![\"\"](\"https:\/\/batrock.net\/images\/patlaborova1.png\" "\\"It's")
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The original Patlabor <\/em>OVA raises an interesting prospect when it comes to recommendations: because I have no idea what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presently showing on Japanese TV, what I present to you is a selection picked from my own collection amassed over the years. Given the metamorphosis of the industry, a lot of the stuff that I own is out of print, so even if I say it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good it might be hard to find. Still, history is history, and my opinions are valid whenever they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re presented.<\/p>\n That said, can I recommend the original Patlabor <\/em>when it works best when taken in the context of an entire canon: seven initial OVAs, three movies, a 47 episode TV series, a sixteen episode OVA follow up to that, and three weird paper craft specials?<\/p>\n Yeah, I can, I guess. The original Patlabor <\/em>OVA series is a collection of experiments met with varying success, and it works best when taken in conjunction with everything that came after it. Had Patlabor <\/em>ended with the initial six episodes, it is doubtful that it would have had any lasting impact beyond being a playground for Oshii Mamoru before Ghost in the Shell<\/em>.<\/p>\n As it stands, 23 years after the event,\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m kind of mystified by the success of Patlabor<\/em>; but the industry was much different back then. This is a good supplement but not the best at standing by itself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 1999 the prevalence of work robots, called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153labors\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, has inevitably led to the rise of labor related crimes. To combat labor crime, the Special Vehicles unit is formed. Patlabor <\/em>follows SV Division 2 as they try to keep the streets of Tokyo safe with their Patrol Labors – Patlabor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From the start, Patlabor <\/em>was all about the people who work for SV2 rather than the robots. It turns out that this is at least in part a matter of economics: people are cheaper and easier to animate than robots, which have to be more detailed in both design and action. This is why labors don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t show up until the end of the first episode, which is about the new SV2 members waiting, bored, for their arrival.<\/p>\n Much of what happens in Patlabor <\/em>does not strictly matter: these are mere vignettes in the lives of a new section of the police squad that may or may not one day be of use. The number of action scenes across these seven episodes can be counted on the fingers of two hands, and the labor baton isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t showcased until the final episode, which Oshii had nothing to do with.<\/p>\n The core cast are fun to watch, although they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get much time to develop beyond a comedy troupe in this series. It is only in episodes five and six, when they go on holiday, that we get to see what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re like because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re allowed to observe their home lives and how they affect their work. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in these episodes that Oshii\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skill becomes apparent; he can make the best of any material, elevating a script above mere words into something nearly transcendent. Despite the 1999 setting, Patlabor <\/em>is really just 1988 plus labor robots and environmental disquiet in the background. It is best taken in this spirit, because it is a true product of its time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first three episodes on my DVDs are paired with a combined interview\/director\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commentary with Oshii Mamoru, which is interesting to say the least. Oshii has always been an eccentric character (Innocence <\/em>was inspired by the death of his cat), and what he says here establishes him as somewhat misanthropic as well. The majority of the second episode is devoted to his denunciation of Kanuka, capped off with him saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153it depresses me just to look at her\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. This casts a pall over the character, watching everything that she does with the knowledge that the director expressly hates her and has never approved. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even stranger about it is recognising that Oshii is almost exactly right, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not until episode six that Kanuka really gets anything meaningful to do.<\/p>\n Oshii\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to the third episode is telling: he and Kawai are the only people in Japan who liked it. Hated by fans and production staff alike, Oshii comes to a spirited defence of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The 450 Million Year Old Trap\u00e2\u20ac\u009d: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an homage to monster movies.<\/p>\n That Oshii was trying for something different with each episode is somewhat admirable, but that this led to an episode in which a behemoth freak of forced evolution trawls Tokyo Bay is more than a little distressing. People tend to have certain expectations of a series; if it has police robots in it, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fine: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a giant robot show. However, if the police robots are called upon three episodes in to investigate a creature of the deep, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a different genre altogether, and one that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gel with the imagined Patlabor <\/em>universe like the other genre variations do: you can have police robots in a terror plot, you can have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ghost story\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at a training camp and you can definitely <\/em>have the political uprising plot that closes out the series proper, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult to suspend disbelief sufficiently to take on the sea monster plot.<\/p>\n All of this said, however, and knowing Oshii\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s feelings on the matter, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The 450 Million Year Old Trap\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. It is true that I tuned out a little when it came time for all of the techno-babble at around the halfway point, but the episode has such a great feel and punchline that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy enough to forgive it in light of all of the other Patlabor <\/em>material that eventually became available.<\/p>\n If I, by some strange chance, were a Japanese person diligently buying these tapes upon their release in 1988, I would likely have flipped the table. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The 450 Million Year Old Trap\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is an elaborate prank, and a brilliantly executed one – many directors would kill<\/em> for that sort of atmosphere – but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame anyone for being confused by it. Of course, this episode would later go on to inspire a similar story in the third Patlabor<\/em> film, WXIII<\/em>, so it seems that everything in this world has its purpose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The centrepiece of Patlabor <\/em>is the two part finale, episodes five and six: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153SV2\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Longest Day\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. By this point, Oshii knew exactly what he was doing in making these things and the feel of these episodes is electric. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s highly flawed, because the conflict is based on vague Japanese politics you really had to be there for, and the resolution is just one stop short of insane<\/em>, but as a tactile experience it can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really be beaten. Where the other five episodes are pleasant enough diversions, sometimes showing a certain mastery of craft, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153SV2\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Longest Day\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is both an essential piece of Patlabor <\/em>lore and wonderfully pulled off. If it had been the last word on the series total I probably would have been angry – its conclusion really is abrupt and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t strictly make even the remotest semblance of sense – but in the context of everything else in this franchise it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really something special.<\/p>\n Episode seven was made to capitalise on the release of the first movie and feels more tacked on than anything else: the characters don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get much of a work out (although chief Goto is delightful as ever) and the story itself fizzles. Oshii doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to acknowledge its existence, as he thought the series was fine with its six episode run, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really just marking time with sub-par material. Episode six is the true conclusion and should be treated as such – but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hurt to acknowledge episode seven as part of the canon; not all canon has to be of consequence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you only intend to consume one piece of Patlabor<\/em>, I would advise against making it this original OVA series. For the truest flavour, you should go for the TV series, which is about generating good will for the Special Vehicles division. I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen the movies for approximately ten years, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll change that soon and get back to you. Regardless: Patlabor <\/em>is a fine property indeed, one that warms my heart. This is a flawed iteration, but worthwhile anyway.<\/p>\n Also, to compensate for that hilarious lead image, I decided to put in one of some actual robots, too:<\/small><\/p>\n The original Patlabor OVA raises an interesting prospect when it comes to recommendations: because I have no idea what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presently showing on Japanese TV, what I present to you is a selection picked from my own collection amassed over the years. Given the metamorphosis of the industry, a lot of the stuff that I own is out of print, so even if I say it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good it might be hard to find. Still, history is history, and my opinions are valid whenever they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re presented. That said, can I recommend the original Patlabor when it works best when taken in the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[48],"tags":[282,148,149],"class_list":["post-1273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anime","tag-anime","tag-oshii-mamoru","tag-patlabor"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1HLZ6-kx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1286,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions\/1286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/batrock.net\/images\/patlaborova3.png\" "\\"Yeah,")
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