You're Under Arrest Movie

[DB]

Here's a less heralded anime that was licensed in the last year or so.
It's considered Fujishima's 'other work:' You're Under Arrest. In this case we'll focus on the movie I recently saw. Hearing good things about it (like it was better than the series) I had some hopes going into it. I was never a big fan of the series, while in general I like Fujishima's soft touch, I could never really get into the characters of Natsumi and Miyuki, and the supporting cast was somewhat lacking. It wasn't bad, just not the involved.

Now we come to the movie, which weighs in at a modest 82 minutes or so. All the regulars are here. As near as I can gather, it must take place at the end of one of the sets of the series, since Miyuki and Natsumi are returning to their old station after a year of training in policework elsewhere. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as they return, strange things are going on in the city. Guns are found in an abandoned car, traffic lights mysteriously stop functioning, and phone connections become sporadic. Yep, it's a dry run for someone's master plan to screw things up in Tokyo, and it's up to our heroines, and supporting cast, to solve things.

Truth be told, the movie feels like Patlabor Movie 2 Lite. (it should be noted PLM2 is one of my all time faovrites, ranking in with a 10 out of 10). While the master planner has a connection to the station chief and a shared past (sound familiar?), there's a certain tension lacking here. There is actual live ammo being thrown, but paintballs are present as well. It's a notch up from the regular series, but it doesn't succeed to the point you feel like there's a chance anything really bad is going to happen.

The other problem is that they clearly drag things out. This thing could have been done in about an hour, but they extended scenes and drew them out. Luckily, the animation was very nice, and even background detailed (as with most movies, the quality is far superior to that of TV)

The lack of tension hurts the movie considerably. While it's not enough to make the movie bad, it had the potential to be better. Music was so-so, with nothing outstanding in my mind. Animation was top notch, though.

Finally summation: I got lucky and grabbed this DVD at a con for $5.00. It's worth watching once, but don't pay top dollar unless you really like YUA, in which case it probably is worth it.

Rating: 5 out of 10.