Taiho Shichauzo! Full Throttle Episode 14
逮捕しちゃうぞ フルスロットル Episode 14

SPOILER Summary: A woman with her Sheltie stand in the middle of the road at a crosswalk and makes no attempt to get out the way when a car approaches and strikes her. One of the people in the car get out to check on the woman, but they leave in a hurry. Meanwhile, Miyuki and Natsumi as well as other police are preparing for the costume parade to occur later in the day when they get the report of the accident. Checking it out, they are amazed that someone got out. At the scene, the animal control officer is having difficulties with the Sheltie but since it responds to Natsumi, he turns it over to her to get to the pound.

Natsumi decides to name the dog “Chibi-chan” and both consider it an important witness (kinda like Lassie, y’all). They get back to where the parade is going to be held and a driver is wanting to get through one of the closed roads. When Miyuki directs the driver elsewhere, he reports an abandoned vehicle. When Miyuki and Natsumi investigate, they discover the car was in a hit-and-run and suspect it is their car. However, when Tokuno-san arrives on a robbery investigation where the crooks faces are clearly seen as well as the escape vehicle, Miyuki suspects something is up.

Taking Chibi, Natsumi and Miyuki join the parade, feeling the crooks wanted the cops to be looking for them when the costume parade provides the perfect means of escape. No one seems to believe that the two of them are real cops, which causes some minor problems for the duo. Chibi-chan takes off after catching a scent but alas, he’s only interested in a female Sheltie. He then catches another scent and it is the robbers, one of whom he bites. Nakajima, Aoi-chan, and Yoriko help catch the other crooks with Natsumi nabbing the last one. Case solved, the dog and recovering owner are reunited.

Thoughts: Ugh. What a tedious episode. I remember that when this series came out, I was very excited to have more Miyuki-Natsumi-Nakajima goodness. Instead, the series has been a tedious exercise in “who cares” stories, such as this one. The episode is nothing more than a series of events strung together. There’s no real character chemistry or anything that made me enjoy the earlier series so much.

It is a shame they didn’t call the dog “Lassie.” Maybe the Japanese writers weren’t familiar with that famous collie, or felt the audience wouldn’t be. Regardless, it was amazing (in a tedious way) to see super-intelligent dog doing his thing. He should get a slot on the police force. I’m sure he’d be just as good as someone like Yoriko.

Next time (whenever that is) — more tediousness appears to be on the horizon.