Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor the Movie

The Babylon Project is a massive renovation of Tokyo's neighborhoods, including the creation of artificial islands in the Bay. Utilizing "Labors," or robots created for the express purpose of doing work, architects and construction crews are able to more efficiently progress development of the overhaul. When a key figure in the Project's conception is found dead after committing suicide under mysterious circumstances, Captain Kiichi Gotou's Patlabor police unit is tasked with getting to the bottom of the bizarre situation.

As several Labors begin to go haywire and a hacked AI program endangers the people of Tokyo, young pilot Noa Izumi and her Patlabor Alphonse work under Gotou's orders to save the city and the entire nation from a massive biblical conspiracy.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Gotou, Kiichi Main

Oobayashi, Ryuusuke Japanese

Izumi, Noa Main

Tominaga, Miina Japanese

Shinohara, Asuma Main

Furukawa, Toshio Japanese

Sakaki, Seitarou Main

Saka, Osamu Japanese

Shinshi, Mikiyasu Main

Futamata, Issei Japanese

Clancy, Kanuka Supporting

Inoue, You Japanese

Nagumo, Shinobu Supporting

Sakakibara, Yoshiko Japanese

Oota, Isao Supporting

Ikemizu, Michihiro Japanese

Yamazaki, Hiromi Supporting

Gouri, Daisuke Japanese

Shiba, Shigeo Supporting

Chiba, Shigeru Japanese

Ishikawa, Mitsuhisa Producer

Maki, Taro Producer

Oshii, Mamoru Director, Storyboard

Sawai, Kouji Episode Director

Reviews

Sep 29, 2024

Caeruleus_CCXVI

Recommended

This movie was a treat to watch, I had a special edition DVD from 1989 I got as a kid, watched it once and thought it was like a 5/10, Sold the Movie on ebay and realized I should probably rewatch it again. This time around I realized how much I missed hand drawn Animation. And my god this movie was very well animated. The story was good enough, and the mechs were enjoyable to watch.

As a 30yo adult in 2024 I dont know a single other person who has watched the Patlabor series, but they are missing out and it forsure a must ... watch if you enjoy the golden age of animation and want some mecha in your life.

And can we talk about how this movie was set only about 10 years in the future from its release and the tech in the show is still probably 20-50 year out lol

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Caeruleus_CCXVI (27)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 12, 2022

BruZZo

Recommended

Patlabor: The Movie is the best thing that nobody has watched, and I imagine a lot of that comes from the fact that it’s an old anime movie that isn’t Akira or Ghost in the Shell and is tied to a pre-established mecha franchise. Even though it is canonical to the broader Patlabor series, I cannot stress enough that you do not need ANY prior knowledge of ANYTHING Patlabor before you watch this or its sequel film Patlabor 2, which is equally superb. While watching something like Char’s Counterattack mandates you have some knowledge of the prior Gundam meta, Patlabor: The Movie is a true ... stand-alone film that tells an airtight story without any reliance on the previous Patlabor show and OVA. As of the writing of this review, I haven’t even watched any other Patlabor media apart from this movie and its sequel, and I can tell you everything you need to know about every character because this film does such a wonderful job of establishing its major players and using great acting and writing to give you the info you need to keep up with the film’s plot. If all you’re looking for is a simple “yes” or “no” to whether you should give this film a watch, I feel my 10 rating is enough of an answer to that question. Please watch it, it’s so good.

Patlabor revolves around the central plot conceit of the titular utilitarian mecha known as “labors” going haywire while on duty or even while unmanned, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s 2nd Special Vehicles Section’s colorful cast of characters as they work to get to the bottom of the mystery.

In a lot of my reviews, you’ll hear me talk about directing a lot because it’s incredibly important when it comes to visual clarity. Anyone with a good head on their shoulders can tell you that the director is the single most important individual when it comes to a film because overseeing all aspects of production and making sure that these raw materials are utilized well is the mark of good directing. Mamoru Oshii, fortunately, knows everything there is to know about great directing and is deified by the anime community because of the positively incomparable directorial flare and quality he possesses.

Mamoru Oshii is a name that should ring a bell, an anime legend known best for Angel’s Egg, The Sky Crawlers, writing Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, and one of the most influential works of Japanese cinema of all time, Ghost in the Shell. He’s got a massive reputation for being an immensely talented director and Patlabor really lets the man flex his muscles and exemplify some of the best visual cohesion that this medium has to offer. His work is what’s most brought up among cinephiles when discussing the best Japanese cinema out there, and being spoken of in the same breath as legends such as Ishiro Honda and Akira Kurosawa is as good a primer as ever to let you know that this man doesn’t just make good anime, but good films, respectable outside of the context of just Japanese animation.

From the very beginning of the film, Patlabor: The Movie fires on all cylinders and exemplifies quintessential exceptional visual storytelling. A man pets a crow as he stands precariously over top an exposed metal beam, his cohorts in the background screaming at him to come back, but no audio except for the empty tinny drum breaking the silence. He falls with a smile on his face, and the sound of flowing wind and birds' wings increase in volume as they cut to the next scene: the JGSDF’s hunt for a haywire Labor. The color usage and time of day reflect the uncertainty of the enemy that the military faces, the ample amounts of time given to show the setting up of the military and their increasingly complex weaponry immediately conveying the intensity of the situation and also illustrating to the viewer just how far into the future we are, the music being foreboding but high tempo as the moonlit battle against the Labor unfolds, and at its resolution reveals that the Labor wasn’t even piloted the entire time. What just happened? How can the robot move without a pilot inside? What importance does that man at the beginning have with the rest of the story? CUE THE TITLE CARD, changing the music from ominous thrills to upbeat guitar to let the viewer know that you are going to get ALL the answers to the questions this intro posed. Textbook perfection right there guys, I don’t know what else to say.

