The Dirty Pair are at their gorgeous and destructive best. Dr. Wattsman is everything a comically wacky mad scientist should be, while at the same time genuinely deadly. The dashing thief, Carson D. Carson, provides conflict and assistance and, for Kei, a love interest. So we have weapons, monsters, thieves, sinister schemes, romance, and action. We also have some light international political satire: the two nations on the planet in question are clearly intended to represent comic versions of the United States and the Soviet Union.