"The instigation of "the DP Concept" was a visit to Japan by the British Australian SF author A. Bertram Chandler, probably in 1978. On his itinerary was a stop at the young Studio Nue, which Takachiho co-founded. As something to entertain their guest, two of the staffers there, Yuri Tanaka and Keiko Otoguro, hit upon the idea with Takachiho of taking Chandler to a tournament of the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling organization, which was a member of the World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA). The card included the highly-popular wrestling (and singing) team, the Beauty Pair. Something that passed among the foursome during that match led Chandler to remark to Takachiho something to the effect that "the two women in the ring may be the Beauty Pair, but those two with you ought to be called 'the Dirty Pair'."
This became the germ of an idea for a novella Takachiho decided to write, transplanting the rough-housing of pro-wrestling to the realm of space-opera mystery stories, with which he already had experience in his already successful Crusher Joe series. The team code-name "Lovely Angels" is also play on the names of certain women's teams of the time, such as the Queen Angels."
Can you image what a Rim Worlds and Dirty Pair crossover would be like? The story ""The Dark Dimensions" is all about characters from parallel universes wandering into Grimes' back yard, so it's not hard to picture Kei and Yuri showing up and causing mayhem. Grimes isn't an uptight cat, but even he might reach his limit if he had to deal with those two.
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Hello, I am a researcher on studio NUE. I do research using vintage Japanese publications. I don't know if you've read A.B.Chandler's John Grimes saga and Haruka Takachiho's Crusher Joe and Dirty Pair novels, but you don't seem to know. It's not actually something that most people have realized, but there are elements of Chandler's universe in Crushjer Joe and Dirty Pair as well as cameos from Studio NUE members and elements of Chandler's experiences with NUE within. his latest stories. The relationship between Chandler and NUE was very close. A friendship of 10 years. They not only met to bluff, they also advised each other and criticized each other. And, of course, they honored each other with inside jokes. The fruit of that relationship, of Chandler's success in Japan and of NUE's work illustrating Chandler's stories was so successful in Japan that it generated a whole style of literary and animated works in that country, which we all know.
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