Now in glorious animation!

 

With the success being enjoyed by the Crusher Joe novels since 1977, an epic feature-length film over two hours long was released in 1983. By contrast, there had only been a single Dirty Pair book, compiling the two print stories from 1979-80. So it was something of a lark for Takachiho and Yasuhiko to slip the Lovely Angels into this movie...

The story takes place in 2161, so the Pair could hardly take part in the action. Instead, about halfway through the movie, they themselves appear... in a movie! Joe and his team have been taken to a clandestine meeting with President Mardola of Lagole, a planet menaced by space pirates. The secret rendezvous occurs at a mid-22nd Century drive-in theater, where they happen to be showing this:

[pages are presented in manga order: right-to-left]

 

"What the hell?!" The face that launched a thousand rounds...

 

Surrounded, outnumbered and no hope of rescue: just the way they like it

(How about that drive-in? It's got balcony parking!)

 

Any time can be Date Time: "This way! C'mon!" "Where are we going?" "There's a great-lookin' guy over there!"

 

A Bloody Card and a nice big gun -- what else do ya need?

 

"You asked for it!" The entire set of three sequences runs for only around thirty seconds, but it created enough of a stir to encourage Studio Nue and Nihon Sunrise Productions to take up work on a broadcast series about two years later.

[Trivia note: in the original Japanese movie, the Angels' voices were provided by Akitsu Yuri (Yuri) and Zumihara Meri (Kei); in the recent (1997) AnimEigo dub, by Aimee Flint (Yuri) and Liz Elsen (Kei).]

 

Images from the Crusher Joe Anime Comic, vol. 2 (Kodansha, 1983)