This is an entertaining remake of the original Dirty Pair anime from the 80’s. Dirty Pair is the story of two darling agents who both work for Worlds Works and Welfare Agency aka 3WA named Kei and Yuri. Now, a brief introduction.
Kei is the assertive gung ho member with bleached hair and a major attitude. She is often in conflict with Yuri and the series makes a lot of jokes along those lines.
Yuri is a bubbly peppy cheerleader type who comes across much more feminine then her impulsive fellow team member Kei.
However, when the two work together they manage to set aside all personality differences and kick ass as one unit.
The other major character in this Dirty Pair Flash OVA is Touma, the stereotypical computer geek who can solve major technical problems but can never find a date for the weekend.
I am a sucker for this setup, the lonely nerdy male who is surrounded by cute females that overpower him.
Dirty Pair Flash is set in the computer generated universe known as World’s World, a world designed to look and feel just like the 20th Century.
Kei and Yuri are in charge of protecting Touma as he tries to find a virus that is messing up World’s World.
First, this mid 90’s anime is off to a good start with a catchy opening song, Thrill ni Koishie (Loving Thrills) sung by Rica Matsumoto. Kei, Yuri, and Touma are introduced quickly and then the first story begins.
Episode 1: Tokyo Holiday Net Work is done in the style of a spy caper. However it was a hard episode for me to get into and I was wondering if I should continue on to Episode 2.
Episode 2: Seventeen Mystery School is a lot more engaging as Kei and Yuri are forced to go back to school and wear sailor school uniforms. Mysterious ghosts and spirits scare the girls as they attempt to deal with strange supernatural occurrences. It reminded me of the old legend of Hanako, the female ghost that appears in the bathroom and will kill you depending on if you pick blue or red paper. Blue is for death by hanging and red is for being stabbed. Kei is confronted by an all blue Hanakoesque spirit that she tries to kill by firing her gun that does no damage at all. This would have been a great episode except for the ending where everything about the supernatural was so neatly explained.
In Episode 3, Kei and Yuri chase a con man, Calbee, who takes advantage of women and runs off with everything they have. Plenty of great comedic moments in this one as Kei and Yuri try to bring Calbee to justice. Each night as Kei and Yuri get tired and sleep, Calbee escapes from his panty hose bondage. Each morning a pissed off Kei and Yuri successfully recapture him.
My overall favorite is when Touma meets Leena in Episode 4, when Yuri and Touma are both standing under the doorway of a flower shop to get out of the rain. The lovely Leena gives Touma and Kei both umbrellas and it is love at first sight for the romantically challenged Touma. Touma is the ultimate anime male character. He comes across as a geeky neutered guy who is forced to share an apartment when two strong willed women. He never tries to make a romantic move on either one. Touma sees his opportunity in the graceful and feminine Leena and his attempts at winning her over are really funny. There is a great scene with Touma talking to Leena about computer technology as Leena yawns and turns her hand to which Touma replies, “Am I boring you?” Duh!!!
I also enjoyed the scene where Touma asks Leena out on a date. He sits in front of his PC building a database for Tokyo dating places. Touma really needs to turn the computer off and interact with his fellow humans more.
Overall, Dirty Pair Flash is an entertaining sci fi romantic comedy with some action scenes. While the action scenes are light, what is there is good. My major complaint is that there is no continuity. Each episode is stand-alone and you don’t have to watch them in order. The only thing that holds the OVA together is the simple fact that the setting in World’s World is the same.
The ADV DVD contains all 5 episodes and an English dub and the original Japanese audio with minimum extras consisting of characters bio, a trailer, and a few sneak peaks at upcoming ADV titles.
Enjoy!!
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