Taiho Shichauzo! Full Throttle Ep. 01

SPOILER Summary:

Miyuki leaves America and flies back to Japan with a young boy named Randy, who’s apparently lead a pretty sheltered life (he’s 12 and never played a video game). He tells Miyuki that his grandfather and mother are Japanese and that he wants to meet a real samurai in Japan to learn how to become strong. As they fly back, Miyuki re-reads a letter from Natsumi, which gives a quick recount of how all the major characters are, including the transfer of Saori-chan.

Back in Japan, Natsumi has been training with the Japan Self-Defense Forces Rangers . Sh says goodbye to her army buddies and one of them agrees to drive her home in a military truck. At the Bokuto Police Station, Ken has agreed to take another motorcycle cop’s patrol duties so he can be with his wife. It is then that he remembers that Miyuki is arriving from America and that Natsumi is returning from her special training. Fortunately for him, Kachou (the department chief) hands him his patrol route, which is to drive to the airport where he can meet Miyuki.

Upon landing in Japan, Miyuki notices that Randy is sitting alone waiting. She goes to talk with him again when a big man approaches, stating that he’s been waiting for the boy. He takes the boy and walks off, but when Randy asks for Miyuki’s help, she uses an otaku’s suitcase of manga to separate the man from the boy and flee. She then steals a van and takes off, which is witnessed by Ken. The man gets in to a dark car, the mark of the yakuza, and he and the driver pursue. Ken follows them on his bike. Upon learning that Randy’s last name is Hammond, she realizes he’s now an orphan, his rich father and mother having died recently and somewhat mysteriously.

The big yakuza decides to shake the chasing police by shooting at one of the patrol cars, leading it to crash into a second and leaving only Ken to chase. Meanwhile, Natsumi, who’s been eating lunch with her army buddy, sees the chase on TV and recognizes the driving style as that of Miyuki’s. Conveniently, the military truck as a military motorcycle in the back, so Natsumi is off to catch Miyuki. Back on the highway, Miyuki uses her skills at driving to attempt to elude the yakuza, but they manage to stay on her tail, though sadly, Ken gets left behind.

Yoriko takes a call from Ken and Kachou has the department set up road blocks as he realizes that Miyuki is going to head to the station. Indeed, Miyuki tells Randy that they are going to her castle. Natsumi manages to catch them and kicks the big yakuza as he attempts to shoot at the van. She then performs an unlikely stunt to land her inside the van (the back hatch conveniently having opened earlier) and to tease her old partner about being under arrest. She closes the back hatch and as they approach the station, Natsumi performs her old foot-braking maneuver while Miyuki performs a stunt turn. The yakuza can’t match this and end up wrecking. Sadly, so did Miyuki, but she, Natsumi, and Randy are fine.

Thoughts:

And so, we have the start of the 4th TV series for the You’re Under Arrest franchise. Yeah, I know. Some of you are going, “Wait! I thought this was season 3. How can you say this is the 4th TV series?” When people use the term “season” (which I suppose it is, but when you rename a title, it becomes more than just a “season” as I see it), they tend to ignore You’re Under Arrest! Specials, which were mostly 5-minute shorts, but did have one full-length episode that AnimEigo licensed (ADV licensed the shorts).

Anyway, I love YUA even though I’ll admit it isn’t what I’d call anything great. What made it special for me were the characters, brought to life by the excellent job of the seiyuu. So I was really glad to hear that all of the seiyuu came back for this newest YUA attempt. I really hope that this time, the writers will give us some progress on the Ken-Miyuki romance front though. Seriously, they can’t have me dragging again after the first OVA, the first TV series, the movie, the TV specials, YUA2, and now YUA3 (the in America OVA doesn’t really fit into the canon of the other titles so I don’t count it as such). I suspect that it will get dragged out though.

As to this episode, well, there’s not much to say really. The episode was called a “prologue” in the title and the preview for episode 2 certainly will pick up where episode 1 left off. Now, are the writers planning a serial series? That could be most interesting. Too bad the Ken-Miyuki reunion didn’t happen yet. And it looks like Saori-chan was written out of this series since she transfered to another station. Too bad. I hope we at least get one episode with her in it.

And what the smeg is up with the ED? Seriously, they make it look like Miyuki and Natsumi are in a freaking yuri relationship when nothing further could be from the truth. Sheeze. That really pissed me off. It was as if some perverted doujinshi artists was given permission to draw the images for the ED sequence. Leave the yuri crap for the hentai doujinshi. Ugh.