Guess I’ll finally write about Angel Cop

But if this is justice, I'm a banana.

Content warning: Angel Cop contains some uniquely graphic violence, a tad of casual nudity, and a gratuitous sexual assault, but what really makes it unique— and the reason I’m writing this piece— is its leap into anti-Semitism in the original Japanese script. Suffice to say this is not a work for anyone who might need a content warning in the first place.

“I’ve heard some bullshit in my time, mister, but yours is the best.”

With the anime turning up on streaming recently with a glorious film remaster and the original Japanese dialogue intact, and a weird bad-faith conversation springing up about whether or not the work is anti-Semitic, I thought I would lay down the fact of the matter— yes, it is, it’s not subtext, implication, or ironic, it’s the direct text— and take the opportunity to talk about one of the bad anime that’s stuck with me the most over the years. Angel Cop has layers.

(Yes, this is a subscriber-only bonus post. I decided it was the best way to talk about an objectionable work without attracting the unfortunately growing number of people who believe that Angel Cop is right about the Jews.)