Angel Cop

Angel Cop
"If this anime is justice, then i'm a banana".
Genre: Cyberpunk Running Time: 30 minutes Country: Japan Release Date: September 1, 1989 – May 20, 1994 Created by: Ichirō Itano Seasons: 1 Episodes: 6

Angel Cop (エンゼルコップ) is a 6 episode OVA Sci Fi-Thriller Anime series. It is infamous for the negative portrayal of Jews and received negative reviews by anime fans and critics. The first episode was released sometime in 1989 and the last episode was released in 1994 in Japan. It was licensed by Manga Entertainment in the US in 1995.

Why It Gets Copped by the Cops

1. The protagonist Yo Mikawa (codenamed Angel) is very unlikable as she is very arrogant and treats people poorly despite being an officer of the law.
2. As with Manga Entertainment’s other English dubs released during this period, it tries too hard to be edgy using a large amount of unnecessary swearing. In fact this was due to sell more copies for the VHS during the 90s as R rated works sold more than their PG or G rated counterparts. In the UK, this was called “Fifteening”, as a reference to the BBFC’s 15 rating.
3. Poorly written story. It's basically future Japanese propaganda where Japan becomes the US's enemy again.
4. It negatively portrays Jews as criminals trying to destroy Japan. Thankfully the official dub and subbed versions (Manga Entertainment) changes them to Americans. However Discotek Media licensed it and now it has subtitles that are faithful to the antisemitic script.
5. The English dub voice acting contains cheesy lines such as the infamous like "You've underestimated the power of Japanese technology" and the worst offender being "If this is justice, then I'm a banana", which outright referenced the British satirist Ian Hislop.
6. Cliffhanger ending that leaves us questions like "Did the protagonist survive?" and "Did the police force reach their goal?"
7. The ending theme is poorly done.
8. It is a rip-off of Ghost In The Shell as both have a female counter-terrorist cyborg officer in a cyberpunk future fighting terrorists to defend Japan.
9. Most of the background music is repetitive and can get annoying.
10. The animation gets worse from episode to episode, but it can be argued that its an artistic change due to a development halt before/during production of episode 6.
11. Yo Mikawa, who is the protagonist of the series, isn't shown as much until episodes 5 and 6 which is strange and is a bad idea to give a protagonist small screen time in almost every episode.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The Japanese voice acting is more tolerable than the English dub.
2. The cheesy dialogue and scenes can be hilarious.
3. The background music during most action scenes is pretty good to hear.
4. Early episodes animation is fine enough.
5. It debunked the theory that only Battle Shonen anime has more than 1 episode lasting fight arcs as it had a 3 episode lasting fight of Yo Mikawa (Angel) VS Lucifer. To say Angel Cop is a Seinen series with high battle and action scenes.

Trivia

• It was going to get a Live-Action adaptation as stated by Shou Aikawa's Twitter/X account but was cancelled.

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