The Original Dirty Pair are called that because they are a couple of female government agents who leave a trail of destruction in their aftermath as they solve crimes committed by various groups and individuals throughout the Universe. They are deemed "original" by ADV because the characters were later revised (like those in the Tenchi Universe) and the company wanted to differentiate the thematic issues and characters of the two. The two, Yuri and Kei, are agents of the World Welfare Work Association (3WA) and are like intergalactic versions of James Bond. In Dirty Pair: Project Eden, the agents fought vast conspiracies, managing to blow up half the Universe along the way. This one was decidedly more limited in scope than that release but had a nostalgic flavor, for all its limitations.

The story this time started off with the pair investigating the disappearance of a little girl. While this appeared, on the surface at least, to be a matter for the local authorities, the team wasn't above helping on such a case. They trace the girl to a small planet that had a security director from hell. The team disregarded the ill-mannered director (as they always did) and continued their search, finding out a major space liner crash was somehow tied into the case. As they start to hallucinate themselves, they make some connections using in the case by means of telepathy (which was addressed in the Manga all the time but rarely in the OVA releases). Will they save the day, the girl, and themselves or will they end in a fiery crash, destroying themselves much like the trail of destruction they're known for?

Okay, this was a fairly weak release in the continuity of the Dirty Pair but it wasn't all that bad either. From the Terminator-style cyborg to the fantastical unicorns and mystery dreams, the writers tried to jam as much material as possible into the movie, perhaps hoping to succeed in video where they failed as a television show. In a sense, it worked as the Dirty Pair were revived on a regular basis to entertain the masses of anime fans that appreciated them more than the audience in Japan. The limitations of source material were slightly problematic but I still think this one was worth a rating of Recommended for historical purposes as much as the show itself.

Picture: The picture was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color, as originally produced. There were print scratches and color problems as well as grain and some video noise but considering this is as old as much of the current anime audience (or close to it), it looked pretty good. I didn't see any compression artifacts or defects specifically related to the DVD transfer but some of the above matters may well have been related to those issues.

Sound: The audio was presented with a choice of a 2.0 Dolby Digital English or the original Japanese track with English subtitles. I liked the dub a fair bit more than I would have thought but the original track was superior in terms of the feel of the show. There wasn't much separation between the channels and I wondered if the original release was in monaural but during the action sequences, some minor separation popped up.

Extras: There were some trailers and a paper insert listing the chapters and credits.

Final Thoughts: The movie was somewhat dated when it first came out but nostalgia prevails when rating such releases from our wayward youth. The story served as a springboard for the later volumes and that alone made it worth checking out. I'd have rather seen a couple of the OVA's released on each DVD but this strategy is one the major companies need to ease into. In short, this was an okay romp through yesteryear, give it a shot.