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Year:    1999
Studio:  n/a
Feature: 3/5
Extras:  0/5

"A.D. Police: To Protect and Serve" is a prequel to Bubblegum Crisis. There was still a big earthquake that destroyed Tokyo and the Genom Corporation voomers helped to rebuild them. This time we focus on the early AD Police, back when it was merely a special section of the regular police.

Kenji Sasaki (voice of Randy Sparks) is the maverick of the unit, very good but has the unfortunate curse of getting his partners killed. Hans Kleif (voice of Jason Douglas) is Kenji's new partner, a man without memories and something really weird going on in his body. Karen Jordan (voice of Christine M Auten) and Mary Malone (voice of Emily Carter) are the girls, Jose Collins (voice of C Markham Anderson) is the other guy.

This is a 12-episode series focusing on Kenji and Hans. Because of what happens to his partners, Kenji has become rather of a loner. Hans is determined to befriend Kenji and get a date with the pretty nurse with secrets of her own. The main villain is Liam Fletcher (voice if Andy McAvin), some sort of weapons dealer working for a big boss.

As the series goes on it turns out that the heroes and villains have something in common. The mystery eventually leads to Genom and a pyrrhic victory for the AD Police. I guess it's a tragedy.
The characters were ok, but other than Hans and Kenji you don't get really any into them. Kenji's girlfriend who appears a lot is still a total mystery. I just didn't get to know and love any of the characters.

Still, it's an entertaining series and the villain is actually quite clever so there is that. Especially if you've seen Bubblegum Crisis, it's sort of a nice return to the universe. But this is a series with quite a different fell to it than BC.
Copyright (c) 2004 Kevin C. Wong
Page Created: November 18, 2004 Page Last Updated: November 18, 2004