Original Dirty Pair, Vol. 4: Flight 005 Conspiracy (1990)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Features:

• ADV previews

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• How much damage can two women cause?
• Fan service galore
• Minor violence
• Some nasty people

Released by: ADV
Region: 1
Rating: 15+
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Buy it if you're a Dirty Pair fan

It's the year 2141, and the 3WA is here to help the thousands of human-inhabited planets across the universe maintain law and order. In Flight 005 Conspiracy, the Lovely Angels are back on the job (much to Chief Gooley's dismay), and the 3WA computer, which insists upon giving them more jobs, has given them two missions at once this time. The first case deals with the explosion of a space liner and the death of 300 people--but no one has come forward to claim the insurance money yet. Why? The second case has them searching for a missing scientist and his family. The Dirty Pair suspects that the two cases are related, but how? The clock is ticking as they must unravel these quandries before it's too late for the family and for the entire universe.

The show looks and sounds about as you would expect for a direct-to-video release of this age. There is a bit of fading in the video, and scenes with great swaths of a single color (like the blues of space) show some graining. The sound is better, with some nice usage of the stereo possibilities; the synthesized music will take you back to the late 80s/early 90s. Let's just hope you want to go there. A cleaner digital transfer would have been nice, but the show still looks good enough for fans, just not perfect. If you've liked the art thus far in the ODP saga, then you'll like the look of it here, too.

There are, alas, no extras to speak of. We get some trailers for ADV's other recent releases, but nothing to do with this series. A timeline of the duo's various changes over the years would have rocked, as would a script. The art is even good enough for viewers to enjoy an art gallery. However, as I've mentioned before, with a retail price point of less than $20, a stripped-down release that still looks good in the watching might just have to be good enough.

If you enjoy adventure and action, then you'll probably like Flight 005 Conspiracy. Feminist viewers will have to overlook the gratuitous and obvious fan service, but Yuri and Kei are just so engaging and infectiously likable that it's easy to do. The adventures might not be the most complex and densely-plotted mysteries out there, but the show succeeds in being what it wants to be--an entertaining bit with a light heart and lots of explosions. Yuri and Rei are always fun, and this disc is no exception.