Sushi Police

Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki all comprise the elite ninth unit of the Sushi Police—a task force with the sole objective of sniffing out restaurants serving illicit or non-traditional sushi and eradicating them, no matter how insignificant their offense may be. The Sushi Police travel freely around the world in pursuit of these vile criminals day or night, with their strong sense of justice and the World Food-Culture Conservation Organization backing them. No offenders of Japan's traditional cuisine can escape their wrath!

During one of their purification missions, the Sushi Police encounter Sara—a hot, young, television reporter out to expose them and the World Food-Culture Conservation Organization for corruption. They interrogate her, but her wiles, skills, and charms allow her to easily escape from their grasp, setting off a chain of events that will lead to the true purpose of the Sushi Police being revealed.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Honda Main

Yamashita, Akira Japanese

Suzuki Main

Kawasaki Main

Okamoto, Hiromitsu Japanese

Carlos Supporting

Sara Supporting

Kikuchi, Yumi Japanese

Fuji, Madame Supporting

Momen, Tatsushi Director

Perfume Theme Song Performance

Nakata, Yasutaka Theme Song Composition

Okamoto Background Art

Reviews

Mar 10, 2016

RogerSmith2004

Recommended

Preliminary (9/13 eps)

I feel the need to write this review since I believe many people are greatly misinformed when it comes to this series and don't understand what the purpose of the show is.

Sushi Police is a social commentary/satire of Japanese nationalism, based off true events. In 2006, Japan's Minister of Agriculture had ate at a Japanese restaurant in Colorado, and had noticed that sushi was served alongside Korean BBQ beef. He was outraged at this, claiming that the restaurant was inauthentic and didn't do Japanese culture justice. To prevent the growth of these type of establishments, he proposed an idea to the Japanese government: create an ... undercover police force to go to Japanese restaurants in foreign countries, and judge the cuisine. If it was authentic, it would receive promotion on the windows of the restaurant, as well as sponsorship on a Japanese government website. Media news laughed at this, and coined the term "Sushi Police" to mock the proposal.

This new series of shorts, Sushi Police, not only uses these events to parody the "Sushi Police incident" (which although almost 10 years old, the news story is still relevant today as Japan has a voluntary "Sushi Police" of sorts), but also as an outlet to poke fun of the ridiculousness of Japanese nationalism that tends to plague the nation. One of the main characters, Honda, is a physical representation of a typical Japanese traditionalist, and the fact that all three of the main cast are named after Japanese auto companies further cements the idea that they are satirizing nationalists.

Furthermore, Sushi Police manages to look at how other nations react to the combination of foods from different countries. While the Sushi Police looks at this culture fusion of cuisines with disdain, the Pasta Police (from Italy) takes a far different view. This episode in particular showcases the different priorities regarding how some Japanese people look at this blending of cultures as a tainting of their own, but how other cultures don't quite feel the same way. Each episode manages to add another argument as to why great amounts of Japanese nationalism is absurd and if anything, making the country look bad.

I hope this review was able to add more context on the series. For more information on this, I'd recommend checking out a video I have posted on YouTube titled "In Defense Of: Sushi Police (Analysis)" as well as Pause and Select's podcast "Weekly Watch Episode 8: Understanding Sushi Police". Until then, I hope you all learned something new from this!

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 16, 2022

lupin-x2

Mixed Feelings

Sushi police is a gag show parodying a comment once made by a Japanese politician that there should be a government agency that evaluates sushi places overseas as authentic or not. More broadly the show also makes fun of Japanese nationalism.
The animation is mostly 3d with some 2d bits; even though the character design isn't very pleasing to look at and some of the textures are pretty off; despite those problem which is common to 3d television animation, there's a lot of genuinely good sight gags where the animators take advantage of the medium, and the movement is dynamic enough that most of the ... time it didn't bother me.
The comedy of the show is also pretty decent, every episode has a least a couple of good gags based on the main characters or some wacky slapstick. the nationalist parody element is somewhat undercut by the stereotypical portrayal of other countries; which while usually good natured, in at least one episode (3) is so poorly researched that it borders on the offensive.

The fact that the episodes are only 4 minutes each honestly does a lot for this show, I watched them after and in between my regular anime watching before binging the last few; I'm pretty sure the concept wouldn't work if the episodes were 20 or even 10 minutes long.

The credits at the end have fun sushi facts, which I found genuinely interesting, seeing as how you probably stumbled onto this show by googling "anime about sushi", they're probably one of the coolest things about the show. If you can stand the 3d animation, most episodes are worth their runtime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 3, 2016

literaturenerd

Not Recommended

A show or movie based on a very simple premise or pitch is called a "high concept piece". This is a 13 episode anime entirely based on mocking a stupid quote by a nationalist Japanese politician. Sushi Police takes thin premise to a whole new level.

On the surface, this could be a clever, little satire that mocks the growing wave of Japanese nationalism and calls for rationality through comedy. However, this would have worked better as a 5 minute SNL sketch. At 13 episodes that are 3 minutes, this is 40 minutes of the same fucking joke done OVER and OVER until they pretty much ... forget the satire and make a Godzilla spoof because even the show writers realized they were trying to stretch too little material over too long a running time.

A defender of Sushi Police could point out that One Punch Man is beloved despite basically being the same joke over and over. However, One Punch Man actually had a massive art budget and fight scenes that aesthetically looked cool. It wasn't just, "I'm early, better think of a Superman...Superman! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBLspvxgTdQ

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of Winter 2016 titles with an accompanying promotional video (PV), TV ad (CM), or trailer. This post will be up...read more

Dec 17, 2015 5:21 PM by Snow | Discuss (102 comments)

Original 3D Anime 'Sushi Police' Airs from January 2016

The official website of the upcoming original 3D anime project Sushi Police announced that it will air on Tokyo MX from January 7, 2016. It is scheduled for a 5-minu...read more

Nov 24, 2015 2:05 AM by arsonal | Discuss (50 comments)

	Poll: Sushi Police Episode 13 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 30, 2016	18 replies	by Jonas-K »» Mar 27, 9:45 PM
	Poll: Sushi Police Episode 11 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 16, 2016	14 replies	by Jonas-K »» Mar 27, 9:29 PM
	Poll: Sushi Police Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - Feb 3, 2016	18 replies	by Jonas-K »» Mar 27, 9:07 PM
	Poll: Sushi Police Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jan 6, 2016	79 replies	by Jonas-K »» Mar 27, 8:50 PM
	Poll: Sushi Police Episode 2 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 13, 2016	28 replies	by JoeyVK »» Jan 10, 2023 3:36 PM