Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68911 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-08-05
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 160 minutes

From the Back Cover
From the creator of Ghost in the Shell

Customer Reviews

Animated Police Academy
Dominion Tank Police is a four part series OVA. It's a fun short series chock full of comedy. It has action but it never becomes extremely violent, which is a surprise when you look at the name. This is an anime title I had for years and watch once in a blue.

The story takes place in a city that is heavily polluted with smog and the citizens have to wear gas masks. This is a part of the story that is almost completely ignored. Since the police and criminals don't even wear mask. And they focus on the secondary story. Which is the crime in the city.

The crime rate is very high, so high that the police are equipped with tanks to fight crime. The main character named Leona is the only female on the force and is put in a position to prove herself. Together they go up against a small time gangster to prevent some pretty weird crimes.

The strength in this series lies in the comedy. This series makes no secret it's only purpose is to be funny. The dialogue can be very funny at times. Plus the police "interrogation" tactics are just insane. Such as a guy being used to play Wheel of Fortune with a grenade in his mouth. Just use your imagination on that one.

The thing to me that brings this series down alot. Is that in episode three(four finishes the arc). It attempts to take a small serious turn and reveal the main criminals past. I'm not saying diving into his past was a mistake overall. Because it was necessary to reveal the nature of his crime and further the plot of the episodes. But this took a somewhat dramatic turn and took away from the very comedic side it had already set. Had it stayed on it's initial path. Then the series would have been alot better and I know for a fact that I would of enjoyed it more.

The animation is good for it's time and the soundtrack started out good. After the second episode the soundtrack became very repetitive and it was just something to ignore. The voice acting fits very well with each of the characters and there is a bit of cursing. The character development isn't good at all but their personalities are easy to like.

Dominion Tank Police is worth a watch. But NOBODY and I mean NOBODY. Should pay close to 50 bucks for this. It's barely worth 10. This was not a bad anime to me at all. But for that price you are better off buying a 26 episode series first. It is just not worth that kind of money.

Over the Top Humor
Dominion Tank Police
I read a couple reviews online which totally panned this anime; my impression was that the reviewers actually took it seriously. First, the art style follows Shirow's very well. If he didn't help with the animation, the artists who worked on the anime certainly copied his style well. The English voice acting generally fit the personalities of Shirow's characters well, though Leona's seemed a bit high... anyway, the story is broken into four acts. All four have quite a lot of violence, though with one exception no one is actually wounded or hurt--just lots of property damage. One scene has a bit of semi-nudity, but that's it. No really mature themes here; it's a comedy with some serious moments in the last act. The anime serves as a prequel to Shirow's manga, with the first half providing a background for Leona, Bonaparte and the Tank Police, and the second half going into the background of Buaku (and his gang). While I liked the music (disco/techno), I suppose it's a matter of taste. I thought the first two acts were more light-hearted and funny, and the second two had a more serious tone--also a slower pace.

Classical anime
This is one of primary Masamune Shirow's works
Many people (but not me) state Wachowski brothers borrowed some ideas from Shirow's GITS for "Matrix" movie. And the brothers themselves at least admit they know and like Shirow's works.

That's why I am too curious why no mention of Shiro here, even in product details section.