Dominion Tank Police (1988)

Best movie ever!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I saw this one way back in the day when the Sy Fy channel was the Sci-Fi channel and actually played more variety of stuff than the do now. So I do not remember it exactly except I watched it all one night and I was thoroughly enjoying it when it kind of just ended in almost a cliffhanger and there was no more movie. So I was rather disappointed with that, but from what I read here they just never really completed the story that came from a Manga comic. The story is about a police organization that uses tanks to track down criminals and take them out. A new female cop who is not exactly wanted by this particular branch of the force and does not exactly endear herself to the chief as she destroys his favorite tank is a bit of the focus in this one. Not entirely though as is expected from an anime movie. She ends up making a little tank out of the remains of the chief's tank and that makes up a bit of the first half of the story. The second bit of the story is rather interesting as it focuses more on the villains of the piece and I began to get a sense that the bad guys were not all that bad. Then it just ended, I just wander how it ended? I guess I could go online and try to find the last bit in comic form, but it still ticks me off that they never finished it in animated form. Still, it had laughs, it had action and it had mystery...to much mystery as they never cleared it up in movie form.

Dominion Tank Police is without a shell of a doubt, one of the most amazing shows ever produced, but not just in the field of animation. While the first part (Acts 1 and 2) mostly consists of action and fun, the second part is more serious and one should not treat the second part in the exact same way as first part. The subtleties are truly out of this world and the characterization is beyond brilliant. You must have an extra degree of intelligence to appreciate the intricacies of the second Part (Acts-3 and 4). I do have some complaints though. In the first part, the Tank Bonaparte quite literally jumps over a tank shell and it did not make any sense at all. One might also question the plausibility of Bonaparte jumping on the wing of Helicopter Gunship even though it was cool. Buaku rules.

Why did this amazing totally mindblowing series only have to last for 2 acts spread over just over 2 hours? Just when it gets better and better and more emotional, they leave the story hanging and we have go refer to the bloody comic. That itself would have just about covered 1-2 more episodes. Is that too much to ask? Its hard to believe that the Japanese were making this in the late 80s while the other parts of the world were making childish nonsense? I think even though Ghost in the Shell is much more popular, the Tank Police are closer to Shirow's heart. The follow on series, Crusher Police or New Dominion Tank police, is no way in the same league.

Don't have much to say about this other than I think that these movies are underrated in England, they're funny and very well written out etc. I watched my first one a few days ago and I will admit that I'm quite impressed at the story lines and also the characters involved since they are at times stone head stupid and then at others can be REALLY senstive and funny 0=] Watch this if you like Anime and have a laugh, this movie won't be very good for thought provoking drama or such like, but it is something just to waste the time away....