, also known as ''Patlabor'' (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsscience fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

media franchise created by Headgear, a group consisting of manga artist Masami Yūki, director

Mamoru Oshii is a Japanese filmmaker, television director and writer. Famous for his philosophy-oriented storytelling, Oshii has directed a number of acclaimed anime films, including '' Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer'' (1984), ''Angel's Egg'' (1985), ...

, screenwriter

Kazunori Itō is a Japanese anime screenwriter and artist who is well known for his work in the ''.hack'' franchise and his writing for the 1995 ''Ghost in the Shell'' movie. Itō supervised the writing for the novel, '' .hack//Another Birth'' which was writ ...

, mecha designer

Yutaka Izubuchi is a Japanese anime designer, screenwriter and director. Izubuchi is credited for designing costumes, characters and creatures, but most of his designs are mechanical (both robots and other vehicles). He created and directed the ''RahXephon'' se ...

, and character designer

Akemi Takada is a Japanese manga artist and anime character designer born in Tokyo, Japan. Her character-design work is one of the more recognizable styles of the 1980s, when she worked on series like Creamy Mami and Kimagure Orange Road. She is also noted ...

. The popular franchise includes a manga, a TV series, two

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

series, three feature-length movies, two

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

series, and a short film compilation, named because of its

super deformed Chibi, also known as super deformation, or S.D. is a style of caricature originating in Japan, and common in anime and manga where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby with stubby limbs, oversized heads, and m ...

(chibi) drawing style. The series has been adapted into video games and licensed products from OST to toys. ''Patlabor'' is known for using

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...

– designed by

– not just for police or military purposes, but also for industrial and municipal jobs. The series is one of the earlier examples of what is called a "

media mix Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

" in Japan, where there is no one source material: Multiple forms of media (in Patlabor's case the anime and manga) are worked on at the same time independently of each other. Animations from ''Patlabor'' were used extensively in the music video "

Juke Joint Jezebel "Juke Joint Jezebel" is a song by industrial rock group KMFDM from their 1995 album ''Nihil''. It is KMFDM's most widely known song to date, with around three million copies of the song sold across various releases. Background and composition The ...

" by

KMFDM KMFDM (originally Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, loosely translated by the band as "no pity for the majority") is a multinational industrial band from Hamburg led by Sascha Konietzko, who founded the band in 1984 as a performance art project. ...

. The manga received the 36th

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga awards, and is sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga and features candidates from a number of publishers. It is the oldest manga award in Japan, being given since ...

for shōnen in 1991.

Plot

The story takes place in what was, at the time of release, the near future of 1998–2002. Robots called "Labors" are employed in heavy construction work. The

Tokyo Metropolitan Police The serves as the prefectural police department of Tokyo Metropolis. Founded in 1874, it is headed by a Superintendent-General, who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission, and approved by the Prime Minister. The Tokyo Metro ...

has its own fleet of Patrol Labors ("Patlabors"; as opposed to patrol cars) to combat crimes/terrorism and deal with accidents involving Labors. The

story arc A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, vid ...

s usually revolve around Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Section 2, Division 2. Noa Izumi is the main protagonist of the series, but all of Division 2 play roles. Hata and Kusumi are main protagonists of the third ''Patlabor'' film. The Next Generation takes place in 2013, with an entirely new cast with the exception of Shige and Buchiyama in maintenance, but the new members of SV2 have similar names and personalities to the old ones. The feature films follow a separate continuity, referred to as the "movie timeline", as opposed to the "TV timeline", with the Early Days OVA following the "movie timeline", and the New Files OVA following the "TV timeline". In addition, the manga follows its own continuity. The Next Generation features episodes that directly reference the TV series, while its final episode and movie are a direct sequel to the second movie.

Media

Manga

Released by Shogakukan through '' Shonen Sunday'' magazine from 1988 to 1994, the 22-volume series takes place in a separate timeline.

Japanese volumes

Original release: # , July 1988 # , September 1988 # , December 1988 # , July 1989 # , December 1989 # , March 1990 # , June 1990 # , September 1990 # , January 1991 # , April 1991 # , July 1991 # , October 1991 # , December 1991 # , March 1992 # , May 1992 # , October 1992 # , April 1993 # , June 1993 # , September 1993 # , December 1993 # , March 1994 # , August 1994 Bunkoban release: # , January 2000 # , January 2000 # , March 2000 # , March 2000 # , May 2000 # , May 2000 # , July 2000 # , July 2000 # , September 2000 # , September 2000 # , November 2000

North America volumes

Viz released first two volumes of the manga as individual comics in 1997 and 1998, then released them as volumes: # , 1998 # , 1998

Anime

The Early Days OVA

*''Mobile Police Patlabor'' (1988–1989, OVA, 7 episodes) Also referred to as ''The Early Days''. Details the origins of the Tokyo MPD's 2nd Special Vehicles Section, otherwise known as SV2.

