Judoh, one of the seven great cities left on earth. To help prevent crime, there is the "Special Services" group in the Police Force with three members.  Together they have to figure out how to stop crime before it happens.  Working with a small budget and just a little luck on their side maybe they can do something of lasting impact for this odd town of the future.

Highlights

Heat Guy J, is about a young detective Daisuke Aurora and J, the only Android allowed in Judoh. The power and water are controlled by the mysterious Celestials. The two odd matched agents are completed by the stable and watchful auditor Kyoko Milchan. 

The essence of the series is built around what appears to be a random series of events, and spends most of its time battling the Under Ground or Mafia. There is one antagonist that does play a major role, who would be Claire Leonelli, the "Vampire". But, as with most Animes, there is a twist. Of course, like so many other anime that tend to string together a number of unrelated arcs it always tends to come together in the last few episodes.

Throughout these 26 episodes there are many strong stories that stand on their own, but the use of the central cast give a continuity to the entire show that makes this a worthy offering. Daisuke is often a little too lucky or intuitive for most of the arcs, but he does have a natural easy going personality that makes him very likable. J on the other hand is all too static and the dime store Confucius gets old very quickly. The tag line " A Real Man" that he uses, does provide some comic relief as the episodes progress, but his Android persona is all too stiff and sometimes gets in the way of the plot line development.

There are a lot of different stories that seem to have no connection and are all brought together in the end. There is an overused plot device that did disappoint me in the end, but it was clear that the ultimate antagonist was all too close to Daisuke. It does have a solid ending that helps to complete the overall persona of Daisuke.

Overall

I found this 2003 series to have almost too much of an ethical bearing. Between Daisuke and J there is consistent droning regarding what is right. The odd thing is that Daisuke has a very Buddhist approach to his enemy and takes it to a point of bringing them into the fold. These almost too typical devices of making your enemy become your strongest allies ends up providing for the dichotomy that is at the core of the plot and creates the backbone of the entire series.

I did enjoy the majority of this series, though I spent too much time trying to understand why a majority of the episodes were included because of their seemingly unrelated involvement in the series. As I said before, a lot of this was covered in the end , but having to struggle through these episodes was tough at times. 

The art work was above average and watching this on a player that up-converts standard DVD helped a good deal. I found that although there was an odd Blade Runner rainy day quality to the series, the times when the sun was out the colors really popped and added a lighter quality to the mood.  The sound track was solid. The hard rock motif was somewhat similar to a Kid Rock sound and was well suited to the series.

For those fans of SciFi this is a series you should check out. If you like the general feel and ethical undertones of Blade Runner you will enjoy this series because of the overall questions posed regarding Androids. For everyone else who just enjoys action and adventure with a good cop story mixed in, you will want to check this out.

ComicsOnline gives Heat Guy J: The Complete Series 4 out of 5 Real Men.