Taiho shichauzo!
The charm of the uniform has always had a hold on girls. The reason is quite easy to understand, given that a uniform would make anyone look attractive. If this applies to boys, imagine two girls, already well supplied by mother nature, wrapped in two skintight policewoman uniforms and complete with a miniskirt... if all this had an effective confirmation in reality, probably the people who would crowd the various public competitions would be even more than they already are.
This to introduce the first two OVAs of "Taiho shichauzo!" (also known as "You are under arrest!"), taken from the first work of Kozuke Fujishima, author of "Oh my Goddess!".
Briefly, the plots of the two OAVs are as follows: Natsumi is a girl who is passionate about engines and high speed, so much so that she does not despise running and performing in reckless evolutions on the streets of Tokyo with her foldable motorcycle (!).
Unfortunately, the policewoman Miyuki notices her, and, with a calmness worthy of a Sinai platypus, starts chasing her. Due to a kitten crossing her path, Natsumi is forced to stop her run, resulting in a stop by Miyuki, who, with a smile on her lips, issues her a fine for speeding, dangerous driving, etc. ...
At this point a normal person would say "oh nooo!!!", "damn them little fishes", would be swaggering like a longshoreman... Natsumi no. Natsumi thinks about it and decides to become a policewoman (the Japanese people are really crazy).
Immediately hired (even if you don't understand how she does it, evidently in Japan you don't have to do public competitions), guess who is assigned to her as a partner? Just Miyuki! Natsumi doesn't seem to take a liking to her partner right away (I'd also like to see), but the two have time to fraternize right away, when they find themselves chasing a red Mini Minor that runs undisturbed through the streets of the city.
The car escapes the policewomen, but thanks to the computer that all police cars (Japanese of course) are equipped with, the two discover that the car's path is not random... well, I don't want to spoil the surprise. The second OAV is along the lines of the first, except that it is a yellow Lancia Delta(!) that is spreading panic and that there is also a cat about to give birth.
What immediately strikes about this series is the high technical quality: everything is studied in detail. The animations are impeccable, very fluid, the shades, shadows and reflections are the most realistic I've seen in animation, even better than those of Macross Plus (which were already excellent); not to mention the reproductions of the various cars and motorcycles, so realistic as to border on perfection.
The character design is by Atsuko Nakajima (famous for designing the characters of Ranma 1/2), and is more faithful to that of the Fujishima of "Oh my goddess!" than to that of Fujishima of "Taiho shichauzo!", even if unmistakable traces of her passage remain.
The only weak point of the whole production is precisely the story: it fully reflects Fujishima's style, or rather short self-contained stories that are averagely entertaining.
In short, therefore, an average production, perhaps a little lacking from the point of view of the story, but still pleasant to watch and highly enjoyable, above all by virtue of a very valuable technical part that overshadows the rest; to be taken into consideration if you are a fan of Fujishima.
