and the best they
have. Their code-name is the Lovely Angels, but they are more well
known throughout the universe by their nickname, the Dirty Pair, a handle
they earned by the huge amount of collateral damage that seems to follow
them where ever they go. (Even though this destruction is never their
fault!) This trio of movies have the pair fighting crime all across
the universe, and wreaking havoc on all the planets that they land on.
ADV packaged these movies in a rather odd fashion. Each film is
numbered on its case, but the films are presented out of order, with the
earliest one presented last. The movies in this collection are:
Project EDEN (1987):
This is the Dirty Pair's first, and only, theatrically released film.
Clocking in at ninety minutes, it's much longer than the other two films,
which are both less than an hour.
Kei and Yuri have their hands full when they travel to Agerna.
This planet is a rich source of Vizorium, a mineral that is necessary for
space flight, and there have been a series of attacks on the Vizorium mines
there. With the help of a local thief named Carson D. Carson, the
Lovely Angels track the troubles back to a mad scientist, Doctor Wattsman.
He's been playing with the genetic code of the an alien race so that they
may evolve to the next level, but his failed attempts create the monsters
that have been attacking the mines. Can the two agents stop the mad
man before he starts a war?
This movie was just so-so. They really tried to make a James Bond
type of movie, but it was a bit too muddled and confusing. The plot
was pretty much a mess (did I mention the search for a vintage bottle of
wine) and the supporting characters were more interesting than the Dirty
Pair themselves. Having said that, there was some fun moments and
a good amount of destruction. If you don't worry about the details,
this is a fun show.
Flight 005 Conspiracy (1990):
This was the last time the Dirty Pair appeared in their original form,
and this movie pretty much buries the franchise.
This time around, The Lovely Angels have to tackle a pair of assignments
at the same time. They have to find a missing scientist and his daughter,
and also to figure out what's going on with a space liner that exploded.
There were 700 people on board, but no one has come forward to claim the
insurance money for any of them. Things get stranger when Kei and
Yuri discover that the passenger list is missing, but when someone tries
to blow them up while investigating, they know that they're on the right
track.
This isn't a very good film at all. There is less humor than the
other series, and the dialog is really stilted. The whole pace of
the film seems wrong, with scenes even playing out to the wrong tempo.
In one scene for example, a bartender pulls a gun, aims it at Yuri, stands
there while everyone ducks for cover, thinks about shooting, and then finally
gets nailed by Kei. Everything just happened too slowly and it made
the scene seem ludicrous. The same can be said of the rest of the
film.
This also wasn't as creative as the other stories. The ending
was easy to predict half way through the film, and this feature was missing
the charm that the other movies had. This was the swan song for the
original Dirty Pair, and after watching it I'm surprised that Dirty Pair
Flash was made.
Affair of Nolandia (1985):
The Dirty Pair head to the planet of Nolandia searching for a missing
girl, Missinie, while also investigating the crash of a shuttle under mysterious
circumstances. When their only lead turns up dead, and the Head of
Security wants them off the planet, the girls play a hunch and head to
the only habitable land besides the capital city: a mysterious forest that
is even stranger than they could have imagined. Throw in a killer
robot and a psychic girl and you've got a classic adventure with lots of
destruction and mayhem.
This was my favorite film out of the three. It's a lot of fun.
The mystery is perplexing, and there's a good amount of science fiction
elements throughout the story. I even thought that Yuri's explanation
of levorotatory and dextrorotatory molecules was pretty good. The
dream within a dream sequence in the middle grew a little old, but the
chase scene at the end was enjoyable.
One thing to note about all of these shows is that they are old school
animation. There's no CGI work, and they have the tendency to repeat
sequences and movements in order to cut costs. The backgrounds aren't
as detailed as those in today's anime shows are, and the movements aren't
nearly as fluid.
The DVD:
These three movies come in a trio of clear thinpak cases which are housed
in a thick board slipcase.
Audio:
These films come with the choice of the original Japanese soundtrack,
or an Englsih dub, both in stereo. I preferred the original Japanese
language over the dub by a good margin, and screened these three films
with that track. The English voices sounded flat and emotionless
for the most part, and the Japanese voices seemed to fit the characters
better. In any case, both tracks were clean and sounded fine.
There wasn't any hiss or background noise, and though there wasn't much
dynamic range, the sound effects were adequate for an old show.
Video:
All three features are presented in their OAR, full frame for the
last two in the collection, but Project EDEN has an anamorphically
enhanced widescreen picture. These movies were starting to show their
age a bit. There was a good amount of digital noise throughout all
three discs, and lines were a little on the soft side. The colors
were just a tad on the dull side, and the image was a bit dark too.
On the digital side, fine lines in the background tended to shimmer a little.
Extras:
Unfortunately, there are no extras on these discs.
Final Thoughts:
This was a mixed bag. Though Affair of Nolandia was very
good, Project EDEN was just okay, and Flight 005 Conspiracy...well,
it sucked. The price is certainly right. Originally retailing
for $20 each, this set of three has a MSRP of only $25. Quite a savings.
If you're a fan of the series, either Flash or the original one, this is
a no brainer. If you haven't seen the show before, I'd still recommend
it, though be sure not to watch Flight 005 Conspiracy first.
Buy: