ダーティペア (OVA Anime)
Dirty Pair OVA Series DVD Collection 

–> Purchase from Amazon.com!

As I’ve said before, Dirty Pair is a franchise that I was introduced to when I lived in Japan, and the OVA series was how I was introduced to it.  Years later, when ADV had the OVA series as a 2-disc set, I purchased it, but was forced to sell it sometime later to pay medicals bills. (“Freeloader” my arse! — but I digress…)  So, when Nozomi licensed this series, naturally, I had to get it back into my collection.

For those unaware of the Dirty Pair franchise, the series revolves around two, 19-year old, female Trouble Consultants for the 3WA organization (Worlds Welfare Works Association) named Kei and Yuri. 3WA is a private, police corporation who get contracted to solve various interstellar crimes, or to just lend a hand where needed. Yuri and Kei’s official code name is “Lovely Angels,” but due to the highly destructive nature of the pair when solving cases, they have the detested nickname of “Dirty Pair.”  Further, the two are well known for their skimpy battle dress uniforms, which for the OVA series have them both in silver rather than Yuri in her traditional gold outfit.

The OVA series is much like the TV series, only with better art and animation.  The stories are fairly simplistic and by the numbers, especially by today’s standards.  There’s no doubt about this OVA series being created in the ’80s, especially with nods to movies like Terminator and Aliens.  However, there’s just an element of mindless fun, made in large party by the chemistry between Yuri and Kei, who are not only partners, but best friends as well. If you’d like to see my episode reviews (based off of the ADV release), they can be found somewhere in here.

On the Nozomi/RightStuf side of things, the series is spread over three DVDs rather than two like the ADV release. Obviously, Japanese honorifics aren’t going to survive the subtitles, which won’t matter to most of you, but it is something I wish were retained.  Since Dirty Pair has such a special place in my heart, this is a rare instance of my putting my dislike of the lack of honorifics aside in order to make the purchase.

The series is supposedly taken from the remastered, re-release in Japan.  Since I don’t have my original DVDs to make a visual comparison, I can’t say if there’s any real improvement or not.  It looked OK on my HDTV, but it didn’t have quite the clean look that I expected upon seeing the words “remastered.”  There are a few translator notes in the Liner Notes extra, but in my opinion, there could have been more.  The OP/ED themes are extras without the credit text (“clean”).  The only other extras are advertisements, so it is pretty much in line with previous Dirty Pair releases from Nozomi.

In the end, those who liked the original Dirty Pair TV series, or who like classic anime from the ’80s, you’ll like this part of the franchise as well.  For those who haven’t seen the TV series, it isn’t required since the episodes are episodic, and it is rather easy to discover who’s who and what’s what. As such, those people won’t have any troubles watching this, providing they enjoy a bit of mindless fun with a couple of anime babes and a lot of action. I’m glad to have the series back in my collection.