Anime/Manga Review
“You’re Under Arrest” by Kosuke Fujishima

Before there was “Oh, My Goddess,” Kosuke Fujishima published another popular series about a bunch of misfit traffic cops of the Bokuto Precinct, it was called “You’re Under Arrest.” Just like his better known series, you have a very funny series about the public and private lives of police officers which has been done as a OAV series and more recently, an TV series and movie but here you get to meet the characters in their original form (the only minus is Fujishima only allowed those stories he considered his best from the series to be published here by Dark Horse Comics).

The main characters are Natsumi Tsujimoto and Miyuki Kobayakawa, tow very interesting policewomen. Natsumi is known as the strongest officer in Nihon (known as ‘gorilla woman’ outside the precinct) while Miyuki is an excellent professional as well as a mechanic freak (who can upgrade and repair anything on wheels) and a sharpshooter with any weapon. Surrounding them are Officer Yoriko (she’s the precinct’s information and gossip hound), Officer Aoi (a male cross-dresser who is more feminine than most of the female officers), Officer Ken Nakajima (the precinct’s motorcycle cop who has trouble talking to woman, especially the one he is in love with, Miyuki) and their Chief (a man who has to keep this three-ring circus in check). Around this little group you have the precinct’s local vigilante, Strikeman, Daimaru Nakajima (Ken’s forty-five-year-old father and a real motorcycle fanatic) and Sena Wakabayashi (Daimaru’s new wife and Ken’s fourteen-year-old stepmother).

Besides the usual hijinks, you get to see how similar and different police work is when you compare Nihonjin police and Nihonjin culture is to ours. In the end, you will love this series (the graphic novels of the series is published by Dark Horse Comics, the OAV anime series is distributed by AnimeEigo in the US but the TV series and the movie can only be found as fansubbs).