 |
|
 |
Dominion Tank Police
 Home/Change Series
“Dominion Tank Police” is a four episode OVA series, which was released in 1988. It was followed by a six episode OVA series, titled “New Dominion Tank Police”, in 1994; and a one volume, fully CGI, OVA in 2006, titled “Tank SWAT”. All are based on the Manga/Comic by the foremost Japanese cyber-punk comic artist, Masamune Shirow, the original creator of “AppleSeed”, “Black Magic: M-66”, and “Ghost in the Shell”.
In the fictitious cyber-punk city of Newport, Japan, crime and terrorism have escalated to an unbelievable level. In order to stop these violent acts, the moronic voting populace have decided to arm their local police department with-- tanks. With excessive weaponry too large to travel down normal streets, and far too powerful to be effective in any urban combat situation, the Tank Police strike fear in the hearts of both the criminals they are assigned to capture, and the law abiding citizens they’re supposed to protect. They enthusiastically demolish whole sections of the city, and brutalize any and all unfortunate criminals they happen to apprehend. And still they plead for even more firepower.
“… These days tanks are about as effective as toothpicks.”
“Toothpicks!? Well if tanks are no better than toothpicks, what would you consider as appropriate equipment for the police to use in preventing crime?”
“I’m glad you asked me that. I wouldn’t mind replacing my guns with Tactical Nuclear Weapons.”
While the setup is pretty funny, and many of the individual scenes are very enjoyable, “Dominion Tank Police” keeps its jokes going on for too long, and it all falls apart when the series reaches for some kind of pathos after episode two. Also, the sequel OVA, “New Dominion Tank Police”, relies on one of the most annoying cliché Anime plot twists, as it turns out that all of Newport’s problems are really the result of collusion between greedy Japanese industries and an evil, Western, foreign business conglomerate, “Rockford Enterprises”. Of course they want to turn Japan into a testing ground for new weapons, and illegal narcotics; so it’s up to the heroes to disregard diplomatic immunity, and pesky issues of due process, and protect the homeland by blowing up those vicious foreigners.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
8.65/10 
9.12/10
8.70/10 
65 votes