Taiho Shichau zo Special

Specials usually suck. Not always, but the majority of the time they fall short of the standard set by the main series. It is only once every so often that they're able to maintain the status quo.

"You're Under Arrest: Mini Specials" is one such aberration. This twenty episode collection of eight minute specials nearly matches the quality of the original series despite moving in a different creative direction. It cannot compare in terms of romance or drama, but it boasts far more intelligent comedy while managing to develop the characters even further than they had already been.

Kobayakawa Miyuki in particular was deeply explored. Her ... fear of ghosts and monsters led to some hilarious episodes while her fascination and aptitude of all things mechanical and electronic proved to be the base for others. These, alongside a rather scary and strong inclination towards vindication, had been touched upon in the main series but never quite fully examined.

One other aspect that was explored further was the ecchi factor. Many of the specials revolved around panties thieves and perverts, which ultimately led to a lot of fan service. One episode even had them arguing over breast size! Despite all this, the scenarios always end up the same way, and thats with the duo layin' the smackdown on the bad guy.

That is not to say that there wasn't a fair share of action though! Many episodes involved high speed chases or superhuman acts of strength (exemplified by Natsumi of course).

In other words, the specials did what few others in anime ever have, and that is accurately supplement the main series. I'd recommend this to any fan of the main series, as it essentially is a fuller taste of the same dish.

If you enjoyed watching the previous, You're Under Arrest installments, you're going to enjoy these specials as well!

*Slight Spoilers*

These shorts are fun bite sized episodes taking what we've seen before and exaggerating it a bit to "up the fun levels". After watching a few of them you can immediately tell there is an abundance of ecchi and fan service scenes, the violence is turned up a notch as well becoming basically torture in some scenes, and more focus on being humorous.

Some other small differences or things to note is:
• They referred Aoi as an He and man more often
• Miyuki's small quirk of being ... scared at supernatural things, had her screaming more here than the entirety of season 1
• The specials seem to be self contained and fit anywhere in the early stages of season 1
• It focuses on Natsumi and Miyuki only
• There were times when you can see quality shifts in the animation, but they were mostly consistent and no where as bad as the special episode 52.

I love this series, so while it is different than we seen so far and doesn't add much, they are a very fun enjoyable little episodes to watch.