ADポリス / AD Police / A.D. Police Files

Before the Knight Sabers.

The 90's are fondly remember as the decade where everything that had graphic violence, language and sex was "cool". Video-games, comic books, movies, the music industry, fashion, and of course, Animé where vastly influenced by this idea of coolness. However, I'd say the Animé industry did it before in the late 80's with a massive collection of OVAs that granted hours of graphic content for the enthusiasts from those days, which became today's seasoned Animé fans.

A.D. Police is a three-part OVA produced by Youmex and animated by Artmic and AIC. It's the direct prequel of the now classic, Bubblegum Crisis OVA series released between 1987 and 1991. The series takes place in 2027, five years before the Knight Sabers arc, which explains their absence  and makes room for the AD Police to unravel the origins of the boomers and boomeroids. The series was directed by Akira Nishimori, and Furukawa Toshio performed "Lonely Soldier" the main theme song, while Lou Bonnevie perfomed "Love Me Tonight", "What a Fool I am" & "Cry, Cry, Cry" the ending theme songs.


Unfortunately, due to the legal conflict between Artmic and Youmex, the production of the series was stopped with only three complete episodes made.

Beyond the call of duty.

Nah! it's only a boomer!

In North America, the series is licensed by AnimEigo, who first released the series to VHS and Laserdisc in 1993 in Japanese with English subtitles. They later reissued it in both formats in 1995 with an English dub produced by Southwynde Studios in Wilmington, NC. The show was released to bilingual DVD in 2004, with bonus content featuring music videos for various songs featured in the series as performed by Filipino singer Lou Bonnevie in addition to translation notes and production artwork. Today's review is based upon this version. In the UK, the series was licensed by Manga Entertainment, who produced their own English dub for VHS in 1994, and later issued it onto dub-only DVD in 2004. Their release is now out-of-print.

Moving on to what you're really interested in, I can tell you this prequel is very different from the colorful and light-hearted overall mood from the original series. The AD. Police team doesn't have super powered exo-skeletons to match the menacing power of the mechanical boomers. So, instead of going for the direct approach, which would have resulted in massive deaths for the police department, we're given three small stories set in the same Knight Sabers universe. The only returning character is Leon McNichol who is a rookie witnessing violence unleash first hand. Each episode has a different set of characters, and even though they're supposed to be there for reasons, there's a bigger picture developing within: Is robotics the future mankind needs to consider themselves safe from evil? More philosophical questions raise as each episode develops the dark atmosphere that covers Mega Tokyo.

Dead or alive you're coming with...oh! wait!

Robo hooker.

A.D. Police 101:

Episode 1 幻の女 (The Phantom Woman)

Alles, an A.D. police man,  has been killed by a boomer hooker, and investigators suspect the police man convinced/programmed the boomer to kill him so that his family could get the money from his life insurance plan and eventually pay over 3 million he owes to the bank or something. Here's where inexperienced cop Leon McNichol & his veteran partner, Gina Marceau set out to discover the truth and protect their late partner's reputation.  

Episode 2 ザ·リッパー (The Ripper)

Six prostitutes have been murdered the same way. The regular police department can't handle it, and so A.D. Police sets out to find another haywire boomer. Iris Cara enters the game and with the aid of Leon & Gina is set to solve the mysteriously violent crimes. What they find out has to do with the "Boomeroids", which are human beings that have been cybernetically enhanced by replacing malfunctioning parts from their bodies. The problem is these special surgeries become an addiction that can make people go mad and do insane shit.

Episode 3  舌を噛む男 (The Man Who Bites His Tongue)

Since boomer & booomeroid incidents are becoming the norm in Mega Tokyo, Billy Famword, captain of the A.D. Police Special Mobile Squad, becomes the first anti-boomer cyborg unit. The only human parts left are his brain & tongue (I'm not kidding). Unfortunately, the little humanity he's left, is swallowed by the cybernetic parts of his body. Can he be a human person once again?, or will he be lost forever inside his technological body? 

If you don't kill me, I won't bet horny honey.

Robotic ass.

A.D. Police the review:

While Bubblegum Crisis is largely recognized as one of the most important Animé from the 80's, its many sequels tend to be overlooked. A.D. Police is obviously a must watch if you were intrigued by these boomers that widely populated Mega Tokyo city. Why are the going rogue? what's their role in human society? Are they necessary? and ultimately, can they be more human than human beings?. Despite all the gory violence and sex this little 3 episode Animé has, the essential viewing factor is not connected with the obvious but with what's inside of every episode. 

