A.D. Police - DVDvisionJapan.com
- DVDvisionJapan.com
- 01/01/01
- click here
SUMMARY
In the year 2025, the city of Tokyo is recovering from a major earthquake. The Genom Cooperation is aiding in the reconstruction by providing bio-mechanical robots called voomers. Unfortunately, with progress comes new problems. Boomer crimes (a nick name for rouge voomers) are on an increase. Not only that, the voomers are starting to fuse with man and machines. To combat this problem, the Genom Corporation forms the ADvanced Police. Equipped with the latest in weapons and vehicles, the 7 man team fight a never ending battle against boomers.
One member of the AD Police is Kenji Sasaki, a very impulsive young cop who is always on the wrong side of his captain and his team. His attitude doesn't improve when he meets his new partner, Hans Klief. Just as headstrong, the two of them are always on each others nerves.
During a routine raid of an illegal boomer factory, the AD Police run afoul of a gangster named Liam Fletcher. It appears that Fletcher is waging his own little war against Genom, and he is not above taking out the AD Police if they interfere. Now the streets of Genom City have become a war zone, with the innocent caught in the crossfire. Can Kenji, Hans, and their teammates stop Fletcher before Genom does?
DVD VISION TEST
VIDEO: The transfer is well done. There are no pixels, wrinkles, or blemishes for the most part. You do notice a little edge enhancement in some of the scenes shot on digital video, but since those scenes are few and far between, you really won't notice. Please keep in mind that any defects you see are because of the quality of the animation, not the disc.
AUDIO:The Japanese 2.0 audio track is pretty sharp and clear. It is also a little louder than the English dub 2.0 track. It has some directionality, but for the most part, its pretty center speaker based. Then English dub track does have a higher pitch, but a richer sound than its counterpart.
EDITS: None to the actual episodes. The clean animation is used with the opening and closing segment.
EXTRAS:Better than most AD Vision releases. There are some design sketches, series notes, and artwork witch consists mostly of DVD covers and some Nagel influenced artwork of the women of AD Police. Also included are the clean open and close.
WIDESCREEN REVIEW
STORY: The story is excellent. Planned by AIC, along with chief writer (and series creator) Taiko Hoshikawa and SF advisor Hiroshi Ohnogi, AD Police feels very much like 'Blade Runner'. More than just an exercise in the 'future cop' genre, this series covers the gambit of emotions. Love, betrayal, hate, and acceptance are all represented, with one episode focusing on the characters alone. Even though the dialogue is not original, it does not detract from the overall narrative.
ACTING: Decent, but nothing exciting. The Japanese cast does much better acting job than some of the other series that have come out in the last year. There are no real standouts but Yoko Sawami as Yuki Satomi is very sexy.
The English dub if full of AD Vision regular voice actors (Christine Auten, Jason Douglas, Shawn Taylor). At times, the voices feel a little rushed, but all in all, they convey the emotions for each situation.
FAN SERVICE: None to really speak of, except for the shots of Kenji's girlfriend in her nighty in the closing credits.
CONCLUSION: What do you do when you have an interesting story with poor animation? Do you continue to watch, or do you put it on your shelf, and never think about it again. If you do the latter, you will miss out on a well written series. While not as flashy as its sister program 'Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040' it is the substance of AD Police that makes it worth watching.
Many reviews I have read do not like AD Police. Many site the poor animation, or the fact that it has little or no relation to BGC Tokyo 2040. What they fail to overlook is the theological ideas that were presented in 'Blade Runner' are fleshed out quite well although in a different fashion. Ideas like 'Do you have a soul if you have no memories? Is there much difference between man and machine? Is truth an absolute? Depending on the crowd you hang out with, there could be some serious debate on these and other topics. The fact that a series has the potential to beyond 'kill robots' is not to be taken lightly. Honestly, I could not stop watching until I saw the last disc. Despite not being too surprised at the ending, I was still on the edge of my seat. Now, I am not saying that the dialogue is the best, but it does not severely muck up the overall feeling of the story.
Now, after my high praise for the writing, let me get to the part I didn't like, the animation. In a word, it's crap. It only does a little better in quality than the 'Silent Mobius'TV series, and is a little under par compared to'GTO'. It looks rough, rushed, and a little cartoony, despite it not having any Rare-Gag or Gag animation. When a boomer explodes, half the time, it looks like confetti is exploding instead of parts. In one episode, it looks like the head was made of paper when it exploded. Also, since when does dynamite look like a rubber candle?
The worst part about the animation is the perplexing use of digital animation in some of the scenes. The sharp lines and bright colors look out of place in the predominantly blue and gray rough animation.
I am not wild about the character designs either. Most of the women look too butch, and the two leads are way too beshonen for my tastes. The only time they look good is the artwork in the extras section.
So, is it worth paying the $20 or so dollars for a complete boxset of AD Police? If you mostly view anime as an art form, pass on this one. If you watch anime because of the quality of the writing, or if you are a completist (like myself) don't miss out on this one.
Posted on Monday, January 01, 2001 (Archive on Thursday, February 01, 2001)