CLXIV: "Dirty Pair"

I almost can't believe myself for not covering this before (and I thought I did, actually), but Dirty Pair is not as dirty as the title suggests. In fact, how that name even came to be is a bit humorous... mainly because of what they do.

The world of Dirty Pair is set in the future, between years 2138-2143, to be exact, and humanity has migrated across thousands of star systems in space. To serve the regulator role, the World Welfare Works Association, commonly referenced as WWWA or 3WA, assists the United Galactica Federation (UG) in handling conflicts of the planetary scale, for profit. Their means of assistance is sending agents from 3WA, who go by the titles trouble consultants. Consultants that solves crimes and mysteries are from the Criminal Investigations section, and our protagonists just happens to come  from this very section.

The titular duo consists of Trouble Consultant Team 234: Kei and Yuri, code named Lovely Angels. However, almost every mission they go on doesn't end up with "lovely" results. Though they succeed in their work, almost all of them end in disaster, which is there the title comes in: due to leaving destruction in their work, they are nicknamed the Dirty Pair, a name they resent very much. In addition, they also quarrel with each other from time to time, but they remain partners through the thick of it all.

The series is vast in a sense, spawning comics, manga, light novels and anime. The anime of Dirty Pair was made in the Sunrise studio, much like the Gundam metaseries. While dubbed by different companies such as ADV and Streamline Pictures, all works were licensed for US under Nozomi Entertainment, the product division formerly know as The Right Stuf International. The TV anime ran for 24 episodes, with the addition of 2 more episodes in the VHS release. An OVA, titled Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia, was made in 1985, with the film Dirty Pair: Project Eden done the following year. In the years 1988-1989, an OVA series was made, lasting 10 episodes. Succeeding this was the 1990 OVA Dirty Pair: Flight 005 Conspiracy. Lastly, in 1994, the final entry Dirty Pair Flash was made, featuring a different take on the characters and plot. The major changes involved the designs, outfits and behaviors of Kei and Yuri, for they quarreled much frequent in comparison to the original anime, aside from wearing new and separate attire. In the original versions, they wore basically the same type of uniform, only sporting different colors, and this outfit appeared in an episode of Dirty Pair Flash, worn by someone else in the flashback of the character Iris.

Starting from the same time as the first OVA series, an original English manga was made called The Dirty Pair, published for US under Eclipse Comics and Dark Horse Comics, and generally dealt with the same characters. Kei and Yuri went by different voices dub wise, as Kei's voices were done by Lara Cody under Streamline, and Pamela Lauer under ADV. Likewise, Yuri was done by Wendee Lee under Streamline, and originally by Jessica Cavello under ADV, with Allison Sumrall replacing her. The dubbing for Dirty Pair Flash was also ADV's doing, with Kim Seiver as Yuri, and Sue Uli as Kei.

Dirty Pair is an oldie, but I loved it more or less. Trying to find all of it in English, however, will be a chore. In general, I call it an 8 of 10, and stands as one of my favorites in anime.