Yet another anime review, and some other goodies.

Posted another review on Them forums. This is a second opionon, so just maybe I will get some flamed :) One way or another, I think AD Police is a good show.

Title

AD Police TV

Genre

Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Action, Drama

Length

12@25mins

Distributor

US: ADV Films

Info

© 1999 AIC / TV Tokyo

Status

Full (12/12)

Version

prerelease fansub

AKA

AD Police

Related Series

AD Police Files/OVA, Bubblegum Crisis, Bubblegum Crash, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040

The Synopsis

Japan. 2040. Tokyo. Genom City. Alongside humans exist their robot servants - boomers (aka voomers). They come in various humanoid shapes, have limited inteligence, no free will and are destined to do all the tasks that their human masters order them to. But from time to time, the boomers go bersek, and their superhuman strenght and agility requires that a special police unit must be created to deal with the boomer-related crime. That is where AD Police section comes in. This is the story of one of AD Police officers, Kenji Sasaki, and his squad...

The Review

Most people reading this piece want either to confirm their own opinions of that series or to learn if they should have it in the first place.

So is AD Police good? Well...kinda.

What? That is not enough of an answer for you? You want more?

Oh, ok. It depends.

Hey, that's twice as many words as in the previous one. Still not good enough? Well, we can do it the classical way, but remember - you asked for it.

As most shows, AD Police has its good and bad sides. Unfortuntely, the bad ones are most releveant in the 'canon' parts of an action show - the plot is a no brainer (stop the evil mastermind, geez, haven't we heard that one before?) and the action parts are mostly done in the convention 'behold, the immortal invincible handsome good guys take on impossible odds and destroy the military mecha with a screwdriver'.

So you may ask - what was with that 'kinda' or 'depends'? What on earth can make one want to watch this apparent crap'o'rama? Well, one thing. The characters rock. You identify with them, you weep with them, you love them, you hate them...They are flesh and blood. They need friends and family to function. They don't always get well along with each other. On the same day they will fight one another in the locker room over some stupid comment, save the other guy's life, hide under the table becouse they don't have the money to repay that last week debt, and in the end, get drunk together listening to the bartender story about lost love and a glass. They say that good actors can make bad story seem great. AD Police is a prime example of this.

The main plot, while going on to the predictable big fight in the end, does take a single good twist which involves the death of one of the main characters in the mid-series (yes I am a sick person who digs such stuff), so it is not a complete write-off. The aftermath of the final fight is nicely done as well. When one comes to think of did, don't top productions like Bebop or Trigun end in a similar way? Unfortunately, most episodes in AD Police will be action based, and that guts this show.

Consider this - in this supposedly action story my favourite episode is the one that takes place in a *bar*. Twenty five minutes of talking, no fights at all. It is a show when you dont want the action to start, you want the characters to keep on interacting. I'd call it an orginal cop show, at least...and although I don't think this is what the producers intended, it does make it stand out from the crowd. Both in a good and bad way. In the end, AD Police is an excellent drama (or is tragedy more appopriate?) with way to much bad action sequences thrown in.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. Animation and music are decent. No cgi. Good opening and ending. The standard.

Rating

4 stars. Remove one if you dont care much about character interaction. Remove one if you want realistic action. Remove one if you want orginal plot. Remove one if you dont like tragedy. And yes, I think that the characters are good enough for 4 stars if you dont mind the rest.

Audience Appropriateness

There will be fights even between good guys themselves. There will be blood, death and tragedy (although not too graphic). It is not comedy, it is real, and bear this in mind - it is no fun for small kids. At best, they will be bored.

CONTENT RATING

PG-13 I guess

Recommendations

Bubblegum Crisis
Patlabor TV
You Are Under Arrest
Armitage III

Reviewed by

Piotr Konieczny

What other goodies I promised for you?
More reviews :) Don't worry, I've got a new article thingy planed soon.

So, what is the site? Well, it is the site of a publishing house. Baen. What is interesting in a company website, on Earth sake, you ask?
Well, they got a FREE LIBRARY. As in FREE LEGAL EBOOKS in many formats you can download and read. And they have dozens of good books there. I recommend 'On Basilisk Station' by David Weber and '1632' by Eric Flint. Space opera and alternative history, for a good start.
The other good parts include the schedule calendar going at least a year forward, so you can know when the next dose of series you are addicted to is coming and the Baen's Bar, a lively forum which among other things includes snippets of not yet published books. The bookworm heaven. Hail Baen. Baen is your friend. You will listen to Baen...ummm...did I mention you gotta look out for sublimal programming? Oh, who cares, new snippets of 'Saganami Island' are up, gimme!!!!