How many buildings can we blow up in one episode? A review of “Dirty Pair”
About a week or so ago I stumbled on the Tumblr blog “Yuri Looking Pissed.” I was about to scroll right on by, but this caught my attention:
And that’s the end of Yuri Looking Pissed! What started out as me making a joke on Twitter turned into a way for me to share my love of Dirty Pair, as well as an excuse for me to share goofy screenshots.
The way it was written reminded me a lot of Josei Next Door’s Sailor Moon recaps, so obviously the next question was: what’s “Dirty Pair”?
As it turns out, “Dirty Pair” is an ’80s-era anime about two women, Kei and Yuri (aha!) who work as intergalactic special ops police officers for an organization called WWWA or 3WA. The show, in case you couldn’t tell, is set back in the future — specifically, the 22nd century. Kei and Yuri’s code name is Lovely Angels, but they’re constantly referred to as Dirty Pair because of the trail of destruction they tend to leave in their crime-fighting wake. Kei is particularly trigger-happy and fully believes that the best way to get things done is to shoot at people relentlessly until they obey. Yuri is not much better, but she’s armed with a light-saber style sword instead of a gun (in the 2000s remake), so that tends to limit the amount of damage she can wreak.
The show didn’t get a lot of traction in its day, so the series is quite short. The original “Dirty Pair” is only 24 episodes long I believe, and “Dirty Pair Flash,” its ’00s-reboot cousin, is a series of three seasons each with only five or six episodes.
I started out watching “Dirty Pair Flash” — and the dub, nonetheless, so I’m fully prepared to be crucified by internet fandom hordes. But hear me out for a second. I decided to watch “Flash” because it was such a low time commitment, and I wasn’t sure if I would even like the show. When I finished the first season, I went back to watch the original…and didn’t like it as much. I found that “Flash’s” short seasons meant that you got dropped into the action right away, and the storyline in general was tighter and more fast-paced than that of the original.
Also, I’m not sure I can get behind this style. The phrase “’80s-tastic” comes to mind:
Questionable fashion and style choices aside, I really like the show. It’s like a cross between “Thunder Jet” and “Star Wars” but with awesome girls who work for the galaxy authorities as opposed to against.
Of course, that might be part of the problem. There is certainly a “fighting the man” component to a lot of popular television shows that resonate with a target audience of tweens and teens, who often see themselves as victims of the powers that be, i.e. parents, teachers, librarians, crossing guards, driving instructors, etc.
I eventually went back to watch the original version, and I definitely believe that the show suffers from a lack of a coherent narrative. It’s essentially a separate story each time, loosely tied together by the 3WA crime-fighting premise — a kind of “monster of the week” style show in the same vein as most of “Sailor Moon” or “Card Captor Sakura.” But the show doesn’t have the advantage of the popular “magical girl” genre, given that neither Kei nor Yuri are magical, nor do either of them display the qualities of “femininity” that young girls are socially conditioned to aspire to. In “Flash,” Yuri is incredibly whiny and annoying; Kei would probably just straight up murder you if you said the wrong thing to her. In the original, both are obsessed with shopping and dating while at the same time being almost unconscionably aggressive.
Personally, I’m down with it. For one thing, both are good at their jobs (mostly), and as an adult I have come to appreciate that sometimes, whininess and aggression get things done. But I don’t know that 12-year-old me would feel the same, and I don’t think most teeny-boppers would feel that way either.
Magical girls also have the advantage of visually appealing and fantasy inducing transformations. In cases where they don’t, they exude a sense of elegance and beauty that falls much more easily into those traditional paradigms of femininity and womanhood.
Kei and Yuri are not dressed to fit that paradigm. Their uniforms (I use this word very, very loosely) are what many would call provocative — “Flash” particularly does not shy away from cartoon nudity — and one gets the sense that they’re designed to appeal to a male gaze.
If you look at the Sailor Scouts’ costumes, they’re not necessarily any more modest, and there is arguably quite a bit of suggested nudity in the transformation sequences. However, the design — skirts, bows, an emphasis on nail polish and gloves and nice shoes — gives the viewer a sense that this is targeted to girls and their sensibilities and preferences.
(It may be worth noting at this point that the creator of “Dirty Pair,” Haruka Takachiho, and the illustrator, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko are both men. Naoko Takeuchi, writer and illustrator of “Sailor Moon,” is female).
Now, there’s no reason why this show shouldn’t be targeted towards boys. Unfortunately, boys tend not to consume media where females are the main characters. Fun fact: J.K. Rowling’s publisher insisted that they use her initials on the “Harry Potter” covers instead of her name because they were concerned that boys wouldn’t buy a book written by a woman.
Why this is the case is an issue beyond this particular post’s ability to tackle (but stay tuned!). The point is this: you may not have heard of “Dirty Pair” before. You may not have found it interesting or engaging as a child. Watch it now. It’s good.
And let me know which you like better, “Flash” or the original!
Originally published at creativequibble.com on August 4, 2017.
