Dominion: Tank Police is a manga series written and drawn by Masamune Shirow, and later adapted into two OVA series: Dominion Tank Police, which came first, and New Dominion Tank Police. Set in the fictional city of Newport, Japan, in a future in which bacterial air pollution has become so severe that people must wear gas masks when outdoors, the series follows a police squadron that uses tanks.
The original manga was published by Hakusensha, Kodansha and later by Seishinsha. The first OVA series, Dominion Tank Police, was produced by Agent 21, being released in 1988, while the sequel, New Dominion Tank Police, was released between 1992-1993 by J.C.STAFF and Bandai Visual.
The manga has been published in English by Dark Horse Comics. The anime has been released in English translation in the United Kingdom by Manga Video and in the United States by Central Park Media, under their US Manga Corps division.
Shirow has also produced a sequel to the original series, entitled Dominion Conflict One: No More Noise.
The Japanese titles for the manga are "Dominion" and "Dominion: Conflict".
The OAV was, in many ways, a total rewrite of the manga, rather than an adaption, as there is very little in common between the two, other than the characters themselves - who did not escape having their personalities adjusted abit to suit the OAV's far lighter plot.
It should be noted that the OAV and Manga series were radically different, both in terms of plot and general feel. The most immediately obvious difference between the OAVs and the Manga is in the tanks. In the OAVs, most of the police use full-sized tanks, with only Leona's tank being small. The tanks in the manga are meant to be urban combat vehicles, and are, in essence, the Dominion equivalent of powered armor, the large size used in the OAVs is totally impractical. The tank design used for bonaparte in the OAVs is, in the original manga, the standard-issue vehicle.
As of March 24 2006, there is now an OAV in Japan named "Keisatsu Sensha-Tai Tank S.W.A.T.". It is either based on, or follows, the Conflict manga, and is far more accurate to the manga than the OAVs. As it begins in or around the Conflict arc, the 'pumas begin as members of the police department. Unlike in the manga, however, it seems that they don't need to shrink down in order to fit into the driver's section of the tanks.
edit: This is not true. The tanks in the Manga are smaller than in the OAV, but they were full-size three man tanks. Bonaparte was the only mini-tank on the force and Leona was often ridiculed for still using it.
- From
Wikipedia