A.D. Police: To Protect and Serve
1999; 12 episodes
Minor bloodshed, some violence (mostly against Boomers), no nudity
C+
STORY: After a devastating earthquake, Tokyo is rebuilt as Genom City, with the help of the Genom Corporation and their Boomers, artificial beings used for manual labor. Occasionally, there will be a “Sequence N” outbreak and a Boomer will basically go berserk. When this occurs, the A.D. Police are called in to take the Boomer down. The team is lead by Kenji Sasaki, a typical loose cannon who doesn’t like to play by the rules. Other team members include Karen Jordan, Mary Malone, Jose Collins and Chief Nancy Wilson (taking some time off from Heart, I guess). The storyline revolves around Kenji and his new partner Hans Klief, who may be more than he seems.
THOUGHTS: This is an okay anime, nothing spectacular, with less action and more drama than Bubblegum Crisis (which was set in the same world). The plot keeps you guessing for a while, with some nice twists and turns toward the end of the series. Character development is kept to a minimum, however, which detracts from the overall enjoyment of the show. Secondary characters, especially, are given short shrift. The only member of the team (other than Kenji and Hans) who is given any outside story is Jose (see episode “Family”), and that is cursory. Some characters are so flimsily drawn that we don’t learn their names for several episodes (I’m looking at you, Kenji’s girlfriend). The two main characters, Kenji and Hans – have their own set of issues. Kenji is cut form the same mold as every other anime rogue cop. He is seldom reprimanded for disobeying orders and his actions never seem to benefit the situation. He’s also a real jerk at times. Hans is the only really interesting character, and he is basically a blank slate (deliberately so). His story-arc is the main plotline and a good enough reason to watch this show. Still, this anime needed more Boomer action and fewer trips to the local bar to be anything near a classic.
ANIMATION QUALITY: Standard Old School. Lots of static shots when things explode. Backgrounds repeat. Slight continuity errors (Chief Nancy’s turtleneck kept disappearing and reappearing, for example).
TRANSLATION: The dubbing is good, though there are some lines that are not translated – especially when a hero is being shown in a less-than-favorable light. No real stand outs as far as voice acting. Watching it dubbed doesn’t detract from any enjoyment.
SILLIEST HAIR AWARD:
Most of the hair in this anime is standard spikes, nothing too outlandish, so I have to give this award to A.D. Team member Karen Jordan for her femullet.
SONG TRANSLATIONS:
Opening Song - “Imaginary Girl”
Sequence N Outbreak!
A.D. Police, Move out!
Tomorrow is the weekend.
Tonight, I am tempted by your magic again, fly night tripper.
Mercilessly beating this love, dizzying ecstasy.
Sweet temptation eating my brain.
Are you an angel or are you a devil?
Robot-like glass doll,
You disappear as soon as I hold you.
Distorted space in the clockwork.
Wonderful and fearless, who are you?
Tomorrow is the weekend
Closing Song – “Within Time:
Even in darkness there is a light,
That’s what you taught me.
Turning around, like times long past.
The days we spent start to disappear.
Not know what is important,
Not seeing what’s ahead, standing still.
The shadow in the mirror is the phantom of deceit.
The white proof that we can’t touch.
No matter what happens, I will never let you go.
Let’s start the endless journey.
EPISODE GUIDE (SPOILERS WITHIN):
#1 – Parting: Introduces us to Kenji Sasuki, team leader of the A.D. Police. Kenji is obviously a rogue cop, since he is shown using civilians as bait in a dangerous hostage situation. But, it’s okay – he’s the hero. Kenji tends to go through partners. This is bad news for his current partner, Paul, who is severely wounded less than halfway through the episode trying to take down a Boomer. Bye, Paul! Kenji mopes around his girlfriend’s apartment, while she plays the violin. Without Kenji, the A.D. Team works pretty well together, taking down another Boomer and learning that “The Syndicate” is backing the construction of rogue Boomers. Kenji mopes around the local bar (The Lost City) and has a meet-cute with his new partner, Hans Klief (they get into a bar fight).
#2 – Runaway: Things aren’t going well for the partnership of Kenji and Hans. Kenji is belligerent and disrespectful. Hans isn’t quite sure how to disable a Boomer. Lots of destruction occurs during their first assignment together. Kenji mopes around his girlfriend’s apartment and she plays the violin again. Hans pays a visit to a doctor. It seems Hans has a pre-existing “medical condition”. He has no memories before coming to Genom City. There is a bullet fragment in his brain that has erased his memories. Oh, and it could explode and kill him with the slightest injury. So, it makes sense that he’s still on active duty – running around exploding things, right? While at the doctor’s office, Hans flirts embarrassingly with Nurse Yuki Satomi, whose actions seem a bit off. Kenji is notified that his ex-partner, Paul, is being transferred to a cheaper hospital (damn, police insurance!). While in route, Paul’s ambulance is hijacked by a rogue Boomer – poor Paul can’t catch a break! Kenji and Paul, with the help of Nurse Yuki, save Paul and destroy the Boomer. Kenji and Hans hang out at The Lost City and drink.
#3 – Bargaining: We are introduced to Liam Fletcher, a dealer in illegal Boomers. The A.D. team attempts to raid a facility that produces illegal Boomers, but is blown up in the process (don’t worry, everyone survives). Kenji and Hans bond a bit amidst all the destruction. They disobey orders and attempt to break up one of Fletcher’s Boomer deal on their own. It doesn’t work. Fletcher kills his supplier and gets away. Kenji and Hans are given a week’s vacation for disobeying orders. Kenji hangs out at his girlfriend’s place while she plays the violin (I’m seeing a pattern here). Hans gets a date with Nurse Yuki.
#4 – Promise: Kenji’s girlfriend is scheduled to perform at a concert and wants Kenji to attend. Before the concert, she takes her aunt to a jewelry show and is promptly taken hostage by one of Liam Fletcher’s gangs. They keep the hostages in a secure location, which they monitor via the security cameras. The jewelry thieves want passage out of Genom City or the hostages will die. We get some back-story concerning Kenji and his girlfriend (who, to this point, still hasn’t been named on the show), something about Kenji causing the death of a relative - but nothing else is ever explained. I’m not sure why they bothered. Hans is on a date with Nurse Yuki, but is called away to help with the hostage situation. This irritates him because he was hoping the date would end in sex. Better luck next time, Hans! A.D. Team members Jose and Karen hack into the security cameras and loop a few seconds of footage (ala Speed). The A.D. Police then, rather loudly, break in and save the hostage. Somehow the thieves don’t hear all the explosions and are caught. Boomers are destroyed. Violins are played. The gang heads to the bar for a drink.
#5 – Strategy: Liam Fletcher turns himself into the A.D. Police. Kenji and Hans interrogate him. Fletcher clams that his boss, Naycen Mason, thinks he has ratted to the police and wants him dead. He’ll testify against Mason, but only if he can walk away – no jail time. A sniper Boomer attempts to kill Fletcher, but ends up shooting a cop instead. The Chief of Police decides to give in to Fletcher’s demands – which is silly, since it was all a ruse to distract the A.D. Team while Fletcher’s men steal a bunch of Boomers. The A.D. Team is dispatched to attempt to stop him. While waiting for the action to start, Jose shows another officer pictures of his butt-ugly baby and says how happy he is to be a Dad. Stupid move, Jose, no way you’re going to live to see the end of this anime. The A.D. team confiscates the illegal Boomers, but Fletcher escapes and Kenji is hurt – but not badly. We finally learn the name of his girlfriend – it is Kyoko.
#6 – Family: Jose’s family is kidnapped by Fletcher. Fletcher sends a video showing Jose’s wife and baby strapped to a chair. He wants to trade them for the confiscated Boomers. Jose attempts to raid the Genom Corporation himself and get the Boomers for the trade, but Kenji stops him. Police analysts determine, based on a cluster of dim lights seen through a curtain, that the video message was made in a cargo bay close to one of the city’s airports. Wow, CSI have nothing on these guys! The A.D. team finds the cargo bay and Jose diffuses the bomb attached to the door, but there is another bomb strapped to his wife and child. After much sweating and tinkering, Jose is unable to diffuse the second bomb and it goes off. Psyche! It was a joke bomb! While the team lets out a sigh of relief, Fletcher steals back the confiscated Boomers and, as a final “screw you”, sets off a series of small bombs place throughout the cargo bay. Jose’s wife and baby are saved, but Jose is toast, of course. Proving once again, that anime characters with small children usually have a target painted on their back.
#7 – Bloodstains: Fletcher attempt to sell his illegal Boomers back to Genom and has set up a money swap at the Genom Corp. restaurant (um, yeah, that makes sense). The team goes undercover as diners and wait staff to attempt to stop the deal. Fletcher does a painfully obvious coat-tag switch with his contact, then leaves without paying for his lunch (chilled prawn soup and roasted salmon – yum!). The team rip off their disguises and go after Fletcher. Hysterically, Karen was wearing her full jumpsuit underneath the dress she wore as a disguise. Fletcher heads to the roof to meet up with his getaway helicopter. Hans takes the stairs while Kenji gets stuck in an elevator. The Genom Boomer security lets Fletcher through, but shoots as Hans when he tries to follow. Fletcher is stopped by a projection of Genom’s Chairman, Mr. Kabara, who seems to know Fletcher rather well. Kenji finally gets his ass out of the elevator, grabs his bike and rides up the Genom building (gravity be damned!) Fletcher is shot by Kenji. He gets away, but without the money. Hans sees Nurse Yuki at Genom and realizes she works for Chairman Kabara. The police analyze Fletcher’s blood and find out he is a biologically fused Boomer – a human/Boomer hybrid.
