Keisatsu Sensha Tai TANK S.W.A.T. - 01

AKA. Dominion Tank Police S.W.A.T.
S.W.A.T. is another sequel to the Dominion Tank Police series by the man who gave us Ghost In The Shell and Appleseed. Just take out everything good about DTP, throw in some crappy looking CG and you get something like this. Be warned, you are expected to know all the characters beforehand as there isn't an inch of character development or recap within the 30 minutes. After lots of explosions and poor direction later, methinks Leona Ozaki should stick to being 2D!



First thing is first, how did they manage to ruin this?

- Removal of any humour that was present in the previous series
- Captain Britain and Leona's love interest are nowhere to be seen!
- Uber serious Comissioner complete with sinister voice and no personality is thrown in for 'realism'
- The use of Playstation 1 style CG for backgrounds and cel-shaded models for the characters. It was done well in Appleseed, but obviously this didn't get such a high budget. If it's going to look like crap, don't use it at all!
- Poor direction. I think that even The Blair Witch Project did a better job of swinging around a camera!



Now with all that out of the way, I can get on with the review itself!
Leona Ozaki with the Puma sisters on her side, are in the middle of a holdout. It seems that more androids are terroising the city and the tank police are out to stop them. After endless explosions and shaky direction later - they won. But being typical anime, it isn't all over just yet. The n00b of the tank police named Asada, manages to get herself a Battle Royale styled, timed-bomb-collar chained to her neck. The uptight Comissioner isn't happy and orders Leona and gang to take out the enemy who is yet another android.
I found this very confusing as it's not very well explained. The android appears out of nowhere, disrupts the elevator system and swings around memory cards (the only way to disrupt the bomb on n00b's neck) to taunt the tank police into making a wrong decision. You see, n00b is carrying around a big bag (that is not explained also) that the andriod wants for some reason and it's probably not just to hold his golf clubs in either!



Anipuma and Unipuma discuss about how Leona needs to buy them a big lunch and even n00b wants some! Leona tells n00b to go to the roof of the building as she hasn't failed to save anyone..well not yet. Android then again tosses some more memory cards into a cup annoyingly and laughs at their futile attempts to outdo him. Comissioner gets angry and tells Leona that n00b isn't worth saving as she's only a n00b. Leona of course disobeys his orders and demands that her beloved tank, The Bonaparte, to be taken up to the roof.
Comissioner gets angry again and takes a gun with some men also to the roof. Android laughs again and throws off the actual memory card that can unlock the bomb collar - but Anipuma saves it! Lots more explosions and crappy 'psycho' dialogue later, Leona reaches the roof, figures out the androids plan and saves the day, and all for one crummy bag too. It's only just the beginning of crap CG and 'serious' Tank Police!



What can I say? I was looking forward to some Dominion Tank Police action but this is something different entirely - they managed to ruin everything what made it good, with the combination of poor direction, graphics and characters! The plot of holding a hostage and bomb was quite clever but it didn't manage to do either that well. I suggest anyone who is curious to see what this is like to watch Dominion Tank Police and New Dominion Tank Police to get a background on the whole concept. Even I was lost within the explosions and the annoying memory card tossing! Stay away otherwise!

Overall: 4.5/10

Leona is a shadow of her former self!