Dirty Good Fun

by Bolt Vanderhuge

This Lovely Pair Really Delivers

You know how “classic” doesn’t always equal “good”? As it turns out, Dirty Pair actually manages to be both. Just in case you’ve never heard of this classic ’80s anime, Dirty Pair follows Kei and Yuri, two “trouble consultants” who work for the World Welfare Works Association, or 3WA for short. Their official team name is Lovely Angels, but as the title informs us, they’re better known by another name, much to their annoyance. This is essentially a buddy cop show, except this one is set in the 22nd century, with humanity having colonized much of the galaxy.

Kei and Yuri provide most of the fan service for the show, but fortunately they’re actually shown to be very capable and intelligent, with the fan service being their mostly for fun. Unfortunately for them and basically everyone else, they tend to overdo things, resulting in plenty of collateral damage, which is why they’re known as the Dirty Pair. As you might guess, this series doesn’t take itself even remotely seriously, making fun of itself along with all the other sci-fi and action schlock that the writers obviously loved. There are also plenty of references to other shows thrown in for fun, whether it’s the Starship Enterprise, Godzilla (sort of), or even Indiana Jones. Between that and the way Kei and Yuri often bicker with each other, usually in shallow ways about their looks and their sexual activities or preferences, I’m actually reminded a lot of Panty & Stocking, and I’m sure Dirty Pair is actually referenced in it.

Occasionally the humor misses, like how someone apparently thought blowing up an entire planet was funny, but for the most part Dirty Pair is to sci-fi what Black Lagoon is to the action genre. There’s no overall plot or character arcs, so really it’s just a fun show you can kick back and enjoy, both for its genuine humor, and for the ’80s cheese. So what if it’s dated – that’s part of the fun! The only real drawback is that this series never got a dub, which is good in some ways because ’80s and ’90s dubs mostly sucked. But it’s also likely that in spite of recently being recently re-released, it will never get a dub, because too many of you Millennial fuckers won’t even give anything made before Evangelion a chance (yeah, you know who you are).

So if you’re a sci-fi fan and you’re willing to give this show a chance, at least watch the first episode of it, because it’ll pretty much let you know what you’re in for. I can definitely say that I enjoyed the hell out of this series. Not only did it have humor that actually managed to be funny, but Kei is a tomboy with short red hair, and that’s always a plus in my book. As a word of warning though, stick to the original 26 episode series, because the movies and various other spinoffs are at best boring and at worst just plain suck.

Fuck Yeah! Look it up:

Dirty Pair
based on the manga by Haruka Takachiho and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Produced by Sunrise, Licenced by Nozomi

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