Movies

*'' Patlabor: The Movie'' (1989) A series of random labor incidents across the

Greater Tokyo Area The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tochigi) as well as the ...

puts the SV2 on the case. The incidents turn out to be part of a dead programmer's diabolical plot to create a much bigger rampage. *'' Patlabor 2: The Movie'' (1993) A secret group of terrorists engineer a crisis in Tokyo in the winter of 2001–2002. The members of SV2's Section 2, who have been reassigned to other duties since the events of ''WXIII'', reunite one more time to stop the threat. *'' WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3'' (2002) Taking place a year after ''Patlabor: The Movie'', the film features two MPD detectives who investigate the case of missing scientists working on a genetic engineering project that runs amuck in Tokyo Bay. SV2's Section 2 is later called in to help rein in the danger.

TV series and OVA sequel

*'' Patlabor: The TV Series'' (1989–1990, TV, 47 episodes) Taking place in a different continuity, the series features more adventures of SV2 Section 2, which includes an arc involving their efforts to combat an advanced Schaft Enterprises Labor called the Type J9 Griffon. *'' Patlabor: The New Files'' (1990–1992, OVA, 16 episodes) Also referred to as ''Patlabor 2'', the series contains episodes that took place at several points between certain episodes in the TV series and after the latter's final episode. The OVA also features the conclusion of the Griffon storyarc. A three-part series of short films known as "''Mobile Police Patlabor Minimum: Minipato''" were shown before screenings of ''WXIII'' in 2002, ''Minipato'' uses paper puppets, CGI, and claymation to explain the rationale behind the whole concept of the series, especially how the Labors functioned in a realistic

hard science Hard science and soft science are colloquial terms used to compare scientific fields on the basis of perceived methodological rigor, exactitude, and objectivity. Roughly speaking, the formal sciences & natural sciences are considered "hard", wher ...

fiction setting.

Patlabor REBOOT

''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor REBOOT'' was a short animated film released as part of Japan Animator Expo 2016 featuring a modernised version of ''Patlabor'' with new characters and utilising CG for the Labors. On November 24, 2016 it was announced that a new ''Patlabor'' project has started.

Live-action series

At the 2013 Tokyo Anime Fair,

Tohokushinsha Film Corporation is a Japanese film distributor, production company and dubbing studio based in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It was founded in 1961 by Banjirō Uemura (who was also once the head of the Japanese branch of ITC Entertainment) as a dubbing house for fo ...

announced a live-action ''Patlabor'' project to be launched in 2014. On July 4, 2013, Mamoru Oshii announced that he would be involved in the project, in an unspecified capacity. On September 25, 2013, it was announced that Japanese actors

Erina Mano is a Japanese idol singer and actress formerly associated with Hello! Project. She joined in 2006 as a member of Hello Pro Egg, as a trainee. In 2007, she became a member of the Hello! Project futsal team Gatas Brilhantes H.P. and its musical gr ...

would star as pilot Akira Izumino, Seiji Fukushi as Yūma Shiobara, Rina Oota as Ekaterina Krachevna Kankaeva ("Kasha"),

Shigeru Chiba , known by the stage name , is a Japanese actor, voice actor, talent and sound director from Kikuchi, Kumamoto. He is affiliated with the talent management firm 81 Produce. He is most known for the roles of Yoshihiro Kira from '' JoJo's Bizarre ...

reprising his anime role as chief Shigeo Shiba and Toshio Kakei as Captain Keiji Gotōda. Called ''The Next Generation -Patlabor-'', the project consisted of a drama series and movie. The drama series is divided into 14 "short story" episodes released to blu-ray and DVD and exclusively aired on BS Digital and Star Channel airing from 2014 and 2015, with limited advanced theatrical screenings dividing the series into 7 "chapters", each comprising two episodes. The movie released in theatres on 1 May 2015, and a director's cut version of the movie was released on 10 October 2015. ''The Next Generation'' takes place in the ''Patlabor'' world's version of 2013 Tokyo, and is a sequel to the TV series, the OVA series and the second movie. The completion of the Babylon Project led to disuse of Labors, and Japan is in the midst of a recession. Labors falling into disuse also means there is also no place for the patrol labor squads, which have been shrunk to only one division. The drama series follows the new members of SV2 as they solve cases and get into trouble like their predecessors did. In the movie, followers of Yukihito Tsuge carry out terrorist attacks on Tokyo, re-enacting Tsuge's coup, and SV2 has to stop them.

