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AD Police

Files 1-3

Review by Matthew Anderson

3 Part OVA

Company: AnimEigo

Running Time: 120 minutes (3 episodes)

Region: 1

Rated: R (Violence, nudity, language and adult situations)

EXTERNAL EXAM

In the year 2027, the city of Tokyo is still recovering from a major earthquake. The Genom Corporation is aiding in the reconstruction by providing bio-mechanical robots called Boomers. Unfortunately, with progress comes new problems. Rouge Boomers are committing violent crimes against the citizens of Tokyo. To combat this problem, the Tokyo Police department forms the ADvanced Police. Equipped with the latest in weapons and vehicles, this special team of police officers fight a never ending battle against the boomers, and their own reputations.

The newest member of the AD Police is Leon McNichol, a young cop who is not quite sure how he feels about this strange world of Boomers and cyborgs. Under the tutelage of Senior Officer Jeena Malso, he learns not only how to fight these mechanical monstrosities, but to look beyond the obvious to find out the real truth.

In this dead end city, you can loose your humanity in the blink of an eye. Will Leon be able to keep his sanity, and still save a city that hates his very existence?

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: A very good looking transfer. The colors are well done, there are almost no pixels, no wrinkles, or edge enhancement. The video is still a little light in some places, but this is due to the source material, not the transfer. This does looks a whole heck of a lot better than AnimEigo's VHS release.

AUDIO: There is very little difference between the Japanese and English 2.0 audio tracks. The sounds, music, and dialogue are well mixed, and there is no mono hiss. The audio on the Japanese track has a little more treble than the English dub.

EDITS: Every thing is untouched. Not a singe frame has been edited.

EXTRAS: The complete collection of music videos from the AD Police VHS release, a montage of original artwork and sketches, and complete song lyrics make up the extras.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: The story is excellent. Based off the manga by Tony Takezaki, the three stories that make up AD Police have a very "Blade Runner" feel about them. More than just an exercise in the "future cop" genre, this series covers the gambit of emotions; love, betrayal, hate, and acceptance. AD Police is also very nihilistic. There are no happy endings in this series.

ACTING: The Japanese cast is excellent. You don't get any better than "Patlabor" alum Toshio Furukawa as the young yet strong Leon. Yoko Matsuoka commanding, sexy voice is perfect for the tough as nails Jeena. The rest of the cast does a great job a conveying the dark and dangerous world of MegaTokyo.

The English cast isn't too bad, better than the BGC dub. Brad Moranz managed to improve on his rather stilted reading in "Bubblegum Crisis". Regan Forman isn't nearly as sexy as Yoko Matsuoka, but she does the tough as nails bit very well. Juliet Cesario as Cara Iris is no where as annoying as her Japanese counterpart.

FAN SERVICE: There are quite a few nude and underwear scenes, but none of them are overly erotic. You can see many visual references to places and events that happen in the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA. There are plenty of similarites to cult classics like "Robocop" and of course "Blade Runner".

FINAL EXAM

AD Police is a great, unsung classic in the anime world. Realizing many of the concepts started in "Blade Runner", AD Police showed us a dark and moody place where your humanity is measured by how much cybernetic augmentation you have. Like so many OVA's of the late 80's, early 90's, it never really got a chance to go beyond it's three episode run. If there ever was a series that deserves a live action version, this is it!

File 1: "The Phantom Woman", shows the early days of the AD Police, and of former "Normal Police" officer Leon McNichol. Unlike the calm and cool cop of "Bubblegum Crisis", "Rookie" is a nervous, shell shocked officer, way in over his head. The fact that his partner Jeena is a balls to the wall, bad ass chick with a few strange quirks doesn't make his life any easier. When a fellow AD Police member is killed in the line of duty, Jenna and Leon try to figure out exactly why the boomer went crazy. During their investigation, and old adversary of Leon appears.

