Patlabor: The TV Series Box Set 1 (1990)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Design by Akemi Takada, Yukata Izubuchi, Hiroki Takagi, and Yoshinori Sayama
Written by Kazunori Ito, Mamoru Oshii, and Michiko Yokote
Directed by Mamoru Oshii, Naoyuki Yoshinaga, Fumihiko Takayama, and Yasunori Urata
Music by Kenji Kawai

Features:

• Interviews
  
• Art galleries
  
• Scripts
  
• Character profiles
  
• Series introduction and background
  
• Episode synopses
  
• DVD-ROM content
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Silliness
• A bit of wasted potential
• Mecha love

Released by: U.S. Manga Corps
Region: 1
Rating: 3+
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Give it a view for the sake of your anime education.

The mythology of the show Patlabor is interesting: at the end of the 20th century, global warming caused sea levels to rise. Given that Japan is an island nation, they were justifiably concerned and responded by building a force of mecha robots, the Labors. This new technology, as all human technologies will do, also resulted in some corruption and new forms of crime. The police responded by setting up a Patrol Labor division, called "Patlabor" for short.

The Patlabor force is divided into two sections: Section 1 that always gets the best and newest equipment, and Section 2, the requisite underdogs, who are "making do." The newest recruit to Section 2 is Noa Izumi, basically Our Heroine. She's young and brash and wants to be a great police officer, but she has a few problems: she falls in love with her Labor. The other characters fill in various niches, such as farming for the unit's food, fishing, and so forth.

The show is always concentrated much more on characters than you might think; if you're looking for an action mecha show, then you will be disappointed. This is no Bubblegum Crisis. Of course, if you're looking for interesting, multi-dimensional characters, you might also be disappointed. A show based upon the premise that being a mecha pilot is just another job has a great deal of promise; the scripts just don't quite always deliver, and the personalities barely gel, which is surprising, given the amazing talents working on this thing. The characters tend toward the silly and none-too-bright overall and were just shy of making me care about them. What the show creators may have thought was comedy was really just characters being rather dim-witted and silly. On the other hand, this is still a nice change from other mecha shows of this time period that took themselves way too seriously.

The audio quality is actually good. The colors are crisp and bright, but not overly-saturated. The art is attractive and modern, and the Labors have an edgy mecha design--kind of Transformers meets The Matrix in some cases. The show is not the sheer beauty of a Yu Watase production, but it's still nice enough.

The features list is hefty indeed. We get a text introduction to Patlabor as a series, including some of the behind-the-scenes information on the struggles of getting a series to the air. There is also a "meet the director" feature (an interesting interview), a "meet the scriptwriter" text interview, and a "meet the characters" feature that provides some video of the character in question in action, lists the Japanese and English voice actors, and provides a blurb about the character's personality. There is the ubiquitous but nice art gallery, and a host of DVD-ROM features as well, such as scripts, another art gallery, and more. One fun feature is the results of a fan voiceover contest.

In short, if you're a fan of police procedural shows, then give this one a look. It's also a good bet for anyone who likes interesting mecha designs; though, in fairness, the Labors are not the focus of the show as much as perhaps they should be. If the show had succeeded in being funnier, it could have been great. As it is, however, it's just "good"--mediocre, but neither poor nor great. If you like a little bit of mecha action, but not too much violence, zero angst, and aren't too discriminating on your characterizations, then you might just find a new favorite here.