Patlabor: The Mobile Police - New Files

foxhead556 Jan 10, 2011

9.5

Background-In the late 1980's the world's polar ice caps are melting due to global warming and thus causing water level to increase. With the threat of water levels rising to coastal areas like Tokyo they started the Babylon project in the early 1990's. The Babylon project is a plan to build a barrier to prevent the sea from taking the land. But thanks to the rapidly development of hyper-technology, a humanoid machine called “LABOR” is being used to help project Babylon and in almost every field of the industry. However,it has also created the new social menace of “LABOR” crime. In order to curb such crimes from happening one after another, the Metropolitan Police Department has established a special department, the “Special Vehicle Section no.2”. It consists of a company of patrol “LABOR” known as PATLABOR. Sound-IMO I thought Patlabor had a great cast for voice acting in Jpn or Eng. The eng dubs weren't horrific but then again they weren't great. To me I thought the eng dubs were alright but others may not stand it since some of the characters do sound annoying(ex. Noa’s hi-pitched voice) The sound track on the other hand was perfect to me. The multiple Ops they have in just 16 OVAs is just unbelievable. The op songs are all rather catchy like "You are the one" or "idling for you". Some people may hate the songs since they are out dated but others may love em(like me) but that's your call to hate em or love em. Art- To me this is when the anime industry was blazing with anime and its art. The cast of characters looks great and the mechs looks wonderful. The construction Labors in patlabor don't look the best since they are used for simple purposes. But the police mechas or Patlabors used look great. The main Patlabors have a certain design that makes them look extremely cool to fans like me. Maybe its the police sirens? Maybe its the head designs? Maybe its the cherry blossom on the chest? Maybe the realism involved? I would say the realism but that's just me. Story- Patlabor is set in 2 universes 1 being the tv and other being the Movie. Since Patlabor the new files is a sequel of Patlabor TV there is pretty much no opening story. Patlabor new files was made in order to finish up the Grffion saga in Patlabor Tv and HeadGear knows finish the series with a bang. The wrap up of the Grffion saga takes up about 3 or 4 episodes out of the 16. So the remaining 12 or 11 episodes are left to the Sv2 comically adventures which not involving much mecha fights. So after the first 3 or 4 episodes someone with no knowledge of Patlabor can come in and watch since HeadGear doesn't do anything complex in the last remaining episodes(For example in one of the episodes Head gear parodies the final ep of the 1966 ultraman.). Cast- This has to have some of the most loveable characters out of the all the manga/anime i read in my life time. The main cast is Noa who is the pilot Ingram 1/easy going labor otaku(named unit 1 Alphonse) ,Asuma the foward of Unit 1/kinda short tempered but mostly positive ,Goto the captain of SV2/pretty much always laided back but can be quite a strategist, Ohta is the pilot of Ingram 2,/shoot now and ask questions later type of guy,Kanuka the NYPD loan to Sv2 and the forward to unit 2/competent officer who does everything by the book, Kumagami the replacement for Kanuka(forward to unit 2) when she leaves/overall nice and noting seems to bother her but is easily scared by the super natural, Shinshi driver to Unit 2's carrier/hes kinda like Bruce Banner who is nice and calm but if angered enough..., Hiromi the driver for unit 1's carrier/considered the shy gentle giant of Sv2,Sakaki the head mechanic/generally nice but can get angered easily,Shige 2nd in command for the mechanic/nice guy to hang around but knows how to get carry overboard easily and lastly Shinbou the captain of Sv1/pretty much the perfect officer who is always on the job and never loses her cool. Those are pretty much the roles/personalty of the cast in Patlabor Conclusion- Patlabor new files is a must watch if you watched Patlabor TV since this finishes up the whole Patlabor Tv time line. But as said before if you just want some comedy and some mechs Patlabor TV and the new files are both a must watch.