Patlabor (OVA) [Blu-ray]

Product Description

Drunk drivers are bad, but put a drunk driver in a giant robot called a Labor and you've got a disaster waiting to happen. And when REAL criminals get their hands on those same giant robots, the cops need giant robots of their own just to maintain the status quo, right? Well, that's the logic behind the development of the Patlabor program and special Labor Crime units like Japan's Section 2 in any case. But what logic fails to take into account is where to find officers who're equally conversant with both robots and the regulations? And THAT's where the motley crew of Section 2, Division 2 comes in! With ridiculously perky tomboy Noa Izumi and -happy madman Isao Ohta as primary Labor pilots and the impossibly laid back Captain Goto in what passes for command, SV2 is ready to hit the streets with their twenty ton feet! But will they be taking a byte out of crime or have they bitten off more than they can chew? the law of the land and the laws of robotics are about to collide in the first Earth shattering collection of MOBILE PATLABOR!

.com

Seven years before his watershed feature Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii directed the first six episodes of the OVA Patlabor (1988). The sci-fi series is set in a not-too-distant future when construction and other heavy physical tasks are performed by giant robots called Labors. The Tokyo force needs Patlabors (an elision of "Patrol Labors") to handle robots who get involved in accidents and crimes. The series owed its popularity not to its elaborate mecha battles, but to the interactions of the appealing misfit cast, which suggested Hill Street Blues transed into a minor dam adventure. Perky Noa Izumi is eager to succeed in Special Vehicles Division #2 as the pilot of the robot she calls "Alphonse." Noa's coworkers include Asuma Shinohara, the disinherited son of a heavy industry magnate; no-nonsense Hawaiian officer Kanuka Clancy; trigger-happy Isao Ota; and shrewd, understated Captain Goto. Patlabor was obviously made on a minimal budget, the stories are often inconclusive, and many details show the program's age: Goto and his officers use pay phones, computers run on punched yellow tape, and one Labor contains a 64 gigabyte ROM. But Oshii was already such a skillful filmmaker, these quibbles seem unimportant. The original incarnation of Patlabor is so entertaining, it's easy to understand why it spawned a TV series, three theatrical features, and the parody spinoff Mini Pato. The formula of an office of mecha jockeys as the Island of Misfit Toys would recur in such noteworthy series as Dai-Guard (1999) and Planetes (2003). (Rated TV 14 V: robot vs. robot violence, brief nudity, alcohol and use) --Charles Solomon

(1. Second Unit, Move Out! 2. Long, 3. The 450 Million-Year-Old Trap, 4. L's Tragedy, 5. SV 2's Longest Day, Part 1, 6. SV 2's Longest Day, Part 2, 7. SV 2, to the North!)