#8 – Memory: Kenji’s grandfather is in town, but Kenji hates him. The team sits around the bar telling Kenji he’s an asshole for not wanting to pick up his grandfather. Hans worries that he may be a biologically fused Boomer, because he can’t remember anything. We never meet Kenji’s grandfather, even though he eventually decides to go pick him up. No Boomers in this episode, unless you include Hans (let’s face it, at this point, we know he’s a hybrid).
#9 – Conviction: Hans is seriously wounded in a Boomer attack at a bridal show. Nurse Yuki takes a keen interest in his recovery, telling the doctors that Chairman Kabara orders him to be saved. Hans recovers quickly. Kenji is suspicious, wondering how Hans survived his wounds, which would have killed anyone else. Kenji bullies Nurse Yuki and tells her that he’ll get to the bottom of this. His partners are supposed to die, damn it! He goes to the crime scene, but Genom has cleaned the area up. Eventually, he finds blood on Hans’ coat and has it tested. To the surprise of no one, Hans is a biologically fused Boomer.
#10 – Plunder: Fletcher is losing control of himself, literally. His body is changing. He attempts to steal another shipment of “special” Boomers. The team tries to stop him, but Kenji screws the operation up. He is removed from the case. This gives him time to go mope at Kyoko’s place, which he hasn’t done for a while. She plays the violin for him, which she hasn’t done for a while. Kenji’s removal is short lived however, as he is quickly called back in for duty. Fletcher is attempting to transport the stolen Boomers out of Genom City on a commercial airplane. Guess they aren’t big on checking baggage in Genom City. When the A.D. team show up, Fletcher takes the passengers hostage and tries to fly the plane himself. Kenji and Hans put everyone on the plane in danger by shooting out the shooting out the flight controls. The plane crashes to a halt. In the confusion of the crash, Fletcher escapes in a helicopter. Genom minions, led by Nurse Yuki, fly in and take over the crash site. Yuki lets it slip to Hans that he is a Boomer. Oops!
#11 – Dishonesty: We open with a helicopter chase, as Fletcher tries to get away from Kenji, Hans and Mary. After a mid-air shootout, Fletcher crashes his copter onto an offshore nuclear reactor. Mary drops off Kenji and Hans and flies off to get more fuel (it’s not like she’ll be of any use now, is it?). Fletcher survives his crash and takes over the reactor, which turns out to be ridiculously easy (it looks like there is only two workers on the thing). He decides he is going to blow up the whole city before he dies. He quickly sets the reactor to overload – leaving Kenji and Hans ten minutes to stop him. Hans saves the day by walking through a heavily radiated area (being a Boomer, he isn’t affected) and destroying Fletcher, who has morphed into a tentacle Boomer. While this is happening, Genom Chairman Kabara is having his life essence transferred into a Boomer hybrid – one that is a clone of Hans!
#12 – Proof: Our final episode starts with the revelation that Liam Fletcher and Naycen Mason (his “boss”) were, in fact, the same person. Naycen Mason was Fletchers name before his transformation into a Boomer hybrid. He tried to keep his original identity alive by saying that Mason was his “boss”. The AD Team hang out at the bar (gee, what a shock), talking about Fletcher and birthdays and happy times. Hans brings the mood down by telling Kenji to kill him if he morphs like Fletcher. Kenji says no, he isn’t going to lose another partner (wait, Paul died?). The next day, Hans goes missing – kidnapped by Genom. Nurse Yuki, realizing that she truly loves Hans, asks Kenji to help get him out of the Genom Corp. Kenji disobeys orders (again!) and goes to help Hans. Nurse Yuki tells Kenji that Hans was created from scratch, that would explain him having no memories, and that he was part of a transference project dreamed up by the Chairman – so he can transfer to a new body and live forever. Yuki and Kenji get Hans out, but just as Kenji is commenting that things are going too smoothly, Boomers attack! The rest of the team fly in (they ALL disobeyed orders!) and help stave off the Boomers. In a touching moment, Kenji tells Hans to run away with Yuki and start a new life, making new memories – then he can come back to Genom City and work for the A.D. Police. Before Hans can make up his mind, The Chairman, now looking just like Hans, enters to stop them. It is too late for Hans, his body starts to morph. He attacks the Chairman, telling Kenji to shoot his core so he will explode (and take the Chairman out with him). Kenji can’t bring himself to do it. No worries, though, Karen runs in and, thinking the morphing Hans is a rogue Boomer, shoots him. Hans explodes, the Chairman dies, and Kenji is out another partner. Later, Hans is laid to rest. Standing over his grave, Kenji declares him the best partner he’s ever had. Sorry, Paul!