[Guyver Spawn]

Dominion Tank Police - I rewatch this anime for the first time in the last 19 something years. I first remember seeing Dominion Tank Police a very long time ago when I was at least 6 years old on TV late night at my Grandma's house. I remember seeing the first act on TV and the action really blew me away. Dominion Tank Police is based on a manga from Masamune Shirow, who also created Ghost in The Shell and Appleseed. Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed are still very relevant today while Dominion Tank Police has fade away into obscurity over the years. So how well does it hold up? Dominion Tank Police holds very well and is a great anime to watch.

The action is very over the top and enjoyable. Not a single boring moment in this anime and this anime has four acts (each episode around 35 minutes). The humor is one of the best parts of Dominion Tank Police because the show is very cheesy and over the top. The first two acts of full of slapstick, great jokes and funny characters moments. All of the humor made me laugh from start to finish. None of it felt force and dry. The last two acts of the anime go for a more serious tone in the story, but there is a lot of comedy too. The last two acts really did a great job on mixing drama and comedy into one. The last two acts really give us great character development on Leona and our main villain "Buaku".

Leona Ozaki is a great female character with a great personality and her character keeps on getting better as time goes on. Leona Ozaki was able to show that she is more than just a girl working with the police force and she is just as smart and tough as the men working at Tank Police. She also has a mother-like affection for her tank and other people who live in New Port City. All of the other characters in Dominion Tank Police are great and very memorable. Jim E. Lovelock is the scientific expert and tank commander is a pretty likeable character. My favorite character in the anime is Charles Brenten, the Tank Police squad leader. Charles Brenten has the awesome macho type of personally to his character. He is like Sleepy from Mad Bull 34 if Sleepy was way less violent and not as popular with the ladies.

The most famous characters in Dominion Tank Police are AnnaPuma and UniPuma aka the Cat Girls. While they are not my favorite characters in the anime, they are pretty fun characters to watch. I will admit that I didn't care for Al Cu Ad Solte because his character felt rather flat. His character felt he could have been written much better. Everyone else in the anime is awesome.

What also makes Dominion Tank Police so great is that the themes in the story are very relevant today. Dominion Tank Police deals with the issues of police militarization and brutality which is currently a big issue going on in the world today in this decade. Just listen to the opening during the debate between the chief of police and the mayor of the city about the role of police during the start of the first act. You also have people wearing oxygen masks in New Port City due to high levels of pollution which is a similar issue going on in China. This anime was really ahead of its time for being made in 1988.

The anime also has great music and solid animation. The character designs are very colorful and nicely detail. They really do fit well with the gray-blue, smog-covered tone of the city in my opinion. All of the tank designs in the anime look really awesome and are totally watch to see on-screen. The English dub is from Manga UK, who is famous for really bad English dubs like for Angel Cop and the first two Devilman OVA's. However I feel like this is Manga UK's best dub because the voices fit well with the characters and the overall goofy tone of the anime.

However there are a few things I dislike about Dominion Tank Police. I felt like the ending was not that great and it felt underwhelming. The whole ending didn't feel like it clear up the central plotline really well. Also I feel like that the second and third arc went on for a bit too long. I forgot to mention that this anime has fan service, but there is very little of it and it's done right. It does not over shadow the plot and character unlike most anime now like High School of the Dead and Bikini Warriors.

Overall Dominion Tank Police is an excellent anime with funny humor, great characters, awesome action and a great social commentary on both police militarization and unethical scientific experiments. I highly recommend to watch this anime if you like comedy anime, old school anime or an action anime that doesn't take itself too seriously. If you watch this anime and hope to be dark, gritty and serious like Mamoru Oshii's anime adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, you will likely be disappointed. Dominion Tank Police is still awesome even nearly 30 years. Grade: B+