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A.D. Police began as a three-part OAV prequel to the popular Bubblegum Crisis series; these 12 episodes constitute the entire 1999 remake for TV. In the not-too-distant future, a massive earthquake has reduced Tokyo to rubble. The metropolis has been rebuilt as Genom City, named after the gargantuan conglomerate that manufactures Voomers (VOodoo Organic Metal Extension Resource), robots that provide most of the labor in the city. When a robot turns into a violent rogue Boomer, the A.D. Police has to resolve the crisis–by shooting the Boomer in its vital core. The most effective cop on the squad is Kenji Sasaki, but he’s a coolly arrogant loner who operates on his own terms, rather than a team player. When his partner is critically injured in a fight with Boomers, Kenji is paired with the mysterious Hans Kleif, and the duo slowly forges a friendship. Kenji, Hans, and the rest of the squad are pitted against Liam Fletcher, the right-hand henchman of the Genom Corporation president, in a series of violent confrontations. This incarnation of A.D. Police feels like a standard-issue anime action-adventure series: it pits a tough, motorcycle-riding antihero against an all-powerful industrial conglomerate involved in illegal and unethical biomechanical experiments. The mecha designs are undistinguished, and nothing in the scripts, animation, or direction sets the program apart. Liam’s violent attempts at hijacking a plane and a nuclear reactor may disturb some viewers. Unrated: Violence, grotesque imagery, alcohol and tobacco use. –Charles Solomon
From the Back Cover
A sudden rise in incidents involving Genom City’s cyborg workforce, the VOOMERS, has put the A.D. Police – the city’s anti-robot crime division – in the hot seat. Making matters worse, Kenji Sasaki – one of the A.D. Police’s most valuable and unconventional officers – has had his share of bad luck. It seems his partners are either turning up dead or seriously injured. Given a new partner, Hans Kleif, and one last chance to redeem himself by playing by the rules, Kenji desperately needs to get to the bottom of this techno-mystery and keep the VOOMERS from turning Genom City into a high-tech wasteland. It is an uphill battle with Kenji fighting his own personal demons while he and Hans build a new working relationship to combat the threat that faces the A.D. Police. This release is a two-disc collector’s set featuring the entire twelve-episode mini-series, with several episodes being made available to North American audiences for the first time. The DVD contains the English-language version, as well as the previously unreleased Japanese-language version with English-subtitles. DVD extras include production sketches, production notes, production artwork, textless credit animation, and ADV previews.
AD (Advanced) Police started out as a take-off from Bubblegum Crisis, the 1990 story of a private squad whose purpose was to stop the spread of evil robots engineered by Genom Tech. Somewhat darker than it’s inspiration, the original AD Police only lasted three episodes and then disappeared. But, when Bubblegum Crisis 2040 appeared in 1999, Director Hidehito Ueda retried the spin off idea with this 12-part TV series.
The new series has much less depth than its ancestor, and focuses primarily on the ‘buddy’ relationship between Kenji Sasaki and his new partner Hans Klief. Set in Genom City (a Tokyo revival) the AD team is dedicated to fighting rogue robots. Genom Corporation plays an anomalous role, sometimes villain and sometimes support. One of the grey areas of the story is whether all the mad robots are accidents or intentional. The underlying technical story arc is the creation of engineered cyber-humanoids and the inevitable question of where humanity starts and ends.
Essentially the series is a shoot out between the AD Police and escalating levels of robots. The phrase I used as the title is a regular refrain on the show, because the team does not fare very well. Liam Fletcher, who is a ringleader behind a long string of robot-nappings, generally runs rings around the police, causing a lot of blood and gear popping. Hans and Kenji are the cowboy heroes, breaking all the rules and occasionally actually saving the day. This isn’t a comedy, though, and the two stars have serious troubles of their own.
If you are a logician you are going to find a couple things that don’t make sense, but I wouldn’t worry about it, the point of the series is a lot of action, and a bit of dialog, not an intellectual exercise. What is odd is that, while done in 1999 the art and animation is very retro – straight out of 1990. This didn’t bother me, but I think a snappier production might have earned this series a longer run. But we’re just viewers, ours not to reason why. The series is quite watchable, but is just a little too formulaic for my tastes.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Just isn’t worth it.
The only reason I give this two stars is because the animation is decent. I guess given the choice, I’d give it 1 1/2 stars.
