Reviews & Ratings for
"Hyper Police" More at IMDbPro »

5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Awesome, but relatively unknown anime., 29 June 2005
Author: jt2ga65 from United States

This anime is one of the least known works from MEE. Actually, MEE is the original creator, author of the manga version that the anime was taken from. The anime character design was done by Keiji Gotoh (Gatekeepers, Kiddy Grade, Samurai Girl. It is unfortunate that Image did not do a better job marketing this title, but I believe this series was aired in the early morning time slot in Japan, so it did not receive a huge following when released.

The story is a bit unusual in the realm of stories that contain cat-girls, and other mythological creatures. This is one of the very few that contain a cat-girl as a major character that is actually a neko-human hybrid. Usually we see aliens that look like cat-girls, cats that have some humanoid characteristics, robotic creatures, or humans surgically altered to look like cats. Natsuki is the daughter of a human father, and a nekomata mother. (Nekomata is a mythical cat-monster from Japanese lore.) The story takes place in the year 22nd year of the Holy Century. This is some point in the future, after human-kind made some foolish mistake with disastrous results. There are now three realms that intersect, the human realm, the spirit realm, and the monster realm. It is speculated that about 300 or 400 years of history have been lost between the mistake and present time. At this time, humans are such a minority that they are a protected species, and while humans and other creatures live and work together, there is definitely some mistrust.

The main character is Natsuki Sasahara, the neko-human hybrid. She is not quite an adult (age of majority in Japan is 21), but works as a bounty hunter for the private police agency, "Police Company." She was recruited by the main male character and love interest, but only occasionally partners with him. Natsuki, being a cat-girl, has many cat-like traits besides the only physical traits of a tail and ears. She is easily distracted, likes to groom herself when she gets yelled at, has selective hearing, likes afternoon naps, etc. She also is a deadly hunter, with incredibly quick reflexes with her preferred weapon, a sword/dagger. She also has the ability, with the help of two symbiotic parasites, to store and use electrical energy to shock her targets. This is a very unusual ability, and it is unheard of to be able to use more than one parasite to do such.

The second main character is Sakura Bokuseiinmonzeninari. She is a Kyubi fox, or nine-tail fox, of Japanese legend. Sakura has a small problem, in that try as hard as she has over her 180 year life (she looks 18), she has not been able to fully grow out her 9th tail. This limits some of her magical abilities. She targets Natsuki, wishing to eat her, and gain the magical power that she contains, in order to complete her 9th tail. Ironically enough, even though Sakura becomes Natsuki's partner in order to accomplish her goal, she ends up forming an uneasy friendship with her prey.

Overall, the story is about the daily life of our main characters. Some days everything is going good, and they are happy, other days, nothing could possibly make them worse. It's about how the characters deal with their lives and each other.

The Japanese seiyuu talent includes a reunion of Yûko Miyamura and Kotono Mitsuishi (last together in Evangelion), as well as Ryûzô Ishino and Akio Ôtsuka, both of Gundam fame and introducing Yumi Hikita. Chiyako Shibahara portrays Sakura's sultry Osakan growling superbly.

The English cast is less exceptional, but the translation is very well done, and the subtitles are well timed on the Image release.

The quality of the animation is top-notch. The use of certain colors to set the mood, as well as the overall detail to convey the state of the world, was well thought out, and expertly executed.

Music is under the direction of Kenji Kawai, famous for works including Vampire Princess Miyu, Ghost in the Shell, You're Under Arrest, Ranma 1/2 and too many more. As always, the music is used to properly convey the mood and tempo of the story.

Overall, this is one of my favorite anime series, and one that I highly recommend to anime fans that have not seen it.

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
My Hyper Police review, 2 February 2011

Author: nikolaicorley from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Setting: Takes place in Shinjuku (ward of Tokyo), in the 22nd Holy Century sometime in the future. There are three realms; the human, monster, and spirit, which have all merged together. Many of the monsters are from Japanese folklore. Due to "human folly," humans are on the verge of extinction and are a protected species. In the city there are a few bounty hunting firms, which combat offenders who endanger humans. The story mainly focuses on the characters themselves.

