Anime Meta-Review
Dirty Pair Flash
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Title Info
- seen: 1-5 of 5
- type: OAV
- grade: watchable
- made: 1994
- Review created: Recently, but I didn't record the date.
- mod: none
Another piece that suggests the need for a `cute girls with guns' genre? This series occurs after the TV series (and some other material?) and has done some fairly drastic re-design, which aroused the ire of many fans. Effectively the series follows Kei and Yuri as young girls and new recruits for the WWWA. In this sci-fi future the world is made up of many political and corporate groups. The WWWA is an interplanetary group that offers `trouble consultants' for those problems to big, or too dangerous, for regional forces to handle. Although why you would want (or WWWA would employ) people like Kei and Yuri remains a mystery. They specialise in accidental destruction, arguing and willful disobediance of orders. Perhaps the reason for their employment has something to do with their swimsuit like outfits? or possibly the fact that their boss see's great potential?
Although to the viewer this `potential' looks a lot more like luck or plot convenience. The number of times when realism would dictate their deaths is pretty large. The future world is interesting, and the plot is fairly good however. In addition there is a nemesis character (with a linked past) who is very cool indeed (and does have a reason to consider sparing them). Of course through all this politics, plotting and violence the dirty pair go on as if it is all a big theme park. The number of dumb moves, irritating discussions and obsessive behaviours simply builds up to the extent of annoyance. Their skills simply don't seem sufficient to let them get away with being so immature. Partly this is because their talent for accidental destruction is used for `humor', which ends up making them look a bit like buffoons. At about midway the atmosphere changes to something a bit more serious, and they seem to have worked out their problems, but by that time it may be too late for many viewers. It's not an unpleasant watch, but it's a bit loose in the writing and caught between its desire to do serious sci-fi while presenting cute, destructive girls.
Although I must say that the animation doesn't make them look very cute. The outfits and events are clearly meant to support fan service, but their strange character design and some leaden animation make this suprisingly ineffective. It might also be that the voice and dialogue contribute to this as well. The technical design work is fairly interesting, the `cyberworld' episode especially. The action is fine, trying to be humorous at the start but settling down to something more serious by the conclusion. There's also a fair amount of miscellaneous characters getting gunned down, so those who cannot tolerate violence should probably not bother.
Akemi's AnimeWorld has a good review (although it has an episode synopsis at the start) which gives clear evidence of having seen earlier material. They can see why fans might dislike the changes, and thing this is decent material by itself, but nothing too special. The review from the Anime Critic sounds similar, but is irritated by the character `surgery' required to generate these two, and is less impressed by the animation. I thought Lord Carnage might be harsh, but his review (at the bottom of the page) is fairly positive (although the rating is average) stating that the series is enjoyable, especially if "you like to watch kawaii girls cause mass destruction".
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:17 WST 2009