Dominion

Dominion tank police is an exercise in contradictive film making. The storyline across the 4 parts blends mindless action, slap-stick humor, touching humanity and thought provoking philosophical questions. It's hard to believe that there was only one director, as the style changes from episode to episode. A must-see movie for anyone who likes anime.

I first caught this movie when I would watch (HEAVILY) Sci-Fi Channel's Saturday Anime block. Without that lineup of quality japanese animation every saturday I would've never known about anime at all.

I got to see all sorts of awesome stuff like the megaman-esque "Cashaun: Robot Hunter," "8-Man After," "Project A-Ko," "AKIRA," and of course, the classic "Dominion Tank Police" This wasn't Bugs Bunny, Chip N Dale, or Care Bears, or any of the soft american animation I was used to. This was something totally new to me. It was rough, dark, and agressive. But with enough humor thrown in that I could chuckle at it. This was intelligent animated entertainment.

The technology they use, the furutistic concrete jungle they live in. The concepts and ideas. Incredibly interesting. And they actually cursed! I had never heard anyone cuss in cartoons except for Beavis and Butthead. (not top notch on intelligence but its funny)

Everything about this movie is just awesome. Okay well maybe not all of it, their noses look pretty wierd and sometimes its hard to understand but hey, its anime and not everyone in anima draws in the same style. The humor and the things discussed in this movie aren't for your kids to watch (unless they are mature enough to understand it) there's a part in the movie where Anna and Una Puma start tossing out all these plastic sheets that turn into giant multicolored phalluses (think about it for a while.) Plus there's alotta destruction and gunfire. Still awesome. Oh and anime cat chicks rock! (even though I'm gay hehehe ^.^)

Rent this movie. Or do something even better and complain to Sci-Fi till they bring back Saturday Anime.

The anime that got me hooked on anime...

Set in the year 2010 (hey, that's not too far away now!) the Earth is now poison gas wasteland of pollution and violence. Seeing as how crimes are happening ever 30 seconds are so and committed by thieves who have the fire power of third world terrorists, the government of the fictional New Port City form the Tank Police to deal with the problem - cops with tanks! Oh the insanity!

The "heroes" of this series include the new recruit Leona Ozaki, a red haired Japanese woman (yeah I know, they never match their distinctly Japanese names with a Japanese appearance) who has just been drafted into the Tank Police and is quickly partnered with blond, blue eyed nice guy Al. Leona is new at using tanks and unfortunately she destroys the favorite tank of Tank Police Commander Charles Britain (also known as "Brenten"), a big guy who looks like Tom Selleck on steroids and sporting a pair of nifty sunglasses, a big revolver and a bad temper. Britain didn't like having Leona join the Tank Police in the first place and her wrecking his Tiger Special (a giant green monster tank) doesn't exactly endear her to him, nor is he fond of her taking the remains of his giant tank and using it to build a mini-tank that she nicknames Bonaparte and he is soon pushing to have her transferred to child welfare "where the boys are more your size" as he puts it. There's also Specs, the bifocal genius, Bible quoting/God fearing Chaplain, purple MO-hawked Mohican, and the pot bellied Chief, who's right on the edge thanks to the Mayor always yelling at him about the Tank Police antics. Seeing as how the tank cops often destroy half the city while chasing the bad guys and use extreme violence to capture them, they're not very well liked by the people.

The "villains" are a cyborg named Buaku who's got a mysterious past that's connected with a project known as "Green Peace", his gang and his two sexy cat cyborg sidekicks Anna & Uni Puma. In the first installment these guys are being paid to steal urine samples from a hospital treating people who haven't been infected by the poison gas clouds and in the 2nd they're hired to steal a painting that is of a naked Buaku. The story, however, was uncompleted in the anime and was finished up in a cult comic ("Manga") book that's very hard to find.

All sorts of chaos and mayhem ensue in this black comic venture that examines how far people want their police to go in order to catch criminals and what happens when the fine line between good guys and bad guys starts to get blurred. This is the kind of thing that if you were going to make a movie of it, you'd better go get Quentin Tarantino. Uneven in places but still a lot of fun.

Followed by "New Dominion: Tank Police".

One of the first OVA's ("original video animation") I ever bought, this still has to be one of my favourite anime titles. A cyberpunk sci-fi action comedy set against an unlikely (for a comedy, that is) background of near-future pollution in a dystopian society.

The "heroes" of Dominion are the Tank Police, formed with a "if we can't beat crime, we'll get bigger guns" philosophy, and who are, like the name suggests, patrolling the city in tanks instead of patrol cars, and who are actually far more dangerous than any criminals they are trying to catch. Most, if not all, of these cops are borderline(?) psychopaths and neurotics, giving new meaning to the phrase "loose cannons".

Equally colourful and amusing are their adversaries, terrorist Buaku and his hench(wo)men, the Twin Cat Sisters, whose existence always seems to involve giving the Tank Police a hard time.

The animation is not state of the art, but it's very nice otherwise; the colourful palette and cartoonish look of the characters and mecha fit nicely with the comedic atmosphere of Dominion.

The English dubbing is, again, lots of fun. The soundtrack of the English version is also very good. I wonder if they ever made a soundtrack album of that...

Anyway, Dominion Tank Police is great. It's Japanese cyberpunk SF with lots of comedy, filled with completely over-the-top characters and situations, making sure that it never takes itself seriously. Highly recommended.

Why did this amazing totally mindblowing series only have to last for 2 acts spread over just over 2 hours? Just when it gets better and better and more emotional, they leave the story hanging and we have go refer to the bloody comic. That itself would have just about covered 1-2 more episodes. Is that too much to ask? Its hard to believe that the Japanese were making this in the late 80s while the other parts of the world were making childish nonsense? I think even though Ghost in the Shell is much more popular, the Tank Police are closer to Shirow's heart. The follow on series, Crusher Police or New Dominion Tank police, is no way in the same league.