エンジェルコップ / Angel Cop

Bad taste in high definition.

The golden era of the 'Original Video Animation' or 'Original Animated Video' is a time which is remembered fondly by 30 something/40 something years old anime fans. Beginning in the early to mid nineteen eighties, the age of the OVA continued right until the end of the millennium, and throughout the years produced some of the finest animation to ever come out of Japan; from its earliest classics like 'Gunbuster' to works like 'Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen' and 'FLCL' in its twilight years. The format can even boast 'Legend of the Galactic Heroes' among its ranks, an anime that is often touted as the greatest ever made.

But none of that matters, because we don't remember OVA format for the less-commercialized or more creative and experimental nature it tended to produce. No, we remember the OVA for the veritable smorgasbord of ridiculous trash it spawned in the late eighties and early nineties, and then charitably brought to Western shores by companies like Manga Entertainment and Central Park Media and now providing entertainment for drunken anime fans the world over. Today we will be taking a closer look at one of the less terrible examples of this bygone era; the delightfully offensive (or just offensive) five episode spectacular that is 'Angel Cop'. 

Angel Cop (エンゼルコップ Enzeru Koppu) is a six-part OVA created and directed by Ichirō Itano. A manga adaptation written and illustrated by Taku Kitazaki was serialized in Newtype in 1989 and collected into a Newtype 100% collection that was released in April 1990. The series was originally licensed by Manga Entertainment. Discotek Media re-released it on DVD and Blu-ray in North America in August this year. You can get it on Blu Ray for $25 and/or in DVD for $15. The newly restored edition comes packed with a new uncensored subtitle track, essays, an interview, trailers and the original infamous English dubbed version we all love to hate. 

For a complete review of the Blu Ray release, read the last two paragraphs.

Rent another OVA.

Go ahead punk, make my day!

Angel Cop is the story of a special branch of Japanese police officers, known as 'Special Security Agents', remarkable because it is neither a contrived acronym nor a portmanteau. The role of the 'Special Security Agents' is somewhere between a police force, a counter-terrorism unit and a band of superheroes. They operate within the context of the Japanese police force, but without unnecessary burdens like the judicial system or human rights laws to weigh them down. Naturally, all their members have almost superhuman abilities. This is in contrast to some of the other characters, which I will discuss later.

Throughout the OVA, the Special Security Agents are involved battling against a conspiracy; the nature of which depends on the version you watch. If you choose to watch the dubbed version (which you would, since that is the whole point of watching bad 80s OVAs) then they are battling against the Red May, a communist terror organization which is actually a front for a greedy capitalist government... as you can imagine, it makes absolutely no sense at all and clearly wasn't intended to be a work of political intrigue. 

Gene Simmons.

That not so innocent bystander.

But not making any sense at all is hardly a surprise when you take a complete production and introduce radical changes to the storyline, just because you are worried that some people might be offended about a couple of offhand remarks that some could choose to interpret as 'anti-Semitic'.

If you choose to watch the fan subbed version of the original Japanese version, you'll find that the story of a communist terror organization that is a front for a corrupt government is itself a front for a story about a Jewish Zionist domination conspiracy... This also goes some way to explaining the use of so many Judeo-Christian references and imagery in an anime without any clear connection to religion whatsoever.

Naturally when the show was brought to the West, the licensing company decided that racist conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic tones would not go over well with audiences. Not wanting to waste this otherwise wholesome story filled with violence, gore and sexual imagery they decided to change the story completely for the dubbed version, and then, for good measure, inserted random swear words into every second line. The result is, to put it simply, so fucking stupid that I don't understand how the piss they come up with this fucking shit.

Violence? What violence?

You better not be eating Ragu when watching Angel Cop.

The title refers to the main character; a woman named 'Angel' but described as a 'total bitch' in her own terms. Naturally this aspect of her character changes over the course of the show and by the end her character has made the transition from cyberpunk feminist icon to bawling blob of moe; by which I mean she actually hesitates before blowing her own partner's brains out in order to kill a genetically enhanced psychic military experiment. Yes, you read that right.

Analyzing most of the cast in any real depth would be a waste of time. With only a few exceptions, all of them are entirely one dimensional and completely uninspired. Furthermore, describing their qualities would involve investing more time into the characters than the time the creators invested in their screen time. Developing them is unnecessary because we've seen them all so many times before, and since they're not gonna last why even bother trying to give them any depth?

