AKA: Mad Bull

Genre: Police action

Length: OAV, 4 episodes, 45 minutes each

Distributor: Currently licensed by Discotek Media.

Content Rating: NC-17 (graphic violence, sexual situations, nudity, profanity, extremely racist themes)

Related Series: N/A

Also Recommended: Well, Fake is set in the NYPD 27th Precinct ... sorta ...

Notes: Based on a manga by Koike Kazuo. Editor's Note: While this show claims to have the approval of the 34th Precinct of the NYPD, it more likely got rubber-stamped by some desk lieutenant who obviously never saw this thing post-production, because I can't imagine any police department touching this with a ten foot pole, much less advocating it.

Rating:

Mad Bull 34

Synopsis

A police recruit from Japan transfers to New York City, and is promptly teamed up with a cop known as "Mad Bull". He realizes, after a couple of cases are solved, the reason they call him that: the violent way he deals with perpetrators.

Review

Geez...let's start with the pointless, excessive, and completely unrealistic violence. I've never seen or heard of a beat cop who carries an arsenal of weapons around with him on normal patrols. Hand grenades? Bazookas? For pickpockets and convenience store thieves?!?

Another problem is that the people Mad Bull shoots/beheads/blows up/generally obliterates happen to be boneless. In the very first scene, as two men are violently raping a poor young lady, he proceeds to blow off the head of one man with nothing short of a missile launcher at point-blank range, and shoots the other guy in the stomach more than enough times to get the point across. In neither of the two killings do you see bones. You only see blood. No guts, no tendons, no brains...just lots of red paint. And how again do you behead someone with four shots out of a .45?

The physics and situations in this story make just as little sense as the violence. The centrifugal force of a subway going in a straight line should not be enough to keep two men trying to strangle each other in a perfect state of balance (while next to open subway doors). When a car leaks oil, it does NOT skid and blow up when going at normal speed. (Made more ludicrous by the fact that it doesn't happen until the driver realizes he's losing oil. Remember your Looney Tunes - when walking off a cliff, don't look down, and you'll be fine...)

Not to mention the characters are also totally ridiculous. A man shoplifting from a convenience store has little need for a Jason-esque hockey mask, much less the *three* guns he's packing. (Unless he's -really- insecure...) And normal cops would be shipped off to prison after blowing the head off of some poor hooligan in broad daylight in front of numerous witnesses. But nooo...this cop gets free rein over New York City to do whatever he wants. (Including crossdressing so he can "infiltrate" a group of criminals and proceed to execute them all. Why did he crossdress in the first place? With those muscles and that mustache, who does he think he's fooling? The dead, apparently...) Not to mention the fact that Mad Bull must have sex every ten or so minutes to replenish his strength for another "case".

The animation quality is horrible, and it does not improve over the five tapes that follow. The plot is nonexistent...like watching Cops on drugs. At some point, you can't help but start singing, "Bad boys, bad boys...whatcha gonna do?" As soon as the ending theme song comes up, you'll feel like you just sat through Terminator, minus plot and intelligence. (Unless you read the box and were unconvinced by the promise of actual entertainment value.) My advice: stay away from it.

This is yet another insult to the anime medium. Only fans of M.D. Geist need watch. — Eric Gaede

Recommended Audience: Nope. I think you can go to jail for showing this to kids. Let's see...excessive violence, excessive sex, and even a scene where Mad Bull wants Daizaburo to have sex with about 15 or so prostitutes just to lose his virginity. Barney this is not.