Plot: Mainly follows the actions of the protagonist Natsuki Sasahara, a bounty hunter. Natsuki is a half-human half-nekomata (Japanese cat monster) hybrid. She has characteristics of a cat, besides the ears and tails, such as; purring when caught for doing something wrong, a strong liking of catnip milk which has an alcoholic affect on her, etc. Since she's a lousy shot she uses her Orihalcon dagger, and two hamster like "parasites," which have an electrical charge which can be used.

Since the show was created in 1997, the manga series wasn't finished until 2004, so the story seen in the anime, ends around volume 5.

At first she is partnered with the experienced Batanen Fujioka, who happens to be a werewolf, and he has a crush for Natsuki, and for the most part she is oblivious to. Shortly she is later paired up with Sakura Bokuseiinmonzeninari, a nine tailed fox. In actuality she has only 8 1/2 tails, and when she sees the power Natsuki has she is determined to attain it what ever it takes, which is a motif in the series. The first time this happens, is when Natsuki is unconscious Sakura tries to eat her, but wakes up Natsuki causing Sakura to get electrocuted. Because of Batanen's crush he tries to in a way woo her (He's 35 and she's just 17, just saying), which most of the time end unsuccessfully. Natsuki responds back with the same feelings only at the end of the series. Most episodes have their own conflict, not necessarily connected to the rest of the story, until the last few episodes.

My opinion: An awesome anime in many aspects. Animation: Excellent for its time ('97). Studio Pierrot did a great job animating. What's great is the amount of details in the backgrounds, and the character's facial expressions of emotion.

Story: I like how they used the futuristic idea of bounty hunters yet at the same time using old folk creatures too. The comedic element is pretty good,you're bound for laughs, the characters are very likable. At the same time there's the serious theme of racism between some humans and monsters. After Natsuki's "final battle," at the end of the series, I feel that there should've been another season, or a new better redone version. This would probably help fill in some plot holes, and if possible, continue the story from where it left off, with new conflicts, characters, and the romance between Batanen and Natsuki.

Music and sound: I love the opening and ending themes, pretty catchy. Along with the story motifs, there's a recurring piece of music in the background at certain times through out the story, at different tempos. Since I couldn't find the subbed version on the internet I had to settle with the Dubbed. The dubbing was decent and able to convey the character's emotions pretty well.

Additional Comments: I came across this anime about five years ago, I couldn't find the series on the internet back then, so I gave up. Fast forward five years, to last summer, and I have a "pleasant surprise" on the internet, when I'm was told about this anime by a friend, I had forgotten about the series in that time period. I watched it when I was at home and had nothing better to do. I read the manga only afterwards, and so the manga is better. I would recommend watching the anime first though, so as to in a way have a continuation of the story, in the manga. This show really got me into anime and manga.

This was based off of the manga by Minoru Tachikawa (MEE), I haven't been able to find any information on him unfortunately, but his other manga was Kotetsu no Daiboken (Kotetsu's great adventure). My theory is main reason this show didn't get the popularity it deserved, (from research)is because it was on the channel TV Tokyo in the late night/early morning slot, when most people weren't watching TV. The reason I rated it a ten was in the hopes that the series might have a better chance at getting noticed on the internet.

Finally, if anyone who actually reads this can help me with these final requests, then please do so: 1. In the dubbed version, Natsuki sounds a little bit different in the first episode, than in the rest of the series. I can't find the English voice actress(es) for her anywhere. If you know the answer to this, reply as soon as possible. 2. If you can find a subbed version of the series on the internet share the link with me.

Thank you for taking your time to read this!

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
I love this series, 17 February 2004

Author: DirectorLawrence from Illinois

This series is great. I love animes about bounty hunters. Its the first anime series that I bought all of the DVDs. Its pretty action packed. Near the end the series almost gets away from the Bounty Hunter aspect; not a lot though. If love series like Cowboy Bebop or Gunsmith Cats which deal with bounty hunters check it out.

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