In the far future, a newly formed pair of WWWA agents fight to bring down a crime syndicate with plans for galactic domination.

Episode 1:
Kei and Yuri, our two intrepid 3WA agents have just been paired up, and neither one's very happy about it. Yuri is doing her best to get a date (or keep one) and having a gun-happy sidekick isn't helping much. To further strain the new partnership, as soon as the two meet, a man being pursued by some unfriendly looking military types hands Kei a data card, and begs her to keep it away from them. Well, Kei obliges him, but the task isn't as easy as it sounds. A chase involving the Lovely Angels, some police, that group of (trigger happy) unfriendlies, and a big (but rather useless) robot the bad guys steal from some street punks erupts. As if things weren't bad enough, the fleeing duo run right into the middle of the bad part of town--the really bad part of town. Within 30 seconds of the pair's arrival, the locals have already made an attempt at enslaving them, and (needless to say) the chase is joined by yet more unfriendlies. If only the pair can make it to the 3WA headquarters in the middle of town (convenient, no?), they'll be safe. Easier said than done...

Episode 2:
Evidently, the pair made it, and they have been assigned to guard duty. That chip seems to be important, and the 3WA is trying to get someone who can find out what's on it. Well, Kei and Yuri don't do so well, and the assassin Flare, who seems to have some connection to the past members of the Lovely Angels, makes quick work of the pair's charge. Not to be taken lightly, the current Lovely Angels set out to avenge their failure. While waiting for their ship to get repaired by a local mechanic, the Lovely Angels get busy, but breaking into the bad guys' base does not prove easy. However, Kei and Yuri's determination is sure to pay off, and a confrontation with Flare will no doubt follow.

Episode 3:
Kei is dead set on tracking down the assassin Flare, and abandons her post guarding the scientist chasing after a lead. When it turns out that her lead is also being tracked by another security branch, Kei is reprimanded and sent back to the post. But, as is often the case, the bad guys attack just before she gets back, and Yuri fails to stop the assailant--none other than Flare. The scientist runs off, and after a through tongue lashing from partner and superiors, Kei quits the WWWA. As angry as ever, Yuri goes after Kei more interested in arresting her for her illegal weapon than to bring her back into the fold. Kei, meanwhile, has tracked down Flare and her boss on his ship, perpetually fighting the current of a whirlpool on a frozen planet. Kei, unfortunately, is not quite as prepared as she thought, and it's going to be up to Yuri to save her...or will she want to?

Episode 4:
The good scientist is, it seems, a bit of a neural simulation junkie (Dark Horse Comic fans are going to like that...), and he's cracked under the pressure of being on the run and fallen into a fantasy world that he won't leave. Yuri is being sent in to his world (which really is a fantasy world, complete with dragons, monsters, scared townsfolk, and himself as the tyrannical overlord) to pull him out, providing she can get out herself. Kei, meanwhile, has just gotten out of jail for her exploits in the previous installment, and is madder than ever. On the subway, she happens to spot some familiar (in the bad way) characters, and follows them to Snow White, the neural sim junkie part of town. Despite her lack of official status as a WWWA agent, Kei can't walk away from a fight, and it's not long before both the bad guys and the police are trying to kill her. Oblivious to these goings on, Yuri is having her own problems in the good doc's mind. His fantasy world is populated with a lot of town dwellers who all look just like him, and an abundant supply of monsters. Yuri does find one promising rumor--there is something in a tower in the woods that the overlord is afraid of. Yuri heads off to find whatever it is, but may well get killed in the process--and if she doesn't, there are plenty of well armed baddies in the real world, with nothing but Kei and a lot of incompetent police officers in their way. Look for a Freudian showdown between the doc and his id, with accusations of improper governing as the weapon of choice.

