AD Police Files

AD Police Files is a standard issue grim cyberpunk vision that spends much of its time ripping off earlier, better works such as Blade Runner and Robocop. Long story short, it focuses on a elite police squad dedicated to hunting down rogue androids or "skin jobs,"-I, err, mean "boomers." All of this is set in the future that looks like 1989, only with robots and cyborgs.

In only three episodes, it manages to rip off every major science fiction movie of the eighties. The first two episodes are effectively pervy versions of Blade Runner, while the third episode is essentially a plagiarism of the first two Robocop movies.

To make things worst, the animation is abysmal. Never mind Akira or Studio Ghibli, this won't even make you forget a typical episode of Pokemon! As with most early 90s anime, the subtitles are laugh-inducing, with hyper-melodramatic dialogue.

Just to top it all off, the first two episodes have a definite misogynistic feel to them. In the view of the series's writers, the essence of being a woman is apparently to die from multiple rapes. This is literally stated in the dialogue.

Rent it if you're in the mood for something comical or lurid; otherwise, don't waste your time.

First of all, I have to say I don't know Bubblegum Crisis and I'm definitely not interested in that series.

This one seemed to be more down my alley, but it was very disappointing.

Story wise it had some interesting aspects, with the premise of the cyborgs going rogue, there were some other bits that could have been worked out more, but not much was done with it.

I always like the cyberpunk setting, and this one had some good moments where the atmosphere was enjoyable for me.

But then, the characters are too bland, very little effort was put into the visual or writing design, with the last episode being a rip off of Robocop (as so many say), I thought it was the strongest character of the whole series, at least it has something going on.. The action was also very bland, I don't remember any of it being particularly interesting, the pace is boring and most of the dialog is cringe.

Of course there has to be misogyny, since is a Jap animation, but sometimes it goes too far or is unnecessary, and this is one of those cases.

The art is decent but nothing extraordinary. I was also attracted to the series by the advertising posters, which look amazing, but nothing on that style is on this series.

Something that particularly bothered me was the music. Terrible. Specially because they play music with lyrics during parts of the story when characters are explaining what's going on! I struggled to understand any of the dialog, and I thought it was such an amateurish thing to do, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before. On the rest of the time, the music was completely out of mood and VERY off putting to the action. Unbelievably bad musicalization.

Overall a very mediocre and boring series, wouldn't recommend it.

AD Police is a dark and hard edged prequel to the Bubblegum Crisis series and if you are a fan of 1980's/90's adult oriented anime then you will know exactly what to expect. There's gory action, nudity for no reason, a melodramatic story and a profanity laden English dub.

This is all good stuff by the way.

I read that this is the first 3 episodes of a cancelled TV series and it kind of makes sense as it isn't super long and none of the characters are fleshed out all that well. It also heavily influenced by Bladerunner and Robocop which is something the show never tries to hide (the third episode is basically a deranged version of the first Robocop movie).

Some parts of it are definitely kind of sexist and tone deaf but to be honest this doesn't bother me at all. This is a made up fantasy story, it isn't trying to teach you any lessons about life or what the real world is like so calm down.

The cyborg designs are cool, the action scenes feature some "Hell yeah!" moments and it all has a dark and nihilistic tone which i enjoy. It's nowhere near as awesome or polished as Ghost in the shell but what is?

It's a shame that the series ended here because i think if the characters had a chance to grow and the plot was more fleshed out then this could have been very cool.

If this is your thing then go check it out.

AD Police Files 1-3 (1990): 8/10: Despite a third episode that is almost a scene for scene remake of Robocop this is one of the sharpest Anime's around.

Sexist and racist in that unconscious Japanese way with over the top violence and just a dash of nudity AD Police doesn't fail to entertain. The first two tales are gripping and inventive if a little hard to follow (Character development is minimalist at best) with great moral arks about the downfall of artificial parts and artificial people.

The third episode is a letdown and quite skippable. Tons of action keeps AD Police moving even when the story seems to stall. The plots of the first two episodes are also filled with surprise and that delightful "I always wished someone would do that" feeling.

The animation is very well done with different styles mixing it up to great effect. At only 3 episodes however it left me wanting more. That's usually a good sign.

(This is the prequel to the anime Bubblegum Crisis which I am not familiar with so I can't compare the shows, but simply review it as a stand alone product.) Set in MegaTokyo in the year 2046, the police force has been broken into two groups, Normal police (who deal with your everyday crimes), and AD Police (who deal with the Boomers.) Boomers are robots or people who have cybernetically enhanced their bodies by 70% and are committing criminal acts.

The extremely short series (only three episodes) deals with Normal Police officer Leon becoming an AD Police officer and what it is like to be a member of AD police.

AD Police is a very dark and grim look into the future. A feel of Blade Runner meets Robocop runs through this story, but with such a dark feeling that I couldn't really enjoy it. Plenty of blood and guts and creepy imagery to really visually impress, but just a little too nasty for my tastes.

** Out of ****