No Thanks! No Need For a Halloween Party

No Thanks! No Need For a Halloween Party
Episode 2
Japanese Title	まきぞえごめん！天地無用のハロウィンパーティ
Romaji Title	Maki zo e gomen! Tenchimuyō no Harou~in Pāti
Air Date	December 21, 1987
Writer	Tetsuko Takahashi
Director	Masayoshi Tanidabe
Opening	{{{opening}}}
Ending	{{{ending}}}
Episode Guide
Previous Prison Uprising. We Hate People With Grudges!	Next We're Not Afraid of Divine Judgment. It's Like Magic?! The God's Challenge

No Thanks! No Need For a Halloween Party (まきぞえごめん！天地無用のハロウィンパーティ, Maki zo e gomen! Tenchimuyō no Harou~in Pāti^?) is the second episode of the Dirty Pair OVA. It was first released on December 21, 1987 alongside the first episode, Prison Uprising. We Hate People With Grudges!.

Synopsis

It's Halloween night, which means everyone's dressed up, dancing, and having fun... except for Kei and Yuri. The Dirty Pair are stuck tracking down a Tactical Robot Weapon – a walking skeletal robot that would normally stick out like a sore thumb, but on Halloween, it blends right in with the freakish crowd. And unfortunately, they only have an hour to find it before the robot goes haywire and starts destroying everything it sees !

Plot

Act One

Individually, four gangs finish preparations for heists: one themed after Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves; one with The Mad Hatter, The March Hare, and Alice from Alice in Wonderland; one in robot outfits, the leader resembling C-3PO from Star Wars; and the last dressed as the Seven Dwarves, led by a burly Snow White. They all declare their heist will happen on Halloween.

Eleanor City is lit up in celebration, with mascot animals, floats, colorful hot air balloons, and streamers. Citizens in costume enjoy the celebrations from the streets. Overlooking them, Kei asks Yuri - who's assembling a gun - about Halloween's origins. Yuri's familiar with the costume aspect, but only knows that the celebration started on Earth. Kei wonders why she has to work that night - Yuri shoots back that her partner should complain to whoever's making trouble that night, leading the redhead to back off. Kei takes notice of a small orange craft flying near buildings. The Lovely Angels take jetpacks to pursue it.

They fire a hole through the ship's right side. Kei identifies the pilot as "Papadonia Laboratories' Catcher", wanted for selling state secrets; Yuri holds him at gunpoint to the left. He accelerates suddenly, knocking them back and holding his own beam gun out. When he comments that "no woman's gonna take me in", Kei dives forward - despite Yuri's protests - knocking his weapon off-target as he fires; three shots damage the ship, making it crash-land in a forest.

Gooley shouts over Yuri's earring communicator about the vehicle's crash, as the Trouble Consultant argues it would be better described as an "emergency landing". She reports that the suspect - tied with ropes behind her - is in custody. The chief asks if the "cargo" is intact, to both Lovely Angels' surprise. They look inside the vessel with a flashlight, finding a hole in the metal, and footsteps in the grass leading out, towards the city.

A helicopter carries the wreck away, with the Lovely Angels listening to Gooley's briefing in the cockpit. The missing cargo is a "Tactical Robot Weapon" "designed to spread chaos during urban combat". He explains was stolen before being fitted with artificial skin, so it now resembles a mechanical skeleton - to both women's shock. It's designed to infiltrate enemy territory disguised as a human, gather information, then enter "active mode" - destroying everything. An observational satellite, "Goony Bird", has detected that the robot on Rosen Street. Kei's convinced it will be easy, and Yuri's interested in celebrating Halloween afterwards - until Gooley informs them the robot starts destroying only an hour after activation. The Lovely Angels leave the craft in jetpacks before Gooley finishes briefing. Fellow 3WA members were planning on having drinks for Halloween; but, tired of waiting for Gooley, leave on their own, to his frustration.

Amid the crowd, it's difficult for them to find the Tactical Robot Weapon - leading Yuri to comment "who said this would be an easy job?" They have thirty minutes left before the robot activates. Kei swoops over crowds, making them duck; Yuri identifies the robot by its delayed reaction. She aims her gun at it, asking it to come with the 3WA. A shot from Kei's bazooka hits the robot in the head from the other side. The machine simply lets out a high-pitched laugh and dashes past Yuri. The Lovely Angels chase after it in jetpacks, firing shots that it dodges. The robot runs perpendicularly up a wall that the Lovely Angels are forced to stop at. It passes the other 3WA members having drinks, one of whom comments one the costume's good quality. The Angels follow after it, Yuri respectfully declining their colleagues' invitation to join the party.

In a mechanical tunnel, two motorcycles escort a truck. An Arabian Nights-themed thief from the the introduction covertly places a roadblock behind them, while another knocks the escort over with a rocket launcher's blast. With a clanking noise, five men and decoy people on a mechanical support surround them; the gang's leader, identified as "Ali Baba" holds out a gun and requests the gold.

The Tactical Robot Weapon stomps onto a dinosaur-themed car, and runs through a Dracula-themed one, destroying both. At 20:40, Yuri spots the robot, with Kei commenting that they have 20 minutes left. The machine dashes through the roadblock, right as the Ali Baba gang unload gold bars from the truck. At the Lovely Angels' request to stop the robot, the thieves unload machine gun fire upon it - with no effect except disturbing the girls' flight. As the robot breaks through the van, the gang members run away, their leader calling for the police. He trips over a rock, making the whole gang collapse in a pile that the robot runs over. The Lovely Angels fly over in pursuit, berating them for being unable to stop a single robot, as Ali Baba mourns his "perfect plan".

Act Two

As the Snow White-themed gang walks in formation, the thief dressed as Alice walks into a "Tiffany" jewlery store - where the Mad Hatter and March Hare await. Hovering police cars chase the Tactical Robot Weapon. The woman pulls a gun on a clerk helping her - as her colleagues reveal weapons. The clerk fills Alice's bag as the March Hare using a vacuum cleaner to steal other jewlery. They're interrupted by the robot's arrival, followed by the police and the Lovely Angels. When police hold it at gunpoint, the Angels fire suddenly - only to destroy the wall behind it. Kei steals the Mad Hatter's rocket launcher to fire at the robot, which just pushes it through the hole; Yuri comments that it's defective. The Lovely Angels chase the Tactical Robot Weapon, leaving the Wonderland gang to be arrested by the police.

Outside, the robot is still pushed backwards by the rocket launcher shell - eventually landing on the ground and sprinting backwards. As the Lovely Angels fly after it, it throws the shell towards them; causing it to finally detonate and knock them out of the air.

The Lovely Angels fly to a museum, determining that the robot's entered from the broken gate and doorway. It's dark inside, with many artifacts; a suit of samurai armor gives them a start. Yuri comments that it'll take forever to check the pieces one by one; so Kei takes her gun and fires at the ceiling to scare it out. The lasers graze the robot gang, who were disguised as sculptures - prompting them to reveal themselves and surrender, to the Lovely Angels' confusion. The samurai armor reveals itself as the Tactical Robot Weapon, which escapes. A few blasts from Kei's bazooka after it bring the whole museum crashing down on the bewildered criminals.

Using computer technology, the Seven Dwarves gang attempt to crack open a vault. The Tactical Robot Weapon jumps in to enter the code number itself, opening the door and locking itself in. When the Lovely Angels chase, Snow White indicates that the robot is in the safe. They shoot the door open and fly in, leaving the automated security system to lower bars on the gang behind them. Inside the vault, they find the robot's broken a tunnel, leading to the metro.

The Tactical Robot Weapon dashes into a subway car, sending it out into the city - which impresses a Chinese dragon dance troupe. The robot runs on top of the cars, then starts scaling a building. Yuri decides that they'll split up to flank the robot. Right as the robot stops on the roof, and the Angels are about to fire, the clock strikes 9:00, signalling their time is up. The Tactical Robot Weapon transforms, revealing barrels within its limbs, wrists, shoulders, cranium, and mouth. It fires a beam from its mouth at the Angels right as a fireworks show begins - the 3WA members' party watching on.

Both Angels open fire on the robot - who's able to destroy oncoming rockets with its own fire. The Tactical Robot Weapon unleahes a barrage of missiles, which mix in with the fireworks (to the actual fireworks operators' confusion). Yuri's gun runs out of ammunition, and rays from the robot's chest knock Kei's bazooka from her hands. Another set of missiles destroy nearby buildings, which the crowds believe is part of the fireworks show. One beam sets off unlit fireworks, which gives Kei an idea. She aims a barrel with the fireworks at the robot, which Yuri ignites with a smaller laser gun. This succeeds at damaging it, and amazing the crowd. Kei aims five more barrels at the robot, which Yuri ignites again - knocking off some of the robot's weaponry and exciting onlookers. One firework Kei carries on her back knocks the Tactical Robot Weapon off the building; Yuri catches it in a barrel, which both Lovely Angels fill with fireworks. A simultaneous laser shot from both of them launches the robot in the sky on a single firework labelled "Special" - whose detonation is visible to the crowds, the 3WA's party, and the fireworks makers. Parts from the destroyed robot rain down on the Lovely Angels, both juggling the skull amongst each other nervously.

The Lovely Angels, having completed the mission, have drinks together. Yuri is worried that Gooley will be frustrated with the greater-than-usual scale of their damage; Kei reassures her by saying that collateral damage can't be helped, and that since they solved the case, they'll worry about him later. As they toast to Halloween Night, a police van drives below, carrying all four criminal gangs together. The one dressed as Alice declares that she hates Halloween Night.

Trivia

• Kei refers to the firework that knocks the Tactical Robot Weapon off the building as "sanjakudama", a type of Japanese firework.
• During the fireworks show, crowds cheer "Go Tamaya!" and "Kagiya!". This refers to rival Japanese firework companies in the 1810s.

Cameos

• Through out the episode, a few cameos from other franchises can be seen.
  • Three gangs' costumes are themed after 1001 Arabian Nights, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White. The fourth gang has assorted robots: C-3PO from Star Wars, the nameless robot from Lost In Space, a Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam (which is, in the museum, sitting a box labelled "Z-Daimazin", a reference to Mazinger Z), and a cat in a cloak.
  • The Tactical Robot Weapon resembles a T-800 Endoskeleton from The Terminator, both in appearance and in the concept of a human-imitating android with no skin.
  • Crowd shots show people dressed as Frosty the Snowman, Little Red Riding Hood, Godzilla, Frankenstein, Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dracula, Snoopy, Black Jack, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Captain Harlock.