The Leaning Tower of Damocles

First new Classic DP art book in 18 years! (GB5)

When the OVA series for Classic DP ended its Japanese release (on cassettes and laserdiscs) back in April 1988, the publication of print merchandise for the anime pretty much ended with it. (The release of Conspiracy of Flight 005 in January 1990 was accompanied by very little in the way of associated “goods” of any sort.)

So it was a source of some excitement here when, while conducting one of my search sweeps close to a year ago, I happened across an entry at the HobbyLink Japan site for something called Dirty Pair Complete Art Works. There was next to no description of the contents, but the book was to have something like 200 pages and would be published in April of 2006. By that time, the release date had been bumped to July, by which time news of many of the other items discussed in this blog started turning up. So I sort of kept one eye on this book listing while looking forward to all the other stuff that would be coming out in the fall.

After several more “bumps”, many more on-line book stores in Japan were listing this and the date had finally settled into December, which would mean the book was coming out around the time of the new DVD releases (see the upcoming entry) and the figure set. (OK, November was going to be an expensive month and I hadn’t even started Christmas shopping yet…)

So, finally, here it is: on 1 December, Shinkigensha released Dirty Pair Complete Art Works (ISBN4-7753-0486-0) [#3 in their Entertainment Archive Series]. As is often the case with such titles, and given what DP anime has become since 1988, the book is not “complete”. It does cover all of the Classic productions under the direction of Dokite Tsukasa. (For those of us who are also Flash fans, we will have to hope that a similar book will appear eventually to supplement the 1995 art book which covers only the first DPF series and some of the planning for the second.)

Now, as a devoted collector of related materials (the polite way to phrase it; the psychiatric diagnosis is subject to physician-patient confidentiality), I believe I have all of the art books and other print items that were made available for “Classic” during 1985-89, yet I still went and bought this. I will recommend it to all new fans of the ’80s anime and to long-time followers of this version. For the first time, all of the productions are treated together in one place. There are extensive sections on each of our two heroines, with their early alternative designs and their subsequent redesigns in each outing, along with all of their various clothing and equipment in the individual episodes and stories. There are also sections for Mughi; the different versions of their ship, Lovely Angel; all of the supporting and many of the incidental characters; and much of the other equipment and mecha appearing in the stories. (While there are many drawings in the old books — and the booklet for the 1994 laserdisc boxed set — that are not found here, only a completist [like me, who’d actually even notice this] would miss them…). You’ll also find complete “cast and staff” lists for all the productions and special short articles on aspects of the anime’s history, including a brief interview with Dokite.

…and you get a foldout mini-poster based on the book’s wraparound cover, featuring a new work by Dokite himself. This book weighs in with 224 pages (32 in color) in a 7-1/4 x 10 inch (B5) format and is a great value for the price (about $20 plus shipping).