Patlabor EZY

A new project announced at

Annecy International Animated Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

in 2017. A pilot is reported to debut in August 2022.

Novels

Patlabor 1-5

Novels taking place in the same universe as the ''Early Days'' OVA and first movie. * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor: Fuusoku 40 Meter'' (Kazunori Ito) – October 1990 * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor 2: Syntax Error'' (Michiko Yokote) – March 1992 * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor 3: Third Mission'' (Michiko Yokote) – September 1992 * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor 4: Blackjack (Zenpen)'' (Michiko Yokote) – July 1993 * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor 5: Blackjack (Kouhen)'' (Michiko Yokote) – October 1993

TOKYO WAR

* ''TOKYO WAR: Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor (Zenpen)'' (Mamoru Oshii) – April 1994 * ''TOKYO WAR: Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor (Kouhen)'' (Mamoru Oshii) – May 1994 Novelization of the second movie. * ''TOKYO WAR MOBILE POLICE PATLABOR'' (Mamoru Oshii) – June 2005 A hardcover edition combining the two older volumes.

The Next Generation

Novels taking place in the world of ''The Next Generation''. * ''THE NEXT GENERATION Patlabor 1: Yuuma no Yuuutsu'' (Kei Yamamura) – March 2014 * ''THE NEXT GENERATION Patlabor 2: Akira no Ashita'' (Kei Yamamura) – April 2014 * ''THE NEXT GENERATION Patlabor 3: Shiroi Kasha'' (Kei Yamamura) – June 2014 * ''THE NEXT GENERATION Patlabor: Akai Kasha'' (Kei Yamamura) – February 2015 The fourth novel by Yamamura is not numbered. * ''THE NEXT GENERATION Patlabor: TOKYO WAR 2 Haiiro no Yuurei'' (Mamoru Oshii and Kei Yamamura) – May 2015 Novelization of the live action movie ''Shuto Kessen'', which is also a sequel to the TOKYO WAR novels.

Other

* ''Bankuruwase: Keishi-chou Keibi-bu Tokushu Sharyou Ni-ka'' (Mamoru Oshii) - January 2011 A sequel to Patlabor taking place in the present day with a new generation of SV2 members, later used as inspiration for ''The Next Generation''. * ''Kouseki no Otoko'' (Mamoru Oshii) - 2015 Not a novel but short story included in the anthology ''Tag: Watashi no Aibou'' (2015) taking place in the ''Patlabor'' world.

Video games

All ''Patlabor'' video games were released exclusively in Japan.

''Patlabor'' games

* ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor'' (

Family Computer Disk System The commonly shortened to the Famicom Disk System or just Disk System, is a peripheral for Nintendo's Family Computer home video game console, released only in Japan on February 21, 1986. It uses proprietary floppy disks called "Disk Cards" f ...

– January 24, 1989) * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor'' (

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

– August 25, 1990) * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor: 98-Shiki Kidou Seyo!'' (

Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan a ...

– October 23, 1992) * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor: Griffon-hen'' ( PC Engine Super CD-ROM² – September 30, 1993) * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor'' (

Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...

– April 22, 1994) * ''Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor: Game Edition'' ( PlayStation – November 30, 2000) * ''Patlabor: Come Back Mini-Pato'' ( PlayStation Portable – November 2, 2005)

Appearances

* ''

Super Robot Wars ''Super Robot Wars'', known in Japan as is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Banpresto. Starting out as a spinoff of the '' Compati Hero'' series, the main feature of the franchise ...

Operation Extend'' ( PlayStation Portable – July 18, 2013) * '' Kyoei Toshi'' ( PlayStation 4 – October 19, 2017)

Licensing

All of the main ''Patlabor'' anime productions have been released overseas in some form. All the movies have been translated into English and are available in Region 1, 2 & 4 DVD format. Most of the manga is not available in North America in English, and the video games, novels and live action series have also not been released outside of Japan. The TV series and OVAs were released in the U.S. by Central Park Media. The first two movies were released by

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyr ...

, but later remastered and re-released in 2006 by

Bandai Visual was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainly in international distribution of anime properties in North America. Most of the anime and f ...

. The third movie (along with "Mini-Pato") was released by

Geneon Entertainment (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. Th ...

(formerly Pioneer). Twelve sections of the manga have been translated and published by

Viz Communications VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

as single issues and in two trade paperbacks, but later dropped the manga before completing it. Mini-Pato is available on DVD in regions 1, 2, and 4 in the Limited Edition ''Patlabor WXIII'' DVD packages. In 2006,

's Honneamise label re-released the first two movies on DVD in North America with extensive bonus features and an alternate English track, and Beez Entertainment handled distribution in the UK. Madman has the distribution rights for the movies in Australia and New Zealand in association with

UK & TFC, Madman have been refused the rights to the Bandai Visual dubs of the Movies. In 2011 Madman Entertainment announced that they had secured the rights to the Early Days OVA series & the TV series from TFC, but announced on the 13th of April 2012 that due to unforeseen circumstances, Madman had indefinitely delayed their release into Australia and did not elaborate on the reasons. However, Madman has since rescheduled the first OVA for DVD and Blu-ray release on June 19, 2013. In July 2013,

MVM Films MVM Entertainment, also known as MVM and MVM Films, is a British licensor and distributor of Japanese animation. The company also sub-licenses anime titles from US anime companies such as Media Blasters, Geneon, Nozomi Entertainment, Urban Visio ...

has licensed the first OVA & TV series for distribution in the UK and will release them on Blu-ray and DVD. In 2013,

Maiden Japan ''Maiden Japan'', released as ''Heavy Metal Army'' in Japan, is a live EP by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. The title is a pun of Deep Purple's live album '' Made in Japan''. Release There are at least two different versions of ...

(in conjunction with

Section23 Films SXION 23 LLC, doing business as Section23 Films is an American multimedia distributor based in Houston, Texas specializing in releasing anime and Japanese films. Established in 2009, Section23 is one of five successors to ADV Films; alongside Se ...

) acquired the licence to the ''Patlabor'' OAV series, and released it on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

and DVD on April 30, 2013. They subsequently licensed and released the TV series on July 16, 2013; the second OVA series on February 17, 2015; and all of the films, with the first film released on May 5, 2015.

Headgear

is a group consisting of five main writers and artists who work in the Japanese

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

/ manga field. The group was set up so that all the creators could retain full copyright to their work, achieve greater publicity for their work and sell their manga to anime sponsors for film production. The members are Masami Yuki,

, and

. Together they worked on the anime series ''

Patlabor , also known as ''Patlabor'' (a portmanteau of "patrol" and "labor"), is a Japanese science fiction media franchise created by Headgear, a group consisting of manga artist Masami Yūki, director Mamoru Oshii, screenwriter Kazunori Itō ...

'' and the two episode

Twilight Q Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this ...

''. Other staff involved with Headgear include

Kenji Kawai is a Japanese music composer and arranger. Known as one of the biggest names in the soundtrack world, he has worked on a wide range of mixed media productions, including anime, TV shows, films and video games. Among his credits are Toei's Kam ...

, Naoyuki Yoshinaga, Takayama Fumihiko,

Kenji Kamiyama is a Japanese anime director. Career Kamiyama has worked regularly with the anime studio and production enterprise Production I.G, such as his work on ''Jin-Roh'', ''Patlabor'', '' Blood: The Last Vampire'', and for whom he has directed the '' ...

, and Miki Tori.

Reception and legacy

The manga received the 36th

for shōnen in 1991. Guillermo del Toro has cited the series as an influence for '' Pacific Rim''. In 2018, the Japan Anniversary Association recognized August 10 as "Patlabor Day".

References

External links

"Untranslated Pick of the Month"
��J-pop.com review of manga * * {{Navboxes, list1= {{Masami Yuki {{Weekly Shōnen Sunday - 1980–1989 {{Shogakukan Manga Award - Shōnen {{Studio Deen films {{Production I.G OVAs {{Studio khara {{Studio Rikka 1988 anime OVAs 1988 manga 1990 Japanese novels 1994 Japanese novels 2002 anime films Action anime and manga Bandai Visual Central Park Media Comedy anime and manga Eco-terrorism in fiction Fujimi Fantasia Bunko IG Port franchises Light novels Madhouse (company) Maiden Japan Police in anime and manga Production I.G Science fiction anime and manga Shogakukan manga Shōnen manga Studio Deen Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in fiction Viz Media manga Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen manga