Dirty Pair no Ooshoubu: Nolandia no Nazo

The original Dirty Pair TV series made me a bit confused. It was rather... silly, I can't find another word to describe its overall mood. In some episodes the plot moves were strange, in others they were wierd, there were also some so-called "Big Lipped Alligator Moments" or BLAMs for short. And so it was in "Nolandia no Nazo". This anime is full of plot holes, strange plot twists, some wierd scenes are also present. Yeah, like this scene in the beginning with Kei and Yuri both nude and merging one into another (which makes me think about some sort of hidden message here, like thelesbian desire of Kei towards Yuri or vice versa) and the "tentacle rape" scene with Kei, which also obviously has sexual context in it. I know that I revealed some spoilers but, man, I think grandpa Freud would be glad to see this. So, to sum it up, the first half of "Nolandia no Nazo" is psychodelic. It really made me dizzy. Be warned. The art and animation in the movie are just the same as in the series. Nothing special to see here. And I presume, even in the 80s it was kinda mediocre. But, the main heroines are drawn quite good, so let's leave it as it is. The other charachters are bland and even don't have enough screen time to show their personalities at full. We have a generic villain who wants to rule the world, we have a generic villain's big tough guy, who is absolutely invincible and.... *yawn* For me, this movie looks kinda "crumpled". The events are flying fast toward the end, and with the aforementioned plot twists it makes me feel, that if it was quite longer, all things would be explained properly. This movie is not good at all, but not bad either. If you like old anime, you should give it a try.

This felt to me like a long, lower-budget, weak episode from the Dirty Pair TV series. Production values seem lower across the board. Art is much rougher, though there are a couple nice backgrounds. Musical numbers are okay, but generally forgettable. The main weakness is the writing. Very little is explained as to why anything is happening; with all the surreal sequences mixed in, it just feels like a bad trip. Like a couple of the weaker episodes from the series, it feels like the elements of the story are all there in a rough form, but loosely jumbled together, like the writers didn't getenough time to revise and refine their ideas. The pacing is very wacky; there are several moments where something serious or deeply disturbing happens, followed immediately by some light-hearted comedy, which just comes off as jarring. Character motivations are also often confusing. Instead of problem-solving, like they usually do, the Dirty Pair ("Lovely Angels!!") seem to spend this entire OVA simply running around, while (often rather unpleasant) things happen around or to them. All this, combined with a more serious tone that cuts into the characteristic lighthearted charm of the TV series, makes this OVA kind of a drag.

The Dirty Pair is a franchise I'm not super familiar with. I've talked about it before, all of once. This time around, I'm looking at an earlier instalment in the franchise. This one is actually older than me, it was released in late 1985. Let's take another look at this classic franchise. Story: We open with a young girl being told to use her power. This quickly results in a plane crash. Shortly after, our heroines are being sent to a planet with only a small habitable area to find a young girl. They find her missing and take to a perilous jungle filled with strangecreatures to find her. The biggest problem with the work is just that the narrative is pretty obvious. You can pretty easily figure out where it's going once you've gotten about eight minutes in. It's so obvious that they don't even bother showing you the investigation phase. Yuri and Kei just solve the whole thing off screen and skip to the final chase sequence. That being said, the part where they're going through the jungle trying to find Missnie is pretty interesting. I also do like the chase sequence. It's just kind of a cool sequence. Maybe not as good as the chase sequences of Due South, but it's still compelling. Characters: The characters work fine. The antagonists are just kind of standard evil for the evils types but the protagonists are kind of endearing. I also do like Missnie. Her story could have been a lot better extrapolated upon and wrapped up, but I do think she's a pretty sympathetic character. Art: The art uses that kind of standard style from the 80s. It looks good and it does hold up well but some people may consider it overly dated. I particularly like the strangeness of the jungle and the psychic shenanigans. There are a couple scenes that are overly fan-servicey though. Sound: The main actresses, Tonguu Kyouko and Shimazu Saeko, are both good at their roles. Han Keiko and Fujita Toshiko are also quite good. The acting is just competent or better all around. The music is fine. The issue I have with it is that it can be overly repetitive. Ho-yay: There's a little bit. Yuri and Kei don't really come across as being more than friends but there are a couple scenes that get a little gay. Areas of Improvement: 1. Better develop and conclude Missnie's story. Honestly, she gets about five minutes of time with the pair, gets captured and then we see her briefly afterwards. The OVA could have really benefited from giving her more screen time and better wrapping up her arc. 2. Make the story less obvious. We could have benefited from a story arc that was a bit more surprising and from seeing some investigation. 3. You don't need special fan service scenes. Here's the thing, the girls' outfits are basically battle swimsuits already. You don't need to add some extra fan-service scenes on top of that. Final Thoughts: Dirty Pair no Ooshoubu: Nolandia no Nazo isn't a bad anime. It's not particularly good either. It's decent enough. As such, I'm giving it the same score I gave Dirty Pair: Flash, a 6/10.

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