You're Under Arrest! Second Season

[bwing55543]

You're Under Arrest! Second Season

Synopsis, screenshots, recommendations ~ Add Recommendations

Site Reviews: DistMan

Discuss the completed anime or post full reviews here. Post format and full rules can be found here.
__________________________________________

Synopsis:
One of the female cops has an insatiable appetite and is monstrously strong. The “tough guy” motorcycle officer is extremely shy around the woman he loves. The most beautiful policewoman is actually a man. Welcome to Bokuto Precinct. This series continues the adventures of Kobayakawa Miyuki and Tsujimoto Natsumi, two polar opposites of policewomen.

Story: 9/10
As is stated in the synopsis, the second season of You’re Under Arrest! continues some time after the first season left off. It is recommended that you see both the first season and the movie before seeing this. Even if you saw the first season, if you try to see this series without seeing the movie first (like I have), chances are that you will be just a tad bit lost. However, that is a really minor point of this anime.

Things are every bit as zany as they ever are at Bokuto’s traffic section. The aforementioned characters still work there. One key difference between this series and the first one is the emphasis on character development. Generally, the relationships between Miyuki, Natsumi, and Ken see a lot more development than they did in the first series. Although the second series is still told in a “slice-of-life” fashion, the series actually feels a bit more like a soap opera than did the first one.

Still, much like people in real life, the characters do not seem to devote their entire lives to accomplishing one goal. Just like in real life, a problem presents itself. That problem gets solved, and a new one immediately comes about. Although this is a police-related anime, the majority of the problems are actually not crime-related. Usually, it’s something of the sort of Ken working up the courage to ask Miyuki out, or Natsumi helping people out in a flooded subway. Just like the first series, truly violent crimes are very rare occurrences. No one dies, and the worst thing to ever happen is something like Ken getting into a motorcycle accident and hurting himself. This goes to show that police life is not quite what you see on the news (or on American police shows): it’s not always a “whodunit” scenario with some random schmoe getting murdered every so often. In fact, even The Andy Griffith Show was more violent than this; there a woman angrily chucked a chicken at her husband.

On the whole, much like its predecessor, this season has a pretty realistic story.

Animation: 8.5/10
The animation does see a noticeable step-up from the first series. The problem with the first series, made in 1996, was that it looked a lot older than other anime that came out at around the same time, such as Rurouni Kenshin (also made by Studio Deen). The animation generally looks better in the second series. There is no longer the obnoxious amount of still cels (although there are still some) that plagued the first season.

The driving sequences especially look much better than the first season. That is definitely a good thing since there are more driving sequences than there were in the first season. This will be evident right from the start because there is a chase sequence in the first episode. Since this is a television series, the driving sequences obviously don’t match the exquisitely animated ones from the OVA. Still, they do look quite good. Also, in episode 17, a rain effect similar to the one in OVA 2 was implemented. Again, it looked good, but the OVA’s animation was better.

Fans will notice the changes in character designs. The most jarring one is how Aoi’s hair changed from brown to black. While the male characters generally look the same as they did in the first season, the female characters have more of a “cute” look to them with rounder features and larger eyes. I have to admit that I actually preferred the old designs, which were closer to the manga on which this anime is based. On a final note, the females’ shoes seem to have a bluish tint to them, when they used to be completely black. Still, the designs generally look good, and I’m never one to complain about the character designs in a Fujishima Kousuke anime; they always manage to look good. The best designs, as the first season, are still the female characters, particularly the lovely Kobayakawa Miyuki. Time and time again, Fujishima proved that it is possible to make a female character sexy without having her lose her clothes every so often. Fans of Oh! My Goddess and eX-Driver will recognize his trademark of attractive women behind the wheels of fast cars.

The complaint I have against the animation of the second season is how often cels are reused. This problem is more evident in the driving segments of the anime. Somehow, the Today moves exactly the same as it always does whenever Miyuki activates its nitrous oxide boosters. Somehow, Miyuki’s feet always move in exactly the same way when operating the Today’s pedals. The fact that there are more car action sequences than there were in the first series, although appealing to car nuts like me, actually somewhat heightens this problem.

Although I had some minor complaints against the animation, I have to forgive it since it looks so much better than the first series.

Sound: 8/10
In typical Fujishima tradition, authentic sound effects are used for the vehicles in the anime. This is true for both the high-pitched whine of the Honda Today and the somewhat low rumble of the Toyota Sports 800.

As always, the voice-acting is generally pretty good. I was most impressed with Tamagawa Sakiko’s (Natsumi) and Shimada Bin’s (Ken) acting. Hiramatsu Akiko does a pretty good job as Miyuki, particularly during her emotional oscillations between contentment and frustration.

The second season’s soundtrack is largely composed of the same tunes that were in the first season, which were good. Also, some new tunes are implemented, but none of them really stand out. The anime has new opening and end themes. I have to admit that I am not particularly fond of the opening, “Starting Up”. The instrumentation almost sounds like it was done on a midi keyboard. The vocal performance was okay, but it was not enough to save the rest of the song. I felt the song was more appropriate for a street racing anime, such as Wangan Midnight, where the majority of the soundtrack was techno. The nature of YUA just does not justify a song such as that.

Characters: 10/10
The best part of YUA, as always, is the characters. All of them have the aforementioned idiosyncrasies.

The second season develops the characters much more. This is especially true of Ken. The anime puts more insight in his relationship both with Miyuki and his parents.

I was actually a little surprised how little time Aoi really got as a mainstream character. She (he?) now seems to be more of a “serious” character than she was before. Still, when she appears, it is interesting to see how she deals with love when she has her gender problem to deal with.

Saga Saori, the policewoman wannabe from the first season returns, this time as a full-fledged police officer. She plays a much more significant role than she did in the first series and usually offers comic relief.

Both Natsumi and Miyuki get more development. Much like the other characters in this series, the viewer gets more insight in their different degrees of success with the men they love.

On the whole, although they have their oddities, the characters are still presented in a realistic manner, and that is what makes YUA what it is.

Overall: 8/10
If anything, this season is a worthy sequel to the first one. If you liked the first season, by all means check this one out. If you did not like the first season (I don’t know why you wouldn’t), then you really should avoid this one. The second season is essentially more of the same, which can be a good or bad thing depending on who you are. The producers, like Microsoft with Halo 3, obviously took the approach of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The first season was definitely not broken, and the animation has gotten the face-lift that it needed, so the second season of You’re Under Arrest! is more of what you love with better visuals.

[bwing55543]

I don't know if Distman's review should be linked here; he reviewed Season 1 while I reviewed Season 2.