Battle Programmer Shirase

With the internet age these days, almost anything is possible. Not only that. Almost everybody can have access to it too, whether you’re a net addict, tech savvy or just a beginner, as long as you have a computer and internet connection to the outside world, you can go anywhere and get any information just at a click of the mouse.

 

For those computer nerds and hackers out there, there’s even an anime made about it. Well sort of. It’s called Battle Programmer Shirase. It’s about this guy, Akira Shirase AKA BPS, who has that sleepy look (and probably looks a bit like Haruka from Love Hina). But don’t be fooled by his outer appearance. That’s because he’s a damn bloody good hacker! Yes, that’s his job too. He’s quite talented, superior, first-class (maybe all these words aren’t enough to justify his ‘terror-ness’) in computers and programming. Just how good is he? You’ll find out about it later. But let me give you an idea. If you ever piss him off, you’re gonna find your bank account balance zero the next day and police arriving with warrants for your arrest. But you won’t see this dark side happening in the series.

 

Though there are 15 episodes in this 10-12 minute series, the story arc of each episodes are divided into 3 episodes. Meaning that there are a total of 5 episodes if you want to look at it this way. Also, since there aren’t really technical or confusing terminologies and stuffs explained, so I guess normal people like you and me can get by and enjoy this series. I mean it’s suppose to be a comedy with a little drama. And there’s a teensy weensy bit of ecchi element as well. Don’t worry. It’s not that bad. Just probably for some laughs, that’s all.

 

So in the first storyline episodes 1-3, introduces our sleepyhead Shirase and several other characters. We see some fat chubby guy called Rintarou Oze or better known as King Of America having a huge crate of something being delivered to his house. From first looks, this guy looks like your would-be antagonist of the series. Yeah, this guy’s a hacker too and is causing some havoc over the internet. I don’t really understand what that rabbit like icon dancing over the screen really means but it was enough to make that whoever lady employee jump a little.

 

Then back at some Chinese restaurant, an employee of Abin Electronics, Kaoru Akizuki manages to find Shirase busy doing whatever with his laptop there. And after some warning from the storekeeper about pissing him off, Akizuki tries his best to talk to Shirase about some job offer. However, Shirase told him that he’s not interested in the money and is not doing any job for it either. Since Akizuki knows of this, he hands him some discontinued X68 series doujinshi SCSI card. After which, Shirase immediately accepts the offer. So this Shirase guy is into all this novelty things.

 

Back at Shirase’s apartment, while he’s sleeping, we see his niece, Misao Amano, coming over to do certain errands for him like cooking. Misao’s a really cute, sweet, loveable and shy girl who likes to say ‘mau mau’ sometimes. Whatever that means. I’m not sure about the explanations about Shirase (something about Misao’s mother’s aunt younger brother. Confusing) but it ended up like even though Shirase looks young enough to be Misao’s uncle, Misao calls and refers to him as her big brother. Yeah, he looks more like one too. And I’m beginning to think that Shirase’s a little pervert too. I mean, while Misao’s standing on some stool while cooking (because she’s too short), Shirase tries to peek under her skirt from where he’s lying but when Misao turned to greet him, Shirase just rolled over and make as though he’s just getting up. But don’t worry, he’s pervertness is kinda ‘passive’.

 

Just then some short earthquake begins to shake the apartment and Misao and Shirase tripped because of those messy books scattered on the floor. Akizuki then suddenly comes in and wants to talk things with Shirase but to his shock he finds Shirase and Misao in a compromising position. He thinks it’s a new sex position called ‘high hip position’! Then in his shock, he’s ranting to himself that he can’t believe it that it can’t be that the person he’s dealing with is doing an obscene scene with a minor, and if it was himself, he’d prefer woman with larger boobs like the popular actress Isabella Adjanne, but since Shirase’s the only one who can do the job, he’s thinking of what he should do, that is to act like he was never here and that he must take super regulatory measures to safeguard whoever he’s thinking off. And he’s really in a dilemma and panic but he calms down quickly when he says "I’ll pretend that I didn’t see anything". This is followed by laughter from the audience like as though we’re watching a live sitcom. Yeah, real funny.

 

But while Akizuki’s ranting, Misao and Shirase had already recomposed themselves and the former already left. So Akizuki takes Shirase in his car and shows him a threat letter from a company called Callatech Company. The letter states that some super computer has been taken because he brought something from the company but that product failed to work and it pissed him off. So now he’s gonna use this computer and do some bad stuffs with it like sending some ‘I Love You’ virus and bring havoc unless they bring back that X68 computer series again.

 

Since the deadline is today, Akizuki tells Shirase that his job is to destroy that super computer. But before you know it, some blast occurs at the Abin Electronics headquarters which freaks Akizuki out. I’m not sure about what Shirase explained, but it’s something about using some virus to overload the power which causes the explosion. Since Shirase forgot to bring his laptop, how is he gonna counter this threat? He borrowed Akizuki’s handphone. And this is how good Shirase is. He’s writing some defensive programme using a handphone! Wow! Is that even possible? He’s doing it so well that even The King Of America can’t counter it, every move he make is blocked or restricted. He’s in shock and surprise (so am I) that there’s a bloody good hacker other than him. Because Rintarou’s under attack too, his computer can’t cool down fast enough, overloads and explodes. Rintarou thinks that there’s only 1 person who could do such an attack, and that is BPS and he can’t wait to do it again with him but his computer further explodes.

 

Once done, Shirase toss Akizuki’s handphone back to him. And the handphone’s pretty hot. I’m surprise that it didn’t melt. With that, Shirase just walks away and says the rest is up to him now. Yeah, Akizuki’s just standing there stunned. Back at Shirase’s apartment, he’s going to go to sleep after a tiring day when Misao’s in making his dinner. It seems that Misao doesn’t know what Shirase really does. And when she asks, Shirase just replies some computer related job. Soon Misao leaves for her own home for dinner while Shirase just continues sleeping.

 

So the rest of the episodes follow a somewhat similar pattern. Some sort of crisis and Shirase is needed. Then there’s this Akizuki guy whom I thought is the same person but having different job posts each time. Then I read many viewers think that he’s a different person but with the same look and name. I guess it makes more sense like this. Anyway Akizuki would barge in to see Shirase but always ended up having to see Shirase and Misao (or some other young girl) in a compromising new sex position and would do his usual ranting and super regulatory measures. Then off Shirase and Akizuki go to the scene. With some new minor characters and after some drama and little suspense, everything ends well. It’s all so predictable. Sort of.

 

Well, in episodes 4-6, it’s a hot summer and Misao’s school is going for a 2 day visit at the beach and she’s at Shirase’s apartment going to show off her swimsuit under her dress. While halfway pulling up her dress, Akizuki, from the Coastal Guard Agency, barges in and the sexual context this time is school swimsuit play with an additional option costing 7000 Yen. Whatever that means. Anyway Akizuki’s here to tell him about some ship which washed up ashore near some Honshu island but that ship is carrying some weapons-grade plutonium. Efforts to retrieve it has been futile and it seems there’s some hacker who knew about this and has hacked into the Defense Agency computers. Plus, some mysterious boat has entered the country and doing suspicious things. To make things worse, other countries have misinterpreted this info as well. Now that’s a lot of crisis going on and possibly a bigger one looming.

 

So Shirase’s job this time is to help defend their network and prevent any leak of information. So if Shirase isn’t gonna accept money as his payment, what novelty will he accept this time? Some rare LD-ROM with serial interface from Pioneer which has stopped production ages ago. I guess this kind of things really makes Shirase’s mouth water. Meanwhile, it seems Rintarou’s behind all this as well as he and his assistant, Hideki, are discussing over their plans at the former’s residence like how they got the ship’s location and hacked the satellite they used to relay fake coordinates which made the ship washed up ashore. And during the confusion, they’ll take the cargo and sell it to the highest bidder. Looks like he’s up to his tricks again and that previous failure didn’t deter him.

 

Meanwhile at the beach, Misao’s teacher, Tae Motoki is getting all excited and hyped out about the trip. She’s organizing some test of courage tonight and it has to be a boy-girl pair because it’s the ‘season of love’. Must be embarrassing to have such a teacher. That night, Misao didn’t have a partner and tells Motoki about it. And I think Motoki’s trying to play matchmaking as well as she decides to pair up Misao with a middle-school soccer player guy, Jou Kawahara. She even says to Misao that he’s quite popular with the girls. Haih… So the next day, after some talk with Misao, I think she even tries to set them both to meet up. So Misao and Kawahara met on some rock and talk about things like how Kawahara parents died in an accident 2 years ago and his sis is taking care of him and how he wants to hold his own. I guess the 2 are starting to like each other. I mean, nothing conclusive but the occasional blushing here and there may indicate otherwise. It seems they took their sweet time talking because the tide has covered their path back to shore. Now they’re stranded together.

 

At the same time, Shirase and Akizuki are at the control room and their radar have picked up an unidentified ship entering the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone). Shirase’s looking bored as he watches the satellite monitor. But suddenly he spots Misao with some other guy on the screen and he gets all fired up. Yeah you could see his fire aura. He’s turning a deaf ear to what Akizuki has to say about the ship closing in on them. But Shirase soon came to his senses and before you know it, he’s already operating several pcs and keyboards. I think he can’t help looking at that guy with Misao on the screen. Is he worried for her or jealous that she’s with someone else besides her onii-chan.

 

Because it’s getting stormy, the power to the lighthouse is cut and the mysterious ship is picking up speed. Like out of convenience one of the thick cables of the power grid snapped and this allowed Kawahara to use it as a rope as he slowly traverse back to shore with Misao holding on to him. Shirase tells Akizuki that he plans to reroute some abandoned satellite and send it crashing into the ocean where that mysterious ship is. And he calls it "Meteoric Three Sisters". I don’t really understand his explanation about it about some burning up thing when it enters orbit. But when the crew of the mysterious ship saw it coming at them, they panic and tried to go faster (of course cannot lah) but the satellite crashed directly on them. Wow. This Shirase is really something.

 

Kawahara and Misao have safely arrived back on land with Motoki there as they watch that ‘beautiful phenomenon’ caused by the satellite’s crash. And that Motoki is sneakily grinning to herself because she saw how those 2 lovebirds are holding each other’s hands. She must have misinterpreted the situation. Back at Rintarou’s office, he’s reading on the news on the internet about some boat being capsized and all the crew being taken in by the Coast Guard Agency and wonders if BPS has had him again. Then his employer comes in to say that his term is over and that he can return to Japan. So this guy’s working from overseas? Didn’t know that. But Rintarou says he’s got 6 months left. Then as a tired Shirase returned to his apartment, Misao’s back from the school trip and tells him about how she got stranded and her senpai saved her and all those stuffs. But it seems Shirase’s pretty unperturbed by it all. Is he over it?

 

Episodes 7-9 starts off with Shirase in some control room talking to Major Akizuki of the National Guard from the Ballistics Division, telling him how somebody is planning to detonate some hidden nuclear warhead in the stratosphere which can create a powerful electromagnetic pulse that will destroy all sorts of electronics on land from consoles to players. And it seems somebody’s hacking into their system and the programme is being rewritten as they speak. So Shirase did some programming and mentions that he’s currently being spied on and from the way the code was put together, Shirase thinks it’s a female programmer.

 

Soon a female voice identifying herself as Major Yuriko Yunoki from the US Intelligence Navy and Information Technology Division intervenes saying that this problem is no longer Japan’s alone as it concerns the whole world and asks them for their source code of their system. Akizuki has no choice but to help them. After all that and since Shirase says that the info has been leaked out (much to Akizuki’s dismay) he’s asking if he can have his payment now, 3 platinum tickets to the Fuji Training Ground Military Firepower Exhibition which is unavailable to the public. Akizuki’s down on his knees and Shirase wonders if he wants a ticket as well.

 

Meanwhile back at Yuriko’s side, she has successfully quelled the threat. We see Yuriko is actually a kid! Yeah, a little genius. She wonders if there’s another person of her calibre across the Pacific and says to her vice admiral that she needs to take leave to deal with something little. Before you know it, Yuriko’s a transfer student in the same class as Misao! Talk about the Intelligence pulling strings. Soon she made friends with Misao and the 2 become like best pals. Looks like Yuriko’s doing some undercover work to get to the famed BPS. And back at Shirase’s apartment, Misao’s telling him how she made friends with the super intelligent Yuriko who has memorized every single line in all of her textbooks. Those stuffs must be child’s play for Yuriko.

 

The next day, Shirase’s at the city when he bumps into his old professor, Hayashi. The 2 had some chat over things at a cafe like the recent incident where the US Navy Intervened and that of all the recent cyber-terrorism there’s 1 organization which seems to stand out. Also we find out a bit like Shirase’s supposedly to be part of MPS, I think. Probably it’s some programming group or what. And then something about Ultra Network which Hayashi says somebody is holding back its creation. But let’s just leave it all there.

 

On the way back, Shirase bumps into Misao and Yuriko and Misao took the opportunity to introduce Yuriko to her. Though Yuriko maintains her cover but in her mind she’s been doing some analytical stuffs like how she notice Misao to be more talkative when she’s near this guy and why is this guy so ‘weak’ and agreeing to everything Misao says. Yuriko concludes that BPS may have feelings for Misao and even innocently teases Misao that he may be her boyfriend. Of course Misao blushes and says it’s her onii-chan. Back inside Shirase’s apartment while Misao does some cooking, Yuriko decides to ‘flirt’ with Shirase by coming up to his back while he’s at his computers. And she’s giving him hints about the recent US intervention and how the security programme he made was amazing, how artistic and arousing it was so much so it made her wet just by reading as she gets ‘physical’ and closer with him. And Yuriko’s seemingly gonna kiss him when Misao came in and saw. But Yuriko coolly withdraws and says she’ll help her with her cooking. And off they went. Misao doesn’t seem perturbed by it but Shirase’s in shock.

 

Later that evening, Shirase and Yuriko had their private chat. It seems Yuriko has done some background check on him and knows a lot about him like how when Shirase’s a teenage hacker, he hacked into 10 super computers and won the Worldwide Programming Deathmatch for 3 straight years. Wow. That’s really something. To cut things short, Yuriko’s here because she wants to find a partner who can work with her and bring out the best ability in her. And since Shirase’s too old for her (meaning to be her boyfriend lah), she wonders if he could be her partner (as in work colleague lah). Though she doesn’t need an answer right away, she asks him to think about it.

 

Suddenly Akizuki arrives in a helicopter. Because the helicopter’s winds were too strong, Shirase tried to shield Yuriko from it. You’re wondering where that misinterpreted sex part is right? Well, here it is. This time Akizuki thinks it’s some Doggy-style position. After he finishes his ranting, Akizuki gives Yuriko a phone with her vice admiral on the other line. He’s telling her that there’s an emergency because the company that they blocked a few days ago has succeeded in breaking through their first security wall and the hackers have hired an external hacker group too. And off Yuriko goes alone as she leaves Shirase and Akizuki behind.

 

Back at her base (which reminds me like those mecha operating cockpit) Yuriko and several of her other female officers are countering the threat. It seems Rintarou’s got a hand in this as well as he receives a call from Hideki reporting about some Japanese missile silo and the attack of several servers simultaneously. And it looks like they’re being hired to do the job but Hideki’s telling him that their employers are asking for a discount as they don’t feel like paying the full amount. Cheapskates. Rintarou then asks him to tell those guys to immediately transfer the remaining amount to their bank account. And what’s this guy thinking about getting some potato peeler from some sale on the way back. Is he serious?

