Dirty Pair OVA Vol - 5: Affair of Nolandia (1985)
Animation Production: Sunrise
Released by: ADV Films
Official Website: ADV's Dirty Pair Ova Vol -5 Page
Episodes: 1
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

It’s been a couple of months since I reviewed Dirty Pair: Girls with Guns, so I figured that this would be a good time to revisit with Kei and Yuri as they take on more bad guys and generally cause incredible amounts of damage as they try to save the day. Today I will follow up on my previous review by taking a closer look at the first Dirty Pair OVA, Affair of Nolandia.

Story

"The Dirty Pair are traveling to the planet of Ookbar in search of a missing girl. Kei and Yuri have traced Missinie to the forest of Nolandia, but their investigations have stalled thanks to the less-than-helpful Chief of Security. But the Dirty Pair have never let a little bureaucracy stand in their way. It’s the unicorns and UFOs, not to mention the rampaging killer robot, that are going to be the problem as the Dirty Pair tackle their toughest case yet in Affair of Nolandia!"-- ADV's Dirty Pair Webpage

Review

Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia begins as a transport vehicle ferrying a seemingly nervous scientist crash lands while preparing to land; this being the result of a mental illusion that was forced onto the pilots’ consciousness making them lose control of the ship. A short time after this happens we join the Dirty Pair as they review footage of the event. Yuri and Kei have just been assigned to the case and now in addition to finding a missing girl they must find the cause of this horrible accident.

Once this setup is established the story shifts into a different mode as our heroines travel to the planet Ookbar in search of Missinie (missing girl) and information on what provoked the transport’s crash. As their investigation unfolds and clues are discovered Yuri and Kei end up in the middle of a forest on the other side of the planet, which is where they suspect that Missnie might be. However as they begin connecting the dots and uncovering how Missinie and the transport incident might be related they discover that an unknown element is afoot in Ookbar…

Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia was another fun Dirty Pair OVA experience, much like the previous volume I reviewed. They key difference here is that whereas that one contained two short episodes this one consists of one longer 50 minute adventure. The writers certainly benefitted from this as they had more space in which to tell their story, although some challenges in the writing were apparent during the middle segment of this volume, which for a short period of ten minutes or so it seemed like they weren’t sure on where to take the story as our heroines spent much of their time playing and lounging in an effort to bring forth the attentions of Missnie.

Once they find her and learn about her background though this OVA picks up some nice momentum and gets back to some fun Dirty Pair basics as Yuri and Kei engage in hot pursuit of the bad guys with Yuri in particular being the focus of the best action piece in Affair of Nolandia, as she is featured using several modes of transportation to keep up with the bad guys in one really well done chase scene (loved the showdown at the end!!!).

As far as the production values of this OVA go, it’s pretty good when compared to other projects of its day. Needless to say that it’s not as polished as today’s anime series are, but to be fair this was made almost 20 years ago and as such it still hold up amazingly well (I love 80’s anime!!!). The frame rate is smooth and there are some nice highlight sequences embedded with the rest of the action.

The audio component of Affair of Nolandia is also quite nice. I really enjoyed some of the BGM tracks, especially the ones used in the action sequences. The voice acting was as usual, right on target.

DVD-wise this volume contains the fifty minute long Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia episode, which as I mentioned above was the first in the series of OVA’s based on this popular anime property. Extras on the DVD include an English dubbed track and some neat ADV Films previews for other anime releases by the company.

Final Thoughts

This was another exciting entry in the Dirty Pair saga and a classic from a bygone era in the anime universe. I highly recommend it to all fans of the Dirty Pair series, who I imagine like myself will enjoy much of what this one has to offer, especially as it draws to a close with a couple of explosive action segments. Great characters, fun scenes, and an interesting story, what more could you ask for when watching popcorn anime?

Jeffrey Couto