ANGEL COP (1989)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological, sociological*

ANGEL COP is a six-part OVA series that posits a future-world in which Japan has become the most powerful economic force on the planet. In the real world, Japan's "economic miracle" fizzled out roughly two years after the year COP came out. Obviously a lot of productions both before and after this series presented "Japan-centric" societies, so this makes an interesting contrast to a series like GUILTY CROWN, where Japan has been forced to knuckle under by other nations.

Precisely because Future-Japan sits in the catbird seat, other entities seek to kick them off that lofty perch. The most persistent foes are a Communist group, the Red May, which initiates terrorist actions to de-stabilize the economy. These threats are so great that the normal police force cannot fight such foes, and the government institutes the Special Security Force, a team of total badasses who are better able to take precipitate action.

Angel Mikawa, the "cop" of the title, is the epitome of ruthless justice, though her partner Raiden is more concerned with protecting innocents from criminal attack. As if to signal the futility of kinder and gentler special agents, Raiden is apparently killed in a firefight, leaving Angel free to pursue her extreme form of justice.

But a third force enters the game. Three bizarre mutants-- little girl Freya, dignified Asura, and FBB Lucifer-- begin attacking the agents of the Red May, killing the provocateurs when possible. When the special agents try to rein in these vigilantes, the agents too are killed or incapacitated, thanks to the fact that the mutants, called "Hunters," have fabulous psychokinetic powers. 

Angel's mission becomes even more complicated when a mysterious armored warrior enters the fray. This proves to be a Robocop version of Raiden, given cyborg-powers, so Angel gets some high-level help there. In addition, both Asura and Freya defect from their cause, providing aid to the special forces. Lucifer, an enormous blonde woman with the most powerful psychokinesis, becomes the main villain, and seems able to defeat the attacks of any other opponent.

Angel prevails, of course, but in the process she uncovers corruption in the Japanese government, which created the mutants for the same purpose the Communists have: to de-stabilize the culture-- though the motive is profit, not ideology. And the real culprit behind the corrupt officials are their foreign backers, the Americans. Though this may be standard America-bashing, at least this time it's in keeping with the hostility real-world Americans held toward Japan's "economic miracle" in the eighties. Allegedly the original backers were said to be American Jews, which suggests that the creator had bought into the "Elders of Zion" conspiracy theory. None of this, if true, survives in current translations. 

Angel and Raiden never become more than schematic sketches of their respective views of "justice" and "mercy" respective. The only approximation of a character-arc is that Angel starts out as utterly ruthless in her focus on her job. She ends up sacrificing Raiden (with his encouragement) to take out Lucifer, but she regrets having to do so. All the rest of the time, she's just a standard badass, only impressive when she dons her own set of cyborg-armor in the last couple of episodes.

One interesting tidbit is the OVA's use of a FBB villain in 1989. Women's bodybuilding had increased in the very late eighties, but FBB images didn't really become common until after Linda Hamilton played a pumped heroine in TERMINATOR 2. It would be interesting to know how prevalent such figures were in Japanese entertainment during this period.