Rented this one as the freebie in “rent 1, get one free” & found it better than Wrath of the Ninja(the paid rental). I rented a Bubblegum Crisis tape & couldn’t get it out of the machine quickly enough, so I was pleased this one was so interesting. It’s not groundbreaking or anything, but nice, entertaining fare, keeps the interest up, although one figures out the “secret” pretty much as the show starts revealing it exists. The lead characters were interesting & seemed realistic enough–not just something to show off the artist’s latest scantily-clad fantasy in action. Kenji starts off more of a jerk than Dark Schneider’s alleged to be by his show’s title, but warms up realistically–not overnight or miraculously the day he meets his new partner. Hans is tragic & interesting, although maybe a bit dense–the average viewer should figure out his secret before he does(Kenji does). Worth the time
I know for fact this anime was overrated for climatic ending which grasped every viewer in a dramatic fashion.. but take out the ending, this is average at BEST anime series.
Story is too un-original, typical men VS out of control robots in futuristic era, BubbleGum Crisis Spin Off (and no, THIS IS NOT prequel, it’s a freeking spin-off!). At least you’d expect good quality artwork and music?? NOPE! Art is mediocre at best (to save budget) while music gets soooo tidious, especially when that girl plays same o’same depressing violin music over and over and over and over.. AHHH!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!. BUT AT LEAST, AT LEAST make the fighting scenes more exciting?? Make it into some action packed adrenaline pumping anime like “Spriggan”??? HELLLLL-NO! Fighting scenes are probably the WORST features of this anime series. You have this supposedly HIGHLY DANGEROUS BOOMERS (Voomers (VOodoo Organic Metal Extension Resource) produced by Genom City, but when it turns into a violent out control freak, they called it a B-oomers – GEE-Whiz, how creative!), that needs highly trained AD Police squad to contain them, you’d expect these so-called, “BOOMERS” to be some tough cookies eh? Eh.. no.. if you call one bullet pop and explode type a tough challenge to this highly trained AD Police squad, be VERY dissapointed. Makes you wonder why do they even need these highly trained “AD POLICE”??
I don’t know how I got through the first disk (1-6 episodes). It was one of those rare anime series that I didn’t even bother to pause if I had to get something or do something.. but after 6th episode, AD Police and its characters kinda grows on you and the story&drama kicks into another notch/gear.
You have this gung-ho, heart of ice as a hero named Kenji Sasaki, who is a total A-hole (one of the few main characters you’ll REALLY hate in first couple episodes), keeps losing his partners because he acts alone in scene of action… until he meets the mysterious Hans Kleif, guy with little or no memory of himself. They make a very odd-couple, but after sixth episode, they form sort of an odd friendship which Hans brings out the kindness and care from Kenji that no one knew he had (along with few humorous scenes here and there), to which it makes the climatic ending more dramatic and heartfelt..
Overall, you get what you pay for.. five full hours of, “Great series! Was sad to see it end!”
“Well Done!”
“Great!”
…then you start to wonder.. what the HECK were they watching???
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two out of three ain’t bad
A.D. Police files 1-3 (1990): 8/10: Despite a third episode that is almost a scene remake of Robocop this is one of the sharpest anime’s around.
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best animes out there!
A.D. Police is a futuristic movie about a guy named Kenji Sasaki who works for the ADvanced Police. At first, it was pretty questionable, but after a couple episodes, I couldnt…
4.0 out of 5 stars
It Grows On You
I bought the AD Police remake after watching BGC 2040. This piece is drastically different. I found once I abandoned the question “where does this fit into the 2040…
2.0 out of 5 stars
Exhibits traces of qualtiy
I am actually in the process of watching it, the movie is still playing (got through 3 episodes, partly on search mode) and what I got and am still getting from it is that the…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great series! Was sad to see it end!
This show is very good, and had me hooked almost immediately. The characters are extremely human, and by the time you get to the end, you have a genuine love for each (even…
4.0 out of 5 stars
That tune…THAT TUNE!
A.D. Police is an episodic near-future police story. In fact some of the episodes seem like a cross between Terminator, N.Y.P.D. Blue and Alley McBeal.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well Done!
I initially picked up A.D. Police, because I was bored, and wanted an anime series that was reasonablly priced. I was’nt sure what to expect.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great!
This series is pretty good. The animation isn’t quite as nice as Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, but it’s better than the origional Bubblegum Crisis and Bubblegum Crash.