Dominion Tank Police - VHS Rental Classics 1

[Sinom Bre]

VHS Rental Classics, Sinom's Case File 1 - Dominion Tank Police

I recently picked up the DVD on sale online at RightStuf International and was carried back to the early to mid-90's when I would canvass all the local video stores for whatever was available back in those dark days when anime was still a serious nerd thing. Dominion Tank Police was almost always to be had then, along with the Vampire Princess Miyu OAVs, Project A-ko, Devil Hunter Yohko, and Vampire Hunter D, just to name a few oldies but goldies. [Sheesh! You can't scare a copy of those up at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video at all anymore. What is the world coming to? :)]

Dominion Tank Police is based on the Dominion manga, by Masamune Shirow, and the first four OAV episodes were made in Japan in 1989 and released on VHS in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1992.(1) There is a second series of six OAVs, called New Dominion Tank Police, that I understand sort-of picks up where the first four left off, although I've never seen the second series, so I can't confirm the level of continuity.

The character and tank designs are unmistakably Shirow, and the muscularity of the Puma sisters really brings this home. The first two episodes are much lighter in tone than one might expect from Shirow, but we return to something of his typical thematic atmosphere in the second two episodes. Overall, though, this is more of a fun romp than a trip into a moody future. There's comedy around every corner, and who could ever forget the strip-tease dance of the Puma sisters in episode 1. Anna Puma and Uni Puma are still considered classic anime catgirl icons, although these lovelies come with semi-automatic "claws" and they aren't afraid to use them. :) The tank battle between the Puma Sisters and the female lead from the good guys, Leona, is indicative of the kind of out-of-control characters that inhabit this series. The first story arc (eps 1-2) is over-the-top and a lot of fun.

The second two episodes are somewhat more serious. The main villain, the bizarre and marginally slow cyborg Buaku, attempts to steal a valuable portrait of, of all people, himself. With Leona as hostage, he embarks on a journey through the sewer system of the city to meet up with the Puma sisters, and along the way, we are treated to a rough but workable examination of what it means to be human (or not). This theme is a familiar one for Shirow fans; witness Ghost in the Shell.

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Anime Rating (out of 5): 4.7

DVD Rating: Quite good. I found no noteworthy problems with playback or picture/sound quality. Bear in mind that I watch my DVDs on a computer, so I can't opine upon, say, the Dolby 7.1 Surround quality should it be available. :)

Recommendation: Buy it. It's a classic and has aged pretty well, plus it's a lot of fun.

(1) http://www.honneamise.u-net.com/anime/dominion.html

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Future VHS Rental Classics Reviews:

All-Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku

Venus Wars

Vampire Hunter D Special Edition DVD (Whoops! Bit of a botched job, Urban Vision...)

Metal Fighter Miku maybe... I have to get around to watching it again, first.

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As always kids, watch the subz not the dubz. ^^

--Sinom Bre

[Caliban]

For some reason this is the only show I prefer watching in dub; it's been a while since I watched it so I can't remember why.

New DTP is terrible, btw: it turned up on late night TV over here once, it's bad in a cheap Hollywood sequel way.

[DB]

% Cool. Activity. I'll give my own opinions on top of SB's.

% Sinom Bre wrote

[I recently picked up the DVD on sale online at RightStuf International and was carried back to the early to mid-90's when I would canvass all the local video stores for whatever was available back in those dark days when anime was still a serious nerd thing.

% *Sob* Yes, I remember those days far too well. Heck, there was a point where a local Blockbuster was getting a title every now and then, and I was so desperate, I'd hop down there once a week to see if there was anything new.

Dominion Tank Police was almost always to be had then,

% Hmm. Not around here. Heck, since i'm remincing. I'll see what was around here and what wasn't.

along with the Vampire Princess Miyu OAVs,

% Nope

Project A-ko,

% Yes

Devil Hunter Yohko,

% Again, not locally.

and Vampire Hunter D,

% Yeah.

% Ohh. You forgot the most famous of them all to find: Akira. If a place only carried one anime title, that was it. It, Ako, and VHD were the only ones that seemed to be at multiple places. Early volumes of Robotech could also be found, but I had taped that off TV during its initial run. Really lucked out in getting the whole Harlock/Queen of a thousand years during its single run. Lucky at the time, anyway.

% On the downside, there was so little out there, even Crystal Triangle seemed good.

just to name a few oldies but goldies. [Sheesh! You can't scare a copy of those up at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video at all anymore. What is the world coming to? :)]


%I will admit to being fortunate. Around 95, only a local Blockbuster and comic store an hour and a half away carried a handful of titles (a twenty between them maybe). Then I stumbled on a specialty store that included anime (along with horror, martial arts, cheesy cult classics, sci-fi, international titles, etc) Then I made a fortunate mistake by missing a comic store i was searching for and stumbled upon a hole in the wall video rental store that had every early anime title you can think of. We're talking Planetbusters and BGC before it was dubbed, entire UY series. Everything. Boy, did those save me a lot of money by renting instead of buying. Also managed to see nearly every title released in the US until 2001 or so. Now there's too many for even me to keep up, which is sort of a good thing.

% Talk about a digression....


Dominion Tank Police is based on the Dominion manga, by Masamune Shirow, and the first four OAV episodes were made in Japan in 1989 and released on VHS in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1992.(1) There is a second series of six OAVs, called New Dominion Tank Police, that I understand sort-of picks up where the first four left off, although I've never seen the second series, so I can't confirm the level of continuity.

% I'm going to disagree with Caliban. I prefered NDTP over the original series. In the first series, I didn't like Buaku at all, and thought his motives were silly (yes, I know there was a deeper meaning there, but the framework surrounding it didn't perk my interest). Also there was too much set up in the first series for my taste (thought it was necessary). While Grenade Golf was fun, and the Puma Sisters were a better threat in the first part, the tale itself failed to interest me the way NDTP did.

The character and tank designs are unmistakably Shirow, and the muscularity of the Puma sisters really brings this home. The first two episodes are much lighter in tone than one might expect from Shirow, but we return to something of his typical thematic atmosphere in the second two episodes.

% True. Shirow is someone whose style I find better than the actual story he tells. Mind you, Appleseed and GitS were some of the first manga I ever bought, and I'm rereading Appleseed even now, but it really is the artwork that I think of first when it comes to him.

Overall, though, this is more of a fun romp than a trip into a moody future.

% Yeah, now that you mention it, he does tend to do somber things. This is probably one of his lightest works.

There's comedy around every corner, and who could ever forget the strip-tease dance of the Puma sisters in episode 1. Anna Puma and Uni Puma are still considered classic anime catgirl icons, although these lovelies come with semi-automatic "claws" and they aren't afraid to use them. :)

% Heh. True. Although just where were those rifles hidden...

The tank battle between the Puma Sisters and the female lead from the good guys, Leona, is indicative of the kind of out-of-control characters that inhabit this series. The first story arc (eps 1-2) is over-the-top and a lot of fun.

The second two episodes are somewhat more serious.

% agree, this is where the series took a downturn with me.

The main villain, the bizarre and marginally slow cyborg Buaku,

% And for me, extremely dull villain. I think that had a lot to do with my dislike for the series. I *think* we were supposed to sympathize with him to some degree, but I don't, which really made the second half fall flat for me.

attempts to steal a valuable portrait of, of all people, himself. With Leona as hostage, he embarks on a journey through the sewer system of the city to meet up with the Puma sisters, and along the way, we are treated to a rough but workable examination of what it means to be human (or not). This theme is a familiar one for Shirow fans; witness Ghost in the Shell.

% Where I think it was done better, but then again, that was the whole thrust of the manga/movie. BTW, saw the graphics for the second movie, artwork looks stunning and seems to focus on Bataeu a lot as he seems to be looking for the Major's new youthful form, while others are trying to destroy her.

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Anime Rating (out of 5): 4.7

% Wow. You did enjoy it. Myself, when I saw it years ago, I only gave it a 4 out of 10, which might have been up to 6 if they hadn't changed the tone in the second half. 6 out of 10 for NDTP back then, though I have noticed a trend in some of the rewatches of things from back in the early 90's I've been doing. Some of them have suffered over time with me, lowering their score to modern day standards. I actually used to like 5 Star Stories *shudder*. OTOH, Iria stands up to the test of time for me.

Recommendation: Buy it. It's a classic and has aged pretty well, plus it's a lot of fun.

Future VHS Rental Classics Reviews:

All-Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku

Venus Wars

Vampire Hunter D Special Edition DVD (Whoops! Bit of a botched job, Urban Vision...)

Metal Fighter Miku maybe... I have to get around to watching it again, first.

% Interesting choices. I look forward to them.

As always kids, watch the subz not the dubz.

% I've never had much of a problem with Dubs. (Can enjoy everything more if I don't have to read and watch at the same time) unless the dub job is really bad (and there are a lot of bad dub jobs out there). Outlanders was the worst. Shinesmen the best.

% Anyhow, that's my 2 cents worth.

DB Sommer

[Caliban]

I wouldn't mind watching NDTP again sometime, but it seems to be impossible to get hold of over here. The first time round it just completely failed to grab my attention enough to get me into the story - the first one had the initial humour. Got to agree about the villain, he is somewhat weak.

Dubs... it's the accents, I think. I don't meet many Americans, and the shall we say limited talents of the dub actors grate a little :). The original Japanese actors might have equally limited talents but I don't understand them, and years of watching subbed continental European films trained me nicely.

You left off Dirty Pair from that list. Over here we were limited to whatever Manga UK put out ( usually contained demons or tentacles ) a very limited ADV catalogue of mostly fanservice series, and a small trade in NTSC fansubbed tapes. Even with Manga UK attempting to blaze new grounds ( and not actually releasing much in the way of manga, either ) there wasn't much easily accessible. Heh, I remember taking a trip down to the newsagent in the very early '90s to pick up my 2000AD & seeing some pulp promo magazine they put out, and wondering what the hell was up with the _eyes_ in these strips! ( Dirty Pair & BGC, they had their target market well and truly pegged :D ). Come a long way since then, huh?

[Dracos]

You know, I only have the first tape of this.  And it rocked.  I watched it probably three-four times so far, which is quite a few as far as I go.  I found the comedy style of it quite amusing to see.  Good stuff, all in all.

Nice review, Simon Bre, and welcome aboard. ^_^

Dracos
What's in a name these days, eh?

[Sinom Bre]

DB wrote:

The main villain, the bizarre and marginally slow cyborg Buaku,

% And for me, extremely dull villain. I think that had a lot to do with my dislike for the series. I *think* we were supposed to sympathize with him to some degree, but I don't, which really made the second half fall flat for me.

Yes, I am inclined to agree on this point.

DB wrote:

Anime Rating (out of 5): 4.7

% Wow. You did enjoy it.

Yes, I did, but also remember that this anime has weathered ten years fairly well, so I guess I believe that it's paid its dues... in a sense. :)

DB wrote:
% I've never had much of a problem with Dubs. (Can enjoy everything more if I don't have to read and watch at the same time) unless the dub job is really bad (and there are a lot of bad dub jobs out there).

I guess I have a philosophical problem with dubs because of certain, well known fanfic issues, although I recognize the market necessity of providing them. Dubs can lead to some rather persistent problems. For example, I am firmly convinced that many, if not most, of the Tendou Akane-bashers out there can be traced to the American voice actress (don't know her name) dubbing in an often snide tone that simply doesn't exist in the Japanese seiyuu's work, whose name I also forget. Well, that's just one example, and a rather controversial one at that, so I really don't want to get into that issue here. :)

Dubs can also significantly change the content of what's being said, not that subs aren't occasionally guilty of the same thing. Sasami tells Tenchi he's being a pervert in OAV 4, but it sure don't say that in the subtitles. Perish the thought! Sasami-chan shouldn't even know what the word means!!! *Sinom rolls his eyes...*

Caliban wrote:
Dubs... it's the accents, I think. I don't meet many Americans, and the shall we say limited talents of the dub actors grate a little :). The original Japanese actors might have equally limited talents but I don't understand them, and years of watching subbed continental European films trained me nicely.

Point, but I thoroughly enjoy listening to Anna and Uni Puma speak in Kansai-ben. ^^  In all seriousness, though, I always find the Japanese dialogue sounds more natural than most American dubs do. There are some fine examples of dubbing (Princess Mononoke and Ghost in the Shell leap to mind), but there are far more dogs. Love Hina barks all night, and more recently, GXP howls at the moon. >_<

It also helps that I understand some of what I hear in Japanese, so I'm biased in that regard.

Caliban wrote:
You left off Dirty Pair from that list.

I left it off, but I haven't forgotten about Yuri and Kei. It's on my To Purchase list. :) Same for the BGC classic series, although AnimEigo has pulled that title and is working on a better set of discs for it I read somewhere. Oh, to be sure, there are a number of titles not included in my list. Patience, friends. :)

Dracos wrote:
You know, I only have the first tape of this. And it rocked.

Yup! ^^

Dracos wrote:
Nice review, Simon Bre, and welcome aboard. ^_^

Thanks! But I'm hurt! You don't recognize me?! WAH!!! :P  AnimeRain bans you from #toudai. :P

Thanks for the comments, all!

Sinom Bre

"Kashira?! Kashira?! Gozonji kashira?!
--Shadow Girls, Shoujo Kakumei Utena

[Caliban]

I recognised you... every couple of months I go and see if you've written anything :P

Talking of Tenchi ( didn't she just call him ecchi, btw? ), that's another one who's dub resulted in some hideous fic characterizations, although I guess the Toonami hacks didn't help either. Who on earth could pass up listening to Orikasa Ai anyway?

Mononoke is the only other one ( aside from a couple of eps of Bebop: Japanese speaking black people just don't work ) that I'll choose dub, but given the quality of the voice talent there you'd be mad not to. I don't think I've seen DP Flash subbed yet, but... well, it's not exactly top of the list of things to watch anyway....

I was digging around for my DTP dvd in response to this thread, and would you believe I've lost it? you know how bloody irritating that is? I hadn't even thought about watching it before this thread appeared :P

[Dracos]

Dracos wrote:
Nice review, Simon Bre, and welcome aboard. ^_^

Thanks! But I'm hurt! You don't recognize me?! WAH!!! :P  AnimeRain bans you from #toudai. :P

Thanks for the comments, all!

Sinom Bre

"Kashira?! Kashira?! Gozonji kashira?!
--Shadow Girls, Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Of course I recognized you.  How could I miss your writing name that you swapped to when you released those three chapters that were the only work I've seen from you in years?  Did you not see my teasing siggy? ^_~  Figured though that'd since you were using it, I'd use it as well instead of referring to your old siggy or irc nick.

Dracos