''AD Police Files'' is a three-part

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

produced by

Youmex was an anime production company and record label (under their label Futureland) established in 1985 as a subsidiary of Toshiba EMI and founded by Junji Fujita (formerly of King Records). The company was absorbed back into Toshiba EMI in 1998, af ...

and animated by

Artmic was a Japanese animation design studio formed in 1978. It went bankrupt and was liquidated in 1997. AIC RIGHTS now holds the intellectual property of most of Artmic's titles. The studio was founded by Toshimichi Suzuki after he left Tatsunoko P ...

and

AIC AIC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Alice in Chains, American rock band * Alice in Chains: AIC 23, a 2013 mockumentary * Anime International Company, a Japanese animation studio * Art Institute of Chicago, an art museum in Chicago Busin ...

. Set in 2027, it is a prequel to the ''

Bubblegum Crisis is a 1987 to 1991 cyberpunk original video animation (OVA) series produced by Youmex and animated by Anime International Company, AIC and Artmic. The series was planned to run for 13 episodes, but was cut short to just 8. The series involv ...

'' OVA series, focusing mainly on AD Police officer Leon McNichol, the future rival and love interest of Knight Saber Priscilla Asagiri. Due to the legal conflict between Artmic and Youmex, the production of the series was stopped with only three complete episodes made.

Plot

Chronologically set 5 years before the events of ''Bubblegum Crisis'', it focuses on AD Police (Advanced Police) inspector Leon McNichol's early days in the AD Police.

Cast

Additional voices

Japanese:

Hideyuki Umezu is a Japanese actor and voice actor affiliated with 81 Produce. Biography Filmography Television animation ;1980s *''Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ'' (1986) – Nelmarsen *''Bravoman'' (1988) – Bravoman ;1990s *''Holly the Ghost'' (1991) – Kakaras ...

, Hitoshi Horimoto, Kiyonobu Suzuki, Morite Murakuni, Rena Yukie (''as Rena Kurihara''), Satoko Yasunaga, Shin'ichirou Miki,

Toshiya Ueda was a Japanese voice actor who worked for 81 Produce. He died on February 8, 2022, at the age of 88. Filmography Television animation *''Jungle Emperor'' (1965) (Lion A) *''Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae'' (1968) (Rihei) *'' Andersen Stories'' (1 ...

Toshiyuki Morikawa is a Japanese voice actor, narrator and singer who is the head of Axlone, a voice acting company he founded in April 2011. His name is also sometimes mistranslated as Tomoyuki Morikawa. In 2003, he and Fumihiko Tachiki formed the band "2Hearts", ...

Wataru Takagi is a Japanese actor and voice actor from Chiba Prefecture. He is affiliated with Arts Vision. He is best known for his roles in ''Detective Conan'' (as Genta Kojima and Wataru Takagi), ''After War Gundam X'' (as Garrod Ran), '' Slayers Try'' ( ...

English (AnimEigo): Amanda Tancredi, Amy Parrish, Charles Page, Christopher Alexander, David Kraus, Eddie Harrell, Eric Paisley, Matt Blazon,

Michael Sinterniklaas Michael Tremain Sinterniklaas (; born August 13, 1972) is a French voice actor, ADR director and script writer who has provided voices for a number of English language versions of Japanese anime films and television series, as well as cartoons a ...

, Rod Barker, Scott O'Quinn, Scott Simpson, Vincent Schilling

Episodes

Release

In North America, the series is licensed by

AnimEigo AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. Founded in 1988 by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, the company was one of the first in North America dedicated to licensi ...

, who first released the series to VHS and Laserdisc in 1993 in Japanese with English subtitles. They later reissued it in both formats in 1995 with an English dub produced by Southwynde Studios in Wilmington, NC. The show was released to bilingual DVD in 2004, with bonus content featuring music videos for various songs featured in the series as performed by Filipino singer

Lou Bonnevie Maria Lourdes Rosario Perello Bonnevie, better known by her stage name Lou Bonnevie (born October 6, 1965 in Bicol), is a Filipina pop rock musician. She has released several albums since the beginning of her career in 1984. Her music was also us ...

in addition to translation notes and production artwork. On September 27, 2015, AnimEigo announced that they will be funding a brand new HD telecine of the series from the original 35mm film in-house through Kickstarter, with a Blu-ray release planned for 2016. In the UK, the series was licensed by

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyro ...

