Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
AshParth
This year has certainly been the year where I'm visiting some retro shows to mix in with the recent stuff, huh? We've been binging a good chunk of Galaxy Express 999 (which we're close to over eighty) and the 1989 version of Ranma 1/2 (as we're currently on the sixth season right now during my Sunday binge sessions) along with other shows as well as catching up on new episodes of the most recent. Already completed a few adaptations of Dirty Pair yet I still have to get into the movies sooner or later. I love how we're expanding our horizons not only in genre, but by when they were released, too. Of course, this anime is pretty special, given how it's a six-episode show that kinda feels like a three hour movie. Not that it's a bad thing, but something that feels pretty American when you div…
Read at the sourceTapeRot
Angel Cop is a gloriously nasty slice of late-80s OVA excess, with gore doing most of the sleazy heavy lifting.
Very enjoyable stuff. The earlier episodes in particular look fantastic, with gorgeous late-80s animation, aggressive camera movement and action that has far more visual energy than straight-to-video exploitation often has. The characters are fun and the violence is excellent. There’s a bit of nudity, but this one is far more interested in gore than sex.
The big caveat is the plot’s conspiracy, which in the original Japanese version incorporates genuinely antisemitic ideas. The old Manga Entertainment dub rewrites this into an American corporate conspiracy instead, while also supplying the full VHS-era experience of ludicrously enthusiastic profanity.
So you basically have two…
Read at the sourceNykima
Angel Cop is a science fiction anime set in a Japan that has become a major economic power but is regularly targeted by terrorist attacks carried out by far-left groups. To deal with this threat, the government relies on the Special Security Force (SSF), an elite unit that includes the protagonist, Angel. After watching this adaptation, one conclusion stands out: stopping at the manga would probably have been the better choice.
Like the original work, the story is simple, straightforward, and easy to follow. The real problem comes from the way it is told. The anime takes a very different direction from the manga. Changing an adaptation is not necessarily a bad thing when it is done well. Unfortunately, that is not the case here, and the OVA suffers from several flaws that hurt the overall…
Read at the sourceojosdevideotape
Angel Cop is an overhated anime within the wokesphere, but some of the criticisms it faces are quite valid. The problem with Angel Cop is lack of contuinity, character development, and depth of the plot. But not because the skeletal idea is poor, it's the lack of space to get comfortable what kills this anime.
It's often criticized for it's "antisemitism" but I found it to be quite an interesting plot point, that unfortunately never went deep enough. Plus, the character design most of the time is just so cool, the animation is very good too. The only problem is that characters don't have enough time to naturally go from one thing to another, everything feels sped up due to the lack of budget. 24 episodes would have done the original idea some justice. And a 2nd season where Angel blows up…
Read at the sourceiruleatgames
People will say this anime is anti-semitic and if you like it, you hate Jews.
I guess I must be a self-hating Jew, because I like it.
That aside, the art is literally movie quality, with the amount of detail in each frame. The soundtrack has very unique tracks that do not just fade into the background. Their sometimes funky tone puts you off-kilter, as it should, when the events that are happening on screen are supposed to be very disorienting for the characters. The ED is interesting, because it adds layers upon layer of sound until it reaches an absolute crescendo with other voices joining in. The sound effects are punchy and nice, something most shows take for granted, as guns always sound like popcorn makers now (that's even assuming a show has guns, and everyone isn't just using fist…
Read at the sourceEverySportsAnime
Angel Cop is a relic of late ‘80s anime, a hyper-violent OVA dripping with the era’s gritty cyberpunk aesthetic. At first glance it presents itself as a straightforward ultraviolent battle between a ruthless police force and a group of anarchic terrorists. However, as the series progresses it takes a sinister turn weaving in an antisemitic conspiracy theory that taints any potential enjoyment. The final arc reveals that Japan’s troubles are orchestrated by a shadowy group of "foreign capitalists," a thinly veiled reference to longstanding antisemitic tropes. These harmful narratives have fueled real-world oppression and seeing them resurface in an anime especially one meant to entertain feels deeply unsettling.
As a Jewish viewer it’s impossible to ignore the way Angel Cop repackages thes…
Read at the sourceAeroGunz
“Angel Cop” is what happens when the 80s hit hard and I do mean HARD!
Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.
