From You're Under Arrest
Animefringe Coverage:
You're Under Arrest! - Arresting Fun
By Ridwan Khan
Many of us anime fans are familiar with the very popular You're
Under Arrest! anime series, consisting of both an OAV and TV series
(based upon the manga of Kosuke Fujishima, creator of Aa
Megami-sama). Both detail the chronicles of two female Tokyo
traffic officers who are adept at solving crimes and getting into
trouble. Recently, the anime has been made into a live action
doroma (the Japanese catch-all for live action sitcoms and dramas
alike), which makes sense as the anime was already in a very sitcom
style format. As far as Japanese dorama go, You're Under Arrest is
a blast.
The show introduces Miyuki Kobayakawa and Natsumi Tsujimoto, two
female traffic cops in Tokyo, who are already well known for
getting into quite a bit of trouble. In fact, both outside and
within their division, they have become quite infamous for bringing
down the respectability of the traffic division. Their over the top
behavior often put Miyuki and Natsumi at odds with their
co-workers, especially their division chief.
The first episode of the series introduces the audience to Miyuki
(played by Sachie Hara), a smart woman who enjoys cars and Natsumi
(Misaki Ito), the wild one of the pair. The episode also introduces
the duo's co-workers. Among them are Ken Nakajima (Kazushige
Nagashima), who not-so-secretly adores Miyuki (a fact that makes
him the butt of jokes around the office) and Yoriko, the leader of
the office girls, all of whom are looking for Mr. Right. Heading up
the motley crew are the section chief, an old bear of a woman who
secretly has a soft spot in her heart for the troublemaking Miyuki
and Natsumi and the bureau chief, an old shougi-obsessed coot who
is shrewder than he first seems.
Also in the first episode, Miyuki and Natsumi help a teenage
friend, Yuka, who is being bullied by her schoolmates. Yuka
confided her secrets to a guy online, who posted her private
correspondence for her school to see. Now the shady online guy is
taking bets as to when she'll commit suicide. Fortunately, Miyuki
and Natsumi are there to stop her before she makes an irrevocable
decision.
Episode two follows Miyuki and Natsumi on a hijacked bus. The bus
is a getaway car for a pair of bank robbers, but it also has a
number of hostages, including a young deaf girl whose mother is in
for surgery. Nakajima comes to the rescue, but will he be fast
enough to stop the robbers and help the girl before her mother goes
under the knife?
You're Under Arrest features a lot of great action and humor.
Indeed, Sachie Hara has said how sore she felt after practicing to
be on the show. Both the suicide attempt and the bus hijacking are
really tense and exciting. As for humor, episode one has a great
scene when Natsumi meets a famous Australian swimmer and attempts
to help him find his way. However, the live action show seems to
(understandably) come a bit short compared to the anime (which has
some of the best car chase sequences in film).
The doroma does have a bevy of great looking guys and girls though.
Sachie Hara and Misaki Ito are certifiable hotties and no one in
the cast (chiefs aside) is hard on the eyes. It remains to be seen
if the series is quite as family friendly as the anime was, but
there seems to be some playful action that make it a little more
adult than the anime. As episode one starts, Miyuki and Natsumi
break up what they think is a robbery at a super market.
Unfortunately, only after beating up the robbers do the duo find
out they just broke up a training mission for the cops and Miyuki
has beaten up Nakajima, who accidentally grabbed her chest. Episode
seven features a little boy who is obsessed with grabbing women's
chests.
The show's presentation is that of a typical doroma from the last
few years. The music is good and tends to be light techno. The
opening theme, "Galaxy" by Katase Nana is a catchy tune that serves
as the girls main themes.
Sadly, despite even the popularity of the anime, it's unlikely that
You're Under Arrest will be available on this side of the Pacific.
That's really a shame, because it is an exciting show that many
anime fans would enjoy.
www.animefringe.com/magazine/2003/08/feature/07/
