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REVIEW: Dirty Pair Sub.DVD Boxset 1


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belvadeer





PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 5:07 am Reply with quote
To be honest, I did watch the first three episodes of Dirty Pair so far and I think I'd like to finish it. I'm not so stuck on animation methods that I turn my nose up at old school series like this. I think this might end up on my wishlist for Christmas Smile
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 7:56 am Reply with quote
Quote:
The theme songs, too, are typical space-fillers with their midtempo rock beats and simple but forgettable melodies.

Now see here! I was not yet alive at the time when this series was produced, though even I view each and every one of its stylistic elements through spectacles of a neon rose tint. No exception is taken to the soundtrack — one holds it to be highly exemplary of the rousing rhythms of yesteryear.

For a title with such a lasting legacy, I consider it apt to regard it with a somewhat lenient critical eye.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 8:57 am Reply with quote
Quote:
the actual content of the show has aged poorly, relying on formulaic adventures that exist in little 25-minute bubbles and don't even form an overall narrative arc.


Yeah, because every show nowadays has an overall narrative arc to it. There's no such thing as an anime having nothing but self-containted episodes. I guess something like Mushishi is going to age poorly then too.

Really, this isn't something that just happened back in the past, and it doesn't really indicate anything about how it has aged.

Quote:
the idea of girls with guns gleefully blowing things up in space is clearly all that was needed to support an anime series back in the day.


Yeah, because you just can't have fun watching an anime nowadays. You can't just watch an anime hoping to have an entertaining time now, I guess. There has to be some sort of exposition, and potentially overcomplication, because simple fun doesn't exist anymore. I just find it weird how you talk about how Dirty Pair might be done nowadays, and it sounded sarcastic and like it was a joke, but after this little piece at the end of the review I almost wonder if you actually want the show to be done in that "modern day style" you brought up.

Yeah, milage may vary and it might just be "popcorn entertainment" in the end, but there's really nothing wrong with that.
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 1:34 pm Reply with quote
Lord Geo wrote:


Yeah, because you just can't have fun watching an anime nowadays. You can't just watch an anime hoping to have an entertaining time now, I guess. There has to be some sort of exposition, and potentially overcomplication, because simple fun doesn't exist anymore. I just find it weird how you talk about how Dirty Pair might be done nowadays, and it sounded sarcastic and like it was a joke, but after this little piece at the end of the review I almost wonder if you actually want the show to be done in that "modern day style" you brought up.

Yeah, milage may vary and it might just be "popcorn entertainment" in the end, but there's really nothing wrong with that.


Yeah. I often wonder how anime fans ever watch American programming aside from the serial stuff. If an anime series ever did a show like The Simpsons, they'd say that it's funny but not "GREAT" because it, you know, doesn't have any DEVELOPMENT and how there is no resolution to any "story arcs". People would be complaining about how they still haven't resolved the Smithers-Burns unrequired love or how they were disappointed that nothing came out of the Edna-Skinner "romance". Confused

Modern fans always accuse old timers of nostalgia, but there IS a sort of arrogance these days about how entertainment is "so much more advanced" now than it used to be. It's quite an unbecoming attitude. These are the same people who probably dismiss black and white movies as being completely irrelevant today since they are technologically inferior and complain about how people "don't act like that anymore".

My biggest problem though, is the leading statement that Dirty Pair was an example of how SOOO indiscriminating the anime fans were in the 80s and how that kind of show was all that was really needed to support a birthing anime industry during that time in the U.S.. As net fans would say,

ORLY?

Way to simultaneously blast a show (which I don't have a problem with) and the tastes of thousands of fans who have been around for more than just the last decade (now that is what bugs me).
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GrilledEelHamatsu



Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Posts: 703
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 2:03 pm Reply with quote
I'm frankly stunned at how harsh and critical you were on the '85 TV Series. Well I guess you're not very fond of the Dirty Pair series. Hell you were extremely nasty to the 1985 OAV "Affair on Nolandia". Because of that, I question if your review was at all fair. It seems that all you did what find fault and review it from a newer otaku's prespective(even though you aren't EXACTLY one) as if you simply don't like the series.

You overlooked all the pros and positives and sounded as you were clutching at straws.

DP is a charming and likeable old school series, I'm sorry you don't feel that, but don't repeal newer fans just because 80s anime doesn't meet your standards.

I just ordered Dirty Pair. Whenever you give cynical reviews like this, I invest.
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khaos1019



Joined: 28 Nov 2007
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 2:17 pm Reply with quote
GrilledEelHamatsu wrote:
I'm frankly stunned at how harsh and critical you were on the '85 TV Series. Well I guess you're not very fond of the Dirty Pair series. Hell you were extremely nasty to the 1985 OAV "Affair on Nolandia". Because of that, I question if your review was at all fair. It seems that all you did what find fault and review it from a newer otaku's prespective(even though you aren't EXACTLY one) as if you simply don't like the series.


Yeah, I was kind of irked by this review as well. There are plenty of series out there that don't have story arcs and are plenty entertaining.

I wouldn't go into something like Dirty Pair expecting some deep, engrossing, all-encompassing storyline. And going in assuming that would be the case and coming out disappointed is the fault of the reviewer, not the series.

