Meme tourism brought me here

I’m not making up that statement by the way, I did find this anime through a meme. This one specifically:

I highly doubt that a single meme motivated everyone who saw it to dig deeper into what the anime was about, especially since on My Anime List it’s quite low in popularity for a ’90s anime, but reviews on both MAL, and even on Amazon for the novelization going as far back as 2000 give it high praise, so the conclusion to draw from this observation is that the series is yet another cult classic series.

Created by Kosuke Fujishima and running from 1986 to 1992, You’re Under Arrest, also known as Taiho Shichauzo in Japanese, is essentially a buddy cop manga. Like Gunsmith Cats, the series has a pair of tomboy protagonists with a rotating cast, but unlike Gunsmith Cats, it has more than the manga and an OVA to its name. Actually, the Wikipedia page lists three TV seasons, multiple OVAs, a movie and even a video game. One essentially wins a popularity contest at the time of release and then some while the other sees renewed interest after decades of sitting on a shelf with a family of dust bunnies. Maybe this is an indictment on the cultures of the targeted audiences–the western audience championing the lampooning of a government agency (even though they’re not that bad in the series) whereas the Japanese audience loves and adores the portrayal of the police in the series because it rings somewhat true of Japanese police behavior IRL.

It could be something else I haven’t looked at, but for all intents and purposes, You’re Under Arrest had a lot more going for it so if Fujishima had any doubts of success, those doubts must’ve been dashed when it came time for the anime release. Released in 1996, season 1 of the series starts off with an introduction to our two leads, Natsumi Tsujimoto and her partner against crime, Miyuki Kobayakawa. Other characters include but are not limited to Ken Nakajima, Yoriko Nikaido, and interestingly a trans character Aoi Futaba.

As a buddy cop series, it sorta fits the bill of what could be seen in shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and shows the more relatable human elements between the cast members. Uniformed or not, there will never not be an organization of people being weird or spontaneous on an off day. Talk to veterans about the stupid things they’ve done in service during their time off and you’ll be cracking like an egg from all the jokes and off-color humor.

Credit: 22 January 2016; Uriarte, Maximilian; Terminal Lance Comics

For plot, most of the time the characters are either goofing off or just performing their duties as police officers. It’s framed as the sort of episodic anime series that you can kick your feet up to, though it’s not light on the action either. The policing part of the job in You’re Under Arrest is a mix of the standard issuing of tickets, tracking down minor law violations and whatnot to tracking down and arresting criminals, aiding the elderly and defenseless, and overall being a pillar of the community. And spending enough time on the internet may open you up to some snarky comments about policing in most western countries, but that’s getting off topic.

Unless you are that type of person, it’s an unoffensive series that has a lot of heart, humor, and complexity to it. The characters are fun and energetic, and (slight spoiler) for those who have feelings for each other, there comes the question of whether this is a conflict of interest. Are the risks worth it to be with each other and whatnot.

This video also says much of the same about the series:

While viewing the series, one thing I noticed was the meticulous attention to detail, especially for a hand-drawn ’90s anime. Little to no details are left out from objects or people reflected in windows, to water effects during rain or storms even to the response of the gauges in the vehicles. Fujishima and the people at Studio Deen did well on their research for the series. There are some minor errors as expected–no one is perfect–but it’s not too much of a distracting unless you’re a certain type of person.

Users on MAL gave it an overall score of 7.6 out of 10. Normally, I stray away from a numbers system not so much out of principle or preference, but largely because to a certain degree I understand the argument that a numbers rating system trivializes or undermines the whole review. Spending all that time to write a long- if not well-thought out opinion piece on a certain piece of entertainment, brought to its knees by a scale. Not changing my rule, but for the most part, I’d bump it up to a solid 8 out of 10.

The full series is available on YouTube, as someone was based enough to share it for the rest of us without concern for monetization. Trying my best not to jinx it, but if you search it up on YouTube one day and the playlist is absent, you already know what to do.

I was never here.