That said, this show has little to no story at all, it’s all plot driven. The very little story there is, is wasted on the absolute atrocities pretend to be characters. A lot and I do mean A LOT of things happened not because it make…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
This is my 10th year anniversary re-review! Back in 2014, I joined MAL to communicate with other anime fans and to write short, comedic reviews as a means to vent stress. I was attending medical school at the time and during practical exams you must think fast and write fast, so writing 30-minute blitz reviews was good writing practice for me. One of the first anime that I ever reviewed for this site was Angel Cop. Since the 1990s, Angel Cop has had an infamous reputation among older anime fans. This is due to its astoundingly awful dub and for embodying the spirit of ultra-violent, schlock OVAs from the height of the video rental boom in Japan. Flash forward 10 years and I’ve ended up on a completely different career path. Fortunately, I found something that I really love doing and it jus…
Read at the sourceBensonas
First things first with this one. I was aware of this exact issue before I started and yet still I went along with it, walking straight into it with full understanding....the dub genuinely is horrendous, especially Freya. Freya's dub voice acting in particular is honestly one of the worst I have ever heard. It's not necessarily the scripts fault either. Has some decent parts of dialogue, some of them great in fact, a lot of the character acting is just really garbage. Despite this, I'm not going to hold it against the show. Long before Funimation was the dominant dubbing force it is today, we had stuff like this. So, I'm going to give it a break. Mainly because the show is genuinely pretty damn good, setting the dub aside.
Just like with all animation from the Golden Era, this is in the s…
Read at the sourceKamuiX1999
While this is made up of 6 OVA episodes, it's basically one long film. I had actually seen a couple of episodes back in the day, but never the entire thing. The second and third episodes sort of drag (especially the third), but the first episode is solid, and the final half is over-the-top late 80's anime awesomeness. Tons of ridiculous gore, crazy fights, all sorts of shit blowing up, psychic duels, robot cops, and cyberpunk fun. Animation is solid, feels sort of like Kawajiri mixed with Oshii. Sure, some of it doesn't make sense (if you've watched any anime from this time period, you'll know that comes with the territory more times than not), but at the end of the day it's a seriously good time and full of the excess that drew pretty much all of us currently in our late-20/early-30-somet…
Read at the sourceKamezuki
“Angel Cop” is a six-episode sci-fi action thriller OVA from the late ‘80s-early ‘90s. Its story has a strong anti-American and anti-Semitic slant, and the way in which it progresses is dull and confusing. Even the Japanese version is filled with redundant, cheesy dialogue, and while some of the characters stand out, it’s basically due to how they look and they are mostly one-dimensional personality-wise. This series is touted as having a lot of graphic violence, but I found that the violence pales in comparison to that of similar “ultra-violent” OVAs both in amount and quality.
The story is riddled with exposition dumps that consist of racist and xenophobic conspiracy-laden diatribes. There are also some inconsistencies in the writing, making it difficult to follow. Two of the character…
Read at the sourcestmwg01
Angel Cop has a simple yet sometimes convoluted story line that leaves much to be desired.
I found Angel Cop hard to sit through. Despite being somewhat interesting, the early episodes seemed to drag on forever. They did little to keep my attention during those episodes. While it does pick up in both story and interest later on, it seems to be convoluted in how it gets there.
Art is average given the anime's age and sound was neither good nor bad.
I though character design and development was it's best feature, although they do some of the main characters dirty in my opinion.
Overall, Angel Cop is a good anime that is thankfully short, lasting only six episodes because although it has a simple story line, it can sometimes be convoluted, leaving much to be desired.
Read at the sourceStartled-Normie
Haiku review:
It's old but still good
Needs the "Ghost Stories" treatment
Maybe a laugh track
Prose elaboration:
"Angel Cop" is a series that finds its way onto a lot of worst-anime lists, unfairly. As one of the older series for non-children, it came in an industry that was still finding its way. It's a milestone, an artifact in anime history.
It's decent but takes itself a little too seriously until the last episode, where they realized that they hadn't checked the tiddies box yet. They made up for it. The series contains some of the best and grittiest lines ever: "I'n not here to take you in, I'm here to take you out."
The ED, Crayon-sha's "Itami," is a driving classic. It's one of the best examples of perfect music for an anime scene.
That having been said, I think that "Angel Co…
Read at the sourceKryptonot_7471
Do not let the ratings fool you, this Anime is criminally underrated. A lot of it could be considered by some to be "so bad it's good" but I disagree. The same people who praise Hellsing Ultimate for being over-the-top in its plot, action and dialogue use it as a point of contention with Angel Cop. Criticisms of its Plot are biased and mostly full of shit.
Hellsing Ultimate is about Nazi Vampires & Ghouls terrorizing Britain, Angel Cop is about Psychic Je- (I mean) Americans funded by the Deep State.
