4/5 Strongly recommended for non-Anime fans too
  by David Lim (Hobart, Tasmania)
I was introduced to Japanese anime by a friend of mine about a year ago, so I'm a newcomer to this genre. I'd heard of this series via some affectionate references in other anime that I'd watched, so I thought I'd give You're Under Arrest a go.

Firstly, for newcomers the 1st 4 episodes on this DVD Boxset are the best place to start. It's a great introduction to the characters, and covers most (if not all) of the themes that the larger series does. This includes "slice of life" episodes that deal with the characters personal lives. And also crime-related stories that can get quite serious, but don't feature blood or violence in any way or form.

The real strength of this series are the characters. The two female leads (Miyuki and Natsumi) are totally likeable and charming. I much prefer the Japanese voice actors (Akiko Hiramatsu and Sakiko Tamagawa respectively) over their US counterparts. I particularly enjoy Tamagawa's rendition of Natsumi - her voice acting while drunk was hilarious. Both the leads get romantic interests (Nakajima and Toukairin) respectively. Unfortunately, only one of these romances gets a payoff at the very end of the series.

Supporting characters Aoi and Yuriko are also interesting, and get at least one standalone episode respectively between them to explore their characters. Aoi's character is particularly interesting, as she's actually a man cross-dressing as a woman. Yuriko is an incurable gossip - which is normally the kind of character I can't stand, but she's surprisingly well-handled here.

My biggest dislike is the "villain" Strike Man, who appears in the main series. I really really can't stand this character and his constant over-dramatic posturing. "Is your heart of justice strong enough?!!?". Whatever. Fortunately, he only gets a handful of episodes during the first series.

Be warned that there's a noticeable drop in animation quality between the OVA (episodes 1-4) and the rest of the series. It doesn't descend to the same turgid level as some of the early eighties Saturday morning cartoon shows, but it does come close. Fortunately, the strength of the characters and the writing shine through enough to make it worthwhile watching.

In short, I love this series. It has some great writing, some very funny but also dramatic moments, and some of the most likeable and charming characters I've yet come across in anime.


5/5 What a good series and this is just set 1
  by Ronnie Clay (Winnsboro, Louisiana)
Character development is key in this series. The rather brash Natsume joins Bakooko Precinct and is teamed up with the sweet and punctual Miyuki. They're both charming, likable and pretty cute to boot! ^^ While they may have somewhat opposite personalities, they're both incredibly fun to watch, and it's interesting to see the friendship between the two develop. They're supported by several other characters including the resident gossip, Yoriko, the tough yet shy motocycle cop, Nakajima, and their stoic, yet kind police chief.

3/5 reviewer steven ressel was right about EP 1-4
  by N. Iqbal
After reading Steven ressel's remarks about ep 1-4 where the camera floats around & was innovative was on the mark.

It's interesting to compare the camera work on those episodes to be very matrix-y ie the wachowskis may have been inspired to mimic the movement as these episodes occurred in 94-96 while matrix came out in 99.

And the level of detail in drawing & coloring is very close to flimic as anime can come close to for TV.

However, the stories are quite anemic regarding 1-4

4/5 Split rating on great package...
  by Stephen Ressel (North Dakota, USA)
AnimEigo always makes nice packages. Bits of design are a bit stodgy or pedantic, but over all they really give nice finish to most all releases in grade A effort to give fans something to cherish. Naturally, thats on top of what is contained on the DVDs. The recent rise of 'cool' packaging on anime such as this, RahXephon, FLCL, Ninja Scroll 10th anniversary, OMG movie, are all great thrusts to boost anime releases above bargain-basement video. And I salute the effort, honestly, dotingly, and....whatever...

Anyway, YUA box set one is a split rating. The first DVD has the four previously rleased OVA episodes made in the early 90's by a brilliant crew of writers, directors, animators, designers breaking the stale rules of story and art in animation. Perhaps, most enlightening to me is the use of layers and camera to give speed and intrigue to any chase. They took the camera and broke it from it's usual, formal X-Y axis of movement and were just FLOATING it around. On top of that, a careful, and BRILLIANT use of color, light and lighting effects gave a super-real feel to this cartoon while suspending disbelief and thrusting my into a super stylized, romanticized version of their reality where pregnant cats and jerky speed demons take precedence in life, and awkward relationships define the qualities of the characters and stories. When you think that this was shot under camera, with all the double and tripple passes, and mattes used to bring out backlights and transparencies, it is truely a marvel on the level of Disney's old 'Ghost Chasers' (?) short with Donald, Goofy and Mickey. Technically and entertainment wise, these OVAs are the best bargain. TRUE 5 STARS, and the reason I really purchased the box set.

The remainer of episodes are from the TV series (disks 2 AND 3), and I assume only half a season or less. Quality drops substantial (to be expected), but more disappointing is the lack of cohesive writing. The stories are fun, and do make sense, but the world changes for the worse as a 'siperhero' called STRIKEMAN becomes a primary tool in crafting the season, and a crossdressing dude shows up to help the plice station...however, he can't stop being a woman, so he becopmes the SEXY girl on staff, but hides a special something. Miyuki and Kenny's relationship kind of warbles along at an awkward distance, never really going anywhere. The art is pretty ancient; looks like old Macross from 1981, or maybe cheap A-ko sequels from 1986. The technical and writing aspects of the OVAs are lost. However, the stories are still enjoyable in themselves.

The fourth disk contains extras, however I haven't thoroughly scanned over them. I saw some artwork that looked pretty horrid, and wondered why it was included. Aside from that, I can't say what is on the disk.

If you are a fan of the manga or works of Kosuke Fujishima, buy it. If you want the OVAs alone, you might want to buy only the first disk if it is available.

5/5 Charming police comedy
  by Steven Myers (SF Bay Area)
This box set of You're Under Arrest is the first of four, and contains episodes 1 through 12 (out of roughly 50), along with a bonus disc of extras (mostly art galleries and voice actor clips, nothing special there).

Focusing on two female police officers who will do just about any crazy thing to capture criminals, You're Under Arrest features a wide assortment of regular and semi-regular characters, nearly all of whom are fundamentally weirdos. Miyuki and Natsumi, the two leads, are the most competent and the most dangerous police officers at Bokuto Station, and they charge about Tokyo in a souped-up patrol car (courtesy of Miyuki's mechanical skill). They chase down everything from underwear thieves to the recurring vigilante Strike-Man to villains dressed up as Santa Claus. You're Under Arrest works because the large cast (police and non-police alike) is fleshed out nicely. There will be characters you like and dislike (my favorite is the long-suffering Ken Nakajima, Miyuki's sort-of boyfriend), but you get to know them all.

You're Under Arrest needs some caveats, however. First, this set is just the first of four box sets, so it shouldn't be just an impulse buy. Second, some of the characters are rather perverted (this increases as the series goes on), and one of the more important supporting characters is a transvestite, so the show as a whole is not really appropriate for younger viewers (although, individually, many of the episodes might be). Finally, the first four episodes were actually a direct-to-video series done some time before the remaining TV episodes were done. The first four are much higher quality animation, so you may be disappointed by the dropoff in technical quality starting in episode 5. This isn't really a criticism, however; that's just a reality of TV animation budgets.