Rating: ***
Review Date: 3/8/11
Contains 26 episodes
It only took 25 years for the original "Dirty Pair" TV series to get released in America, and I applaud the good people at Right Stuf for finally making it happen. My DP collection is now complete! The series follows a couple of trouble consultants for the WWWA known as "The Lovely Angels," although their reputation for violence and excessive collateral damage has earned them the unflattering nickname, "The Dirty Pair." Kei is a hot tempered red-head, while Yuri is softer and more demure. They're both young, attractive, and athletic, and vaguely resemble female wrestlers. Their official WWWA uniforms are laughably skimpy, and add a delightfully tacky cheesecake appeal to the series. The TV series uniform features open collars, while the OAV series features the more racy peek-a-boo version. Every episode features Kei and Yuri being assigned to investigate and resolve an incident, which usually ends with explosive destruction and a high body count in their wake. Kei and Yuri are delightful characters and a female action lover's dream team. They're young, strong, smart, beautiful, highly skilled, and don't take shit from anyone. Those who cross them are in for a world of hurt. The character design is wonderful and evokes a strong sense of 80's nostalgia. It's also nice to see that Kei and Yuri have much more realistic body proportions than what's popular these days. The animation is decent and pretty standard for mid-80's fare. Most of the episodes are fairly light-hearted and favor situation comedy over action, but a handful are quite good and feature some excellent science fiction and mystery elements. Definitely a treat for fans of classic anime and girls with guns.