Dirty Pair

Dirty Pair
Cover of the novel showing the two protagonists Yuri (left) and Kei (right) and their Coeurl sidekick
ダーティペア
(Dāti Pea)
Genre
Novel series
Written byHaruka Takachiho
Illustrated byYoshikazu Yasuhiko
Published byHayakawa Publishing
English publisher
ImprintHayakawa Bunko JA
Original runMay 1980December 2018
Volumes9
Manga
The Great Adventures of the Dirty Pair
Written byHisao Tamaki
Published byTokuma Shoten
English publisher
MagazineMonthly Comic Ryū
Original runMay 2010July 2011
Volumes2
Anime series

Dirty Pair (Japanese: ダーティペア, Hepburn: Dāti Pea) is a series of Japanese light novels (the first one being a fix-up) written by Haruka Takachiho and illustrated by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko that was later adapted into anime and manga versions. The first stories that make up the first volume were first published on the S-F Magazine. The franchise has been published in multiple formats, and adapted into various other media, resulting in eight novels and several shorter stories, a television series, two OVA series, two OVA features, a feature film, a number of graphic novels, and two short Japanese radio series. The 1985 television series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize for that year.

The stories take place in the years 2138–2143, by which time humanity has spread across some few thousand star systems. A corporation called the World Welfare Works Association (WWWA or 3WA) helps member systems of the United Galactica (UG) federation deal with various planetary-scale problems, for profit, by sending agents called "trouble consultants". The series focuses on a team of trouble consultants in that section, named Kei and Yuri, who have a reputation for leaving a trail of destruction behind them, for which they are known publicly as the "Dirty Pair", a nickname they hate.