Although it’s been released in the U.S. before, and has been on and off multiple streaming platforms, Sunrise’s goofy, delightful action adventure anime adaptation Dirty Pair has never been made available with an English dub. But with the help of fans to overcome the licensing restrictions, that might be about to change.
Nozomi Entertainment and Right Stuf Anime, which have the U.S. release license for the original 1985 anime—itself an adaptation of Haruka Takachiho and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s light novel series—have announced a Kickstarter campaign that will bring Dirty Pair to Blu-ray in the U.S. for the first time. But it’s not the primary reason for the Kickstarter: the majority of the money raised will go toward licensing the Dirty Pair TV series’ first English dub. This isn’t the first time English-language releases have been done through crowdfunding, but it’s becoming more and more of a way to ensure a much larger variety of anime actually gets the treatment.
“The anime market has become very difficult in terms of licensing and costs, and production, especially of deep catalog and niche titles, has become much more risky. We love these shows, to be sure, but the market for them is certainly different,” Nozomi says in the reasons for going with crowdfunding for Dirty Pair. “Fans in general are focused on simulcasts and more recent programs, and this creates more hurdles when making investments in older shows or programs with specific audiences.”
But Dirty Pair is definitely worth the investment. Set in the 22nd century, the series follows two two bounty hunters (dubbed Trouble Consultants) who are known as the Lovely Angels—hothead Kei and the elegant Yuri—as they’re hired to hunt down fugitives. The series shows how the duo earned their more common nickname “Dirty Pair,” mostly because their missions end in near-disaster and with tons of hilariously over-exaggerated collateral damage. The missions are weird, the banter is funny, and the action is usually the right kind of week-in, week-out amount of zaniness that just makes the series a joy to watch. And while fans have long been able to see the series in its original Japanese—which will still be available with subtitles alongside the new dub—the chance to own an HD copy and potentially open Dirty Pair up to a bigger audience through a new dub is exciting.
Nozomi Entertainment’s Kickstarter is running until Sunday, October 31, and needs $275,000 to succeed, with an estimated August 2022 release if the campaign goes through. Head on over to Kickstarter see more from the HD remastering, as well as details of extra add-on tiers like Blu-rays of the other Dirty Pair OVAs and more—or, if you want to learn more about the show, it’s also started streaming subtitled on Retrocrush in the U.S. and Canada today, so you can see what it’s all about before you decide to commit to backing.
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