Dominion Tank Police, the anime and manga series
Dominion Tank Police (ド ミ ニ オ ン?) Is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. It was originally published in the “Young Animal Arashi” magazine by the Hakusensha publishing house.
Set in the fictional city of Newport, Japan, in a future where bacteria, as well as air pollution, have become so bad that people have to wear gas masks when they go outdoors, the series follows a team of police who uses military-grade tanks.
History
In the 21st century the police, to cope with the increase in crime, with particular interest, terrorism and armed criminal gangs, has become a militarized police force, which has state-of-the-art tanks to face the most difficult and complex. Leona Ozaki is a young policewoman who enters the body of the police department's armored squad and begins her journey, at first with difficulty as the only woman in the group, after being transferred from the motorized department where she was previously. Along with characters like Lt. Britain and his partner Al, who will tackle organized crime in a world where toxic pollution has caused everything from mutations in people to the rise of robots.
Characters
The Tank Police
Leona Ozaki
A young female tank police officer. Extremely enthusiastic about her work and obsessively protective of her tank, which she calls "Bonaparte". She was originally a motorcycle division officer before requesting a transfer to the Tank Police. Her name, along with her tank, is likely a reference to the early XNUMXth-century French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte.
Al'Cu Ad Solte
A young officer, much calmer partner than Leona and co-pilot of Bonaparte. He is very much in love with Leona, but is always second in his affections to him behind Bonaparte. He is a very good computer hacker. His name was changed to Al Southwell in the English dub.
Charles Brenten
Leona's foreman. Very male chauvinist, with little regard for regulations or the health, safety and property of civilians. He is the best marksman in the force, preferring a large old-fashioned revolver (which he lovingly calls "the Punisher") to the automatic weapons used by the other members of his unit. He has a lifetime subscription to How to Kill magazine. According to Shirow, he is named after the 10mm Bren Ten pistol, popularized by the then popular American TV series, Miami Vice. In some translations it is known as "Great Britain", due to a translation error.
Chaplain
An unofficial police chaplain and tank driver. He once took pity on a criminal, who took advantage of it by shooting and killing his partner and running away.
Jim E. Lovelock (Spec, Megane or Four-Eyes)
A scientific expert and tank commander. Her knowledge and insights into him are often helpful in difficult cases, and his calm, logical thinking is essential for crisis situations. He has a friendly rivalry with the chaplain.
Head
The chief of police. He's prone to plucking out what little hair he has left… and those that have remained white due to the stress of work. He has a chronic ulcer that occurs whenever the Tank Police cause too much collateral damage. Arguing with the previous mayor, he comments in the introduction that tanks are not enough to keep the peace and would prefer to "replace our guns with tactical nuclear weapons", although it is unclear whether he intends to take this seriously.
Criminals
Open it
The Tank Police "supervillain" was trained to fight, specializing in bank robberies and general chaos. He leads a gang, but appears to be supported by unknown individuals. Buaku's true origins are unclear between the animated film (OVA) and the Manga itself. In the OVA, Buaku was apparently a "test dummy" for the Greenpeace Crolis project, which escaped destruction when government agents raided the lab and destroyed everything but the encoded data disguised as a naked portrait of himself. . He ends up living on the street. Eventually he is framed for a bank robbery by an unidentified woman and later arrested by the police ... which begins the chain of events that led to him becoming a criminal. In the Manga it is said that Buaku began his criminal career over 80 years ago in Argentina.
In part 1 of the OVA, his goal is to recover urine samples for a mysterious broker for the invisible crime boss “Mr. Big ". The tank police thwarted his plans, but are unable to arrest him.
In part 2 of the OVA he tried to retrieve encoded data from the Greenpeace experiment, which is on display at a local auction house in Newport. In the Manga, his latest criminal act of hers is the theft of the "Embryo" Space Colony, in which she succeeds and escapes to the stars with her gang, with the exception of the Puma Sisters, who have been left on Earth to organize the final escape.
Anna Puma and UniPuma
Anna and Uni are a pair of tall and beautiful android cat girls who were created as "love dolls" to be marketed for profit, but they developed beyond this superficial programming and turned criminals, joining forces with Buaku . Except for the occasional bickering, they are inseparable and sisters in the most extreme ways. They despise the heroine of the series Leona Ozaki and the feeling is mutual.
They are far superior to humans in terms of strength, agility, speed, and the ability to take damage. They also have what appears to be the equivalent of military-grade aiming computers. The strangest feature of their construction is that much of their large size is optional. They have the ability to shrink to the size of a child by expelling large amounts of water (and returning to normal size by ingesting water). When their normal size is found to be too large to effectively pilot tanks, they reveal their ability to get smaller. Many of these traits don't show up much (if at all) in OVAs, but they are all present in the manga.
