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Shelf Life - Angel Cop

Why does Facebook have an ANN page?

There are also a couple of interesting on-disc extras, including an interview with the dub director and an essay that puts the script's anti-Semitic elements into a big-picture cultural context. Both are worth checking out if you happen to pick this new release up.

I don't suppose we could get an Answerman on this or Mike Toole on Jews and anime in general?

The dub is an old Manga Video UK production, which has become somewhat infamous for its comically excessive use of profanity and cheesy one-liners.

Even going back to Justin Sevakis' Buried Garbage article on Angel Cop, Noboru/Shou Aikawa's involvement has always been brought up as something notable, but Aikawa was apparently only a small factor in it all. Discotek's packaging says that he helped write the first three episodes, but Wikipedia Japan's page for the OVA says that Aikawa only co-wrote the first episode, with the remaining five all being solely written by director Ichiro Itano. Does this mean that Itano is primarily responsible for the anti-Semitism found in Angel Cop, or did Aikawa implement it from the start, only for Itano to carry it over into the rest of the story?

Also interesting is that the entire second half only came out after a four-year hiatus (1990 to 1994), and during that break Itano only worked on a single anime production. Said production was Star Dust, a single-episode OVA from 1992 that was seemingly made by the students over at Yoyogi Animation Academy, which Itano was a teacher at during that time. Itano directed Star Dust, and is easily the least violent anime he has ever directed. In fact, it's actively pacifist & is all about helping out your fellow man, even if he's your enemy! Then, two years later, Itano would finish up Angel Cop, which seems like an utter about-face from what Itano had lead with Star Dust.

Quote:

There are also a couple of interesting on-disc extras, including an interview with the dub director and an essay that puts the script's anti-Semitic elements into a big-picture cultural context. Both are worth checking out if you happen to pick this new release up.

Almost worth the price of admission on its own. I don't suppose we could get an Answerman on this or Mike Toole on Jews and anime in general?

Almost worth the price of admission on its own. I don't suppose we could get an Answerman on this or Mike Toole on Jews and anime in general?

Almost worth the price of admission on its own. I don't suppose we could get an Answerman on this or Mike Toole on Jews and anime in general?

Honestly, I'd rather not, because that would just open up a giant can of worms that I'm sure ANN would rather not want to deal with.

Angel Cop was born during the Japanese boom of the 1980s and ended in the middle of the Japanese recession of the 1990s. You might not have been alive back then but I was... There was some amount of Japan-bashing, a lot of paranoia that Japan might become THE dominant power in the world, and even a few American films that featured culture clashes like the comedy "Gung Ho." And, of course, a lot of us remember Pat Morita's Mr. Miyagi fondly from Karate Kid which was a big movie series in the 1980s as well. Karate Kid was fairly positive but they definitely highlighted tensions that still exist in the US between ethnic groups. MIyagi himself was a war veteran and member of one of the all-Japanese American regiments deployed to Europe during World War II. He was still a bit bitter about the experience but also realistic about being lucky to have survived!