AD Police Files

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.

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.

The Spin Off/Bubblegum Crisis Prequel is what you'd expect from a Cyberpunk themed Noir anime from the 90s. As the name suggests, they are separate files from the AD Police where each one tells its own story, stories that however much simple has its discussions well implanted in the work.

"Phantom Lady" focuses on sex dolls called Boomer that for mysterious reasons have become aggressive with human beings, especially with men who use them for sex, those who are not able to satisfy them end up being murdered for bringing them frustrations instead of pleasure for them, which ends up being a dilemma brought by the work itself, which satisfies a humanoid machine that shouldn't even have feelings? And how do these distinguish sensations without even possessing humanity?

"The Ripper" talks about femininity, social problems about equality in the labor market, and the extent to which bodily changes make us stop being human or even have an individuality. The positive point of this episode is that for a moment the work leaves the AD organization aside and focuses on the perspective of the newcomer to the city and the common police, Iris, who has an innocent look at the terrible city of MegaTokyo as for the how violent are the crimes committed by the Boomers, but thanks to this and the antagonist, a discussion is created about what makes us human.

"The Man Who Bites His Tongue" follows the premise of a soldier severely wounded in combat but still retaining his services through severe changes in his body, becoming almost completely a machine, with no emotions or memories of his past life, this he wonders if he still makes sense of continuing "alive" just to maintain his function as an officer of the law. The episode is also about criticizing human greed over what will bring them personal advantage without giving importance to those who might harm themselves with such actions.

AD Police Files despite bringing several themes and questions he doesn't take any steps out of his comfort zone, he never goes deep in his discussions beyond the casual, which in a way is positive since with a weak cast it's hard to go beyond what is shown on screen, leaving us viewers to discuss what little is delivered. As interesting as the main duo Gina and Leon seem to be, they are just that, the first is a tough and attractive policewoman who wears a mechanical prosthesis, but despite wondering if that makes her less human, we have no conclusions from her. In addition to a tear and an expression of doubt, the latter is a novice who despite his inexperience makes himself effective, and demonstrates a personal and traumatic reason for joining the task force facing the Boomer dolls, but nothing more so that make us at least have sympathy for the character.

Merits I have to give to the miniseries is the ability to not get stuck in good manners, talking and showing sexual scenes freely, as Gina for example makes it clear how much she likes sex, and even though these scenes sometimes seem to be just The author's personal fetishes somehow fit into the discussions brought up on screen. Highlight for the soundtrack that encompasses everything that these three episodes bring, with an entire album dedicated to each chapter, the songs are largely responsible for involving us in the shallow story.

Fortunately this little Spin Off of a series brought us a new version in the future, which I consider positive since this anime has a great proposal, which needs more time and care to be worked on, this is a curiosity for those who liked Bubblegum Crisis or for fanatics in Cyberpunk universes of the 90s.

(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 ****