The manga
Dominion
The series was published in Hakusensha's “Young Animal Arashi” magazine in 1985, in two issues in tankōbon format. In Spain, the manga was published by Norma Editorial, 2 with five issues.
The story begins when a bandit named Buaku, accompanied by twin sisters named "Annapuma and Unipuma", plans to steal a top secret government project that applies plant biology to the genome of a human allowing self-oxygenation. In doing so, it is hoped to prevent the development of force evolution in the human race instead of solving the problem of contamination. Captain Britain and his armored police comic book team, made up of officers Leona Ozaki and Al, among other officers, have decided to stop Buaku from criminal acts of him.
"Dominion: the ghost of the public"
Omake (or short story) originally published as part of the special issue of ComiComi's Special Graphix Dominion in 1988. Seishinsha collected it in the Dominion F volume along with a reprint of the original manga on January 27, 1993 and in the United States it was published by Dark Horse Comics on March 1, 1994.3
It is a fictional sport called "smartball" and features Leona and members of the armored police.
Domain conflict one: no more noise
It was originally published in collected form in February 1995, by Seishinsha Publishing, 4 It is not considered in the same continuity as the original stories. As before, the story revolves around Leona Ozaki and members of the Newport Armored Police, it contains some of the same elements as the original stories, but other aspects have been downplayed, altered or removed altogether. one of these is that Annapuma and Unipuma join the armored police force.
There are many things that set the Conflict One series apart, aside from the original Dominion story, and they are the main reason themselves. Shirow asked people to downplay some elements and think of conflicts as another timeline:
- Newport no longer suffers from the smog problem that keeps the city in a haze. Many of the images in the manga show a clear sky and airplanes are said to be much more common now.
- The registration of the armored police. It is no longer a rowdy crowd operating on Lieutenant Britain's whims and reporting directly to the Chief of Police. The Newport City Police Department is shown as a complete police station. The chief is still in office, but there are now many other divisions (including traffic control, investigation, a forensic corps, data processing and internal affairs) that make the police unit much more realistic. The armored squad has also changed, becoming a much larger organization with a well-defined role in police operations.
- Bonaparte. With a larger and more structured tank, Bonaparte is no longer a one-off vehicle created by Leona. It is now the backbone of the police. The Bonaparte Marcos 9 is a modular urban combat vehicle used by all armored police platoons.
Despite having a much larger cast, many familiar faces are absent from the plot, most notably missing: Al, Chaplain, Mohawk, and the mayor. Also absent Buaku and Greenpeace.
The story is set in the year 201X. It starts with Urushi-maru, the high-rise thief and his partner, flying west from the city of Newport. They attack the Nankaiden Tower, while being chased by the Osaka Air Police. Commander Leona Ozaki gets involved when he shoots them on Urushi-maru's plane, causing the thief to drop his stink bombs on Nankaiden's rival building, the kitatenro tower, managing to blow up the building completely, and a familiar female face appears. nothing in the air to participate in Urushi-maru's plane. but he only snatches a piece of the plane and the criminal gang manages to escape.
From there, the story follows a series of plots. While searching for Urushi-maru, Leona has to face various situations such as the new generation of the armored police, public reaction against the armored police, personal rivalries with members of the traffic division and, finally, Annapuma and Unipuma. they join the police.
Technical data
Manga
Written by Masamune Shirow
Published by Hakusensha
English publisher Dark Horse Comics
Publication date from 15 October 1985 to 26 July 1986
Volumes 1
Animated film (AVO)
Regia Koichi Mashimo
Produced by Kazuhiko Inomata, Ritsuko Kakita, Tamaki Harada
Written by Koichi Mashimo
Music by Yoichiro Yoshikawa
Studio Ginga Teikoku (# 1–2), Agent 21 (# 3–4)
Publication date from May 27, 1988 to August 11, 1989
Duration 35 minutes (each)
Episodes 4
Manga
Original title. Dominion: Phantom of the Audience
Written by Masamune Shirow
Published by Seishinsha
Published the 1 July 1988
Manga
Original title: Dominion Conflict One: No More Noise
Written by Masamune shirow
Published by Seishinsha
Original publication date from 10 February 1992 to 15 June 1993
Volumes 1
Original video animation (AVO)
Original title: New Dominion Tank Police
Regia Norubu Furuse
Written by Anzu Nemuru, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Mitsuo Mutsuki
Music Yoichiro Yoshikawa
Studio JCStaff
Publication date from 21 October 1993 to 21 October 1994
Duration 25 minutes (each)
Episodes 6
Original video animation (AOV)
Original title: Tank Police Team TANK SWAT 01
Regia Romanov Higa
Product by Romanov Higa, Yutaka Kamata
Studio DOGA Productions
Publication date the March 24 2006
Duration 30 minutes
