Giant rampaging monsters! Invading aliens from outer space! Time traveling geneticaly-inhanced super humans! Angst-ridden schoolgirls in robotic battle suits! Traffic control! Parking violations! ...Wait a minute! ..Traffic control? ...Parking violations? Who could possibly have a highly popular manga and anime series about traffic control?
Kosuke Fujishima - that's who!
In You're Under Arrest! (Taiho Shichauzo! in Japan), traffic control officers Miyuki Kobayakawa and Natsumi Tsujimoto have their hands full dealing with bad drivers, quirky criminals, and office hijinks in the fictional Bokuto Precinct of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
Being his first published
series, You're Under Arrest! showcases Fujishima's development
as a writer and artist. During his starting job as an editor
for the comics news magazine Puff, one of his assignments
was to conduct an interview with Tatsuya Egawa. In a bold move
after the interview, he asked Egawa if he would be interested
in an assistant. After reviewing Fujishima's work, Egawa had
himself a new assistant!
When Egawa's original manga Be Free! was to be released as a live-action movie in 1986, Kosuke Fujishima created a manga-style report called Making of Be Free! for Comic Morning. Considered his professional debut, the two policewomen characters that he created caused Comic Morning to receive fan mail asking to see more. Inspired by the fan response, the series You're Under Arrest! appeared in Morning Party Extra in 1986.
To promote a 1988 reader contest for various You're Under Arrest! merchandise prizes, he created a four-panel gag short showing Miyuki and Natsumi praying to a goddess - trying to influence their chances of winning prizes. Pleased with the goddess that he had created, she became the model for one of his most well-known and loved characters, Belldandy, and the inspiration behind the creation of the Oh! My Goddess series! It debuted on September 25, 1989 in Comic Afternoon.
Recently, Kosuke Fujishima has done character designs for various video games, such as Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) and Tales of Phantasia, and the recent OVA series eX-Driver (eX-D). He also draws illustrations for various magazines in addition to his Oh! My Goddess! works.
Fujishima's You're Under Arrest! manga series led to a four part OVA series, a 47 episode TV series, a 17 mini-episode special TV series, a theatrical movie, and a new ongoing TV series beginning April 7, 2001 on TBS.
To explain the popularity of You're Under Arrest!, one needs to look at the characters that started it all. The heroines of the series, Miyuki Kobayakawa and Natsumi Tsujimoto, are police officers assigned to the traffic control department. At first glance this unlikely team appears to be the Dirty Pair of the 20th century - minus the collateral damage. However, instead of foiling galactic conspiracies, evil geniuses, and malfunctioning robots, these two Lovely Angels have the unenviable task of keeping the streets and expressways of modern day Tokyo running smoothly.
Miyuki qualifies as the brains of the duo
with her research skills and mechanical genius. Her levelheadedness
and rational mind are offset by her shy demeanor and emotional
frailty. She prefers to work in the background, but when challenged
she fights back with a ferocity that leaves all adversaries reeling
in defeat. Miyuki hates to lose, especially when it comes to
driving. Reckless drivers beware! As she says, "If they
run, I chase them. It's my job, and I'm very good at it!"
Legendary in the police department, Miyuki's driving skills rival
those of another famous female anime driver. 
But
this is Tokyo, not Chicago, and car type, horsepower, and physical
size are highly restricted by the government. What's a girl to
do? Break out the toolbox! Her personally modified Mini-Patrol
Car, a Honda Today, boasts a turbocharger and a custom-made nitrous-oxide
injection systems and exceeds 100 horsepower. In pursuit of lawbreakers
Miyuki is fast and furious, but her pursuit of love seems to
be crawling at a snail's pace. The target of this affection is
one Ken Nakajima, but she can't quite work up the nerve to tell
him how she really feels.
Natsumi on the other hand provides the brawn to the team. Thanks to inherited strength from her father, a professional wrestler, she performs almost superhuman feats of strength on a regular basis. Her most notable include carrying her motorbike on her shoulders and using her feet as emergency brakes for their Mini-Patrol car. My personal favorite is in Special File 3.3 when she makes balloon-animal figures out of steel bars, deflating the ego of a street performer and amazing the large crowd of onlookers! Natsumi's strength is matched by her quick temper, voracious appetite, and total lack of fiscal responsibility. Ready to fight, eat, or party at a moments notice, she usually leaves her opponents in tears, restaurant owners in shock, and Miyuki's wallet empty. While Miyuki prefers automobiles, Natsumi's vehicles of choice are motorcycles. Though she owns a larger, more powerful bike, Natsumi is better known for riding a Honda Moto-Compo. This small, folding motorcycle fits neatly inside the back hatch of their mini-patrol car and is considered Natsumi's secret weapon. Many unsuspecting lawbreakers have felt the humiliation of being bested by her "baby", thanks to agile driving and Miyuki's custom engine upgrades. While being a terror on two wheels, Natsumi is an absolute nightmare on four. Her total lack of car knowledge is made apparent in the manga and first TV series when she decides to get a auto drivers license and buy herself a car. There are some things that a motorcycle can do and a car can't, but she tries them anyway!
The interaction between these two personalities is what makes this series so loved by the fans. When developing the characters, Fujishima intentionally set them up as opposites (Natsumi being a summer name and Miyuki a winter name). As the series progresses, we see their relationship evolve from a simple partnership to a close personal bond, but they never lose the quirks and personality traits that the fans love.
The manga started
out with the partnership of Miyuki and Natsumi firmly established
and ran for a total of 79 issues, with each issue labeled as
a "File". Any similarity to the way actual police files
are numbered is strictly intentional, and this system was retained
when the series was chosen to be animated. The 79 files were
later compiled into 5 paperback volumes. When the series was
licensed by Dark Horse Comics to be published in the US, the
company decided to start with issue 53, due to the release of
the OVA's by AnimEigo. Since the following issues were used by
the character designers to develop the anime, the characters
would be most recognizable to the readers. The OVA's also provided
a suitable background on most of the characters, including the
story of how Miyuki and Natsumi's partnership began - a topic
not covered in the manga story line. Dark Horse Comics published
You're Under Arrest! as an 8 issue series from December
1995 to July 1996, followed by The Wild Ones and Lights
and Siren!, two trade paperback compilations published in
October 1997 and December 1999 respectively. As of today, there
is no word if any more issues will be translated and published
in the future, but Dark Horse still retains the option to do
so.
As the manga story evolved, so did the character designs. Early versions of Miyuki and Natsumi can hardly be recognized by those who started reading late in the series. The changes reflect the development of Kosuke Fujishima as an artist, as well as influences from his other works.
While the early stories dealt mostly
with our heroic duo dispatching various criminals, perverts,
hotshots, and morons, later issues rounded out the cast with
the addition of fellow police officers and a variety of reoccurring
characters.
At the top of the duty roster at Bokuto Police Station is the Chief (also know as the Captain or Kachou). Due to his rank, everyone refers to him by his title - so we never find out what his real name is! His air of authority is tempered by a devious streak, and he always knows how to get his officers to do what he wants. Especially Natsumi, who falls for his sneaky tricks due to her attraction to authoritative middle-aged men. Miyuki suffers from no such handicap and catches the deceptions, but usually not before Natsumi has agreed to whatever odd duty the Chief has in store for them.
Miyuki's attraction
leans toward fellow officer Ken Nakajima. As one of the top motorcycle
patrol officers at the station, he always seems to arrive on
the scene whenever Miyuki and Natsumi need a little extra help.
His patrol motorcycle, a Suzuki GSX-R750, has been personally
updated by Miyuki and is a perfect match for the riding style
that he learned from his father, a local cycling legend. Known
as the "White Hawk of Bokuto", Ken's macho facade crumbles
in the face his feelings for Miyuki. His constant fumbling of
any attempts to ask her out, often after threats of bodily harm
by Natsumi, provide ample fodder for office gossip.
The one spreading
that gossip is usually Yoriko Nikaidou, a excellent source of
personal information, as long as accuracy in not a high priority.
Her hobby of eavesdropping on conversations around the office
and her uncanny luck for being at the right place at the right
time provide many humorous misunderstandings. Although her rumors
and stories are a constant source of frustration for the officers
of Bokuto Station, she's just to kind and sweet to hold a grudge
against. More of an office lady than a crime fighter, Yoriko
usually pulls the lighter duties and would rather help children
cross the street than chase down criminals.
The perfect partner
for Yoriko arrives in File 52 of the manga (File 5 of the first
TV series). Aoi Futaba, the most feminine and refined officer
at the station, is also the most controversial. Before being
assigned to the traffic control department, he was assigned to
the undercover rape prevention squad. No, that's not a typo,
Aoi is actually a guy! His assignment was to be a "decoy"
to catch perverts and rapists. With an intense devotion to duty,
Aoi decided that in order to be a better decoy he needed to study
everything about being a woman. During his course of his decoy
assignment, he realized that he had become accustomed to it and
felt more comfortable as a woman. When his assignment came to
an end, it was decided that duty as a female traffic officer
was most suited to his current "situation". His arrival
causes a temporary logistics crisis for both the male and female
officers at the station, but after an adjustment to the locker
room schedules he becomes a welcome member of the team. Referred
to as Aoi-chan by the other characters, he is now considered
one of the gals. Aoi and Yoriko develop a close friendship and
a natural partnership results.
On an almost equal
footing with the people, the vehicles that appear in the series
have gained character status with many mecha fans. Kosuke Fujishima's
personal love of motorcycles, cars and other mecha is apparent
in the look and feel of the series. In a world devoid of magical
girls, alien technology, and mad scientists, great steps were
taken to portray actual vehicles and props. Most details are
painstakingly accurate, from the police cars to the regulation
uniforms that the characters wear. Even the procedures that are
(usually) followed by the officers at Bokuto Station are based
on actual guidelines from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency.
However, some alterations were made to enhance the look of the
show, such as relaxing the requirement that all female officers
are to wear hats when on duty.
With a team of police officers like this, they are bound to pitted against some equally unusual adversaries. From a maniacal bargain-obsessed grandmother on a scooter to a bumbling wannabe crime fighter dressed as a baseball player, there is no rest for those who's job is keeping the streets safe for the good people of Tokyo.
Next time, we will see how this popular manga series was made into an 4 file OVA series and evolved into 3 television projects and a big-screen production. As Natsumi would say, "So, you're gonna fight me on this? 'fraid not! If you don't tune in, you're under arrest! "