This film, from beginning to end, in all its down moments and emotional apexes, is a treat to take in. The characters are no less well-handled, with great dialogue writing and a fantastic emphasis on the processes they take to come to the conclusions they do. It’s easy with such plot-driven stories like these with so many lines about pulling up files, interviewing people, operating systems, and futuristic technical jargon for the script to feel vacuous, but Patlabor writes its characters all with very simple straightforward personalities that act as great shorthand for how the characters react to certain information: Noa is happier and more positive, prone to see the bright side of the situation and get a plan going, Ohta is brash and loud, prone to not give two shits about the intricacies of the situation and just wants to have something to shoot or break, Goto being deadpan but deathly serious is apt at playing to the strengths of his crew and putting them in positions where they’ll be most suited, and so on. Having simple and straightforward characters in a serious situation can be a dangerous line to tread since it’s easy to have them fall back into caricatures of themselves, which can leave their lighthearted nature to not feel right for a more complicated story, but it’s precisely because they all have such colorful personalities that it’s believable that they are the ones tasked with solving this mystery around the clock. Their unit is looked down upon for being a group of losers and weirdos, when their varying personalities and takes on the situation lead them to come to conclusions other units too busy with their heads stuck in the books won’t come to, ultimately leading them to solve the mystery against all odds. These simple characters also provide great springboards for the deeper development they get in the sequel, which will get a review soon too.

As is the case with most anime films made in the 80’s, Patlabor: The Movie is ceaselessly gorgeous. I’m an absolute sucker for mechanical detail and the intricacies of design-work gone in to make the technology of the world seem as real as it can be, and there’s oodles of that stuff to be found in this film. Railings and joints showing how the limbs move on a mech, varying metal sheens conveying the age or rigidity of a certain alloy, fabric coverings over some joints to protect from dust, piercing blinding eye lights and larger floodlights for varying light conditions, etc. Wonderful rich colors, informative character designs, lived-in and excessively detailed environments, impeccable direction and composition courtesy of your main man Mamoru Oshii; you get the gist. If you’re a nerd for excessively realized technical details, this is your movie.

The sound department on this film is another aspect that is obviously spectacular, to go with all the well-realized technical details of the mecha and the settings are brought to life by chunky, tactile, purposeful sound design reflective of giant metal behemoths tearing through the myriad backgrounds they find themselves in. Bleak interiors of mysterious untouched homes are fittingly silent and eerie, a quiet door creak being deafening in the emptiness, bustling crowd shots overflow with speaking, laughing and yelling. The soundtrack composed by anime legend Kenji Kawai knows when to keep the instrumentation sparse and minimal to convey a mystery and can conversely blast memorable melodies with high-energy guitars and horns to accent a scene’s intensity. The second film’s soundtrack is certainly better, but this one, again, is a gem that plays to the film’s strengths precisely as a soundtrack should.

I’m just gushing at this point, I understand, but know that this is a film that just has got all the bases covered. There is so much to appreciate on the surface, and deeper appreciators have all sorts of themes and animation techniques to chew on throughout the entirety of the film’s runtime. It is such a stellar example of the advantages of animation when telling a story and is among the tightest written stories I can think of. Patlabor has certainly carved out its niche and had a sublime lifespan of TV series, OVA’s and films, but outside mecha circles Patlabor is generally unheard of, which is something I want to rectify. Patlabor: The Movie is an unsung masterpiece made during one of anime’s most famous periods of excessive quality, and is fittingly exceptional in every regard and represents some of the very best this medium has to offer. It’s an absolute gem, and no matter your artistic sensibilities I am 100% positive that you will find something to love.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by BruZZo (16)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

May 21, 2024

curvedtree

Mixed Feelings

This film was created during the peak of the Japanese economic bubble, so a lot of resources were put in anime in general back then and you can tell by both the art and animation that this anime is great even by today and even future standards, however what this film excels in those two aspects, it lacks in story. The whole mystery going on here is so simple and uninteresting that reinforces how unappealing the story is, so watching this for the story is a bad choice, however it isn't all bad, as I previously said, the art and animation are superb, you might ... enjoy some of the action scenes, but that's it. It looks pretty, but it is just as boring.

As a side note, despite praising the art, I disliked how Kanuka was portrayed here.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by curvedtree (54)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Patlabor Anime Watch Guide

by TheCoolGuy82

9 Entries · 14 Restacks

Hard Science

by CloacaMaxima

30 Entries · 59 Restacks

Physical Cels Hit Different / Best Looking Classic Anime

by FiviG

36 Entries · 67 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for July

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for July Week 1: July 7 - 13 Anime Releases Cop Craft Complete Collection Blu-ray Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? (H...read more

Jul 7, 2020 3:39 PM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (0 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for November

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for November Week 1: November 6 - 12 Anime Releases Black Clover Part 2 Blu-ray & DVD Combo Galaxy Angel Z...read more

Nov 5, 2018 2:27 PM by Sakana-san | Discuss (7 comments)

	Poll: Patlabor: The Movie Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) hellogoodbye - Sep 15, 2012	50 replies	by deguy »» Sep 24, 7:22 AM
	Patlabor celebrates 31st anniversary! Haneken2086 - Dec 17, 2019	4 replies	by KitsuFrost »» Jul 14, 2023 3:27 AM
	Anyone know where I can watch this? Epiccgaymer - Nov 3, 2021	6 replies	by VainOrphan2000 »» Nov 8, 2021 2:51 AM
	OVAs NG_Chloe - Apr 14, 2018	8 replies	by NG_Chloe »» Aug 23, 2019 7:15 PM