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Kei and Yuri are the "Lovely Angels," Trouble Consultants for the World's Welfare Work Association (3WA), a federal police force that serves the United Galactica government. Wearing skintight spacesuits that happen to be almost completely transparent (thereby looking just like bikinis) and accompanied by their "pet" ursoid Mughi and R2D2 clone Nammo, the girls are sent on missions that often end in massive explosions and collateral damage, resulting in the unkind nickname of the "Dirty Pair."
At the time they first appeared onscreen in the anime adaptation of Haruka Takachiho's Crusher Joe, the Dirty Pair had already featured in two novels of their own, including The Great Adventures of DP, which won the Seiun (Japanese Nebula) Award. The year after their anime debut, the characters won another Seiun for the book DP Strike Back. They were named for one of the author's favorite female wrestling teams, the Beauty Pair, while the 3WA is a reference to the World Women's Wrestling Association. The real-life Beauty Pair inspired many imitators in the wrestling field, including the Black Pair, Golden Pair, and Queen Angels-a roster that influenced several other series, including Maris the Chojo and Metal Fighter Miku.
Designer Dokite adapted Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's illustrations from the original novels, the third of which was timed to come out simultaneously with the debut show. Though the series was canceled early after 24 episodes, the last two parts were immediately rushed out onto video in 1985 as DP: From Lovely Angels With Love. The franchise stayed on video with DP: Affair on Nolandia (1985), directed by Okuwaki and written by Patlabor's Ito, in which the girls are sent to an arboreal planet where they must stop an illegal genetic experiment. Nolandia is notable for being the only occasion in the entire anime adventures that alludes to Kei and Yuri's telepathic abilities, a major feature of the novels.
The 1987 DP movie, known in the U.S. as DP: Project Eden, pastiched Frank Herbert's Dune by revealing that warp travel is impossible without the rare metal vizorium. Sent to planet Agerna to stop two rival nations from destroying each other in a war over the element, the girls meet Professor Wattsman, a scientist intent on using vizorium to bring forth a powerful new life form. The same year saw the publication The Great Adventures of DP in English, but the duo's greatest impact on the U.S. market came in 1988 with the publication of the first of many American DP comics produced by Toren Smith and Adam Warren.
Though it would be several more years before the movie and video versions of DP would reach the U.S. through Streamline Pictures, the original TV series sold well in Europe, and ten extra shows were made in 1989 specifically to bulk out the TV run to 36 episodes for the Italian market. Stuck straight onto two-part videos in the Japanese market as DP Wink, Masterworks, Complete, Mystery, Birth, Special, Variety, Investigation, First Final, and Last Fantasy, these "bonus" episodes were released abroad by AD Vision as Original DP; the distributor's argument being that although they were not the initial (untranslated) TV series, they were still truer to the original than DP Flash (see below).
The video DP Flight 005 Conspiracy (1990) concentrated less on zany antics and more on a serious thriller story, as the pair are sent to investigate a space liner explosion that kills 300 passengers, though nobody attempts to claim insurance. It was to be the last anime outing to date for the original Kei and Yuri.
Takachiho would revise the characters in 1994 for DP Flash, which portrayed the Lovely Angels as younger, dumber, cuter investigators rendered in sharper (and cheaper) animation. Though many (including the production staff!) often assume DPF to be a flashback to the characters' early years, it is actually set over a century later, starring young girls called Kei and Yuri, who look very similar to the originals but are only the latest in a series of duos to use the code name. These two new Lovely Angels undo all the good work done by the last holders of the title (Molly and Iris, some 15 years earlier), returning the code name to infamy.
Despite this convoluted backstory, DPF struggles to recreate the fun of the original. With a complex numbering system obscuring one long succession of stand-alone episodes (there is no "story arc" worth repeating in the "serials" separately named DPF1, 2, and 3), the characters of DPF spend very little time investigating, preferring instead to parody other anime with a visit to a 20th-century theme park or to experience minor difficulties in their attempts to have a vacation. The DPF video adventures play up the girls' eye-candy qualities (admittedly, not entirely absent in the appeal of the original), giving them nude transformation sequences and missions such as winning a volleyball tournament, designed as little more than an excuse to spool through a line of sports-show training clichés, leavened with regular wobbles of fan-service cleavage. But while Takachiho's originals continue in their novel form with the most recent DP: A Legend of Dictator, DP's most successful incarnation abroad remains the U.S. comic rather than the anime that inspired it. N
At the time they first appeared onscreen in the anime adaptation of Haruka Takachiho's Crusher Joe, the Dirty Pair had already featured in two novels of their own, including The Great Adventures of DP, which won the Seiun (Japanese Nebula) Award. The year after their anime debut, the characters won another Seiun for the book DP Strike Back. They were named for one of the author's favorite female wrestling teams, the Beauty Pair, while the 3WA is a reference to the World Women's Wrestling Association. The real-life Beauty Pair inspired many imitators in the wrestling field, including the Black Pair, Golden Pair, and Queen Angels-a roster that influenced several other series, including Maris the Chojo and Metal Fighter Miku.
