Taiho Shichauzo! (Dorama)

I have a real soft spot for the You're Under Arrest anime series (I've yet to read the manga). It was the characters that made the series so enjoyable to me, aided by good seiyuu performances. So when I heard that the Japanese were doing a live-action version of the series, I had to watch. Now I know why the series only lasted nine episodes.

This series is one of the cheesiest things I've ever seen in my life! While it was cool seen the real-life "Today" racing through the streets of Japan or Nakajima-kun going on his bike (which actually looks better in the anime), that was where the cool stopped. Man, the actors (male and female) chosen for this are mostly all wrong. Miyuki and Natsumi are almost identical here whereas in the anime, Miyuki was the sweet, intelligent, mechanically-inclind babe with long hair and Natsumi was the wild, wreckless, slobby, but excellent partner. The live-action has the two nearly identical in wrecklessness and other behaviors. I never believed that either actress was the character from the anime and that was sad. The actor playing Nakajima-kun did play a nice guy, but not the same as the anime.

The stories and acting in this are just horrible. I'm not making this up, but I kept cringing as I watching this tripe on my monitor! It was so cheesy that even in so-called serious stories, I felt like I was watching some bad 70's TV program, only with more modern look/feel. As such, it was VERY difficult to force myself to watch this series and not fast-forward at every opportunity.

Bottom line: It is bad enough to give an "avoid", yet it is so bad, you have to see it to believe it. Thus, I recommend a "watch". Fans of the anime/manga should be prepared for the fact that this live-action series is NOT going to live up to the manga/anime standards.

Last updated Thursday, November 10 2005. Created Thursday, November 10 2005.