File 2: "The Ripper" centers around Cara Iris of the Normal Police. Recently troubled by eye pain, she is contemplating getting her eye replaced with a cybernetic one. She is also trying to figure out who is killing young prostitutes in the seedy underground of MegaTokyo. While everyone is convinced the killer is a boomer, she believes that a very angry human is behind it. During the course of her investigation, she discovers that Leon and the AD Police already have a suspect, and that their target is the test case on how to determine who is human, or who is boomer.

File 3: "The Man Who Bites his Tongue" is the tragic tale of Billy Fanword. Like "Robocop" he is "killed" in the line of duty. Placed in a cybernetic body, his only sense of humanity is when he bites his tongue before battle. Unfortunately, when the rest of your body is virtually invulnerable and you have already died once, going after boomers looses a lot of it's appeal. Thanks to a rather freaky scientists and some performance enhancing drugs, Billy starts to regain his humanity, but looses his self control.

As you can see, the central theme of AD Police is "what really makes a human being"? Is it their soul, their mind, or their body. Is a woman really a woman if she is 70% robotic? Can a man still find pleasure if there is nothing left of his body? If a boomer goes insane, is it because of a malfunction, or do they really have souls. This series raises so many philosophical and ethical questions, you could do a doctorial thesis on just the first episode alone.

The look of MegaTokyo in AD Police is even dirtier and darker than in "Bubblegum Crisis". In 2027, Tokyo is still recovering from the big Kanto earthquake. Dilapidated buildings are all over the place. A black and dark soot covers everything. Even tranquil places like parks are sinister and dark. Every last bit of space is used, and everything, and I do mean everything, is recycled. It truly lives up to it's namesake "Dead End City".

I always liked the character of Leon in Bubblegum Crisis, so having him a major part of AD Police really put his character in perspective. The cool and calm character he became was forged from these early days. His dislike of boomers and other forms of cyber enhancement can be traced to one particular event in episode one. While you can understand his nervousness at enhancement, he does have something of a double standard. If you loose a limb in combat, he is okay about getting it replaced. When someone replaces something because it's expedient, he goes off. The one big question I have is what happened to him in-between episode 3 of AD Police and episode 1 of BGC to make him so reckless. Also, what happened to Jeena, and when did Daley show up? Unforutnatly, we may never know. I guess that's what fan fictions are for.

I really love the acting of the Japanese cast in AD Police. Toshio Furukawa, who plays a lot of cops in anime, as well as Lupan III uses his diverse talent to play Leon. One minute, he sounds tough and rough, the next, he is flirtatious and smooth. Yoko Matsuoka is everything you have come to expect from a hot yet tough anime babe. In episode two, the talented Mika Doi uses her regal voice to great effect as one of the supporting characters, Caroline Evers. Even the people who do the incidentals have it nailed down pat.

The English dub is decent, but it's not quite up to par as the Japanese cast. At least they are no where near as stiff as the cast from BGC.

AnimEigo has done us AD Police fans proud with the presentation of this DVD. The video looks a lot better than the VHS, although it's not as good as their Madox 01 DVD release. There are several instances where the source material gets very grainy or the colors fade a little too much. It's annoying, but it's nothing to get excited about. The audio is excellent, with some decent directionality for a Dolby 2.0 track.

The extras are pretty cool, my favorite being the music videos featuring Lou Bonnevie. Yes, it's 80's rock, but it's good 80's rock. Her throaty vocals pack an emotional power that few singers can match. "What a Fool I Am" is very emotional, as is "I Need Your Love". On the other side, "I'm Every Girl" and "Rockin' the Beat" are pure bubblegum pop, and I love it.

AD Police: The Mad Criminal Investigation Files is one of the best OVA series ever made. The interesting stories, gritty visuals, and superb voice work is the reason why so many anime fans love this series. Thanks to the wonderful folks at AnimEigo, the new generation now has a chance to go to the dead end city, and "visit the dark side of MegaTokyo".

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