Dirty Pair Recommended

Publisher
Dark Horse
Writer
Adam Warren
Artist
Adam Warren
Country of origin
Japan
Length
1 volume
Year
2001

Dirty Pair: Dangerous Acquaintances

By David Rasmussen
10th Sep 06

With the whole Best of 2006 voting thing coming around the corner (nomination process to begin November 1st) I was thinking about how it’s been awhile since there’s been anything of note in the AmeriManga category, what with this year showing promise with underdog Seven Seas and longtime company TOKYOPOP facing off with several interesting titles apiece. That being said I thought back to several notables in the category. Some are still relevant, like Ben Dunn for instance. While others… well, are not so. Take Adam Warren (please), now I’m sure he’s still in the industry around (and kicking some assistant as we speak) but for my own personaly experience he might as well have fallen off the planet since I haven’t seen anything of note from him in a long time.

Back in the day, when I was into his work, I followed his one big title… yeah, before the whole MARVEL Mangaverse thing and his going there which lead to whatever he’s doing now I used to read his take on the Dirty Pair, but that was then and this is… well, this is now. He doesn’t do the Dirty Pair anymore. Not since his last original title (Run From The Future), and his last George Lucas style revisioning of his work (Sim Hell Remastered) has he even touched on this franchise that he started quite some years ago, effectively falling right off the recogintion radar for myself at that point… not that his series was on the radar of many Dirty Pair purists who more often than not were quite opposed to his revisioning of the pair, sticking to their guns and the Haruka Takachiho vision of the series that has it’s roots way back in old school movie Crusher Joe.
Eh? Well, in brief here’s the overall evolution of the Pair (which, as I mentioned in a different piece, is embroiled in a popular urban myth concerning the “birth” of the Yuri (girl on girl action) genre).

Version 1
The original that appeared in a cameo (in the drive-in theater sequence) in Crusher Joe (movie). They later appeared in some novels written by Mr. Takachiho.
They looked different than they do in future incarnations, and this is the only version in which the pair had a bit of psychic abilities (while the on and off again representation of Mughi, their sidekick “pet”, resembled a Displacer Beast from AD&D as opposed to the giant fuzzy bear thingee from Dirty Pair TV/OVA, a look by the way that is revisited again in Dirty Pair-Flash but only in cute chibi form).

Version 2
The 1985 TV Series version (which also appeared in a OAV called Affair on Nolandia if memory serves me correctly... and it doesn't always do that so don't blame me if I'm slightly off) is Version 2. The psychic abilities are now gone, Mughi is a giant fuzzy thing (no longer the agile and striking Displacer Beast knockoff) and they gain a mechanical addition to the team in a little gizmo called Nanmo (if I remember right).
The series runs for 26 episodes and the aforementioned OAV.

Version 3
The 1987 OAV Series (new costumes and apparently a little older), sometimes referred to as Dirty Pair TV II or TV Season 2 with10 OAVs (or TV episodes depending on who you ask), one Movie and one more OAV rounding out this version.

Version 4 to 4b - Adam Warren's works fall into this Version.
Version 4 - The first two Graphic Novels (Biohazard and Dangerous Acquaintances) fill up this version. Kind of resembling the Version 1 Pair, Adam is just getting into the swing of doing this series and the series is more story driven, not to mention abit risque, at this point.

Version 4a - The second three Graphic Novels (Plague of Angels, Sim Hell & Fatal But Not Serious) take up this version. The Pair begin to form their own look while still maintaining a resemblance to their original counterpart, branching out into three stories that sees the title shift from Eclipse to Dark Horse (who swallowed up Eclipse if I remember right concerning the events of way back when), and an apparent series altering event that happens in Fatal which brings about Version 4b… the shortest lived version.
(NOTE - One of these, Sim Hell, got a redress with a Remastered version… which is, to date, the only Adam Warren Dirty Pair volume to get such a redress).

Version 4b - A one shot and this Graphic Novel round out the short history of this version, completely going in a new direction though not for long as Mr. Warren seemed to have become burned out by the Pair to the point that not even a complete overhaul could bring him back from the brink of shelving the Pair seemingly permanently.

Version 5 - Dirty Pair Flash! version. Going back to Japan we see the birth of the last Dirty Pair franchise series, which lives through a series of OAVs (now found on a single collector’s DVD available at a cheap price from Right Stuf International) and a series of mangas that, to date, have not made the jump across the Pacific to English translation.
(NOTE - I’ll go dig up that DVD set for you and give you a review in the near future).

