ダーティペア (TV Anime) Episode 16 Review
Dirty Pair – 16

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Kei is not interested in taking a job on her day off and neither is Yuri despite the fact that the powerful Yorozuya Concern is behind the request. However, when their boss mentions a meeting about bonuses, Kei and Yuri take off to Baham, where they find they are to act as body guards for the head of the company. They are surprised to find a young teenaged girl named YOROZUYA Sakurako is the company head and her request is to go into the city, which she’s never been allowed to see. After stopping in China Town and walking the streets, a group of motorcycle punks try to pick up the three girls until Kei kicks all of their butts. Continuing to take the naive Sakurako through China Town, she gives them the slip when she takes a bathroom break while Kei and Yuri wait and complain outside.

Reporting the loss of Sakurako, the company executives decide that Kei should pose as Sakurako for the time, since none of the expected visitors has seen Sakurako before, and that Yuri should hunt for the missing young woman. Kei is excited to play such a roll, but discovers that life at the top isn’t what its cracked up to be when a simple tea and cake snack is ruined from being checked thoroughly for poison. Further, she’s expected to put the official stamp on thousands of documents.

A rival company receives a report that Sakurako is wandering the streets and sends the assassin named “Panther” to take her out so that her meeting with the president of the planet at a big dinner party does not happen. Meanwhile, Yuri finds Sakurako, who attempts to give Yuri the slip. However, Yuri is a pro and soon catches the young lady. Yuri is impressed that Sakurako’s reason for wanting to see the city isn’t strictly about doing something she can’t normally do, but she wants to personally see the spot where her company is planning a major reconstruction project.

Panther makes his assassination attempt but just misses her when Sakurako moves at the last second. Yuri returns fire and retreats with Sakurako into a “total reality” arcade that allows the players to participate in simulated warfare against alien ships and monsters. Panther follows them in and the resulting exchange of fire causes some destruction of the place. With time running out, Yuri uses a grenade to make their escape from the building.

Meanwhile, Kei is taken to the presidential palace for the dinner party where the president is waiting. At the same time, Yuri encounters those biker thugs and gets them to assist her. Before the limo carrying Kei can arrive, the bikers cause a massive distraction, allowing Sakurako to get into the limo undetected and change. As the president is about to enter the dining hall, the rival company head thinks he has a victory until he sees Sakurako being escorted in by the president.

Kei and Yuri’s job complete, they return home where they see Sakurako being interviewed on TV. When asked what she would want to be if she were a normal girl, she answers she would want to be a 3WA agent. With that, she looks into the camera and says a big, cheery hello to the two who helped her without saying their names.

Thoughts/Review:

While lacking the humor of the previous episode, I found this one to be fairly enjoyable. I liked how Sakurako pulled one on Kei and Yuri, who were too busy complaining about how unfair life was that they worked ever so hard but weren’t rich while Sakurako was simply born into wealth. It just goes to show what happens when your eye isn’t on the ball.

At the same time, I loved how the writers took the time to show Kei that being mega rich and the head of a powerful conglomerate isn’t what its cracked up to be (at least, in this case). It is the “grass is always greener on the other side” mentality that too many people seem to have (and I’m not talking about simply fantasizing about winning the lottery either).

The other aspect I really liked is Yuri showing exactly why she’s a “pro” at her job. The scene of Sakurako fleeing from Yuri and causing the massive traffic accident is one where normally one would expect her to get away. Heck, I expected it because that’s the formula and thus Yuri would have to track her down and save her at the last second. However, having Yuri anticipate, adapt, and overcome that obstacle so that she actually intercepts the fleeing Sakurako was a real win in my book.

This leads me to the arcade. I used the term “total reality” because I didn’t want people to think of a traditional game arcade with either simulators or video game terminals. I don’t know if any of these games existed in the mid-80’s (possible, though not quite in the form shown in the episode), but the one I know of and SO wanted to take a trip to Great Britain to participate in was “Alien War,” based off of the Alien and Aliens movies, where for about 20-minutes, one gets to participate in a scenario where some Colonial Marines attempt to get your party to safety after the Aliens (Xenomorphs) escape the lab they are being studied in and start attacking. You can read a 1994 account of someone who participated here. Sadly, “Alien War” no longer exists today.  If it did, I’d sure love to participate and play it.

Regardless, that’s what I thought of and in some ways, I’m surprised there aren’t more such participation games. I suppose the costs are too high and thus normal people couldn’t afford to play (especially in today’s economy). It would have been great fun to have gone through that “Alien War” game though.

Well, I’ve rambled on enough I suppose. As I said, it was an enjoyable episode that made me think about something I wanted to do but never got a chance to. Onward to the next Dirty Pair episode. ^_^