Original Dirty Pair

Production
Nippon TV, Sunrise
Country of origin
Japan
Format
OVA
Year
1985

Original Dirty Pair: Project Eden

By Stephen Lerch
21st May 04

Short Synopsis:
Kei and Yuri return for their first theatrical film.

It's a movie about 2 planets who both mine the mineral Vizorium that fuels space ships and the like. One planet is having an outbreak of aliens (that look similar to the alien from Alien) destroying it's mining/refining facilities. This planet suspects the other planet of disturbing their business, so the 3-W-A gets called in, and they send the Lovely Angels for the job. Their job is to investigate and discover the root cause of the attacks on the planet. In the process they meet a thief after a vintage WWII wine and a crazy scientist who is trying to create the last evolutionary step of a now dormant alien.

Video:
All I can really say is... wow. ADV really went out of their way cleaning this one up! Very few instances of dirt. If they used Edge Enhancement, I couldn't see it. The colors, while sometimes they seem to be a bit washed out, I think it has more to do with the source than ADVs remastering job. My only complaint is the hard coded English in the opening animation. It covers some of the animated bits (though ADV did appear to try to keep that at a minimum) and it also has the Japanese credits on screen, taking up even more space. I guess ADV has a thing for letting you know who created the show and there obviously was no creditless opening available for them to put the English on. At least they didn't blur the credits as they did with the final ep of RahXephon and with the opening of the second season of Saiyuki. The end credits are left unmolested.

Along the video lines, I must say, for a 1987 movie, the animation in this is simply astounding. I would dare say that this movie would give whatever movie Disney had animated for the time a BIG run for it's money. Silky smooth and exquisitely done. Sunrise did a tremendous job. It's shows like these, with the all cel animation, that really make me lament the rise of digital animation/digital painting. The amount of detail in one screen of this show blows some of the animation today out of the water.

Audio:
You have a choice of Japanese Stereo or English Stereo. I listened to the Japanese audio and there are no drop outs and no extraneous noise. No complaints, yet no major compliments either. Well done over all.

Extras:
In a word, nonexistant. There is a theatrical trailer for the movie, and in terms of the movie itself, that is all. Of course, I wasn't expecting much anyway, given this shows age (1987). There are ADV previews and that is all for extras.

Packaging:
Passable. Nothing great, but not horrible either. On the front is a picture of Yuri and Kei in their 3-W-A suits. The back has a good description of the movie and only a handful of screen shots. Interior insert is nothing spectacular.

Final Analysis:
This is a great show. Fun/exciting story. Well acted, exquisitely animated. This is a show for action fans who like to see things blow up, then see more things blow up, and more things blow up, and... you get the idea. Dirty Pair fans will likely not be disappointed, and even if you don't know the Dirty Pair, this movie still makes sense, so don't let that steer you away.

8/10

-- Stephen Lerch 21st May 04

Original Dirty Pair Images