There was a time when Patlabor was an established name.
It was huge, it had Mamoru Oshii.Now, sadly, it’s mostly forgotten. Patlabor: The Movie is the first from the universe. I’ll cover the following two soon, as thiis is my rewatch after decades.
The story takes place in the distant future of 1999. Manual labor is aided by Labors, huge exoskeletons. Tokyo is undergoing a huge project, where old suburbs are demolished and artificial island are created on the coast. Some Labors are going berserk, destroying everything on their paths despite being unmanned.
Let’s start with the visual feast. The movie looks stunning! Yes, later movies from IG top what we see here, and sometimes the faces may look weird. It’s not perfect. But if we would simply tell ourselves that this style of animations is the peak and let’s just try to maintain the quality, I’d be more than happy. The way this 35-year-old movie looks is a testament to the power of manual drawings. The design, the camera work, the coloring - I loved every second.
Another cute thing I’ve noticed: The Movie is an Oshii-type of movie. It came in this short period, where anime was treating western culture as something alien and cool. We’re seeing this in Jin-Roh, Evangelion, GITS, and many others. Here we’ve got the Bible.
But this also shows the biggest problem of Patlabor: The Movie: it is shallow. On surface level, we’ve got everything one could ever want: Unabomber-style genius on a quest to stop progress at all cost. We’re seeing how old is discarded in the name of progress. We’ve also got a huge computer system which is maintained without deep understanding of how it works. Basically, 1999 is like 2024. But none of this is really developed. The main characters never stop and think, that maybe the world is not going the best route? Eiichi Hoba, the aforementioned Unabomber, is just a plot device: the viewer is also never confronted with his viewpoint.
As it stands, The Movie’s story is disjointed: on one side we’ve got the real and interesting question. On the other, no one looks for answers and just accepts the risks of unconstrained growth. But maybe this was the point? We’re seeing the same today: the world is ending, and most people are racing to be the last one to shut down the lights. It is scary how believable this is. Even the main threat is solved by a software rollback…
Patlabor: The Movie is good on its own, but it suffers from being the proto Ghost in the Shell. It’s not near as good, nor is it as good as its sequel. But taking it at face value is really solid. I had huge fun rewatching it, but left unsatisfied for sophisticated sociopsychological treat Oshii is known for.
My rating is 3.75/5