 

Meanwhile Yuriko’s having a hard time countering the attack when she receives a message from BPS saying that why not they start out as real friends instead of partners. With that, Yuriko got her confidence back and knew what to do. Soon the threat is taken care of and we see Akizuki thanking Shirase back at the control room for his help. Later, Yuriko’s packing her bags and saying goodbye to Misao and Shirase. After thanking Shirase for that email, Yuriko pecks Shirase on his cheek, shocking both Misao and Shirase himself. Yuriko says it’s a normal greeting in US and will give one to Misao too. Yeah, the way they show it here looked a little yuri. Yuri Yuriko. Just kidding. As Yuriko leaves in her taxi, Misao tells Shirase how she wants to become like Yuriko but Shirase tells her that she’s fine the way she is now. Is that suppose to be sarcastic or what?

 

Episodes 10-12 sees Shirase in a different kind of crisis. How different is it? Well, Shirase’s getting engaged! And it’s Motoki! It started out when Misao’s asking Motoki that she’s quite busy with her personal stuff this coming Sunday and this prompts Motoki to ask Misao if she has someone she likes. Of course Motoki drops the subject and wonders about some marriage interview. Later that night, after Shirase sees off his university buddies, he saw Motoki sleeping on the road behind some truck! Yeah, she’s drunk alright. The 2 had some chat like how Motoki is from the same high school club with Shirase and is his lowerclassmen and she never knew Shirase’s living around this area. Then of course Shirase brought up that are you married line but because Motoki’s real drunk she didn’t really give a direct answer and decides to go home. Yeah, she ‘stole’ a policeman’s bicycle that was parked nearby and rode it home.

 

Meanwhile we see Rintarou having a conversation over the phone playing at some golf course (does he really have that much free time?). Something about because some heir to a large fortune wants to get married right away, Rintarou’s thinking of helping this guy out. You know why lah. He tells Hideki to get started right away. Hmm… This guy’s thinking of getting married himself. Fat chance.

 

Back at Shirase’s apartment, he’s surprised to see Misao there and his elderly mom! After all that ‘lecturing’ she says that she has arranged a marriage interview for Shirase tomorrow morning and tells him not to be late, much to Shirase’s dismay. The next day at some hotel, both parties met and this time Akizuki is some first class wedding conciliator. Shirase looks ‘out of place’ in his white suit. Shirase’s mom tells Misao that she must’ve been thirsty and gives her some money to go buy some drinks, which Shirase follows her. At the vending machine, Misao’s wondering if she’s a little taller… Looks like it’s more than just an onii-chan complex. Though Shirase compliments how great those clothes suit Misao, the announcement calls for him to go to the conference room.

 

But instead of going, Shirase’s sulking alone in some room when Misao comes in. She tries to tell him to go but Shirase’s just giving some excuse not to go and even asks Misao to tell the rest that some coolant pipes exploded and its radiation leaked on him. This guy… Then I’m not really sure what came over Misao, she just felt weird and proceeds to hug Shirase and tells him to stay here. It seems like she’s in love with him but she just doesn’t know. Then Akizuki barges in. You know what this means. Because Misao is relatively short, Akizuki misinterprets the sex position as shakuhachi (bamboo flute blowing… ahem ahem). After his usual ranting, he tells Shirase about some threat and a letter from King Of America saying how he has some Super Low Voltage Electromagnetic Brain Wave technology which will forcefully bring a man and a woman together. Also known as High Aphrodisiac System (HAS), it seems this hotel has been given the ‘honour’ as the system’s test subject. In return he’ll make this hotel known worldwide and will soon forward the invoice to him. What the? Nobody asked him in the first place.

 

Akizuki also tells him that ever since that mail came, lots of strange things have been happening like how people just declared their love for each other suddenly. And since the bridal market is a competitive market, Akizuki can’t just close it temporarily. This guy’s also thinking about money. But since Shirase isn’t, Akizuki gives him some life size pillow cover of some bishoujo as payment. I know, Shirase’s a little pervert. So hackers aren’t really 100% into computers the whole time. Soon, Shirase and Motoki meet and learn that they’re engaged to each other. While Akizuki leads the group to the room, he and Shirase are whispering about the threat and doing some analytical thinking which I didn’t quite understand. Hmm… Looks like Yuriko is on this case too but decides to back down a while. Then back at Rintarou’s home, he and Hideki are discussing things like how great it is to remotely control people’s minds and such. And that ‘2 people always getting stuck in the elevator which happens in the manga all the time’ punch line from Rintarou.

