Vintage Wednesday: Dominion Tank Police

 Starting off Dominion Tank police, I was intrigued by the art style and, frankly, assuming I would love it because it is 80's dystopian. By the end of act !, however, I had had such a mix of fanservice, chauvinism, and weak character development that I was considering not even finishing the other 3

acts. I decided to sit through it however, and I am very glad I did, as by the end of act 4 I already wanted to re-watch the whole thing. This is the strange nature of Dominion Tank Police, it has some fairly polarizing highs and lows, but definitely enough of the good to outweigh the bad.

   The OAV is essentially a feature length film divided into 4 thiry minute "acts." Each act is given a name and intro/outro to delineate it as the OAV was originall serialized between 4 VHS tapes, but present a contiguous story that takes up each time where it left off. The basic storyline follows the exploits of a new addition to the cities rough and toumble "glorious tank police," Leona, as seen above. Leona works to establish herself among her new comrades, though most are reluctant at first, given her gender and lack of tank experience. At the same time, she is making her own mini-tank and preparing to bring the fight to a gang of criminals who function as the series primary antagonists.

   Overall I would definitely call Dominion a worthwhile watch. The characters, while 2 dimensional at times, are fairly compelling for the most part, the humor is on point throughout, and the animation is lovely. Prepare yourself to stomach some fanservice and also for a bit of NSFW humor, but it never gets to extreme. If you are able to look past the slow points and do not mind a bit of nudity, this is definitely an offering that will give you two solid hours of entertainment. As for the sequel, I will have to find out how it is next.