Patlabor 2: The Movie

Overview: Patlabor 2 the movie is an anime that nearly half of my MAL friends have watched in the last year. Every person I've talked to has said this film is one of the greatest anime films ever made and an indisputable masterpiece. Obviously I went in to this with VERY high expectations. However, my overall feelings towards the film are a little complicated. Firstly, I want to say that Patlabor 2 is in fact an excellent film. The animation is jaw dropping. It does a masterful job instilling mood and atmosphere. It has some excellent character moments and I love to watch Goto and Shinobu's relationshipwhenever they share the screen together. It makes an admirable effort to explore complex and controversial political theories on the nature of war and peace. It directly references Japan's decision to participate in UN peacekeeping in 1993. Oshii took a strong political stance against what he saw as the loosening of Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution and creeping militarization. Oshii's stance was of course bashed as unpatriotic by Japanese conservatives, but he stood his ground and showed he has some balls. The fact that Oshii like Hayao Miyazaki is so unwavering in his principles adds a layer of ethos to an already emotionally powerful and visually stunning film. My key issue with Patlabor 2 is that it simply isn't a Patlabor movie. This movie seriously exists because Oshii was drinking with his old buddy Hayao Miyazaki in some bar in 1993. A news article came on the TV saying that Japan was deploying a few soldiers to assist the UN in Cambodia, so of course these 2 old lefties just freaked the fuck out. I'm 100% certain that the movie Oshii wanted to make got rejected, so he pitched this story he wrote as a Patlabor sequel and shoehorned in the Patlabor characters at the last minute. Patlabor 2 is a Patlabor film like Mario 2 is a Mario game. Outside of a 30 second training sequence, it seriously takes over an hour for the titular Patlabors to even appear in this film. That appearance btw is just some empty Patlabors getting blown up by a helicopter. What do we get instead? We get about 7 solid minutes of characters talking about how Japan's post WW2 peace and prosperity is rotten because the prosperity of the wealthy nations is built on the suffering and exploitation of the poor nations. Japan's wealth is gained by trading with the United States, who endlessly engages in wars of capitalist imperialism and resource exploitation. By fully embracing capitalism and foreign trade, Japan has bloodied its hands by fueling these wars of imperialism that cause suffering in the Middle East, Africa, and Central America. Oshii brings the film to a screeching halt so we can get the Cliffs Notes on the famous Leftist essay "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism". Mr. Oshii, we need to talk. I love you man, but this needs to be said. In case you forgot....THIS IS A FUCKING PATLABOR MOVIE! This is a goofy franchise that you originally started to ripoff Dominion Tank Police! It's a story about cops using construction robots with adorable little batons to fight crooks using construction robots to rob banks! If you wanted to make a dead serious, anti-imperialism, anti-war film to protest Japan's policies then save up your money and make THAT film. When you cram this shit into a franchise like Patlabor it becomes ridiculous! Imagine some guy was supposed to write and direct a Spider-Man movie. However, that guy just read some essays on Marxist thought and it really blew his mind. He ends up making a film in which Peter Parker just sits around a bar, drinks whiskey, and tries to convince the bartender that the workers need to seize the means of production. Would that be a good Spider-Man story? NOO! It would be fucking stupid! To a degree, that's exactly what Patlabor 2 feels like to me. Lastly, we need to talk about the Japanese peacekeeping effort of 1993 and how Oshii essentially made Mt. Everest out of a mole hill. The main antagonist of this film is a grizzled veteran who returned home a shell of his former self after his nightmarish tour of duty. He had to watch dozens of his best friends die and now leads a rogue faction of the Japanese military. They want revenge on the government War Pigs for callously sending thousands of young Japanese men to their deaths in a pointless war. In reality, zero Japanese actually died in that conflict. In fact, only 70 people died in total. It was an EXTREMELY minor affair. However, this film portrays the Japanese deployment to Cambodia exactly like its the US in Vietnam or the Soviets in Afghanistan. I understand why Oshii was so opposed to this deployment given Japan's past and how sensitive a topic that is. However, when the film in dead seriousness acts like Japan's minor UN deployment was like fucking Nam, it once again veers into silliness. Overall: Despite my rambling, I actually do like this film. I will happily add it to my extended list of favorite anime films. However, this film has some irksome features that prevent me from shouting its name to the heavens like so many others. I always see it get praise for finally bringing seriousness and intelligence to the Patlabor franchise. However, it was never a question of COULD Oshii make Patlabor more serious? Oshii is a really smart guy and obviously can write WAY more complex than he did in the Patlabor OVA, first movie, and TV series. It was a question of SHOULD Oshii have made Patlabor so serious? I honestly don't think so. I really think this should have been an independent, standalone story. I will definitely recommend this film to my offline friends, but not without adding some caveats.