 

So Shirase and Motoki along with their family continued their marriage interview when Akizuki informs them about their meal is ready and they could proceed there for lunch. Shirase and Motoki were slow and was following behind the group when the shutters suddenly came down, separating the group with Shirase and Motoki alone together. The both of them needed to get out so they took an elevator nearby. Halfway through, the elevator stopped. Is this the punch line said by Rintarou earlier on? Inside the elevator we see a flashback during Shirase and Motoki’s high school days. Yeah, Motoki’s bashing up some guys who’s picking on Shirase.

 

It seems Yuriko’s receiving some report about Shirase’s marriage interview when her transmission becomes unclear. Yuriko thinks they’ve been spiked and goes into action. At the same time, Motoki’s getting a little lovey-dovey with Shirase in the elevator as she snuggles up close to him. Shirase’s just standing there. Soon Shirase receives an SMS from Yuriko saying that his image is being monitored by hackers and she’s here to repay her debt. Yuriko’s overloading Rintarou’s computer with whatever Microwave Buster Virus which turns electronic equipment into a microwave and it’ll fry all the hardware burn them all to death. They better get out fast. Their computer’s crashing and they have no time to back up all the data. The 2 manage to rush out of the house in time before everything in it goes kaboom. Yeah, that’s the last you’ll see of this 2 blokes. Maybe they’ve had enough already. Come to think of it, Rintarou and Shirase never really did meet face to face.

 

Soon the technicians manage to get Shirase and Motoki out of the elevator and a worried and teary Misao instantly hugs Shirase. Motoki notes it was pointless after all. So was that act in the elevator for real and not because of that HAS system? Dunno. The next morning at school, Motoki and Misao greets each other with the former just saying "Let’s do out best". So I guess the marriage interview is put off, huh?

 

Episodes 13-15 begins with a mysterious lady sipping tea in her car outside the Chinese restaurant before winding up her window and leaves. Now Akizuki’s an inspector from the police precinct. He instantly tells Shirase there that he’s being targeted. The scene then changes with Shirase waking up and then taking some train to his part time job at some local software company. He still needs to support himself, right? I mean it’s ironic that he does all those hacking jobs without doing it for the money but he ends up not too financially well off. Probably he isn’t a good planner. So after getting some can drink from the vending machine, he went upstairs to see a pretty lady in tight clothes in front of him carrying lots of stuff. Because of that, she fall backwards and crashes onto Shirase below. After much apologizing, she introduces herself as Saki Kawahara and when she finds out that he’s a computer worker, she gets excited and wants him to teach her computer stuffs.

 

Meanwhile in school, one of Misao’s friend, Sakamoto, is asking her to join some cheerleading team for their school’s football team match, which she agrees. Back at Shirase’s apartment, Misao’s telling her about her in the cheerleading team and wonders if he could come and watch. Shirase replies that he’s busy on that day because he’s giving some computer lessons. Misao then says he won’t get to see her in her mini skirt then. This made him think about changing the date of the lesson. But Shirase soon receives a call from Saki and the conversation seemed ‘friendly’. Enough to make Misao a little jealous. She thinks it’s his girlfriend. Yeah, she’s really jealous. Shirase tries to explain but Misao thinks of going home. As Shirase tries to grab Misao from the back, Akizuki barges in. Yeah, you might have guessed it already. I don’t really know how Shirase and Misao ended up in that ‘rear seated position’. You should have a look at it yourself if you want to know what I mean.

