Reviews

Hyper Police is a great setting with some fun action scenarios, hindered mostly by weak writing. To get that out of the way: one-note 90's-era cliches and stereotypes drive almost everything, and the plotting is mostly episodic with gradual changes in the recurring characters, which is enough to keep it alive but not enough to make it inherently compelling. The finale baffles me just as much as ever on a rewatch of the series, almost a decade later: although it's a cool ending, and some of the best writing in the series, the big moments all read as non-sequiturs thrown in to make it try to add up to something.

And all of that is a shame, because the setting is full of little worldbuilding details that bring it alive: The bounty hunting business, the post-apocalyptic cityscape, the street scenes with dozens of different anthro people and moments of physical comedy. It just gets dragged down by all the screen time spent on reprisals of predictable character moments, simple misunderstanding plots, and low-risk reset-to-zero conclusions: things that infest anime today too, but are a little more grating for being dated.

However, when it works, it's good. Generic villain characters frame most of the episodes, and those are great foils that consistently bring out the best of the main cast. Age has mostly been kind to the visuals, too: no high budget animation, but the visual design has some classic stuff. These good elements are good enough - and distinctive enough - that I wanted to rewatch it over "better" old series, which might be enough to recommend it to a discerning viewer(given the caveats).