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[ café reviews ]

Ken shows concern for an ill Miyuki.

tai_0000.gif

Taiho Shichauzo!
File 3: Love's Highway Stars




Distributed by: Kodansha (Japan), AnimEigo (North America)
Length: 25 minutes
Rating: NR, suitable for family viewing
Format: Subtitled (VHS)

Based on the manga series by: Fujishima Kosuke Director: Producers: Character Design: English Version Executive Producer: Robert J. Woodhead Translation by: Shin Kurokawa, Matsushima Naoko


[ plot summary ]

vhs jacket

Yoriko does it again. Accidentally seeing Miyuki's scheduler with an appointment marked in red which required a reply... what could it be? It must be an arranged meeting no doubt! Only what about Ken? The poor guy who can't say two words to Miyuki unless it's something to do with bikes or repairs or something similarly harmless. However, things go from bad to worse when Natsumi takes Ken on an all-night joy-ride while Miyuki's away creating all sorts of misunderstandings and bad rumours at the precinct. Will the precinct survive? Will Ken ever really be able to say anything to Miyuki? And will the Captain ever see the light of day again?


[ capsule review ]

My favourite episode of the series. The combination of Ken's inability to express his feelings (where have we seen this before?) added to Yoriko's never-ending bag of rumours is just too good of a plot device to pass up. Yoriko gets to steal the show twice in the same scene; once with her "beh!" expression, and then right afterwards when her co-workers decide to tell her to "put a bag over it!" in their own way. I love the way Tamagawa Sakiko (Natsumi) can deliver long lines -- she did the wonderful little monologue when presenting an excuse for her tardiness to the Captain in episode 1; she gets another good line when making a wish at a temple in this episode. I did like the stake-out by the local precinct (BTW, the Japanese have a big "cultural thing" about having a third-party go-between to help mediate difficult situations. I imagine that this sort of thing wouldn't appear on the job descriptions of the average police captain in North America!) I didn't think too much of the setup between Kido and Miyuki -- it was a little too contrived for my tastes. Still, the "warm fuzzies" from the ending are there, and there's enough humour to be had to make this one an easy recommendation. - AN


Thanks to some misunderstandings between Miyuki, Natsumi and Nakajima a temporary love triangle seems to form, with mixed results for the precinct. Having gone through some rather tense situations at work, it's really amazing at how much work gets done and yet how *very* aware you are of each and every passing minute. Still, I think that the Captain in this case got the worst end of the deal, and probably won't be able to crawl out from the paper work for a month. Nakajima is just like Keichi in AMG, unable to really say anything to Miyuki about how he feels and yet in the end, able to at least get something across to her. BTW, you have been catching the little epilogues after the closing credits for each episode right? The one little oddball thing that I've been noticing in all of these episodes is that there are two things being dealt with in each episode. Episode 1 had the run to get to work and the race after the mini, 2 had the sick kitty and the Lancia race, and now here we had Miyuki's reunion and the difficulties between Miyuki, Natsumi and Nakajima; very basic plots. However, the story continues to be very nice and cute and it's lots of fun to watch (especially Nakajima's expressions!). - JYN



[ café rating ]

Original: Subbed: Dubbed:
Story: N/A 4 stars N/A
Direction: N/A 4 stars N/A
Acting: N/A 4 stars N/A
Animation: N/A 4 stars N/A
Music: N/A 3 stars N/A
Translation: N/A 5 stars N/A
Overall Rating: N/A 4 stars N/A


[ café trivia ]



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Page last modified 1999.09.27