Designer Dokite adapted Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's illustrations from the original novels, the third of which was timed to come out simultaneously with the debut show. Though the series was canceled early after 24 episodes, the last two parts were immediately rushed out onto video in 1985 as DP: From Lovely Angels With Love. The franchise stayed on video with DP: Affair on Nolandia (1985), directed by Okuwaki and written by Patlabor's Ito, in which the girls are sent to an arboreal planet where they must stop an illegal genetic experiment. Nolandia is notable for being the only occasion in the entire anime adventures that alludes to Kei and Yuri's telepathic abilities, a major feature of the novels.
The 1987 DP movie, known in the U.S. as DP: Project Eden, pastiched Frank Herbert's Dune by revealing that warp travel is impossible without the rare metal vizorium. Sent to planet Agerna to stop two rival nations from destroying each other in a war over the element, the girls meet Professor Wattsman, a scientist intent on using vizorium to bring forth a powerful new life form. The same year saw the publication The Great Adventures of DP in English, but the duo's greatest impact on the U.S. market came in 1988 with the publication of the first of many American DP comics produced by Toren Smith and Adam Warren.
Though it would be several more years before the movie and video versions of DP would reach the U.S. through Streamline Pictures, the original TV series sold well in Europe, and ten extra shows were made in 1989 specifically to bulk out the TV run to 36 episodes for the Italian market. Stuck straight onto two-part videos in the Japanese market as DP Wink, Masterworks, Complete, Mystery, Birth, Special, Variety, Investigation, First Final, and Last Fantasy, these "bonus" episodes were released abroad by AD Vision as Original DP; the distributor's argument being that although they were not the initial (untranslated) TV series, they were still truer to the original than DP Flash (see below).
The video DP Flight 005 Conspiracy (1990) concentrated less on zany antics and more on a serious thriller story, as the pair are sent to investigate a space liner explosion that kills 300 passengers, though nobody attempts to claim insurance. It was to be the last anime outing to date for the original Kei and Yuri.
Takachiho would revise the characters in 1994 for DP Flash, which portrayed the Lovely Angels as younger, dumber, cuter investigators rendered in sharper (and cheaper) animation. Though many (including the production staff!) often assume DPF to be a flashback to the characters' early years, it is actually set over a century later, starring young girls called Kei and Yuri, who look very similar to the originals but are only the latest in a series of duos to use the code name. These two new Lovely Angels undo all the good work done by the last holders of the title (Molly and Iris, some 15 years earlier), returning the code name to infamy.
Despite this convoluted backstory, DPF struggles to recreate the fun of the original. With a complex numbering system obscuring one long succession of stand-alone episodes (there is no "story arc" worth repeating in the "serials" separately named DPF1, 2, and 3), the characters of DPF spend very little time investigating, preferring instead to parody other anime with a visit to a 20th-century theme park or to experience minor difficulties in their attempts to have a vacation. The DPF video adventures play up the girls' eye-candy qualities (admittedly, not entirely absent in the appeal of the original), giving them nude transformation sequences and missions such as winning a volleyball tournament, designed as little more than an excuse to spool through a line of sports-show training clichés, leavened with regular wobbles of fan-service cleavage. But while Takachiho's originals continue in their novel form with the most recent DP: A Legend of Dictator, DP's most successful incarnation abroad remains the U.S. comic rather than the anime that inspired it. N
Episodes
Series Credits
| Person Name | Episode Count | |
|---|---|---|
| Norio Kashima | 1 |
|
| Toshifumi Takizawa | 1 |
|
| Kenji Terada | 1 |
|
| Toshiyuki Kimori | 1 |
|
 |
Haruka Takachiho | 14 |
| Tetsuro Amino | 4 |
To edit the cast, go to an episode page.
Original US Poster Art
General Information
Edit
 Name |
Dirty Pair |
 Name: |
ダーティペア |
| Romaji: |
|
| Publisher | Sunrise Inc. |
| Start Year | 1985 |
| Genres | |
| Themes | |
| Aliases |
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Recurring Appearances
| Kei first in We'll Teach You How To Kill A Computer |
15
|
| Yuri first in We'll Teach You How To Kill A Computer |
15
|
| Nanmo first in We'll Teach You How To Kill A Computer |
7
|
| Mughi first in We'll Teach You How To Kill A Computer |
7
|
| Gooley Andrew Francess first in We'll Teach You How To Kill A Computer |
3
|
| Brian first in We'll Teach You How To Kill A Computer |
1
|
| Pete first in Ho Ho Ho, Dresses And Men Are Better New |
1
|
| Moila first in Ho Ho Ho, Dresses And Men Are Better New |
1
|
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