Dirty Pair Flash

Original Title: ダーティペアFLASH
Romanized: Daatii Pea FLASH
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Kei and Yuri are a newly formed pair of WWWA Trouble Consultants, the famed galactic investigators who keep the peace across the galaxy by blowing a whole lot of stuff up. Neither of the two is too happy about the pairing--Yuri is busy trying to make it to a date and her new trigger-happy partner isn't helping a whole lot. When a man on the run from some unfriendly looking military types hands Kei a data card with some very important information on it, they're eventually going to have half the unsavory folks in the galaxy after them, and it's going to take a lot of luck, a lot of skill, and a lot of guns just to keep them alive, let alone solve the case.

Quick Review

Rating: 2.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-07-11

On its own, Dirty Pair Flash is a decent '90s-era action series. There's a healthy amount of action and collateral damage, the characters are interesting enough, and the stories, while unoriginal, don't seem hurried. As a series bearing the name Dirty Pair, however, Flash is a disappointment--it's been modernized and cleaned up, which effectively removes the B-movie charm that makes the original so much fun. On balance, it's an entertaining diversion, but forgettable.

If you're a fan of the original Dirty Pair, you may well be disappointed at this cleaner, less-sleazy, less-fun re-envisioning, but Dirty Pair Flash does manage to hold its own as a solid if generic light action series.

US DVD Review

The DVD compiles the entire series onto one hybrid disc, tossing in some art, character bios, and trailers by way of bonuses.

Content Guide

Though not even close to the sleaze level of the original Pair, this series has enough violence and skimpy outfits to warrant a 13-up.

Violence: 3 - Plenty of people getting shot.

Nudity: 1 - Kei never has anything that's not reasonably skimpy on.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - A drop of romance.

Language: 1 - A few mild expletives (ADV showed remarkable restraint).

Notes and Trivia

Dirty Pair Flash is (loosely) based on an old anime series which was in turn based on a series of Japanese-language novels; this Kei and Yuri are supposed to be descendants of the original Lovely Angels. More recently, Dark Horse Comics has produced a string of comic book miniseries with Adam Warren's modernized-yet-faithful take on the original Lovely Angels. These comics are loads of fun, and filled with more collateral damage than you can shake an inaccurate rocket launcher at.

Availability

Available in the US from ADV on one bilingual DVD. Was originally available on three subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes, all out of print now.

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