OBSCURE O.V.A., *A.D. Police Files

Also labeled as just "A.D. Police", this 3-episode OVA was a prequel to the Bubblegum Crisis anime series. The first original anime was more of a hi-tech superhero cyberpunk saga, where as A.D. Police Files is more of a gritty futuristic crime noir. This was written by voice actor Sho Aikawa, Artmic tasked this out of the regular creators into their own series focusing on supporting character Leon during his early days as a rookie cop.

Set in the revitalized Tokyo(now called Megatokyo)in the far off year of 2027, Leon McNichol is a new recruit in the city's special A.D. Police that specialize in terrorists, and crimes involving Boomers, a type of cybernetic androids which seem to malfunction on a daily basis. This is such a common thing of having simple service robots somehow being able to hulked-out death machines capable of taking on entire SWAT teams. The A.D. Police use advanced weapons, as well as some bionic-enhanced officers to take down mad Boomers. The series starts out with Leon helping his partner Jeena prove that a recently killed officer wasn't at fault in an insurance scheme concerning his death, all while Leon is stalked by a vengeful hooker-bot from his past. Next is a case where the A.D. Police work with "normal police" detectives in trying to determine if a series of prostitutes getting slain on an abandoned subway train is actually the fault of a Boomer, or a psychotic business woman. The final episode is basically a nightmare take on Robocop where a former A.D. Police officer gets turned into a fully robotic Boomer-basher that slowly starts to loose what left of his humanity, and begins to go on a killing spree when experimental drugs drive him insane.

There have been two dubs of this OVA, one done in Britain by Manga Entertainment on VHS, and in America by Animeigo who released it on VHS, Lasersdisc, DVD, and a recently fundraised Blu-Ray. There is also a manga sequel taking place just before the Bubblegum Crisis OVA, which makes it the only official Japanese manga set in the "Bubbleverse". Another anime series was made for TV based on A.D. Police, which was a prequel to Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, as well as another spinoff series possibly set in its own continuity titled Parasite Dolls. The first A.D. Police anime however stands out as being a groundbreaking take on Blade Runner, taking the sci-fi idea to very mature extremes.