You're Under Arrest! the Movie

[bwing55543]

Synopsis:
On a routine patrol, Officers Aoi and Yoriko uncover a weapons stash and plans to destroy the city. Soon after that, a bridge explodes after a mysterious phone call tipping the Bokuto Precinct off. On top of that, the chief somehow got himself implicated in the plan. Once again, it is up to Officers Kobayakawa Miyuki and Tsujimoto Natsumi to get to the bottom of the plot.

Story: 6/10
I know, the synopsis makes this movie seem like the perfect solution to the lack of action that previous YUA anime had; that is not true. Quite frankly, this movie was REALLY boring for approximately the first half. It was mostly Arizuka yelling at the chief with some comic relief placed at some really inappropriate times.

Other than said poorly-placed comic relief, this movie had no humor in it. I guess that considering the plot of this movie, a lack of comedy is actually not a bad thing. However, YUA is supposed to be primarily a dramatic comedy type anime, and quite frankly, this movie lacked both drama and comedy. This has a lot to do with the fact that the Miyuki/Nakajima relationship doesn't get developed, which was the primary source both for drama and comedy in the TV series.

As much as I like action, I felt this movie was a little too concerned with the action. I did notice that the officers of Bokuto seemed to be a lot more trigger-happy than they normally are. Granted, all the guns they used were airsoft weapons loaded with paintball cartridges. Still, it's a really odd site to see Yoriko manning an M60 machine gun. I guess this movie is a good way to show fans that violent crimes do occur every now and then...

Animation: 7/10
For a feature film, YUA: the Movie's animation is average at best.

The first thing fans will notice is the amazing artwork. The artwork actually exceeded the quality of the OVA with absolutely perfect colors. The way the animators depicted Tokyo shows some very meticulous attention to detail.

Of course, one can never mention a Fujishima Kousuke anime without mentioning the character designs. The women look great, as always. Kinoshita, especially, looks surprisingly lovely.

However, the amazing art can only take this movie so far. When the animation actually moves, the movie looks great. The Honda Today looks awesome in motion as does every other vehicle. However, note how I used the phrase "actually moving". This movie COMPLETELY overdid it with the still cels. It's evident that the animators opted to use them for the situations that would have been more difficult to animate, such as when a helicopter crashed into a fence.

Finally, I felt that the characters' faces never really seemed as expressive as they should. The only times that they seemed expressive enough is during some of the "funny" parts when the facial expressions had to be exaggerated.

Because of the use of still cels, this movie actually fails to live up to even the OVA's standards.

Sound: 9/10
The music in this movie was actually quite good. Unlike other anime, YUA: the Movie actually knew when to not play music. Whenever there was music, it generally fit the scene quite well. The ending theme was actually fitting.

The seiyuu seemed to have outdone themselves. More than the major characters, I was most impressed with the voices of the random police officers that chattered with each other over the police radios. As always, the lead characters do a decent job voicing their characters.

Characters: 7/10
Compared to the other YUA! anime, the movie's focus on the characters was quite disappointing. On one hand, the chief gets a lot of development since this movie's story is largely based on his past catching up to him; this is good because the TV series never really gave him enough screen time to really develop his character.

On the other hand, the script just seems barely adequate enough for the rest of the characters to jump in, do their thing, and jump back out. The two leads, Miyuki and Natsumi, especially get short-changed when it comes to development. Fans will especially disappointed with the fact that absolutely NOTHING happens that pretains to the Miyuki/Nakajima relationship, particularly because Nakajima, like just about every character outside of the two leads and the Chief, got very little screen time.


Overall: 7/10
I know that I didn't have terribly high hopes for this movie after reading certain reviews, so I wasn't too disappointed. What bothers me is how this movie could have been so much better than it actually was.