abadgorilla
i saw the American dubbed version and loved it...i wish there were more movies like this now-days..no production will spent money on that kind of films anymore. the plot is not really clear.. and i heard that the original version is anti-American / antisemitic. still think it does not matter for this kind of movies... i liked the animation and the style of drawing the "villain" character is ridiculously strong.so if you like those old gory anime with a basic plot line, and amazing character design, this movie is for you! & you would also like: wicked city ,ninja scroll.enjoy
Zombified_660
Most anime, especially those from the 80s got a major mauling from companies rolling over themselves trying to get them into English. Nowadays, dubbing is much better and normally exactly the same as the subtitled screenplay, but back around '89-'96 it was a different matter, and anime was viewed mainly as fodder for action movie buffs and cyberpunks, so it was dubbed as so. Didn't matter how sensitive the original was, the western version sounded like Die Hard. With more swearing. I start with this anecdote because Angel Cop is so bad, the cheesy and unnecessarily vulgar 80s dubbing is the least of its problems.Even in the original Japanese, Angel Cop would have still limped in over the finish line somewhere around the 99th place mark. The animation is so unnervingly rigid and stagnant it makes La Jetee look action-packed, the character design makes it almost impossible to discern what gender characters are without looking at their chest or waiting for their first line of hideously cheap, unpleasant dialogue, and it manages to pretty much clinch the victory for the most vile main character in history with the titular Angel.Angel makes Bad Leutenant look like Willy freaking Wonka. This woman is mean, unpleasant and difficult to get along with from the get-go. When she's not indiscriminately shooting anyone not in a police uniform Death Wish style, she's either espousing patriotic garbage about how great the government in her society is, or she's yelling at people for no obvious reason. Dysfunctional characters are one thing, but Angel is about as much fun to spend screen-time with as a bad case of the mumps.That's pretty much enough to wreck it, given that all movies and TV series need a key character or two you can relate to, but there's more. The plot is awful, a generic Z Grade political thriller come Blade Runner rip-off that should have been shot by snipers as it attempted to enter the building. Add to that an alarming level of pointlessly tasteless violence, bad mecha design from the 'I can't be bothered to draw today I'm going to trace Shinji Aramaki's...WHOOPS I SLIPPED' school of production design, and Angel Cop is hobbling down the track with two busted kneecaps. Seriously, avoid this series. Like you'd avoid a giant rat with rabies.If it serves any purpose to society and culture at all, Angel Cop is a footnote and a dire warning as to how far even generic, lowest-common-denominator anime has come, and how far it potentially has to fall. It's a badly dubbed, nasty, sloppily put together heap of anime waste product, and as such should be avoided as carefully as possible.
Craig
OK, this isn't exactly the thinking man's Manga, but a kickass, nonstop action romp nonetheless. A lot of people will criticise this movie for having a weak storyline, underdeveloped characters or whatever, but it has one thing in spades - violence! Head popping, limb wrenching, flesh burning violent action in all of it's glory. And isn't that the main reason why people watch these kind of Manga films? Also, the standard of the animation is very high, an essential requirement for any kind of animated feature in my book. An anime film could tell the greatest story since War and Peace, but, if it has the kind of animation that makes early Hanna Barbera cartoons look like masterpieces, I'll turn it off after about ten minutes. Anyway, the plot and storyline aren't as bad as many would have you believe, certainly not compared to the standard of most anime features. Maybe it wasn't surrealistic enough, perhaps some people would have been happier if it all turned out to be a metaphor, unveiling the mysteries of evolution and the spirituality of man. For me, this flick has it all - violent "cops on the edge", slowmo shootouts, vengeful cyborgs and psychotic superhuman killers. If there were a live action film that had all of this backed up with cutting edge effects, I'd go see it in a minute. Angel Cop is well worth watching for any fan of in-your-face, violent action anime.
kaworu-3
"Angel Cop" is mind-numbingly violent, no question about that. It is also mind-numbingly stupid.The plot to this six-part direct-to-video anime series revolves around a Communist terrorist organization out to topple Japan's economy on their first step to taking over the world, three psychic assassins that take orders from some very powerful (and corrupt) government positions, and the Special Security Force, which is the only police force in Japan that is actually allowed to fire their guns."Angel Cop" is idiotic, but it does have some redeeming values. First off being the English dubbing, which is laughably bad ("If this is justice, then I'm a banana!"). Second is that it does not pretend to be any smarter than it actually is. Third is the above-average animation quality.I'd recommend this one for anybody seeking a mindless action fest, but make sure the kids are in bed first.