ダーティペア (TV Anime) Episode 14 Review
Dirty Pair – 14

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

A skilled pro receives a request to remove all data regarding a certain individual. Meanwhile, Kei is watching a soap and annoyed that a presidential debate is interrupting. Going to bed, Kei is prevented from going to sleep when Yuri comes in with news that they weren’t paid all they should have been for the last job they did. Rushing to see Gooley, the girls have their complaints dismissed since they used the last assignment as an opportunity to party. That changes when a dead body turns up in the 3WA structure and the computer assigns Yuri and Kei to the case. Gooley then agrees to pay the girls extra.

Since one of the presidential candidates is coming to the 3WA facility to give a political speech, it is assumed that a professional is at work. Kei believes the target to be Guilder, the politician, but Yuri figures it must be Pandora’s Box, the vault that contains the entire 3WA archives which will be vulnerable due to scheduled maintenance. Since Kei has a 5000 credit gambling debt, she best Yuri 5000 credits on who’s right.

The girls start their investigation and learn that the dead security guard was seen working after his death, meaning the pro is skilled at disguises. They run into Gessy, whom they’d dealt with during the Algernon incident, who happens to be in charge of security for Pandora’s Box. Kei decides to leave this aspect of the investigation in Yuri’s hands and encounter’s Chan-san, the Chinese chef, who wants his money. She flees to the ladies locker room and Chan follows. The girls inside attack, causing him to accidentally knock down a locker where another dead body is found, this time of one of Pandora’s Box maintenance women.

Kei races to the Pandora’s Box area and runs into resistance from the security defenses. She makes it to the entrance as the workers are leaving the vault. Kei stops them, stating one of them is not whom they appear to be. One of the women at the back and Kei pursues the target back inside the vault as the main security goes online. The woman, who’s actually a man and the pro they were looking for, tells Kei they are in trouble and sure enough, the security system causes both to hallucinate.

Meanwhile, Yuri is stunned to hear that Gessy’s security has an independent computer system for Pandora’s Box which cannot readily be countermanded or shut down. This means Yuri will have to take it out the destructive way, which she eventually does. This allows Namo to disarm the bomb planted by the pro and for Kei to arrest the pro. It also means Yuri has won the bet. Yuri and Kei expose Guilder as a fraud who’d arranged to have his criminal past under a different name expunged. Work done, Yuri wants her money, but Chan-san showing up ends up having both Kei and Yuri on the run.

Thoughts/Review:

We have another sequel episode of sorts, this time tying back to episode 12 with both Gessy and Chan-san returning. While those specific characters weren’t required, having them return does add to a sense of continuity to the series and I like that.

There’s a higher comedy aspect to this episode, which I also liked. It wasn’t of a belly laugh nature, but it was still lighthearted and comedic. Again, Yuri and Kei use the capitalist system to their advantage and turn a negative into a payday, which made me chuckle. Chan-san’s return made me smile, especially after we learn Kei owes him money. Kei manipulating Yuri into a bet was amusing, even if I knew how that would go. To that end, I chucked at Yuri’s motivation to save Kei so that she could collect on the 5000 credits. ^_^

The writers played pretty loose with the pro’s ability to wear disguises. As such, we aren’t supposed to question how a man passes himself off so perfectly as another man and later a woman. Further, we aren’t to question just how in the world he got the voices down right and apparently all the right access codes as well. Obviously, I am questioning it, but at the same time, I understood that the writers wanted me to not worry about it, so I went with the flow. ^_^

The parody bit about some news flash interrupting Kei’s soap opera (and all other channels) initially reminded me of the scene in Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OVA 2, episode 11, when the girls are watching a soap opera that has a similar interruption. In both cases, the news flash was for something that could have waited until a scheduled news break or be done when the normal episode was over. That made me wonder if in the mid-90’s (and maybe even today), Japanese TV stations have a habit of interrupting regularly scheduled broadcasts for something trivial.

As an aside, I did love the movie tributes done, especially for Godzilla. ^_^

So, another fun romp from Kei and Yuri. ^_^ I’m so glad this has finally been licensed. ^_^