Dirty Pair is probably one of the biggest and more successful “girls with guns” anime shows out there, featuring two iconic agents working for the 3WA (World Welfare Works Association): Yuri (long and blue hair) and Kei (redhead) who are trouble consultants dealing with planetary-scale issues (their missions deal with everything from finding missing people to defeating well-known criminals). The pair is known for leaving a path of destruction due to their messy way of working, that's why they are known as the “Dirty Pair” but they hate their nickname and prefer to be called the “Lovely Angels” which also fits them, kind of.
It all started with a series of light novels inspired by a couple of wrestling women and pulpy sci-fi and it soon developed into a well-known popular anime series.
The characters are a riot. Kei is described as the hot headed tomboy, often preferring to wear “masculine” clothes, she enjoys wrestling, action and it's slightly more aggressive than her partner. Yuri seems to be more refined and “feminine” but she is often kind of hot headed and just as aggressive when the time calls for it. The two are well trained agents who enjoy the company of good-looking men and a nice night of partying. A cute pair of gal pals who are fun to watch due to their funny interactions.
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| The tower building the protagonists live in. |
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| The Angels are woken up by the malfunctions. |
I will be frank. The first episode isn't a very good introduction. Unlike most shows, the opening chapter does not properly introduce the characters or their typical adventures. Since the show takes place in the future, it deals with the supercomputer known as BRIAN malfunctioning and causing a mess around the building the gals live in, so they embark on a journey inside their tower building to take care of the issues and disable the computer.
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| The Dirty Pair investigates. |
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| In the sight of the computer. |
This isn't a bad episode, but it feels like midseason filler instead of the episode you introduce the audience with. Personally, I would have selected the second one to start the show. A good first episode introduces the characters and shows us the typical type of plot we can expect from the series as a whole. It all should be conveyed naturally and clearly in the first chapter, even in an episodic show without much continuity.
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| The pair introduced themselves to the people. They werent thrilled. |
Instead, the characters are introduced with the cheap device that is the expository text on the screen. However, their interactions are as solid as ever and we can get a glimpse of their personalities without much effort since the character writing is almost always solid anyways.
There is an attempt at introducing them when the girls get into costume in public but it’s not really a proper introduction and it could have worked just as well at any other point in the series. I just wish this particularly offbeat episode wasn't the first one.
Don't get me wrong, it's a fun adventure. The defective computer puts the gals through a lot of challenging environments, we get to see the cool world the agents live in and there's a neat participation by the huge cat named Mughi, who is pretty adorable.
The animation it's great and the set pieces in this episode are inventive and well resolved. Not much in the way of combat or fights but the sci-fi concept shines throughout.
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