, who produced their own English dub for VHS in 1994, and later issued it onto dub-only DVD in 2004. Their release is now out-of-print.

Reception

Critical reception of ''A.D. Police Files'' has been generally positive.

Helen McCarthy Helen McCarthy (born 27 February 1951) is the British author of such anime reference books as ''500 Manga Heroes and Villains'', ''Anime!'', ''The Anime Movie Guide'' and ''Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation''. She is the co-author of ...

in ''500 Essential Anime Movies'' describes ''The Phantom Woman'' as the video "definitely not for the faint hearted", noting that the "design is good and the atmosphere well maintained, but it's Aikawa's script that will stick in your mind". McCarthy, Helen. ''500 Essential Anime Movies: The Ultimate Guide''. — Harper Design, 2009. — P. 33. — 528 p. — She also praised ''The Man Who Bites His Tongue'' as a "stylish, dark retelling of

RoboCop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferre ...

". Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network described A.D. Police Files as being "a flawed work, but has enough memorable moments and beautiful, macabre touches to redeem it in some way." Raphael See of

THEM Anime Reviews THEM Anime Reviews, otherwise known as THEM or T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews, is an Anime, anime Review, review website that writes about current and past anime in any form, including Original video animation, OVAs and Original net animation, ONAs. The ...

gave the series a rating of 3 out of 5 stars, praising the story and soundtrack but considered the animation to be "average." Overall, See states that "If you're a BGC junkie, you'll definitely enjoy this one. Other people might want to save this one until they run out of other things to watch."

Legacy

Manga

, a ''

seinen is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word ''seinen'' literally means "youth", but the term "''seinen'' manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like ''Weekly Ma ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written by Toshimichi Suzuki and illustrated by

Tony Takezaki is a Japanese mangaka born on July 15, 1963, in Osaka. Selected bibliography Manga and anime * A.D. Police Files (1990) * Dr Kishiwada's Scientific Affection (1992–98) * Genocyber (1993) * Space Pinchy Space is the boundless three-dimens ...

, is set between the first and the second part of ''A.D. Police Files''. It was serialized by Byakuya Shobo on its ''

'' magazine ''Bandai B-Club'' between November 1989 and August 1990. Its chapters were compiled into a single volume that was later translated into English by

Viz Communications VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

for the United States and by Manga Books for the British audience and in French by Samourai. The manga is set in 2032. The A.D. Police are an elite group of highly trained and specially equipped police officers, who have been formed to deal with

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

activities and Boomer crimes in the city of Mega Tokyo. The A.D. Police are offered a great deal of leeway in their activities, often blockading large sections of the city and causing great amounts of property damage in the course of fulfilling their duty. Despite their dedication to their jobs, however, the citizens of Mega Tokyo tend to dislike and distrust members of the A.D. Police, seeing them as corrupt and ineffectual.

Related series

In 1999, AIC created a reboot of ''A.D. Police Files'' called '' A.D. Police: To Protect and Serve'' that was broadcast by

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

. Unlike ''A.D. Police Files'', it is set in universe of the reboot series ''

Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 is an anime series produced by Anime International Company, AIC. It is a reboot of the 1987 original video animation, OVA series ''Bubblegum Crisis'', which focuses on the Knight Sabers, a rogue vigilante group made up of four women who use pow ...

'', and serves as a prequel to the aforementioned series. Another OVA series revolving around the A.D. Police, ''

Parasite Dolls is a three-part original video animation produced by the Anime International Company and IMAGICA Entertainment, and written by Chiaki J. Konaka and Kazuto Nakazawa. The series is set in the ''Bubblegum Crisis'' universe and takes place after ...

'', was released in 2003 by AIC. Like ''A.D. Police Files'', it is set in the original ''Bubblegum Crisis'' universe and takes place directly after the events of the original OVA series. As of 2022, it is the last ''Bubblegum Crisis''-related series to be released.

References

External links

* * {{Anime International Company 1989 manga 1990 anime OVAs Anime International Company Dengeki Comics Films set in 1999 Films with screenplays by Shō Aikawa Manga Entertainment Police in anime and manga Seinen manga Terrorism in fiction Viz Media manga