It's best to leave assumptions at the door and see what the show has to offer. Dirty Pair is a great old-school series that has obviously inspired many series after it. Looking at it from the standpoint of it's impact on the medium sheds a new light on it. And it's also just a fun series.
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 2:42 pm Reply with quote
Um, you all do realize that this and the "Affair on Nolandia" review were written by two completely different people, right? Or are we perpetuating the fallacy that ANN is a single hive-mind organization? Erin @ Shelf Life loved it, so they're giving it balanced coverage.
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GrilledEelHamatsu



Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Posts: 703
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 2:42 pm Reply with quote
khaos1019 wrote:
GrilledEelHamatsu wrote:
I'm frankly stunned at how harsh and critical you were on the '85 TV Series. Well I guess you're not very fond of the Dirty Pair series. Hell you were extremely nasty to the 1985 OAV "Affair on Nolandia". Because of that, I question if your review was at all fair. It seems that all you did what find fault and review it from a newer otaku's prespective(even though you aren't EXACTLY one) as if you simply don't like the series.


Yeah, I was kind of irked by this review as well. There are plenty of series out there that don't have story arcs and are plenty entertaining.

I wouldn't go into something like Dirty Pair expecting some deep, engrossing, all-encompassing storyline. And going in assuming that would be the case and coming out disappointed is the fault of the reviewer, not the series.

It's best to leave assumptions at the door and see what the show has to offer. Dirty Pair is a great old-school series that has obviously inspired many series after it. Looking at it from the standpoint of it's impact on the medium sheds a new light on it. And it's also just a fun series.


I concur.
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khaos1019



Joined: 28 Nov 2007
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 3:03 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
Um, you all do realize that this and the "Affair on Nolandia" review were written by two completely different people, right? Or are we perpetuating the fallacy that ANN is a single hive-mind organization? Erin @ Shelf Life loved it, so they're giving it balanced coverage.


No, I think ANN gives great coverage. I just found fault in this review specifically. I know it's Carlo's opinion, but I felt he was being a little closed-minded about the show and being very negative about older Anime in general.


Last edited by khaos1019 on Fri Dec 03, 2010 3:07 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 3:06 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
Um, you all do realize that this and the "Affair on Nolandia" review were written by two completely different people, right? Or are we perpetuating the fallacy that ANN is a single hive-mind organization? Erin @ Shelf Life loved it, so they're giving it balanced coverage.


I personally am not bothered by the fact that it's not a glowingly positive review. Like I said, what annoyed me was the indications that completely episodic anime is an old idea that does nothing but badly age a show (again, I wonder how he thinks of the more-recent Mushishi) and that a show can't just be simple and fun "popcorn entertainment" or if it is then the title just isn't worth watching.

Any other complaints I have no problems with and the review itself was still done well, but those two parts just really got to me.
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GrilledEelHamatsu



Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Posts: 703
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 3:37 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
Um, you all do realize that this and the "Affair on Nolandia" review were written by two completely different people, right? Or are we perpetuating the fallacy that ANN is a single hive-mind organization? Erin @ Shelf Life loved it, so they're giving it balanced coverage.


I already knew a different person reviewed AON but that was back in 2003. What I'm saying is that ANN seems to have a very neuanched and one demensial view on the entire series from what I've seen.

And just to let you know, Erin wasn't even part of Shelf Life back in '03. Bamboo Dong was and she didn't review a single Dirty Pair title from what I recall.
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ElectricDork



Joined: 08 Apr 2010
Posts: 73
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 3:39 pm Reply with quote
It seems to me that Carlo was more bothered by the show's formulaic plotting and lack of substance than its episodic nature. If you're not thrilled by the premise of girls blowing shit up, there's not much left.

Personally I was disappointed. I don't know what I was expecting, really, not being a huge fan of lightweight action/comedy shows, but it did very little for me. After struggling through as much as I could handle, onto ebay it went.

There is, however, some good animation, particularly during the episodes in which Tsukasa Dokite was animation director (others were apparently unable to keep the girls on-model from scene to scene) and the OP is catchy as hell.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 3:55 pm Reply with quote
GrilledEelHamatsu wrote:
I already knew a different person reviewed AON but that was back in 2003. What I'm saying is that ANN seems to have a very neuanched and one demensial view on the entire series from what I've seen.

And just to let you know, Erin wasn't even part of Shelf Life back in '03. Bamboo Dong was and she didn't review a single Dirty Pair title from what I recall.


Now now, Justin Sevakis gave the show plenty of credit and postive talk with his last Buried Treasure, though he admitted that the show does date itself upon modern-day views.

Also, when Erin was brought up I'm pretty sure that was in reference to her recent Shelf Life article that featured the first Dirty Pair TV set, which she liked.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 4:01 pm Reply with quote
ElectricDork wrote:
It seems to me that Carlo was more bothered by the show's formulaic plotting and lack of substance than its episodic nature.


And I quote:
Quote:
relying on formulaic adventures that exist in little 25-minute bubbles and don't even form an overall narrative arc


First off, generally when something is episodic there is some sort of formula to it. In some cases the formula is cleverly hidden to some extent, but the two are generally linked to each other to some extent. But I do understand that some could argue that, so I'll stop here with that.

But his complaint about not forming an overall narrative arc is a complaint about having an episodic nature. Now an episodic show can have a overall narrative to it, like in GaoGaiGar's first half, but his main complaint is that there isn't an "arc" to it, which would indicate that he complained about the fact that the episodes don't link to each other in any way, or in other words... He complained about it being episodic in nature.
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ElectricDork



Joined: 08 Apr 2010
Posts: 73
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 4:46 pm Reply with quote
I'm not saying the episodic structure wasn't an issue for Carlo, because it obviously was. But what I inferred from the review is that it was an issue primarily because the show lacks substance and relies on such a basic formula.

I could be wrong, of course, but that is kind of how I felt about the show. In the absence of anything I could get my teeth into, a strong narrative arc may have kept me interested. As it is, Dirty Pair doesn't do it for me.
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