The Great Adventure Of The Dirty Pair (Novel 01)

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Summary/Synopsis:

The first story, entitled “The Great Adventure of the Dirty Pair,” introduces us to Yuri and Kei, who work for WWWA (3WA) as Trouble Consultants code named “Lovely Angels,” but unofficially known as “Dirty Pair” for the death and destruction they tend to leave in their wake. This case as the duo sent to the planet Dangle and the Gravas Heavy Industries facility. One of the labs has been destroyed and while the police don’t find anything suspicious in the accident, which also killed a scientist, the head of Gravas does. Yuri and Kei soon discover he is very correct as they uncover a sinister plot.

The second story, entitled “The Case of the Backwoods Murder,” has Kei and Yuri sent to the gambling resort planet of Lamier. After getting involved in a fight where Yuri is reunited with her old childhood friends Thunder and Lucha, Kei and Yuri get to work on the case of mysterious dead man who’s washed ashore. While on the surface, nothing seems suspicious, the fact that the man came to this planet and didn’t gamble (which is something everyone who comes to the planet does) seems suspicious. When terrorists attacks on other planets gets tied into the case of the mysteriously murdered man and Yuri’s old friends, things turn very sinister with the stakes being the group known as Lucifer, having weapons of mass destruction that could destroy Lamier and other planets as well.

Thoughts/Review: It took me a long time to complete this book, mostly because reading it was rather tedious to me. I don’t know how much the adapters are to blame (I understand that Japanese novels must be domesticated in rid them of evil Japanese influences, especially when the title is a sci-fi or fantasy one). Even if they heavily domesticated the adaptation, I think that Takachiho-sensei’s story is just not that good. The first story felt like reading an episode of Dirty Pair rather than watch it. The anime has never been anything special, but visually, it has enough eye candy, likable characters, and just enough story to keep me interested. The novel lacks the eye candy and so reading it was an exercise of going through the motions.

The final chapter of this story is an aftermath one, but a tedious one. Kei gets drunk while Yuri nurses a drink at a bar, which ends up in a fight breaking out. Blah, blah, blah. I didn’t care.

The second story was only marginally better, but has a might too many convenient happenstances to link all elements introduced in the story together. Because Takachiho-sensei keeps introducing new elements, the story lacks focus. It starts out as a murder-mystery, then it’s an adventure in staying alive, then terrorist group Lucifer comes into play, and periodically, there are Yuri’s old friends.

One of the more annoying elements to the second story was Kei’s longing to ride Thunder. OK, it wasn’t done in that vulgar a manner, but because the story is told from Kei’s perspective, we are subjected to constantly seeing her thoughts and while Thunder is saying something to push the story forward, Kei is worried about whether she can get his attention as a woman when Yuri has an advantage over her. Very, very annoying.

There were some items of interest though. I remember the first time I saw Dirty Pair (the first OVA episode, IIRC), I laughed at how Yuri and Kei wore their skimpy outfits into combat while the men all wore armored body suits (mecha). Robert explained that Yuri and Kei had transparent armor (or the like) covering their skin. I figured this was just some stupid fan explanation, but scarily, that bit of information came from Takachiho-sensei himself. Nice to know that in the distant future, attractive, young women can wear next to nothing and be protected with a transparent body-suit that’s tight against their skin while everyone else has to wear actual clothing.

Another interesting element were Yuri and Kei’s weak gun-weapons. Kei often used a Heat Gun, which just makes things hot. Yuri had a laser weapon, but she had something that I don’t remember seeing in the anime (it may have been used, but not enough for me to remember) — the Bloody Card. That’s a card-sized weapon that slices when thrown and is controlled remotely. Something that bloody wouldn’t be shown on TV, so that likely explains why I don’t remember seeing it.

Finally, there was the fact that Yuri and Kei are partners because when they get worked up over something, they can join hands and be clairvoyant. I found that kind of interesting.

Ultimately, because it was such a struggle for me to read this first novel, I don’t have a desire to even attempt to read the second novel, which Dark Horse has published. If Dark Horse had thoughts of enticing people beyond fans of the original anime to buy these novels, I don’t think they can succeed. No matter how much domesticating they do to try to make the stories appeal to an American audience, based on the first novel, there’s nothing really there to appeal to a bigger audience. In fact, I’m surprised these novels managed to not only spawn a TV series, but an OVA series, movies, and the THREE additional OVA series with a different Yuri and Kei in them (set in a different universe if you will).

All in all, a disappointment to be sure.