Plot-wise this Anime does pretty good, It's not crazy or anything but it's servicable for a Baddass Action Flick. The Political Aspect of it is actually somewhat intriguing. Communist Red-May, Big Business's Involment and the Deep State Conspiracy with the SSF trying to solve it all, it puts…
Read at the sourceSCLFI
Angel Cop’s got a pertinent title, it’s definitely about cops, and after watching it I was very compelled to go to Heaven and meet some angels, but I would struggle to find anything positive to say about it beyond the title.
The biggest issue is that Angel Cop is an action series without good action. The opening episode has a particularly profane death, but it's the only one of its kind, ignoring the fact a 9mm isn't even going to do that much damage, from that point onward, they incidentally throw in something to try and match the original one, but none of them have any impact to speak of. This particular death early on is notable on the grounds that it happens during the action, when some bloke is trying to clear a room (and not die while doing so), he sees someone gets blasted so hard…
Read at the sourceKwrenai13
" Ah old gorey anime, the best kind of anime" - Cheng, Philip.
honestly, this is my cup of tea. C'mon guys, here we have all the elements for great entertainment: extremely well-crafted and mind-blowing action scenes, lots of blood, just right nudity and lots and lots of BLOOD!
The cyberpunk ambiance is very good, and the soundtrack is also very good.
I know the characters are pretty stereotyped, and the political plot is pretty shallow, but it doesn't really bother me, mainly when you have a perfect punch line like:
"Unless you want a .45 caliber lobotomy real fucking back, you better tell your friend over there to put the fucking knife down." - Angel
Story: 6/10
Art:10/10
Sound: 9/10
Character: 5/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 8/10
So, give a chance to this anime!
Read at the sourceSelty_Void
Angel Cop is a mixed bag of used magnum shells and overfilled blood squibs.
Taking place in an imperial Japan the show takes on the normal terrorist issues most cop shows face. Staring some fair Dub actors it goes up and down depending on the script and aside from that the overall quality of the dub is a 7/10. Owning a cel myself the quality is fair and the animation stays steady until its last episode, which mysteriously halted production for a fair while before restarting again losing its lead animation director, and the quality assurance manager on that matter.
Blood effects are top notch being unbeaten in my opinion for gun fights along with some great explosions and effects that I haven't seen done outside of this OVA. The only thing I don't like is how the anime is called out for…
Read at the sourceRauLeCreuset
To start off, the first thing I want to say about this anime is, the art style of this anime is amazing. And I so wished they would bring it back, but I guess the era of this art style of anime making is over. I loved the colorful language, because this anime was created during a time where people didn't give a fuck if they hurt someone's feelings or not. And that's how anime should be written and produced with zero fucks given. I love the eighties. And my other favorite part about this absolutely bad ass anime is the gore within it and I am a huge gore fan. And this anime certainly delievered plenty of that, I was so pleased with it, that I even had to rewind certain parts quite a few times so that I could see it over and over again ha ha. That was one of my favorite things about this ani…
Read at the sourceVoivodian
Angel Cop at a surface level is in extremely poor taste; snuff p*rn of fanatical communists, mind r*ping, not so subtle Japanese nationalism, muscle woman tiddy and an infamous rant that would bring down the full wrath of a certain anti defamation group. Beyond all the crazy rants and nihilistic shock value however, are clearly the creative minds of very politically conscious and well informed people.
Sure the conspiracy thriller is ridiculous and utterly overshadowed by any Oshii political thriller. Like Oshii however, it is all tied to very very relevant and to use a meme; 'redpilled' geo/political discourse. No better example of this is seen in the closing monologue about Japan's true status in the world and relating it to 'being another Kuwait'. Genuinely intelligent and deep, far mor…
Read at the sourceNorris_Packard
This show along with Urotsukidoji were responsible in the early 90's for the widespread belief that anime was "gore and porn," a stereotype that persisted for quite while. This OVA is the equivalent to those trashy over-the-top 80's action movie shlock that would have been produced by Cannon films.
It falls squarely into the cyberpunk genre but Ghost in the Shell, this is not.
What it lacks in originality and thematic content it mostly makes up for in gorgeously-detailed animation, kinetic action, and ridiculous amounts of gore.
To further enhance the viewing experience, the English dub produced by Manga Entertainment squarely falls into the category of so-bad-it's-good with it's assortment of cheesy lines (Ex. If this is justice, then I'm a banana), excessive use of profanity, and o…
Read at the source
