Customer Reviews

Dominion Tank Police

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was actually amazed to discover at the end of act 4 that I'd watched the whole thing. Tank Police is set in 4 acts, but in fact there are two stories on this disk. The first story, in acts 1 and 2, set up the characters, the environment, and the internal conflict about the Tank Police. The second story, in acts 3 and 4, are about the criminal Buaku, his origins, and being human.

In act 1 and 2, the reasons for the crime isn't explained at all, and isn't alluded to at all in acts 3 and 4. Big mystery. The slapstick is sorta funny. The tanks look rediculous, but around about the middle of act 2, you no longer notice. You feel for Leona, exiled to welfare for wrecking Squad Commander's "tank special". You feel a little amazed that she is allowed to build a little tank out of the wrecked tank after this order is given. (But never mind, it wouldn't be nearly as fun later if she wasn't around.) This first story, qualified this DVD as "just another anime". Fortunately, there were two more acts.

The later acts start out vague, but riveted me to my seat. I couldn't have torn myself away from the tube if I'd wanted to. The back-story about Buaku and his reasons for stealing the picture are deeper than I was willing to give this anime credit for. Then the interaction between Leona and Buaku as the story comes out is nothing short of magical. Leona is forced to see this hated criminal, who she can't make a deal with to save her life because she is a "tank police", as a person. And Buaku sees that not all humans are bad, sparing Leona's life even though she wouldn't make the deal.

The animation is okay, with some shots seemingly stills with enhanced flashing bits to make them "move". Not as dreadful as some, and never a whole scene.

As for technical merits, the menus are easy to follow, the transfer is good enough average. Sound is mono, but maybe thats all there ever was.

And finally, I must mention that if you are into lowbrow humor that none of us would ever be caught dead actually laughing at (we are all grown-up here, right?) buy this one for the "anti tank" weapons in act 2. Absolutly hillarious!

I just recenlty bought this DVD and I must say, it is an excellent buy. I am not a hugh fan of Anime, but this one is definitely worth a second look.

The story is set in a future world where huge amounts of pollution has made the earth's air unbreathable and everyone must wear a mask to avoid brathing in the toxic gases. The crime rate has risen to a crime being committed every 36 seconds and the mayor forms an elite fighting force know as the "Tank Police". When a new crime gang (Led by the Cyborg, Buaku and the Cat Sisters, Anna & Uni Puma) wrecks havoc in Newport city, young Leona Ozaki is transferred to the "Tank Poilce" squad. After wrecking the "Squad Commander's" (Charles Brenten) personal armored tank, Leona hand-makes a small Mini-tank (Nicknamed: Bonaparte) out of parts of the "Squad Commander's" own Tank. This new mini-Tank is a force to be reckoned with as it goes head to head with the criminals in an awesome action packed showdown.

Orginally released in Japan in 1989 as a two part movie. (The movie was later dubbed to English and released in the U.S. in 1993), the movie is clearly Anime at it's finest (With no computer graphic effects). The DVD includes both parts (All 4 acts) and features dual languages (English and Japanese. I recommend that people watch the film in the Japanese version becuase some dialog and music is deleted/changed in the English version.) Filled with lots of action sequence and hilarious one-liners, that will keep you on the edge of your seat, "Diminion: Tank Police" is no Saturday morning cartoon.

When I first purchased this DVD movie, I had fond memories of the first Anime I ever saw. Dominion Tank Police had a good storyline first captured my attention a few years ago. When I watched the DVD, I was disappointed. Not because of the storyline, or music, but because the DVD conceals the nudity found in the original version in very uncreative ways that are very distracting from the plot. For example, objects are placed in front of the offending areas in ways that would have you beg for black bars instead. Because one of the most important features in a DVD is the Extra features, I consider ANY omission, or concealment to severely hurt the value of a DVD.

While you'll hear fans of the manga of the same name say how disappointed they are with this anime, it has got to be arguably one of the better ones in my collection. The story is not overly complex, but contains some subtle points that I'll admit I missed until watching it again most recently; most definitely, you will want to watch the Japanese dub (with English subtitles, if needed), as it contains most of the finer points the English version misses. The animation is not hyper-realistic, but, then again, it is not supposed to be; there is a delightful cartoonish quality about the whole piece. It is this quality that allows for quite a bit of visual humor. Keep as notice, though, that there is some adult humor in here as well that may offend some, but it all lends itself to the humor of the movie. Overall, I'd have to rate this as one of my favorite anime; it's a good two-hour romp filled with tanks, more tanks, explosions, accidental urban renewal, and all of it in good fun.

Although this anime has obviously been around for a while and the story is a bit complex at first, this is one of the best animes I've seen. It's entertaining and fun to look at with some great gags and some pretty interesting characters.
One of my only complaints is that the story could use a little more continuity, which I hear the manga has. Unfortunately, I've never had the opportunity to see one.
The final verdict is that this is an excellent anime and very, very fun to watch.

Dominion Tank Police is a series of 4 OAV's that are each very, VERY amusing and action-packed. I bought this DVD and instantly became enamored with the series' absolutely hilarious, if not a bit stereotypical, characters. The main character, Leona Ozaki, is transferred from the beat into the Tank Police, and things quickly start getting blown to pieces. I enjoyed the antics of all the characters, from the trigger-happy Commander Briton (lifetime subscriber to "How to Kill!" magazine), to the playful -if not a wee bit homicidal- tendencies of the Puma sisters.

The animation is good, considering it was done 11 years ago in 1989. There is not a bit of computer animation to be seen here, but that is part of the series' charm. The DVD itself has no authoring problems, and the audio is good on both the English and the Japanese language tracks, but I recommend the Japanese track because the background music on the English track is dubbed as well, and it isn't exactly top-notch quality. But, that aside, This DVD is a fine addition to any anime fan's collection.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a good romp filled with tanks, explosions, and rampant building demolition. You will NOT be disappointed!

Some people can recall Central Park Media having some bad DVD releases (Tokyo Babylon being one) but this one is great. The subtitles are excellent and the video is great. If you own the VHS tapes to this series and have been holding back on getting the DVD version because of worry of a poor DVD release, BUY IT. Its as good as the VHS release from years back.

160 minutes of tanks, androids, crime, secret government projects, ruthless mercenaries and adult humor.
In this DVD we see Leona on her first day as a Tank Police Officer. We get to see how her mini-tank (toy tank), Bonaparte, came to be made and we also learn a lot more about Greenpeace's AND Buaku's background. We also get to see the Puma sisters in action, in more ways than one!
The DVD has some extras, besides cool character profiles which are selected clips from the Acts (which help you get an idea about each character - the Puma sisters get four clips while everybody else only gets one), they have the Director's comments (that only fits one page) and the normal previews. They also have a tiny fold out of, you guessed it, the Puma sisters on the white motorbikes, armed to the teeth and wearing Cheesecake armour (the stuff that looks like a biker babe's outfit). If you have the manga, Dominion: Tank Police, you need to see this at least once!

Really cool show. Pretty neat characters and a okay plot. I think what I liked best about this title was the music. But then again I love stuff from the 80's.

The heros of Dominion are the Tank Police, formed with a "if we can't beat crime, we'll get bigger guns" philosophy, and who are, like the name suggests, patrolling the city in tanks instead of patrol cars, and who are actually far more dangerous than any criminals they are trying to catch.