Manga: Dominion

 

Content Warning: Violence, police brutality, nudity, and stupidity

Ah, the good old days, when the police ended up with tanks. Wait a minute… Ahem. Dominion, which was called Dominion Tank Police when it got an anime, is one of Masamune Shiro’s abandoned projects. Like most of his stuff, it’s set in the far future where things have been messed up. Unlike many of the other stuff he’s done, this one is dying because the air is full of a biological mess, made up of pollution, bacteria, and who knows what all else. As such everyone is required to wear a mask when they’re outside… And that just hit REALLY close to home.

Anyway, the manga begins without introduction, with Leona and Al in the mini tank, chasing down Buaku. Buaku is dressed like a classic thief, which a literal giant bag of gold on his back. Leona makes the mini tank climb up the walls after him and then fires a shell at him. Like, holy shit! Of course, it doesn’t quite work like they wanted, as the Buaku they were following was a robotic double and the gold coins are fake.

After this, Leona and the others return to the squad house and we slowly get introduced to the various characters; Brenten, Specs, Chaplin, the Chief, and so on. It’s like a scene out of a cop show the era, except with tanks. I rather enjoy how Shiro weaves in some backstory and character in this way. Of course, it would be nice to get an info dump, too.

This scene comes to an end when there’s a raid on one of the Buaku gang’s hideouts. There, we find the missing “person” Crolis Greenpeace, who’s green and has wings. Turns out that she’s an artificial being designed to purify the air, but why is she given humanoid form?

After this, there’s a few little stories, with Leona and Bonaparte (the mini-tank) “resolving” a hostage situation, trying to catch Unipuma and Annapuma… Oh, I should explain those two. Unipuma and Annapuma are twin robotic sexbots turned criminals that work with Buaka. They enjoy guns, fast cars, destruction, and causing mayhem. They also like good clothes and jewelry. They’re some of the more iconic characters from this series, usually plastered all over the packaging of whatever media it’s in. They’ve also appeared in Shiro’s other works, like a brief cameo in the original Ghost In The Shell manga (which is on my list, look for it). There’s also a story with Buaka using a group of “concerned citizens” to buy a spider tank looking thing so he can use it as a Trojan Horse to attack the Tank Police.

When Buaka returns, he’s stolen a “sand submarine” and uses it to attack Newport City (which is near Osaka, build on landfill in the bay, and where the manga is set). Using missiles, they hit highways, telephone exchanges, and then targets in the slums and rich parts of town, before launching Unipuma and Annapuma in anti-tank helicopters to take hostages. Leona and Al, in Bonaparte, end up chasing down Unipuma and Annapuma as they kidnap a bunch of babies from the hospital as the hostages. Yeah, that’s pretty evil. Somehow, the two officers get aboard the sand ship thing and start chasing hell. But, they’re put out of commission and Buaka and his gang get away. To a space station. They’re leaving Earth behind because it’s so messed up. It’s also revealed that Buaka and the twin (Unipuma and Annapuma) are robots.

The final chapter of the volume opens with Leona waking up at home. I have to say, I love how tolerant her mom is of Leona’s life. When she arrives at work, she gets an assignment to work crowd control at a “smart ball” stadium. She ends up confronting a politician about the sport and is later suspended. Of course, she quits and takes Bonaparte with her (because that’s totally something they would let you do, drive off with your tank). Well, the protesters come back and end up lighting the stadium on fire, trapping the politician and one of his cronies inside. Using Bonaparte, Leona rescues him and she gets reinstated. I have to say, this one feels really preachy to me and doesn’t quite work compared to the other stories.

And that’s where this ends. This was all that was written originally for the Dominion setting. It’s fun, as it tries to be a parody of the action movies and cop movies of the era, tactfully ignoring the implications of militarizing the police to the point of giving them tanks.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Suggestion: It’s an absurd comedy about cops with tanks, just sit back and enjoy the plentiful jokes.