Miami Guns takes the trigger-happy sexy female crimefighters stereotype to the extreme.

Miami Guns. Vols. 1-4
TV series (13 episodes), 2000. Director: Yoshitaka Koyama. V.1, four episodes/100 minutes, v.2-4, three episodes/75 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.95. Distributor: AN Ent.

If you can’t be original, take a stereotype and push the envelope. Miami Guns is a zany action-comedy featuring trigger-happy sexy female crimefighters in the style of the Dirty Pair, Burn-Up Excess and Debutante Detective Corps. But it was a Sunday 1:45 a.m. program (Feb. 5 to May 13, 2000; animated by the Group TAC studio) on Osaka’s MBS TV network; and as certain other anime series have been recently educating us, Osaka has a reputation for being raunchier than the rest of Japan. Miami Guns is age-rated 17+, mainly for the antics of Yao Sakurakouji, its lovelier, bustier, more exhibitionistically foul-mouthed and psychotic teenaged policewoman. When asked in episode #1 if she knows the social purpose of a police force, she answers, “Sure! For car chases, gun fights and blowing up buildings!” There is also adult-level (or at least sophomoric) gay and ethnic humor.

Miami Guns is a parody of -- well, what isn’t it a parody of? Every American police/detective TV series, for starters. The international opinion that all Americans from the cradle upward own guns. (Every anime series includes character profiles of its main cast listing their birthdays, blood types and favorite hobbies; Miami Guns includes its cast’s favorite guns such as Yao’s Mauser M712 and Lu’s 9 mm SIG P230SL.) Lots of other Japanese and American TV series and movies are parodied in cheerful disregard of actual Miamian geography. Episode #4, a parody of the anime car-racing series Initial D and Speed Racer, is set on the dangerous mountain roads just outside Miami. Episode #5, a parody of spaghetti Westerns, is set in the desolate Western deserts just outside Miami.

Rewards for criminals are priced in “Miami dollars” separate from U.S. money. Julio Peacemaker, a suave bounty hunter, has a pet baby alligator that looks more like a miniature Godzilla and lusts after women’s panties. There are parodies of slasher movies, TV wrestling, Japanese monster movies and specific anime classics like Akira and Princess Mononoke, often in the same episode. There are caricatures of real and cartoon stars from Bruce Willis to Hanna-Barbera’s Muttley (and equivalent Japanese stars unknown in America who are identified in the DVDs’ extensive liner notes).

Yao Sakurakouji, a bored and totally spoiled megaheiress, decides to join the Miami police to take the lead in those exciting car chases and gunfights. If there aren’t any, she will create them. Her daddy is the richest and most powerful man in Miami, so the police can’t refuse her. Chief Amano assigns his daughter Lu, the most efficient detective on the force, to be Yao’s partner and try to keep her under control. Lu is as calm as Yao is excitable; as deductive as Yao is prone to jump to conclusions; as devoted to following rules as Yao is to breaking them (starting with her personalized sexy police costume); and as uninterested in publicity as Yao is a glory-hound. Despite being such an exaggerated Odd Couple, they come to grudgingly respect each other’s talents.

Miami Guns begins as a series of stand-alone episodes, with different villains (bank robbers, crooked gamblers, terrorists, ninja, etc.) in each. Then in episode #11 they all reappear to gang up on Yao. The final three episodes are a serial, marginally more serious than what comes before. Miami Guns may not have any socially redeeming values, but it is definitely a guilty pleasure: fast-paced, funny, and full of blowing things up!