Patlabor: The Movie

Original Title: 機動警察パトレイバー 劇場版
Romanized: Kidou Keisatsu Patoreibaa Gekijouban
Literal: Mobile Police Patlabor: The Movie

Plot Synopsis

In the year 1999, advanced robots called labors are prevalent throughout society- in the military, in construction, in the police. But when a genius programmer leaps to his death from the top of the Ark (a giant construction project in the middle of Tokyo Bay) and a military tank goes out of control during a wind tunnel test, it is only the opening of a huge can of worms as labors all over the city begin to go berserk. Patlabor cop Azuma Shinohara investigates, but when he locates the source of the problem, he uncovers a plot which, if he and the second section of the Special Vehicles Division fail to prevent, will cause all hell to break loose, all over the world.

Quick Review

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Reviewer: Arcane
Review Date: 2000-09-11

Patlabor: Mobile Police is the first Patlabor movie and in my opinion ranks among the best 'thinking man's anime' around. It is not a mecha action movie, but the incredibly complicated plot is amazingly good. As the police try to understand the motives of whoever planned this and work out what's going on you find yourself thinking hard yourself. This mystery is brilliant, and as the police, headed by the amazing Captain Goto, investigate, we watch one of the junior members (that's Azuma) trying to prove himself. Despite the film's age, it's attractive, and the down-to-earth mecha designs are second-to-none. The action is low-key, but incredibly tense and very cool.

Overall Patlabor: Mobile Police is a film which truly deserves the ranking of "brilliant." If you can use your brain, you are sure to enjoy it.

US DVD Review

Bandai's DVD, released under their new Honneamise label, features a remastered anamorphic widescreen video transfer, a new Dolby 5.1 mix of the soundtrack in both Japanese and English, a new English subtitle translation; extras include the Japanese trailer and TV commercials, plus a 16 page booklet. There is also a limited Collectors Edition set that includes a second DVD with "making of" materials, a 300-page storyboard book, and a 184-page "archives" book.

Content Guide

Some parental discretion a good idea, but not much objectionable content.

Violence: 1 - The robots do a bit of the smashing, crashing stuff, but not much.

Nudity: 0 - Not in this anime, boy.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Nothing

Language: 1 - Occasional swearing, but again not much.

Notes and Trivia

Bandai's Official Site for the first two films has lots of information, and the "buy" links leading to Image Entertainment's site will get you trailers, too.

The Patlabor series started out with an OAV series, as well as a comic by Masami Yuuki that continued for several years. Neither was quite based on the other; they both went their own way, with the animated version focused more on characters and the manga more on action. The OAV was followed by a TV series remake, a second OAV series, and then three movies.

As of 2006 both OAV series and the TV seres are available from US Manga Corps, the first two movies are available under Bandai's new Honneamise label, and WXIII is available from Geneon. VIZ translated the first two volumes of the comic, but stopped at that point and nobody has picked up the remainder of the series.

Availability

Available in the US from Bandai under the Honneamise label on bilingual DVD, both as a single-disc "feature only" version and a very expensive limited-edition 2-disc set with a second disc of extras and a large amount of printed supplemental material. Was previously available from Manga Video on bilingual DVD, and subtitled or dubbed VHS.

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