Taiho Shichau zo

Review 23.11.2018: Taihou Shichau Zo OVA
Written by SMGJohn
"Every review is subjective, art is subjective your opinion may differ, never trust reviews to make the opinion for you, use them as a guide and make your own journey."

Taihou Shichauzo is one of those amazingly underrated gems of the 90s that you stumble upon by pure luck, and shamelessly I came to stumble upon it too late but better late than never as they ironically say.
The 4 OVA episode series is the beginning of a franchise that is not much known to the English viewers of anime and restrains more popularity with the Spanish and ... Japanese communities, however to my surprise Taihou Shichauzo is an amazing short series that proves the super-giant in the industry Studio Deen’s unlimited talent pool once more.
With amazingly funny cast of characters and well written adaptation of the original manga, Taihou Shichauzo proves to be a comically funny anime with silly features but also serious parts mixed together with a production quality typically very average but masterfully well executed thanks to the talented pool of people at Deen who worked with what they had.
While the main characters in Taihou Shichauzo finds themselves in all kinds of silly situations from stupidly over escalated car chases to helping out kids the OVA’s actually do a good job of presenting a lovable cast of characters to the audience and also builds the foundation of an anime franchise that would see three TV series, one movie and multiple short OVA’s. The main characters very large contrast in personality also helps its comical value but with the seriousness also presented reinforces how real the people in Taihou Shichauzo feels like.

Production wise, Taihou Shichauzo is in another league while the animation fluidity can be comparable average for the era it is masterfully handled by talented art directors and planners, it is truly a long time since I have had the pleasure to witness such a masterfully done production as this short OVA series. No shot goes unused, everything makes sense, it has an astonishingly smooth flow to it and scenes that require good animation have good animation while more static scenes have less because they need less but there times when static scenes are made very lively by adding exaggerated movement to the characters themselves often seen in comedies.
The background art of Taihou Shichauzo strike me the most, we are presented a contemporary early 90s Japan, with thanks to the outstanding sound work of Deen gives an absurdly satisfying atmosphere.
With the help of the extremely 90s sounding soundtrack we are reminded every minute of it that we truly are in the 90s now, the flow, the music and the art pulls you in like a magnet and before you know it you almost feel like you are there.
With sound work like this I can claim I have only witnessed in not just few anime but even few movies and TV series by big giants such as America, China or even Britain. This general fluidity really helps these silly story telling feel amazing, with what could easily be explained as a mediocre story becomes a very well mastered anime thanks to its well executed production quality and variation in showcase that does not make it feel too similar to one another episodes.

For summary, Taihou Shichauzo is something that must be experienced to be understood, it is by no means a bad anime, but it is not a masterpiece, it is best explained as a timeless work of art that tries to tell an otherwise dull drama story but masterfully crafts it into an entertaining contemporary showcase of nostalgic nuclear explosion, mixed with action, drama, comedy, romantic elements and much much more.
With the amazing art, the amazing sound of Japan in the 90s, the people, the cars, all the noises the characters make such as just walking or writing on paper makes it all feel alive, real and as if you are there.
The outrageously beautiful artwork helps to reinforce the series as a whole and it makes you miss a city that you never even visited in the first place, and truly only the most talented people can make you feel like that, and this time around they worked at Studio Deen.

This anime absolutely blew me away. Coming into "You're Under Arrest" I just expected some standard buddy cop cliches, mixed in with some anime ones. And boy does it deliver that and so much more. There's car chases taking you through beautifully animated scenery, there's romance arcs that actually keep you interested even though they only have 4 episodes to work with, and there's even character development that's realistic but still draws you in.
As a huge fan of 70s and 80s cop shows, the cliches in this don't bother me one bit and are perfectly executed. There's a car chase at least every episode, there's ... your standard partner drama between the two main protagonists, they even have a fan club of small children to cheer them on. If you like car chases and you like anime, this is THE OVA for you.

I'm going to go against the grain a bit here and admit that I did not enjoy this one in the least. The first episode seemed promising but it kind of never lived up to it.
The characters were all bland cookie cutter tropes. The plots focused way to much on a love story between two of the cops that wasn't even well written or well implemented. And while the animation was wonderful, the art it's self was bland and lifeless. In the end I had a very hard time caring about these under developed characters and their daily lives.
Maybe I'm being ... too harsh on this show, but it's from Studio Deen, who's output is usually of a much higher standard than this and on top of that already gave us the very similar and much better made Patlabor.