 

After he’s done ranting, Akizuki discusses with Shirase privately and tells him that many skilled engineers have been disappearing lately across Japan by some organization. And the only clue they have is that the victims are usually approached by some person, which is coincidental as well. Akizuki thinks that Shirase may be the next target because BPS is quite a famous name in the hacker’s world. So Akizuki wants Shirase to stay home and will be paid to do so. But it’s not with money, rather some FPP1110 tenth version Ultra High Speed inverted type RAM board. That’s enough to make Shirase decide, don’t it? Akizuki then asks him whether he has recently met someone coincidentally and possible a woman. That idiot Shirase looks at his calendar and says "Nope". Is he the forgetful type or is he trying to protect that Saki girl?

 

So the next day we see Shirase at some store trying to buy some self defence materials like some magnesium balls which blinds one’s opponents and allows the victim to runaway. At school, Misao’s practicing her cheerleading when a football hits her. Since it’s from Kawahara, he went to apologize to her while Misao’s cleaning up herself. So some talk about doing your best too here and there, which prompts that busybody Sakamoto who’s eavesdropping to think that Misao and Kawahara’s an item. Yeah, that grin tells it all. Meanwhile, Shirase’s at Saki’s doorstep and he’s thinking that it might be a trap but it’s unlikely that she can pull it off. But he’s got his magnesium balls as a precaution in his pocket.

 

Saki invites Shirase in and she looks quite excited and looking forward to their time there. So much so that Saki’s getting quite close with him and Shirase’s feeling panic. Anyway Saki’s telling him that she has told her friend about him and that friend insisted on coming to see him. Soon her friend, Misaki, comes in enthusiastically. Oh gawd! Another transvestite! And with all those face powder he looks like some wrestler with that size. Misaki who works in the same store with Saki, proceeds to hug Shirase (is that a wrestling move?). And it seems Shirase’s regretting that he should’ve gone to see Misao’s cheerleading. Shirase then noticed his magnesium balls are missing. Misaki then holds it in is hands and says is this what he’s looking for as she takes off her fur coat revealing his sexy leather suit (looks unfittingly horrible). To cut things short, he’s here to kidnap Shirase. Then this funny line when Misaki’s telling how Shirase has the mental capacity to extract the song real time into MP3 data when he just listens to music. Saki then replies "I don’t really understand it, but it sounds amazing just because I don’t understand it". Hahaha.

 

Misaki’s thanking Saki that she saved him the trouble for finding him and asks Shirase to come follow him now. Then Misaki whips out a gun and plans to shoot Saki as he can’t possibly leave any witnesses, much to Saki’s horror. Yeah, Saki’s ranting how she’s not even married or have kids yet. Shirase after seeing a teary Saki, then just press a button on the laptop nearby which overloads the power socket. Because Misaki’s stepping on some wires, he got a little electric shock and drops the gun. What the? Can he do that in a single push of a button? Maybe I should just leave this to the experts. By the time Akizuki and 2 police officers arrive, Misaki throws the magnesium balls and she disappeared along with Shirase and Saki.

 

Before I continue on the last episode, I’d like to mention some ‘teaser’ said by the narrator at the beginning of the last episode which goes "To those who enjoyed the show on tv and to those outside the broadcast area who took special measures to watch the show on their pc monitors, and to everyone who watched it subtitled overseas without permission, the head director Hayashi Hiroki representing the entire staff would like to say… I’m really sorry". Yeah, how funny and true. Looks like I’m part of the statistics as well. Maybe it’s their way of saying thank you.

 

Back to the story, Shirase and Saki are being tied up in some helicopter. While Misaki’s blabbing not to move or he’ll kill them, Shirase’s asking Saki if she has a handphone and could borrow it. Since it’s in Saki’s pocket, it seems Shirase’s molesting her! Is Saki embarrassed or enjoying it? Wah! Saki’s mind must be running wild about the misconceptions. Because they’re too ‘noisy’, Misaki’s wonders what’s going on but Shirase just says that his butt itchy. Eventually, Shirase manages to get Saki’s handphone and just like a pro (yeah, he’s doing it without looking at the handphone screen and with only 1 hand!) he did donno some typing to hack some satellite and inform some other parties about their current location. And it seems Misaki find out that the ship that he’s bringing them too has already been quarantined by the Coast Guard and everybody there’s safe. Yeah, Shirase even ‘hijacked’ the helicopter’s communication system as he and Akizuki try to communicate with each other but Misaki soon shuts it off.

