You're Under Arrest! Full Throttle 10

Taiho Shichauzo! Full Throttle Episode 10
逮捕しちゃうぞ フルスロットル Episode 10

SPOILER Summary: Natsumi, Miyuki, Kachou, and others are attending a briefing by some robot scientists who have picked Natsumi and Miyuki to demonstrate their latest robot models at a forthcoming exposé on robots. Because Miyuki has experience using a large robot (From YUA2 I believe. -ANB), she will demo the HAL K-2 robot. Because Natsumi has rumored great strength and has trained with the SDF, she will demo the Fitter R-1 robot bodysuit. When Miyuki, Natsumi, Aoi-chan, and Yoriko discuss the matter, Aoi-chan wonders if one of the robots will be a transformer.

That afternoon, the robots arrive. Miyuki takes the controls of HAL K-2 and Nakajima-kun wonders if the robot is even finished since it doesn't have legs or a face. He is chastised for this as one of the creators informs him that such things are only a creation of manga and anime. Despite its large size, Miyuki is able to have HAL K-2 perform simple tasks such as moving small dice-sized cubes from one tray to another without breaking them. The robot creators also have her build a Gundam mecha model with the HAL K-2. Yoriko jabs Nakajima-kun about his possibly still building them only to learn that Aoi-chan still does. The purpose of the HAL K-2 will be to clear debris and other things from a disaster area to allow rescuers access to victims.

Meanwhile Natsumi is given the Fitter R-1 bodysuit, which will work in conjunction with her own strength. The purpose of the suit is to allow the person wearing the suit to have extra strength and stability in a rescue situation to allow them to get victims of a disaster out safely. For her training, Kachou is tied up to be the helpless victim. She starts running to him, but finds she cannot stop and ends up crashing through the large cabinet-like structure he was laying on, sending him flying through the air. Her second attempt sees her safely reach Kachou and carefully pick him up. However, in her excitement over doing it right, she forgets that the suit gives her extra strength and she ends up tossing Kachou in the air and a distance away.

Natsumi needs more practice with the suit doing simple tasks, so she tries to deliver hot tea to Nakajima-kun. She makes it to his desk without destroying the try or cup, but accidentally splashes the hot tea in his face. She tries delivering hot tea to Kachou and while she successfully delivers it, she gets too excited about it and plants the serving tray deep in the ceiling. She then attempts to deliver beverages to Aoi-chan and Yoriko who immediately flee the area. That night, Natsumi again makes a tea delivery to Kachou and is successful. Before she can get too excited, Miyuki places a hand on her to remind her not to do anything stupid.

It is time for the expo, which is being held at the Tokyo Big Sight Convention Center. Nakajima-kun and Yoriko look at some robots while Yoriko wants to find a nice male scientist. Nakajima wonders why she even came. Yoriko counters by asking him the same thing. When his eye catches a robotic motorcycle, he turns into a little boy wanting a toy. Kachou and Aoi-chan check out some robot guard dogs which are acting very friendly. However, Aoi-chan makes a move which immediately sets them off. Meanwhile behind the scenes, someone plots something sinister.

The time for the demo arrives and Miyuki takes the reigns of HAL K-2. The demo has her safely removing debris to uncover a mannequin. Once that's done, it is Natsumi's turn in the Fitter R-1 to safely extract the mannequin and get it out of the danger area. Everyone is a bit worried that Natsumi will screw up, but she performs perfectly. Next, the creators have Miyuki exit the HAL K-2 and take the control unit with her so that she can operate the robot remotely, something that might be required in certain situations. She starts her next demo, but suddenly finds her signals are being jammed.

The sinister someone behind the scene emerges in his own robot, Scar Zero, and calls himself Doctor Suu. Because his alias and real name make a pun, people laugh at him and more at his robot. However, he's not amused and the robot scientist know him as a fired member of their team. Miyuki picks up a rock from their display area and hands it to Natsumi, who wonders what its for. Miyuki tells her that she doesn't have to hold back and Natsumi gets what Miyuki is driving at. So as Doctor Suu charges in Scar Zero, Natsumi does her pitcher's windup and pitches a perfect strike which destroys Scar Zero. As Doctor Suu is on the ground, one of the robot dogs "pees" on him. Doctor Suu is taken to jail to warn of impending dangers.

Thoughts: A brief rant first...why the smeg did the Japanese air this series in 4:3 initially before switching it to its proper widescreen viewing weeks from now on another channel (and for the DVD release)?

As to the episode itself, while I enjoyed it, I couldn't help but think that the episode was just a cheap imitation of a Strike Man episode, only not as good. He has to make an appearance in this series, right?

Still no progress on the Miyuki-Nakajima front either. *sigh* I'm rapidly begining to think that this series will mostly avoid things from the previous episodes but we'll see. I mean we still need an episode with Nakajima-kun's parents. We need Strike Man and "Scooter Mama" (as AnimEigo called her). We need an episode with Saori-chan back and Shouji as well. We need advancement and resolution on Nakajima-kun and Miyuki's relationship.

