You're Under Arrest! No Mercy!

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You're Under Arrest! No Mercy!!

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Synopsis:
Miyuki and Natsumi get transferred to the Los Angeles Police Department. There, they encounter officers eerily similar to those back home. Things quickly get personal when Miyuki’s Mustang gets stolen. It is up to Miyuki, Natsumi, and the LAPD to recover the Mustang and stop the car-theft ring.

Story: 1/10

*Sigh* Where did this anime go wrong? Among the multitude of flaws this Special had, although not the most obvious, the most egregious is the story.

First, I am aware that there are negative stereotypes of Americans. I am also aware that American people often do a good job of proving that those stereotypes are well-founded. However, YUA: No Mercy! Depicts Americans as trigger-happy shopaholic nutjobs. I know malls are always packed in America, but I have never heard of Americans, particularly the police, just opening fire on suspects who just stole a car. Let me just say that although I’m not very easily offended and I do not feel typical American nationalism, this anime actually offended me as an American.

Aside from offending me, YUA: No Mercy also tried to do what most OVAs try and fail: trying to fit a big story into a really short amount of time. As you may expect, the end result was a disaster. The OVA tried to hard to have American-cop-related comedy (which, by the way, was not funny) and implement the plot of the stolen Mustang. The trouble was that all of this was supposed to happen within twenty minutes. Thus, there was absolutely no room for any sort of development of the characters. Still, the lack of time really cannot act as a suitable excuse for the lousy writing; eX-Driver: Nina and Rei Danger Zone proved that it actually is possible to write a decent plot for a twenty minute OVA.

Animation: 2/10
The most obvious problem with No Mercy is the animation. Right from the first chase sequence, viewers will see that the OVA was made on a very low budget.

Since No Mercy was the Special to go at the end of Season 2, the character designs look like the Season 2 designs. That pretty much is the only good thing about the animation in No Mercy.

The problem starts when there are actually things moving. To sum it up, nothing moved properly. Just about every animation sin that could be committed was committed. Still cels get used. Cels get reused. Still cels get reused. Even when none of those occur, some idiotic-looking shortcuts still are implemented. My favorite example is when Saori (I mean Sally) does a cowboy-style trick with two magnum revolvers; it was just some moving lines and shapes meant to simulate two spinning revolvers. In all of the driving sequences, the cars all moved as if they were landspeeders from Star Wars rather than vehicles that contact the road with tires; they all seemed to sort of float above the ground.

Finally, I was actually not too impressed with the art of the cars. Usually, YUA has a very high attention to detail regarding the cars. The final sequence in this OVA involved a Dodge Viper GTS. I know I am not a great artist, but I do know that even I can draw a better Viper than what the animators used in No Mercy.

Sound: 1/10

Much like everything else, the sound was a disaster.

Usually, YUA impresses me with the voice work and the music. Not so here. I was actually even disappointed with Shimada Bin’s (normally Nakajima Ken, here he’s Cain) acting. I do not know if Shimada’s heart just was not in acting in this lousy anime, or if he was just egregiously miscast for someone of Cain’s personality. Hiramatsu Akiko (Miyuki) also gave a very flat, uninspired performance.

If any of you have read my review of You’re Under Arrest Season 2, you would know I was not fond of the opening song because of the MIDI-like instrumentation. Well, in No Mercy, the MIDI extends itself into the main soundtrack. The soundtrack of No Mercy sounds like it’s better suited toward an old, NES-era video game.

Characters: 0/10

This is what ultimately kills the anime: the characters.

As I mentioned earlier, the characters are all based on stereotypes. The LAPD is made of “Americanized” clones of the Bokuto officers, all with opposite character traits. The most notable is Cain, a blond Ken who is an outright womanizer with some of the dumbest pick-up lines. There is also the tan gun saleswoman Rico, the No Mercy equivalent of Yoriko; the trigger-happy Sally, No Mercy’s Saori; a more “forward” Aoi; and a murderous Kachou. None of these characters got any development.

The most irritating aspect of these characters is that they do everything that real officers do not, such as blasting suspects’ cars with shotguns, threatening suspects with magnum revolvers, and not calling for backup. Kachou’s rationale for the last point is that the reinforcements would take too long to arrive, so officers present should just unleash whatever firepower (which, in this anime, is a lot) they have.

The fact that the characters are bad is a real blow because the best part of YUA had always been the characters.

Overall: 1/10

You’re Under Arrest! No Mercy! should serve as an example to all anime makers: do not take a very “Japanese” anime and set it in America. If you still want to make that setting, do not try so hard to push the buttons of a potential American audience. After seeing this OVA, I can see why it was not licensed in America.

On another note, from a YUA fan to fellow YUA fans, I urge you to pretend this anime did not exist. As it is, the story is not cannon, so you would not miss anything by not seeing this. No Mercy! is an insult to anything good (which there is a lot of) to have born the name You’re Under Arrest!.