Review :

Dirty Pair Flash more or less lives up to the reputation of its predecessor. On the more side, the new Dirty Pair has lots of action, plenty of guns, a smattering of high-tech gadgets, the half-clothed Lovely Angels, and a healthy helping of collateral damage. On the less side, the new Pair isn't anywhere near as dirty as the old one. At first glance, this might seem like a good thing, but I kind of liked the sleazy, B-movie charm ("gee, shooting all those bad guys makes me feel like taking a bath in the middle of this abandoned military base...") of the original. Admittedly, the new version has a modern polish that the classic lacked (particularly the earlier movies), but the makeover went too far, in my opinion. The new Kei and Yuri aren't supposed to be the same pair, but they're barely even recognizable as the descendents they're supposed to be. Our Kei traded in her red mop for a two-toned coif that's mostly blond, and the formerly antagonistic relationship has turned into outright warfare. Frankly, if it weren't for the names, you probably wouldn't know that this was supposed to have anything to do with the original (even if you couldn't see them).

And aside from the new and "improved" Lovely Angels, there are some other things that seem to be missing. For one, the silly plots have been exchanged for equally unoriginal but far less fun ones. Instead of taking a classic B-movie plot and making light of it, Flash takes a classic anime plot and tries to take itself relatively seriously. For another, the action, although it is fast and furious, just isn't as much fun. Admittedly, I loved the madcap chase through town in the first episode, but most of the action was lacking that really over the top flair that made the original memorable. The gadgets are also there, but are generally less creative than in the old days (no card of death at the very least). And finally, though there is enough collateral damage to go around, there is nowhere near the utterly catastrophic, planet-scale destruction that gave the old Dirty Pair their name. Basically, Flash seems to be an attempt to make the Dirty Pair more modern and less sleazy, and it succeeded on that count. But, although it's still fun, it's now just another OAV series with one or more heroic but destructive women, even if it is a reasonably well done one, and just doesn't distinguish itself from the pack.

Standing it up on its own for the benefit of those who haven't seen the original (or didn't like it), Dirty Pair Flash is a fairly good OAV action series. As mentioned above, there is a healthy amount of action, the characters, even if not what they used to be, are interesting enough and have some slightly unusual chemistry (they really seem to hate each other), and the stories are unoriginal but don't seem hurried, even though the episodes aren't very long. Actually, it's a bit impressive that Dirty Pair Flash manages to cram so much action (and even a bit of story and character development) into such short sections without seeming hurried at all--I was a little surprised at how long the episodes seemed.

Visually, Dirty Pair Flash was well done, and stands above the average action OAV series in the crowd. The art was attractive, as were the character designs. Likewise, the animation was smooth, and the action was fast, clean, and had plenty of punch. Also of note are the settings; there were a couple of imaginative settings for fights (most noteworthy being the icy cruse ship), and there was some fairly nice background art to go with them.

I've only seen the dub, but the acting there was pretty good, although not worth particular note. Most noteworthy was some impressive yelling by the actress who plays Kei and a few decent performances in minor roles. The music was also above average, with a catchy song or two on the soundtrack.

To sum up, if you're a fan of the original Dirty Pair, you may well be disappointed at their makeover, but Dirty Pair Flash manages to hold its own as an OAV series, though it doesn't really stand out much.

For those who don't know, Dirty Pair Flash is (loosely) based on an old movie and OAV series; this Kei and Yuri are supposed to be decendants of the original Lovely Angels. More recently, Dark Horse Comics has been producing a string of comic book miniseries with their own take on the Lovely Angels (based much more closely on the original); these comics, though drawn Japanese style, are wholly made in America, but are loads of fun, and filled with more collateral damage than you can shake an innacurate rocket launcher at.

Rates :

- 2.5- A bit above average for the action OAV crowd, but nothing special.

Genre :

Sci-Fi Action (Action)

In It :

Gunfights
Fistfights
Swordfights (lots in the 4th episode)
Mass Destruction (some, but pales in comparison to the old Pair)
Beasties (again, plenty in the 4th episode)
Fantasy (4th episode yet again)
Super Technology (some)
Space Ships (a few)
Chases (almost the entire 1st episode)

Break Down :

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

Violence:
3--Plenty of people getting shot.

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

Sex:
0--A drop of romance.

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

Availability :

Translated by A.D. Vision. Subtitled and Dubbed VHS, 4 volumes.

AnimeNation and RightStuf probably both have this video if you want to buy it.

Cast :

No Info. Provided

Crew :

No Info. Provided