| Ja Kanji: | アドバンスドポリス |
| Ja Romaji: | Adobansudo Porisu |
| Type: | tv series |
| Director: | Hidehito Ueda |
| Music: | Yoshinobu Hiraikawa |
| Studio: | AIC |
| Network: | TV Tokyo |
| First: | April 7, 1999 |
| Last: | June 30, 1999 |
| Episodes: | 12 |
| Related works | |
| Content: | |
| Portal: | yes |
is a 1999 cyberpunk anime television series. It is set in a rebooted universe of Bubblegum Crisis, as it is a prequel to the series reboot, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040.
A.D. Police began as a three-part OVA series seen as a prequel to the Bubblegum Crisis series that was called A.D. Police Files released in 1990. Nine years later the production team decided to use the world view/ background of the original A.D. Police and fleshed it out a bit more, making an anime series consisting of 12 30-minute episodes. By updating the storyline as well as adding more updated elements of reality that have to do with the coming of the new millennium, the makers of the new A.D. Police series sought to create a series that surpassed its predecessor.
In the not-too-distant future VOOMERS (VOodoo Organic Metal Extension Resource), robots manufactured by the Genom Corporation, take care of most of the manual labor in Genom City. Recently the VOOMERS have been malfunctioning and becoming BOOMERS, crazed robots who are often involved in many violent and criminal activities. This is when the A.D. Police comes into play. They are Genom City's anti-robot crime division, specially trained to deal with VOOMER-related situations. Kenji Sasaki is one of the A.D. Police's most skilled officers. His biggest problem is that he doesn't follow orders and his partners either end up getting killed or seriously injured. Enter Hans Kleif, Kenji's newest partner and an amnesiac who was recently transferred to Genom City. Together the two must overcome their differences, fight their past demons, and come together to ensure that Genom City survives the onslaught of the BOOMERS.
A.D. Police: To Protect and Serve is available in North America in a 2-disc special edition DVD from ADV Films. The original series is on DVD from Animeigo.
In 1999 Tokyo was ravaged by an enormous earthquake, leaving the city a desolate wasteland. The government functions relocated to the surrounding suburbs, leaving the former capital to deteriorate into a slum. Reconstruction of the area was thought impossible until a company named Genom, a corporation that made humanoid machines called VOOMERS, began to implement a plan to rebuild Tokyo in 2005. Tokyo has been reborn as "Genom City", a metropolis completely under the control of Genom. This resurrection did not come without a price, as overdrive accidents concerning illegal VOOMERS produced by "Packer Syndicate" have been on the rise.
The story is based around the lives of Sasaki Kenji and Hans Kleif, two young A.D. Police Detectives who find themselves forging a bond after being forced to work together in order to stop the rogue VOOMERS from turning Genom City back into an urban wasteland. Kenji is a loner who is known for his lack of teamwork. It is this attitude that causes many of his previous partners to be injured or even killed. His latest partner, Paul, was heavily injured during their last mission together and it is said that nobody is willing to work with Kenji. He goes to his favorite bar and has a fight with a man named Hans. When he goes to his office the next morning, he is informed that Hans is actually his new partner.
Throughout the series Kenji, Hans, and the rest of the A.D. Police Force find themselves pitted against Liam Fletcher, the series' main antagonist and a leading figure in the Packer Syndicate. The series features different members of the police force responding to BOOMER-related situations and growing closer, not only as a unit of police officers, but as a group of friends. The series places an extremely heavy emphasis on the growing relationship between Kenji and Hans although others, such as the romantic connection between Kenji and Kyoko, also play an important role.
| Japanese | English | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| ADV Studios (2001) | |||
| Narrator | Jay Hickman | ||
| Kenji Sasaki | Susumu Chiba | Randy Sparks | |
| Hans Kleif | Takumi Yamazaki | Jason Douglas | |
| Nancy Wilson | Yukari Nozawa | Kaytha Coker | |
| José Collins | Kouji Ishii | C. Markham Anderson | |
| Karen Jordan | Chiharu Tezuka | Christine Auten | |
| Mary Malone | Ayaka Kodama | Emily Carter | |
| Hideaki Kurata | Shinpachi Tsuji | John Swasey | |
| Kyouko Miyano | Ayako Kawasumi | Rozie Curtis | |
| Liam Fletcher | Tooru Furusawa | Andy McAvin | |
| Yuki Satomi | Youko Soumi | Shawn Taylor | |
| Muyoshi Kaibara | Takashi Nagasako | John Swasey | |
| Bartender | Keiichi Sonobe | Phil Ross | |
| Police Chief | Yuzuru Fujimoto | Phil Ross |
English: Dean Turner, Hilary Haag, Jay Hickman, John Gremillion, Kelli Cousins, Kevin Charles, Mark Laskowski, Melissa Cybele, Monica Rial, Rick Peeples, Shawn Taylor, Ted Pfister, Tiffany Grant, Vic Mignogna, Victor Carsrud
Critical reception of A.D. Police: To Protect and Serve has been mixed. Anime News Network gave the series a rating of A− subbed, and B dubbed. They considered it more dark and suspenseful than A.D. Police Files, and stated that "the characters have more depth, and there are elements in the series that would glue just about anyone to the screen, whether it's the confrontation with the boomers, or just curiosity as to what's going to happen to everybody." They praised the characters for being likable, and called the series "just all-around exciting."[1]
Issac Cynova of THEM Anime Reviews was far more critical, as he gave the series a rating of 2 out of 5 stars, and called it a poor-man's version of NYPD Blue. He praised the story but criticized the animation and the characters, stating that the two main leads "come off flatter than the proverbial pancake."[2]