 

Shirase then asks Misaki who is he taking orders from. Misaki’s gonna tell him but the helicopter’s pilot interrupts and says that Misaki’s untrustworthy and that the organization doesn’t need such people and stabs Misaki’s neck with some injection needle! Don’t worry. Misaki ain’t dead. He’s just gonna lose his memory from the last 10 years. It is revealed that the pilot is MPS principal Miura. Seems that Miura and Shirase know each other. Miura’s complementing Shirase’s skills which hasn’t got rusty over the years. From the way he said things, looks like Miura wants him to come join him as he also mentions Mika who’s waiting for him. Who’s that person? If I think carefully, it must be that shadowy figure in the opening sequence (the only character which I can’t put my finger on) and possibly that lady sipping tea in the car.

 

Miura soon parachutes himself out of the helicopter and says that the auto pilot will automatically land them safely, though it’s gonna be a rough one. Akizuki arrives at the scene and to his shock saw Shirase in a ’69 position’ with Saki on top and Shirase’s hands on her butt. Well, at least Akizuki didn’t go on about his usual ranting. Maybe once is more than enough. Back at Misao’s school, she and her cheerleading team are cheering on their school football’s team. After the game, she and Kawahara had a little chat. And we see all those busybodies from Motoki to Sakamoto and even her cheerleading buddies snickering from behind. But that shy Misao didn’t do anything and just stood there.

 

Kawahara comes back to his apartment and we see that he and Saki are siblings. Actually I’ve already guessed it when Saki was introduced because of their surname. Did you? Saki’s getting all excited and telling her little bro how she’s met the man of her dreams. Uh-huh. Then back at Shirase’s apartment, he’s dog tired and sleeping when Misao came in with a blanket draped over her. She says she’s gonna show him her cute uniform and reveals it. Then that perverted Shirase suddenly sprung out from his sleep and hastily tried to switch on the lights to get a good look. By the time he does, Misao already covered herself back. Too bad. Shirase’s regretting that he should’ve come and watch her cheerleading.

 

So does it really all end here. Well, this is another funny part. It seems the narrator says something about the story shall be told again once again when they have a chance to do so and the next time he’ll give you even more. And at the very last screen we see a statement from Misao asking viewers to buy a DVD box set for BPS and all the proceeds from this will allow the company to produce a second season of BPS. But since this is a year 2003 production and no word has been said about the second season since, I guess everybody didn’t buy the DVD box set. Hahaha. How ironic. Looks like not enough budget to do so. Sorry Misao, we can’t see you again soon.

 

Overall, I guess this short anime is rather okay. Because I’m not a technical computer geek, I can’t really tell whether those moves from Shirase are really possible or is that usual Japanese anime exaggeration. But I suppose it’s pretty cool. The other characters are quite okay as well. Just enough for the storyline. Of course since they had planned for a second season, some characters felt ‘insufficient’.

 

One thing I like is the opening theme song, Suddenly, sung by Naomi Amagata. It’s sorta sounds like a dance song and it manage to make me get up and dance and do a little jiggle. Or at least shuffle my feet. The ending theme song Pure Enough, by Yuuki Matsura is your typical hyped pop song, with the opening lines going "La la la la la la la". Both the opening and ending credits uses cell shading kinda drawing which looks a little different and refreshing because I’ve seen too many of those typical Japanese anime drawings.

 

The next time you’ve got a computer crisis, you know who to call, right? If you can get hold of him, that is. And that Shirase guy has to start taking some money as his payment or he’ll forever be living in poverty. But to each his own. I wonder what he does with all those rare novelties. Maybe he just likes to keep it as his personal collection. But since he’s asleep most of the time, I’m thinking he has hardly the time to even look and admire them.