AD POLICE *
1990. Video, TV seri e s . D I R : Aki h i ko Takahash i , Akira N i s h i mori . SCR :
Noboru Aikawa. DES : Tony Ta keza k i , Fujio a d a , Toru N agas u k i . AN I : Fuj i o
a d a , H i royu ki Kitazu m e . M U S : Kaoru Mizuta n i . P R D : Artm i c , Yo umex, Ale. 40
m i n s . x 3 e ps . , 2 5 m i n s . x 12 e p s .
A dark spin-off from Toshimichi
Suzuki's BUBBLEGUM CRISIS, AD Police
concentrates on the AD (vanced) antirobot crime division of Mega Tokyo's
police force. Leon McNicol, a minor
character in the original series, is part
nered here with butch lady-cop Gena
in several investigations that play with
ideas of humanity i n a high-tech soci
ety. The "voomer" robots here are all
female i n the man 's world of the ADP,
where only women who are prepared
to become one with machines stand a
chance in it. Whereas this device was
used in Bubblegum Crisis as an excuse
for girls with impressive h igh-tech kits,
here it is far more misogynistic, as
femininity is gradually eroded by bion
ics and prosthetics, taking characte rs'
humanity with it. A businesswoman,
for example, is only successful in the
boardroom after she has a hysterec
tomy, but the trauma turns her into a
serial killer. There are shades of Blade
Runner in the sex-android stalker that
locks onto the man who i njured her,
and there are also blatant steals from
Robocop in the final chapter, wherein
one of Gena's ex-boyfriends receives so
much augmentation that his tongue is
the only part of his original body that
renlains.
Canceled after j ust three of the
planned five episodes, the franchise
was not revived until 1 999, in the wake
of the Bubblegum Crisis 2040 remake, as
a 1 2-part lV Tokyo series directed by
Hidehito Ueda. The new AD Police was
a far shallower affair, ditching many of
the old characters in favor of a buddy
movie cliche between rapid-response
robot-crime cop Takeru Sasaki and his
new partner, Hans Krier. Clearly made
with half an eye on the overseas market
(all the other leads have foreign names
like Paul Sanders, Liam Fletcher,
and Nancy Wilson ) , the melting-pot
remake is something of a disappoin t
ment.
The franchise was briefly resurrect
ed in Parasite Dolls ( 2003 ) , a th ree-part
video series directed by Kazuto Naka
zawa, focusing on a clandestine branch
of the AD Police, called, somewhat
unimaginatively, Branch. The story
fOCllses on Buzz, an officer like writer
Chiaki Konaka's earlier Ross Sylibus in
ARMITAGE III, who is transferred to an
unattractive new posting and forced to
cooperate with a detested robot part
ner. Parasite Dolls also exists in a movie
length edit, which is the version most
commonly found outside Japan. �
