You're Under Arrest OVAs 1-4 and TV 1-12 rewatch
That was like one solid 8 hour session and it's now 8:00am. RIP sleep pattern.
Episode 1 of the TV show really struck me this time (no doubt due to all the things that have been in the news since the first time I watched) as surprisingly prescient in dealing with issues faced by transgender people (even down to the staff arguing about which changing room she should use) and dealing with a lack of understanding and empathy from even normally kind characters like Miyuki. It's true Aoi's crossdressing is played for laughs sometimes but no-one should really be off limits for comedy as long as it isn't hateful, which it certainly isn't - YUA is probably one of the warmest shows out there when it comes to humanity. Indeed one of my original criticisms of the show was that everyone seems a bit too nice, especially to say the characters are cops dealing with criminals (even the criminals never seem to do anything too terrible). But Aoi is actually a quietly strong character who doesn't see why the problems other people have with her should even be problems, which I think makes her a pretty decent trans character especially for 1996.
There are still the niggles of the tediously repetitive will-they-won't-they Miyuki x Nakajima shenanigans (the main reason I don't think I will ever be watching Oh My Goddess) and the realisation it's a Strike Man episode will still make me roll my eyes, but I can definitely say time has improved my view of the series. It does strike a nice balance between procedural plots and slice of life and of course, I appreciate Fujishima's love of machines that always shines through. Rewatching feels like returning to comfortable surroundings that you've missed, which is probably why I spent so long there in one sitting.