Version 6 - Nope. Once upon a time I was optimistic about the birth of a 6th Version of the Pair…. But now that all this time has passed I have become jaded to the fact that there will probably never be a 6th version of the Pair. Never.
Sure, go on, prove me wrong Haruka Takachiho or Adam Warren, prove me wrong. I, for one, am not ashamed to admit that I want to be proven wrong at least where this one “Fact” as it presently stands is concerned.

Now, as you came here to relive the glories of Adam Warren past… here it is. The second outing of Adam Warren’s series (and the second in his original Eclipse run), Dangerous Acquaintances.

Whikle on vacation on the planet Rocinate, the Pair run into an old “friend” who used to be a fellow 3WA agent turned evil. A genetically engineered superagent who eventually fell to the Dark Side (only without the emoting or whining, chopping off of Samuel L. Jackson’s hand, the burning in lava or the voice change to that of James Earl Jones) and became bad to her artifically created bones. But that was then (told through a series of flashbacks throughout the course of the story), this is now as Kei spots Shasti accidentially (while drunk no less) which leads to them becoming involved in her schemes involving the planet’s fascist extremists and their plot to upset the planet’s 25th Anniversary of their independence (though entirely for her own self serving reasons).

Being how this is the Pair back in it’s origin days this is far different from the experience from, say, Run From The Future. Being more plot driven, the story serves up action and risque while also being more about the story than the flash in the pan guilty pleasure that was Run. Also this Pair, unlike the Version 4b Pair, were abit more on the raunchy side. Drinking, cussing, stronger emotional mood swings and overall sex drive (without the 18+ sex mind you) that the subsequent Pair didn’t come near to emulating highlight the personality differences between this first Pair and the latter ones from Adam Warren.
In a sense, then, while this does not have the visual flair of the earlier Pair it does have a stronger punch in another sense that the latter Pair might have missed in it’s visual upgrade. If you are a Pair fan then digging into the original first volumes of the series will serve you well, as you’ll see Adam Warren’s Pair in a whole new (and vastly changed) light here. Breakdown time.

Dirty Pair-Dangerous Breakdown
What's Hot?
That basically depends on who you ask. Really.
Purists mostly never liked the Adam Warren Pair to begin with, so when realization finally sets in that Adam Warren may never return to the Pair? You won’t see them cry anytime soon… they might throw a Dirty Pair Convention to celebrate, sure, but they won’t cry on the passing of the 4th Version of the Pair.

May I recommend, if you have the consoles, time and the monthly subscription fee, the world of Final Fantasy XI for your convention? It’s a relatively quiet MMORPG now that everyone’s moved on the Guild Wars, Star Wars : Galaxies (version 2) and World of Warcraft so you will probably have whole cities for yourselves and your virtual convention. (Of course if you want a free place to meet you’ll go Guild Wars).

What's Not?
It's been... what? Now when it comes to this volume it’s been forever and ever since this one came out, and about four going on five when the last Dirty Pair book from Adam Warren saw the light of day with that fresh new trade paperback smell on it.
When will he do another one? I don’t think so, but that’s my own personal grumble on the whole thing. In fact… I don’t even know WHAT he’s doing anymore!! Anybody know what Adam Warren is doing these days? Anyone? Please e-mail me if you know! Thanks guys, thanks for… something.

Moments to Remember?
It’s almost as if this is a whole different beast than subsequent outings, and that’s exactly what this is… a completely new beast that really shows how different the series was in it’s beginnings over the way it became in subsequent versions.
If you like abit more teeth to your Pair this might be the version for you, with a more grittier guilty pleasure over the immediate guilty pleasure from the last volume of the series. And that little 4-1-1 basically says it all about the Eclipse run, though I still have to read Biohazard and Plague of Angels to see if that holds true throughout.

What to Ignore?
Not much to ignore… shouldn’t since this is classic AW Pair.

Overall?
The series is over, and like I said above it’s all a matter of taste here. There is no middle ground when it comes to Adam Warren’s now defunct Dirty Pair franchise, you are either pro or anty-AWDP…. But if you are a fan of Adam Warren (whatever he’s doing now) and want to be Pair Curious then you should really start to check these out. Maybe you’d like to start here… or maybe flash forward to later Pairs (like the Dark Horse era Sim Hell slash Fatal But Not Serious Pair for instance).
Either way, there are six volumes in the series so check them out.
As for this one? A step above despite it’s older feel the series is abit more grittier and storydriven than later outings, which gives it a leg up over final run Run, which shows as I give Dangerous a more accepting 4... Out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 10th Sep 06