Patlabor
- Thread starter The Almighty Hamster
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watched the ova and its 3 movies a little over a year ago and really enjoyed them. the first two movies are like masterpieces.
Patlabor's something I want to like, but the OVAs and especially the TV show did nothing for me. First movie was easily the best of what I saw, by a long shot. The changes made to Kanuka Clancy for the TV show are unforgivable. My memory of the comic is pretty fuzzy.
Never frequented that board, /vr/ was my go-to until /qa/ got invaded and flooded it's cancer onto other boards. Not the same site as it used to be.
Never watched the ova but I watched the two anime movies If you’re a fan of Mamoru Oshii (director of Ghost in the Shell anime movies) it’s a must try.
Fracking love Patlabor also recommend for any mech lovers to watch Appleseed and Bubble gum crisis if you have not.
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One of my all time favorites, always wanted a decent figure.
Need to read the manga as I do believe it's been fully fan translated now.
Need to read the manga as I do believe it's been fully fan translated now.
Patlabor 2 is one of my favorite anime films of all time, the crazy variety of projects that Headgear was involved with makes it pretty unique and the content of each entry varies pretty strongly as a result. I can understand not enjoying parts of it because once you get used to one 'flavor' the differences in tone can be unappealing. It's hard to recommend every Patlabor project to different people but the original show is worth watching just to understand the characters, it's not essential but I found it valuable after having seeing the movies first (anime releases being what they were in the early 00's that's all that was available).
Patlabor 2 in particular is a strong recommendation from me generally, for how well it captures the zeitgeist of Japan in the early Heisei era, at the beginning of their huge economic slump, and tries to articulate some of the anxiety about things like international relations and the legacy of post-WWII policy (I think it even directly anticipates some events that would become major political issues in japan a year after it was released). It's kind of slow for an action movie and they don't get as much use out of characters like Noa and Ohta but it has pretty strong leads in Goto and Nagumo. Spare as they are with it, Patlabor 2 also has one of the best opening credits drops and mecha sequences ever -
It's almost worth checking out just for the score, which boasts some particularly rich and haunting tracks. I think it's pretty heavily imitated (indeed much of the imagery was shamelessly stolen by some big western directors, not unlike other Oshii films like GITS) but seeing how well its used here makes it easy to forget about the imitators. Obviously I would recommend watching it in the original japanese with subs but with its initial international release dub was the only option, and I have to say I quite like the original english dub by the distributor Manga Entertainment but my understanding is that this is only available in a low quality mono mix and the new bluray features an all new dub by all new hacks. You can still track it down online and if you're the kind of person who prefers the dub it's one of the (very) few good ones.
The best thing about Patlabor, and other 'creative committee' works by artists/writers/directors of that era is how well it uses all the same elements to make very different products. Some of them are deep, intensely specific works like Patlabor 2 and some of them are just sort of goofy, simple fun (like much of the original OVA series) but none of these things conflict at all. I was never a big fan of the next movie or the live action series but there's enough of what I like in the mix that I still consider myself a Patlabor fan overall.
Patlabor 2 in particular is a strong recommendation from me generally, for how well it captures the zeitgeist of Japan in the early Heisei era, at the beginning of their huge economic slump, and tries to articulate some of the anxiety about things like international relations and the legacy of post-WWII policy (I think it even directly anticipates some events that would become major political issues in japan a year after it was released). It's kind of slow for an action movie and they don't get as much use out of characters like Noa and Ohta but it has pretty strong leads in Goto and Nagumo. Spare as they are with it, Patlabor 2 also has one of the best opening credits drops and mecha sequences ever -
It's almost worth checking out just for the score, which boasts some particularly rich and haunting tracks. I think it's pretty heavily imitated (indeed much of the imagery was shamelessly stolen by some big western directors, not unlike other Oshii films like GITS) but seeing how well its used here makes it easy to forget about the imitators. Obviously I would recommend watching it in the original japanese with subs but with its initial international release dub was the only option, and I have to say I quite like the original english dub by the distributor Manga Entertainment but my understanding is that this is only available in a low quality mono mix and the new bluray features an all new dub by all new hacks. You can still track it down online and if you're the kind of person who prefers the dub it's one of the (very) few good ones.
The best thing about Patlabor, and other 'creative committee' works by artists/writers/directors of that era is how well it uses all the same elements to make very different products. Some of them are deep, intensely specific works like Patlabor 2 and some of them are just sort of goofy, simple fun (like much of the original OVA series) but none of these things conflict at all. I was never a big fan of the next movie or the live action series but there's enough of what I like in the mix that I still consider myself a Patlabor fan overall.
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I always love the Patlabor franchise. While it has its slice of life vibes it also tackles a lot of very serious arguments. I consider it to be the best "real robot" series as it doesn't need world wars, aliens or similar threat to create very scary and serious episodes. Sure, there are wars, fights and sprawling problems that could threat more than just Japan but everything is treated with a care that doesn't aim at bombastic drama but at a more, intimistic, psychological one without forgetting to add fun and happy moments. It's also a franchise that was able to delevope its characters really beautifully, with Noa being an extremely well developed main character. Of its main versions (the Early Days OVAs, the movies, the new OVAs, the Tv series and the manga) and the different approach at their bases I can't find a favourite one, they are all amazing in a way or another.
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There's a high quality FLAC version of the Manga UK dub that syncs with the Bluray perfectly. That's how I prefer to watch it; it's just such a fantastic dub. I think this comment nails it:
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