A few months ago I had a problem. I was getting the You're Under Arrest DVDs, and I realized that I really liked just about every theme song, both from the OVAs and the TV series (which was long enough to have two opening themes and two ending themes). I thought that the only option I had was to buy all of the separate soundtracks. As anyone who has ever imported CDs from Japan knows, that is not an inexpensive hobby. So I was staring into the dark maw of financial oblivion, knowing that I was going to have to buy every single darn soundtrack CD for the entire series. Hope was not lost, however, as on a visit to CDJapan, I noticed a listing for the "Theme Song Full Collection," and it wasn't outrageously expensive. Just imagine, a two-disc set with every theme song on it! I could kill all these birds with one stone! With my wallet singing hallelujahs, I placed my order and eagerly awaited the set's arrival. Would it really solve my problems? Would it provide me everything I needed?

To answer both of those questions, yes! My inability to read Japanese aside, I believe that this two disc set contains every theme song for the franchise, from the OVAs to the mid-'90s TV show, to the mini-specials, to the theatrical movie, and beyond. But that's not all! This set also includes a number of songs from things that I never knew existed. For example, the first disc contains the opening and ending themes from the Playstation game, which I had never heard of before, and the second disc contains four songs from random singles that were released after the OVAs but before the TV series, I believe. Not only did I get all my theme songs, but I got extra songs as well!

Every song on both discs would have to be put in the general "J-pop" category, though there is still significant variety. Each song has its own feel, but most of the songs are pretty upbeat and happy and provide a thematic regularity to the album. There are a few exceptions to this, but I will get to those shortly. Musically, most songs rely heavily on keyboards and electric guitars. The first disc in the set contains 11 tracks, which seem to be on the disc in reverse chronological order from when they were released. The first two songs are the opening and ending theme from the second TV show, which began airing in Japan in 2001. These songs are okay (and "Starting UP" has a very nice guitar bridge), but they really don't grab my attention like some of the others do. This is very surprising, as just about every song I have heard related to the franchise up until these songs is something I really like. I even really enjoy listening to Takako Shirai , the singer for the second track ("Blooming Days") but the song just doesn't do it for me. The third song continues this surprising trend, and I even find it somewhat annoying. I have never really cared for techno-dance, however, which is what this song is, so there you go. So what's going on here? Did I waste my money? Did all the good songs stop being made after 1997?

Luckily for me, the answer is an emphatic "no." Tracks four and five are the songs from the Playstation game. These two tracks are sung by the Japanese voice actresses that play the lead characters from the show, Miyuki Kobayakawa [voiced by Akiko Hiramatsu] and Natsumi Tsujimoto [voiced by Sakiko Tamagawa]. These songs are great, with a very happy pop style (and a nice ripping electric guitar bridge on the fourth track, "Start shiyou"). How much you like these songs will depend on how much you like the Japanese voice actresses and how much you liked the music from the original OVA series, as the general feel from that show's music caries over here, but with a slightly more "modern" sound.

After that we get the opening and ending themes for the "mini-sessions" - animated shorts from the late 90s. The opener is really very average, and how much you like it will likely depend on how much wail you like in your electric guitar. The closing theme, the seventh track on this disc, is another fairly average song, though the chorus does have a good pace to it. The songs aren't bad by any measure, but they just don't stand out in any way.

The last four tracks on the first disc are the two opening and two closing themes from the TV series. Track eight, "LOVE SOMEBODY," is the second opening theme (remember that the tracks are in reverse order). This song is almost too happy, but it really does fit thematically into the events of the last half of the TV series, so it "feels right" when you hear it in the show. Outside of that context it is still an enjoyable song, but it lacks some of the weight lent by the show. It also continues the electric guitar and keyboard trend from earlier in the album. Track nine changes things, as we get another Takako Shirai ballad, one that has a rather melancholy, pained feel to it, which makes a nice counterpoint to its opposing opening theme, while still fitting with the themes underlying the end of the TV series. This song does a great job of allowing the singer to really show off her power, and even though I can't understand the words (though the TV series as sold by AnimEigo comes with translated lyrics in the liner notes to volume 7), you can still feel the emotion in the song. It's not a really happy song, but seeing as that is pretty much all that we have had up to this point, some variety is good.

Track ten, "Thank you, love," is the first ending theme, and once again changes things up by giving us a heartfelt love song backed by only a bass and two acoustic guitars. I have adored this song ever since I first heard it, mainly because the guitar work is very technically impressive and effective at conveying the mood. It is a fantastically-written song, and one that all you finger style guitar fans will dig. The final song on the disc marks the first appearance of men in the singer's role, as the group Flying Kids gets the call to perform this one. I'm really not impressed by the song, but whoever wrote the chorus scores points for getting such a good lyrical roll out of the words. I don't listen to this song for the music, which is pretty average, with piano and electric guitars featuring most prominently; I listen to it because the lyrics just flow so well and it is fun to sing along.

So, now we're one disc down with one to go. Overall the first disc was pretty good, but some of the songs just don't measure up as well as some others do. That's what you get when you buy an album like this, though, with a lot of songs by a lot of different artists. Where the first disc has a lot of variety, however, the second disc is much more focused. There are only six songs on this disc, and the disc focuses on the "Tokyo Policewoman Duo," (referred to hereafter as TPD) a name cooked up to describe songs sung by the voice actresses for the two main characters in the show. I know of at least two separate albums put out under this moniker around the same time that the original OVAs were first being published, but there may have been more. The first four songs are from these "image albums" and an associated CD single, while the final two tracks are the opening and ending themes from the OVAs that started this whole marketing juggernaut. The first four songs all have a similar feel to them, which makes me believe that they were all written by the same person or at least all produced by the same person. Still, each song has its own angle, with the first song being a fairly standard TPD song, focusing more on the singers than the music. The second song actually has an oldies feel to it, of all things. I think my Mom could like this one. Then we hit another peppy number, which by this point sounds so much like some of the earlier songs that it doesn't have much of its own identity, outside of the lead in to the chorus, where the singers get really cute in that way that only the Japanese can. The final song attempts to be different by having somewhat of a '30s jazz sound to it. It also bears interest as it is a duo between the characters of Natsumi and the Chief (voiced by Issei Masamune), rather than Miyuki. It's not my thing, though, and it doesn't really fit with the rest of the album. Fans of the Chief will probably dig it, though.

And now we get to the end, with the two songs that started this whole thing, "100mph no yuuki" and "arittake no joonetsu de," the opening and closing songs, respectively, from the OVA series. These are the songs that made my friend Wil say "Wow, that was really happy." It doesn't matter if I can understand them or not (Animeigo liner inserts come to the rescue with a lyrics insert in the first boxed set), these songs are just so darn happy that they'll always put a smile on my face. Granted, that could very well be because the songs are sung by the ladies of TPD, back together for a final time. The second disc ends with a long (roughly 30 minutes) vocal track that I believe is a series of interviews with various personnel involved with the You're Under Arrest shows. Fans fluent in Japanese will likely find this fascinating, but it doesn't do the rest of us much good.

If you are a fan of the You're Under Arrest shows, then there is a lot of good stuff here and you won't be disappointed. Just don't expect to love every song and you'll be fine. If you aren't a fan of the show then there is much less for you here, but some of the songs, such as "sora o miagete" and "Thank you, love," are almost worth the price of admission on their own. Fans of the show will definitely want to pick up this special music set to add to their collection, especially if they can't afford all the separate soundtrack albums.