If you're a Blade Runner fan look no more! Because most of the questions raised there, are also discussed here in A.D. Police. The boomers were created to make people's lives easier, but most of them, at least in 2027, are malfunctioning to the point they need to be hunted down. Predictably, most of the boomers we see are prostitutes that for some reason go nuts, and get turned on if you kill them. Yes, you read that right. Moreover, if you don't kill them, they will kill you! But do these sex workers have feelings? are they happy? 

Can robots feel love?

Lady boomer is dead.

Another intriguing story is that of the Boomeroids. Normal people that require a special surgery to replace a malfunctioning organ. The only problem, they may or may not go crazy and become a murdering menace just like the original boomers. All of these takes place in episode 2, which some people find quite disturbing, while I think it's perhaps the best story out of the three episodes. The question raised by this story is basically how far a person would go into enhancing/replacing their body parts just so that they can fit a work profile. Yes, a fucking work profile! Caroline, a successful businesswoman doesn't get the position she deserves because her bosses find her to be inefficient while she's menstruating!! As if women didn't have enough shit in real life, poor Caroline replaces her female parts so that she can be more efficient. Obviously, this will cost her everything, since later she'd fall in love and get married without the chance of giving birth. The high levels of sexism Caroline is exposed to are just criminal! Do you want a better job? Get rid of your femininity! Do you want to get married? You'd be unhappy because you won't have any children! So you don't have  a real vagina? Fuck it! Your husband will fuck a boomer and find it to be more human than you'll ever be! But wait,! there's more! Since the A.D. Police discovers boomeroids are going the same path of the boomers, poor Caroline becomes an obvious target after the mysterious death of her husband.

Even though Caroline did kill her husband, the amount of sexist atrocities committed towards her, are the real imprisonment she's facing, and honestly, she's more innocent than every other citizen from Mega Tokyo. Her finale is the worst man made crime...

I am not a number! I'm a freeman!

She used to be my wife!

The question of whether boomers are more human than human beings is once more studied in the last episode, but from a very different perspective. Billy Famword starts the final episode, and as many reviewers & friends have discussed, the episode is a darker remake of Robocop.

While on duty, captain Famword sustains a heavy amount of injuries that would put him six feet under in no time, that is unless he takes part in a pilot program to become the very first Anti-Boomer Cyborg Unit!, and since he's completely comatose, the choice is made and voila! Unfortunately, Billy struggles to adapt to this new body and easily succumbs to an inexplicable thirst for murdering boomers and boomeroids in the most violent ways you can think of. Since these robots are considered mere machines servicing mankind, nobody gives a flying fuck about Billy's obsessive behavior until the deaths become so morbid, that his human counterparts begin to fear he's becoming the very thing he swore to destroy. Strangely enough, the doctor that "built him" becomes sexually attracted to his new cybernetic being and whenever she can, she fucks the machine. Sadly, Billy only has a human brain and a human tongue, so there isn't much to enjoy there.


When madness hits the ceiling, this doctor (I can't remember her name now) helps him stand the pain by providing him with DA-27, a drug tranquilizer of sorts. Obviously, he becomes and addict, and loses control completely, killing everyone in his way. Here's where we can make a Robocop 2 parallel, since the bad guy from that movie is also a junkie. So, the lesson the final episode delivers is "don't combine robotics with living organisms, and drugs ever".

I want your wires inside me.

C'mon be a good boy, and help a lady get off.

Although A.D. Police has this dark serious cyberpunk mood throughout the three episodes, it fails in the crusade of expanding the Bubblegum Crisis universe. However, we can't deny they tried. Moreover, the series does succeed in adding more depth to the boomers and especially the A.D. Police department, which seems to be a joke in its original 1987 incarnation. Here, A.D. Police takes the job beyond the call of duty. 

Once the series was cancelled, Bubblegum Crash came a year after (1991) and was a direct sequel to the 1987 OVAs, leaving A.D. Police as a prequel or an alternate setting. Moreover, in 1998 Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 would be a brand new re-telling of the knight sabers story with the original characters but starting from scratch. The series ran for 26 episodes and it succeeded where the previous ones failed: character development. In addition, A.D. Police, the TV series, had a 12 episode run in 1999, but it fucking sucked.

Anyway, We will be reviewing these sequels later. In the meantime, let's enjoy the A.D. Police video section below:

The A.D. Police opening:





"Love Me Tonight" by Lou Bonnevie:





The Cyberpunk Collection trailer by Manga Entertainment:





A.D. Police promo trailer by Manga Entertainment: