OVA, 1988
Directors: Koichi Mashimo, Takaki Ishiyama
-and-
OVA, 1993
Director: Noboru Furuse
The Story
Dominion – In the FUTURE Japanese metropolis of Newport City, the bacterial smog is deadly and the criminals are even deadlier. So deadly, in fact, that the police need tanks in order to deal with them effectively. New Tank Police recruit Leona Ozaki has not had a good first day: on her first patrol she wrecked her squad leader Brenten’s custom tank and is doomed to be transferred to the Child Welfare department as punishment. Out of the ashes of the former tank though a new, smaller one emerges… Leona builds a mini-tank from the wreck of her boss’s former mount and names it Bonaparte. Can Leona prove herself and Bonaparte in action against the notorious and dangerous android criminal trio of Buaku and the Puma Sisters or will she be exiled to a desk forever? And why is Buaku and his gang breaking into a hospital… for healthy people?!
New Dominion – Leona is still in the Tank Police (what, did you seriously think she would be transferred?) and still terrorizing the city as much as the criminals. When her former partner from the Motorcycle division is killed however a new threat emerges in the form of the Dai Nippon Giken Corporation, who is developing a weapon that might spell doom for the Tank Police and the city…
The Review
“Gahh!” I know you’re saying. “More anime? I can’t stand it! Why do you watch so much Japanese animation all the time?!” At least that’s what I know “you’re” saying in my delusional little mind, because I’m about 99% sure that only about three people read this blog, including myself (yes, I read my own blog. It doesn’t mean I’m mad or anything… All work and no play….). Anyways, there’s more anime this week for a few important reasons. A) Anime is good for you, so stop complaining. It’s got all of the good vitamins, minerals and fanservice that you need for a balanced diet. B) Anime is more addictive than crack and C) I just bought and watched these OVAs for the first time. Yes, I just bought these. For cheap, too. Anyone who knows about Dominion will know that this is incredible seeing as how both of these are out of print and currently very expensive online. Right now the minimum used price on Amazon for these is at about $75 each. I had wanted to see the original OVA as I had read and enjoyed the manga but didn’t want to pay some (censored) on Amazon three-quarters of a hundred bucks for it. Well, I found this the other day while browsing at my local video store:
Well, anyways, I took these home and watched them and really enjoyed them (well, I really, really liked the first one – I didn’t enjoy New Dominion as much, but still liked the fact that I was able to try it out without breaking the bank) so I thought I’d review them.
Dominion is a classic OVA, and one of the best from the 80s. The animation is dated and the music is sort of bland (and really dated) but damn it, this thing is so much fun. And it’s really funny to boot. As in, riotously hilarious. There are a ton of great gags in this anime and I had to resist the urge to include them in the screenshots section because that would completely ruin them for you when they come up while you watch this show (and you will watch it, right?). However, being based on a Shirow Masamune comic, you’re going to get philosophy mixed in with the funny, and here Dominion delivers as well. The opening of the first episode was one of the best debates on the use of force by the police that I have ever seen – and this is in a cartoon where the cops use tanks. There’s no moral simplicity either – both sides are seen as having valid arguments, something I think is sorely missing when the media tackles subjects like these nowadays. We also get hilarious and yet at the same time downright disturbing criminal interrogation scenes in this anime. This is especially relevant today given the debate in the US over how to treat suspected terrorists and the like, with some being morally horrified at torture and some believing it’s the right way to conduct interrogations. Personally I found the interrogation scenes in Dominion to be both uncomfortably upsetting and laughingly amusing at the same time, in addition to being completely over-the-top (like a lot of the stuff in this anime). I never thought I would be laughing so hard as well as cringing at the sight of a criminal interrogation where the prisoner has a grenade stuffed in his mouth with the pin attached through a piece of string to an unstable bucket of water – with the cops taking turns trying to tip the bucket over via a game of mini-golf. Congratulations, Dominion! This being a Shirow-derived anime you’re also going to get ruminations on ecology and artificial intelligence – this time all in one! Don’t worry though: this anime isn’t ultra-heavy or dense like Ghost in the Shell. Speaking of which, next time you read that manga, keep an eye out for a cameo from the Puma Twins having a run in with a Fuchikoma. It’s hilarious!
New Dominion is not as good, simply because of the fact that it’s not as funny or distinctive. It is probably a little closer in tone to (and includes more characters from) the manga and is still funny in spots but overall it just felt… bland to me. Also, it felt a little clichéd. All of the standard Cop Show Tropes are here: the murdered Former Partner, the Resignation, the Three-Minute Investigation…. About the only thing this Cop Show has that the others don’t is a pair of screaming cat girls strapped to the front of a tank. Yes, really. And on a personal note, if I see another Evil-Murdering-Weapons-Manufacturing-Corporation in another anime I’m going to scream. I didn’t like it in the Patlabor TV Series, I was sick of it by Bubblegum Crisis and I was really tired of it here. Note to anime directors: when I start comparing your show to Bubblegum Crisis you know you’re in trouble. Look, I’m not Mr. Capitalist but honestly – how many of these can you have in anime? Do the Japanese – who are probably the most-corporate minded people on Earth, slightly ahead of Americans – really think that arms manufacturers are going to go around industrialized populated cities testing out their latest weapons when they have the third world to do it in? Also, the plot to kill the mayor (who is more sympathetic and rounded than the original’s by the way – something I enjoyed) in this show put it over the edge in believability for me (and this in a world where cops drive tanks through toxic smog). Corporations do not plot to literally kill political figures in modern democracies; they use personal assassination instead – sex scandals, compromising photographs, etc. And if they can’t dig something up they’ll just make something up or, just throw money at your enemies until you fall down and go splort in a pool of mud. At least that’s the way it works in American politics, I don’t know about the politics of Future Japan. Outright murder though would bring WAY too much attention to a corporation and result in HUGE cash losses and possible shutdown, so they wouldn’t take this option. Not because it’s immoral but because it’s too risky. In underdeveloped nations however….
One misconception that people have about Dominion going into it is that it is a standalone OVA. They always complain at the ending because it “doesn’t have a proper ending.” They think that more episodes must have been planned but were axed and that Dominion is an incomplete OVA. Well, no. In order to get the rest of the story, you have to read the manga, because that continues the storyline. Or, more accurately, the Dominion OVA is a prequel to the manga, since the manga came out first. New Dominion is a sequel of sorts, seeing as how Buaku is no longer around and the villains are different – some people are often confused on this as well. And this is one of the things that I like about both Dominion OVAs, namely that instead of just doing the standard anime thing and straight up adapting the manga into an animated form they flesh out the manga and become a supplement to the comic. We see in the OVA, for instance how Leona joined the Tank Police and “met” Bonaparte and the villains – the manga dives right into the action and shows Leona chasing Buaku in her mini-tank right off the bat. Speaking of Buaku, the portrayal of the villains in both OVAs is a little different than the original manga. Buaku is shown as much more competent in the graphic novel and usually gets the upper hand on the police instead of the other way around like in the anime. Maybe he learned a thing or two and got smarter between the two. Also, the android cat girl twins Anna and Uni Puma are far, far more dangerous and vicious in the manga then they are in the anime. I mean, they do have some comic moments in the comic (hey!) and they’re still ditzy but overall they’re just nastier and even brutal. The anime (especially New Dominion) makes them funnier and a little more sympathetic. Maybe this is just a set up to the sequel manga Dominion Conflict: No More Noise, though, because there Shirow portrays the twins as... cute? and has them join the tank police (!) and get into all sort of comic mischief.
Anyways, in conclusion: see Dominion! But you can probably give New Dominion a miss, it’s not as interesting. And for Bonaparte’s sake, read the manga! In addition to being really good it will continue the storyline you just saw in the anime and give you a real ending. Then read the Dominion Conflict manga, which is less cerebral but more funny than the original. It's a hoot!
Screenshots
Dominion
Our heroine Leona Ozaki. Any resemblance to another redheaded
Japanese police officer with a mecha fetish is entirely coincidental.
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| What is wrong with this picture? |
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| What is wrong with this picture? |
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| The architecture of Newport City is very... fungal. |
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| Dick Cheney would be proud. |
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| Our villains. Maybe they just saw House. |
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| To the Brentenmobile! |
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| It must be karaoke night down at the police station again. |
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| Yes. Yes. |
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| "Buaku, you idiot!... this is the last time I let you give me racing tips!" |
New Dominion
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| The buildings in New Dominion are less... mushroom-y. |
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| Leona and Bonaparte on patrol. Bad boys, whatcha gonna do when they come for you? |
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| The Chief of the Tank Police. This is pretty much his default expression. |
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| Mayor Weatherbea. Her pained expression is probably the result of the Tank Police. |
Al, Leona and the Puma Sisters take time out from playing
cops and robbers to play a game of Twister instead.
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| Only in Japan. |
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| "Why, yes, I AM an evil corporate executive. How could you tell?" |
Miss Beechum the secretary. I think it's creepy how she's supposed to have a crush on Al,
considering she looks like she could be his sister and all.
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| What inevitably follows the Tank Police everywhere they go. |
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| Puma Sister Hood Ornaments. What, did you think I was lying? |
Next Week: Another very special posting, because I love you.
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