Star Trek anime references discovered decades ago

Pa Chris Snellgrove
| Published 28 seconds ago

Star Trek is usually the last franchise that audiences would associate with anime. Not only is Gene Roddenberry’s franchise primarily associated with live-action, but his forays into animation (such as Lower decks and Prodigy) were clearly more inspired by the West than the East. Still, two episodes Star Trek: The Next Generation (“A Matter of Honor” and “Peak Performance”) managed to sneak in references to A dirty pairone of the most influential anime series of the 80s.

Star Trek and Dirty Steam

When you are already pulling up Star Trek: The Next Generation so you can pinpoint those moments with the pause button, keep in mind: your fingers have to be faster than Data’s to freeze frame in the right place. First link to A dirty pair takes place in “A Case of Honor,” a memorable Season 2 episode where Riker serves aboard a Klingon ship as part of an officer exchange program. When visiting officer Benzito Mendon notices a dangerous bacteria on a Klingon ship, his science monitor has the terms OP KEI and OP YURI hidden among all the scientific information.

What do these blink-and-you’ll-miss-it names mean on a Star Trek does the background monitor have anything to do with the anime? In both A dirty pair mango and anime series, we follow the misadventures of Kei and Yuri, two problem counselors who are always catching the bad guys but causing massive damage. I like it Sylvester Stallone Art A demolition manthese girls’ reputation precedes them, and the “Dirty Couple” is the derogatory nickname they’ve been given for their tendency to do massive amounts of damage whenever they save the day.

It’s not clear which of the Star Trek set designers was a big fan of the anime, but they took theirs A dirty pair links to the next level in the season 2 episode “Peak Performance”. This is an episode in which the crew of the Enterprise played several war games, pitting Picard against the Federation flagship against an 8-year-old Starfleet ship captained by Riker. Data is also hard to beat visitors an alien in Strategema, but it looks like it’s game over for everyone once the angry Ferengi show up.

In this episode of Star Trek, the first reference to the anime is hidden in a monitor showing Data’s systems. Thanks to the amazing Blu-Ray transfer of the show, we see that one of the Android systems is labeled as a “Kei/Yuri submodule.” This is obviously another easter egg for fans, but we can’t help but fall in love with the idea that Noonien Sung was a huge vintage anime nerd and programmed centuries of animation knowledge into his greatest creation.

Interestingly, this episode of Star Trek has the dumbest anime reference hiding in plain sight. Look closely and you’ll see an Okudagram display naming the war games involving Picard and Riker as “Operation Magnificent Angel.” U A dirty pair“Cute Angels” is the code name for the team of Kei and Yuri, although their harshest critics prefer to call them just a dirty couple.

Considering this First priority is at the crossroads with “Star Trek”, the authorities should seriously consider creating an anime series. Not only is it something fans will love, but it is A dirty pair history shows that the franchise has been created by passionate fans of Japanese animation for decades. Throw in the fact that cartoons are more budget-friendly than live-action shows, and we can get ourselves a Star Trek anime in just two wags of the tail.