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1st Dirty Pair Novel in 11 Years Slated for This Year

Novelist Haruka Takachiho announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he has a new Dirty Pair novel titled Dirty Pair no Daichōyaku (Dirty Pair's Great Leap) slated for this year from Hayakawa Publishing. He mentioned that series illustrator Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (Gundam, The Venus Wars, Crusher Joe) is "presumably" working on new art for the book.

In another post, Takachiho commented that he wrote the novel because Yasuhiko complained that he had had enough of Takachiho's Crusher Joe series, which he also illustrates, and asked him to write a new Dirty Pair instead. The new novel will be the first Dirty Pair novel in 11 years.

Takachiho began the series with Dirty Pair no Daibōken (Dirty Pair's Great Adventure) in 1979 and the seventh novel, Dirty Pair no Daiteikoku (Dirty Pair's Great Empire), shipped in Japan in October 2007. Dark Horse Comics published the first two novels in English in 2007 and 2008, and it describes the story:

Charged with keeping the peace and investigating crime among the stars, the Worlds Welfare Work Association (WWWA) prides itself on a reputation of safety and regard for life and property. If only someone would tell that to Agents Kei and Yuri, codename "the Lovely Angels," but better known as the Dirty Pair. Part female James Bond and part walking disaster, this duo gets the job done, though there are no guarantees that a city or two won't get razed in the process.

The novels have also spawned a television anime and film, as well as several video projects, manga, and American comics. The title duo made their first anime appearance in 1983's Crusher Joe: The Movie.

Source: Haruka Takachiho's Twitter account via Crunchyroll