Taiho Shichauzo! (OAV)

As with the Fujishima Kosuke's OAV anime Oh My Goddess, this one covers a lot of ground in a short period of time. Unlike OMG, this one seems to do a better job of getting the story in. However, there wasn't much of an overall story and the individual stories were fine, just nothing special.

The overall story is of Natsumi and Miyuki becoming partners, roommates, and friends. The side story is the romance between Miyuki and fellow officer Ken. Ken is a gentle giant and Miyuki a sweetheart similar to Belldandy. However, Miyuki isn't going to lead Ken to the water (so to speak) and Ken is completely unsure of how to approach Miyuki to ask her out. So the romance is very juvenile in nature, but I liked it. When I get to the TV series though, the two had better make progress. They don't have to sleep together, but at least make progress (unlike Bell and K1 in the OMG manga). As to the individual stories, they aren't going to be the typical American cop chases, but more along the lines of typical Japanese ones. So some folks may not care for that too much.

From and art and animation perspective, this thing rocks. For those who know Fujishima-san's works, his artistic skills are unmatched. The attention to detail for buildings, vehicles, and the like are just astounding. To make matters better, he has great character designs which mean very pretty girls and handsome guys. The animation is very good, though there was one time-filling scene which had the old pan-and-scan shots. Maybe that episode ran short and they needed to fill some time. Otherwise, the rest of it is really top notch, especially in light of the fact that computers weren't used when this was created. Yet this OAV easily skunks most anime that uses CG today.

Bottom line: I'm borderline between "Rent" and "Buy". The art, animation, and character designs are the best in anime. However the stories are this OAV's weakness. They aren't bad, just average. However, considering the sweetness of the franchise as a whole, you may as well buy it.

Last updated Saturday, October 09 2004. Created Sunday, February 15 2004.