At the end of the day, Angel Cop is all about the action; and that's okay, because that is all we really wanted in the first place. It comes thick and fast, it comes in a variety of forms and it's never too repetitive or sporadic for us to ever really notice the ludicrousness of the actual story. It manages to delve between the reality of the relatively near future and the realms of science fiction and fantasy without seeming discontinuous or out of place. The animation, while not "good" by any means, is functional and only in the last episode does the shoddy workmanship start to become obtrusive.

The hero we deserve?

A total bitch?

The same cannot be said for the soundtrack, which is often so inappropriate it is a curiosity. The defining moment of this is the very first time Itami (痛み)(the ending theme) plays, which is so inappropriate that one cannot help but laugh. Additionally, on several occasions the action scenes -which are quite violent and bloody- will be supplemented with light-hearted, optimistic music. The purpose of background music is to complement the image on screen without becoming a distraction, but in Angel Cop the contrast between the two can become so stark that it actually leaves you feeling puzzled. Moreover, some of the background music sounds suspiciously similar to music from the Ghostbusters cartoon. In addition, where's the opening theme? I mean, c'mon! it's a tradition! no Animé/OVA comes without one!

However to be fair to Angel Cop this is not always the case; nor is the music exceptionally bad. It mainly uses a combination of harder sounding electronic music for action scenes, with more surreal sounding music to enhance the more paranormal or mysterious aspects of the show. The backing music for the action is fit for purpose but unremarkable, while the paranormal music is repetitive, clichéd and quickly becomes irritating. On all accounts, the soundtrack is the worst thing about Angel Cop, with the exception of the highly offensive original storyline.

A new type of "Manboob".

Yeah, tits and violence!

Having explored every aspect of Angel Cop, we can conclude that it is not exactly a work of quality. The story is riddled with clichés, and the plot is a total mess. The cast consists entirely of hackneyed stereotypes. The animation is unexceptional, if not outright bad, and the soundtrack is so unsuitable for the task at hand that it's actually humorous. As a production, Angel Cop is completely uninspired and poorly made.

But to see it for what it really is, would be to miss the point entirely. You are not watching Angel Cop because you expect it to be good, but because you expect it to be bad. A very special kind of bad, to the point where it is almost self-conscious, where there is no other objective than producing trash lower than the level of the lowest common denominator, and doing it unreservedly and unashamedly. And from there, it is simply a matter of providing creative licence to the art of translation and making the cheapest voiceover possible, before you've transcended both bad and good; to produce something that is so bad... it is good.  

Angel Cop is an acquired taste. It can't reasonably be called good, but it is highly entertaining in a "What the fuck?" kind of way. The original dub is notorious for its use of "fifteening" where swearing was added at every opportunity in order to get a "15" rating in the UK and appeal to people who were seeking out "edgy" (a very 90's concept ) Anime at the time. It's hilarious, the amount of cursing that is randomly inserted into the dub. Still, it wasn't necessary, considering that the animation alone is so violent and gory that nobody in their right mind would ever think that it was aimed at kids. The thing is, the dubbing, in all its prurience, eliminates the out-of-left-field anti-semitism that is revealed toward the end. The unedited subtitles are included, if you want to see the original intention of the creators. It's... something else. Thankfully, a text supplement included on the disc explains the history of anti-semitism in Japan and puts the material in the context of the time when it was made. Still... wow.

As to the quality of the Blu Ray disc itself, this is where it falters, sadly. Through no fault of Discotek, the only materials made available to them by the rights holders was an old standard definition videotape. I will say that the work that they did on stabilizing the image and smoothing out artifacts from the source material was commendable. However, there was no reason to release this on Blu-ray. All the upscaling and increased bitrate in the world wouldn't make a difference in the end product. It looks like what it is, a cleaned up transfer from an old videotape. The resulting image lacks any detail because you can't pull anything extra out of material where it doesn't exist. Contrast is limited as well. There's no such thing as a true black on old NTSC videotape. Sound is fine, but no better than was on the old Manga DVD.

If you are a fan of Angel Cop or interested in Angel Cop, the decision you have to make is whether or not you want to shell out the money for a Blu-ray that, at best, looks like a well-transferred analog videotape. It's the best release that the material has ever had, but that's like saying, "Great Value's Peanut Butter ice-cream is the same as Reese's".

Angel cop "condensed" edition with violence and F bombs:



 A compilation of every time female characters curse in the series:



Angel Cop's ending theme:



 
 Itami (痛み)(the ending theme) completely live:




a quick look at the packaging of the Blu Ray disc recently released: