Search - A.D. Police - To Protect and Serve (Complete Series) on DVD

"Just how much worse can things get"

Marc Ruby? | Warren, MI USA | 02/06/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Better than I expected

M. Hammond | San Diego, CA United States | 01/26/2003

(4 out of 5 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"

Great!

PeoplePhobic | 04/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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. For ten bucks less than the Special Edition of Jin-Roh or Akira you can get 5 hours of really good anime. There's twelve episodes on two dvd's. The second disc has a the normal "extra" features which include clean opening and closing animations, sketches, and art. You can choose from English, English with song subtitles, and Japanese with subtitles.AD Police plays more like a cop drama than a mecha anime.
If you're into getting as much anime as you can for your dollar you should really pick this one up. Blue Seed would be another good series for a great price."

Actually, 2 1/2 stars.. AT BEST!!!

Stupendousmen | philadelphia, Pa United States | 11/01/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"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???"