You're Under Arrest! Full Throttle 11

Taiho Shichauzo! Full Throttle Episode 11
逮捕しちゃうぞ フルスロットル Episode 11

SPOILER Summary: Aoi-chan tells the girls about a Korean love-drama DVD she has and the other girls are interested in borrowing it. The drama is about a guy who writes 99 love letters and wins the heart of the girl he loves. Nakajima-kun sees the same DVD and decides to write a love letter to Miyuki. When he's next at work, he plans to give it to her, but when she comes to his desk to talk a bit, he is unable to muster the courage to give her the letter. Later still, he sees Miyuki with a group of girls and Aoi-chan talking about a guy who made a move on Aoi-chan (obviously not realizing Aoi-chan is a man). He's spotted by Natsumi, who teasingly calls him a stalker since he and Miyuki aren't dating. When Miyuki comes by, Natsumi starts to tell her but doesn't get the chance as Nakajima freaks out.

Later still, he follows Miyuki down the stairs and imagines giving her the letter and the positive results of that. He comes to his senses, wipes the drool from his mouth, and catches up to Miyuki where they walk and talk. However, he runs out of time to give it to her when she arrives at the bathroom and expresses her discomfort at him being there. So, he decides to take the high school approach (where he would have placed such a letter in the intended girl's shoe locker) and just drop the letter at her desk, somewhere she's sure to get it. However, when Aoi-chan and Yoriko see him, he panics and ends up not following through.

He heads outside to give her the letter and finds her cleaning her mini-patrol car. He offers to help and she gladly accepts. When they are done, she derails his attempt to give her the letter by asking about his bike and its state of repair. So, Nakajima retreats to the roof where he is frustrated with himself over not being able to do something as simple as deliver a love letter to the woman he loves. He carelessly handles the letter and it falls from his hand and over the fence onto the ledge. He tries to retrieve it, but Natsumi seeing him going over the fence assumes he's going to commit suicide by jumping and prevents him. The wind carries his letter down to the street where it lands in the back of a truck picking up old newspapers, magazines, and manga for recycling.

Nakajima gets on his patrol bike to chase down the truck and retrieve the letter. Before he can catch it, a punk in a convertible blows past him and recklessly drives, forcing Nakajima to pull him over. He again attempts to catch up, but on a side street, a crossing guard stops him to allow some children to cross the street. The little girl at the end walks slowly, stops, waves and greets Nakajima (since he's a police man) and slowly proceeds on. Nakajima finally manages to find the truck again, but an elderly lady asks him for directions to a certain location. Now matter how often he yells, she apparently can't hear him so he's forced to carry her to the location and lose the truck.

The truck goes under an electrical poll were some electricians are working and a spark shoots down into the back of the truck with all the paper-goods and starts a smoldering fire. The driver is blissfully unaware and keeps driving as Nakajima desperately tries to find it, stopping to ask local shop keepers for information. Aoi-chan and Yoriko see him as they ticket illegally parked cars. They call him over just in time to get a report of a delivery truck carrying old newspapers being on fire. He races off to intercept while elsewhere, Miyuki and Natsumi hearing the same report do the same. They pull up behind the truck to tell it to stop while Nakajima gets in front to flag him down. He has an accident which causes the fire to spread to nearby bushes and such. Nakajima is desperately looking for the letter and trying to put out the fire at the same time. Seeing his apparent heroics, Miyuki also tries to put out the flames but ends up losing her jacket to fire. Natsumi tries to release the fire hydrant but even her strength isn't enough, which leads Miyuki to crash the mini-patrol into the hydrant, thus causing it to spew water and put out all the fires. Nakajima finds his letter and gets a thumbs up from Miyuki for his apparent heroics.

The next day at the station, Natsumi and Miyuki are working the front desk and talking with Aoi-chan about how Nakajima was the first to notice the truck and had tried to hard to track it down. Natsumi isn't convinced and thinks it was just a coincidence. Nakajima arrives and decides he doesn't care what, he's giving Miyuki the letter. However, he's again interrupted when Yoriko arrives with a small white dog. The dog comes to Nakajima and when he squats down to pet it, the dog barks at him. He accidentally drops his letter, which the dog grabs and runs off with.

Thoughts: Ask and you'll get, eh? OK, so we get an episode of Nakajima fawning over Miyuki and trying to deliver a love letter to her. And of course, everything in the universe is going to get in his way. The truly sad part was that while we get an episode about Nakajima-kun and Miyuki, she didn't even get to see the letter and I suspect never will (though it would be nice if the writers picked up that thread in the near future). I suppose it is too much to hope that things will get resolved on that front, but one lives in hope. Seriously, after doing all the "good guy" deeds which caused him to constantly lose sight of the truck with the letter in it, he deserves something good to happen to him, right?

While I'm thinking of it, do folks in Japan just not see cops or something? All of the YUA series had people who would break the law and seemingly not even see the cops until it was way too late. Granted, I've seen folks in the U.S. do that very thing, only not so "in your face" if you will.

I just noticed that thus far this series, Miyuki has not referred to her mini-patrol car as "Today." I wonder why.

Natsumi is pitching again next episode. I hope Strike Man makes an appearance.