In 1999 a UN peacekeeping in Cambodia goes terribly wrong. A unit led by Lieutenant Colonel Yukihito Tsuge using Labor Units are ambushed by guerrillas and he has orders not to fire back. So he's forced to watch as his men are killed, and left alone in the Cambodia jungle. Skip to 2002 and 3 years after the first movie. Many people who worked for section 2 have been reassigned Noa and Shinohara are still there now working for Shinohara Heavy Industries. Ota has been reassigned as a instructor. Shinshi as been reassigned to Tokyo Metropolitan Police GeneralAffairs. Section 2 has gotten new labor pilots as well. Things certainly have changed. Things heat up when the Yokohama Bay Bridge is destroyed when a missile from a fighter hits it. From there things spiral out of control. This is perhaps the best if not one of the best anime movies ever. The story is top notch, with it's relevance to today. Political intrigue, crossed loyalties, terrorist attacks, threat of war, and marshal law. It's hard to surpass the first Patlabor movie, but this one does. The characters thar are back, are just great. The relationship between Noa and Shinohara grows, and yet becomes more complicated. The ending is just superb. The animation now 14 years old is still good and match many anime coming out now. The music is top notch, and adds to the feel of the anime. I enjoyed it from start to finish 10 times now. Overall a classic anime movie I think everyone who loves anime needs to see.

I’ve been a longtime fan of the Patlabor TV Series. I caught a bunch of random episodes on Comcast’s Anime Selects on demand channel back in the day. Then I purchased a few random volumes of the DVD release. Eventually I purchased the entire TV series, and then the rest franchise (sans the original OVA series and the last part of the New File OVAs). But this this is something in an entirely different league then the TV series (which I loved). Now I know why old school fans speak so highly of this film. I do hope I don’t spoil too much, whiletrying to explain why this film is brilliant. Patlabor 2: The Movie was helmed by Headgear, with Mamoru Oshii directing. This is a film that requires you to be familiar with the cast of Patlabor. I’d say checking out some of the episodes of the TV series and watching the first movie would suffice*. I understand that is a lot to ask, but doing so allows you to fully understand this movie, and thus is hugely rewarding. Patlabor takes place in the not-so-distant future where “labors” (robots) have taken the lead in industry, construction, and mechanics . Patlabors (potrol + labor) are police labors used to deal with incidents involving labors, or used in situations where a robot would come in handy for the police force of Tokyo. At any rate this film takes place a few years after the first one left off. Many of the stars of the series have moved on to bigger and better things, having been promoted to higher ranks, gone back to their homes overseas, or retired from the police force all together. What we are left with is essentially Goto, Nagumo, Noa, and Asuma. Although you can bet a few of the old characters will pop up to become the supporting cast. However the film wisely focuses in on Goto and Nagumo, as this is their story, and they are easily the most interesting characters in the franchise so it’s great to see them get their own story. It would have been tempting to again focus on the younger characters, but this bold move really pays off. Goto is a middle aged captain of the Patlabor units, a brilliant strategist, with chess master-like forethought. He is a manipulate, brilliant man, who is always one step ahead of everyone around him. But he is perhaps too smart for his own good, being exiled to an unimportant area of Tokyo (a common tactic used in Japanese government to get rid of people those with power have no use for). Captain Nagumo shares power with Goto in this film, due to reasons I won’t get into. Nagumo is a more by-the books boss, she’s intelligent and usually cold emotionally, but easily angered when others do not see things her way. The film starts off with a battle involving U.N. Peacekeeping Forces (using labors) in Southeast Asia (yah! the U.N. rules !) in which only one man survives, and then cuts to the familiar characters in Tokyo. It is not entirely clear how this battle is relevant until much later in the film. In Tokyo a terroristic attack on a major bridge has the public confused and shocked. Much of the blame seems to be being put on the Japanese Self Defense Force (JSDF) from the media. Things escalate quite fast, and right when it seems like it has to have been the JSDF eager to begin a coup d’état, a high ranking JSDF officer, Shigeki Arakawa shows up asking to see “the captain” of Section 2 (the Patlabor division), unsure if he means Goto or Nagumo the police let him meet with both of them. Shigeki Arakawa quickly gets to the point, that this is not some type of coup d’état, but just clear terrorist attacks being orchestrated by a band of followers of the man who survived the U.N. Peacekeeping mission in Southeast Asia. And so Goto, Nagumo, and Arakawa begin an investigation to try and get to the bottom of all this, all while relations between the Tokyo police and JSDF sour. Patlabor 2: The Movie is one part political thriller, one part police procedural/mystery, one part character drama, with a dash of mecha added, because hey this is Patlabor after all! The comedic elements so prevalent in the TV series takes a backseat in this movie, but it does spring up from time to time. The film is frequently poetic, often taking it’s time to let you think about what is going on, and what the film’s themes are. It’s slow sure, but the pace picks up bit by bit, and becomes a tad suspenseful. It is a complex film, dialogue heavy (but never wasted) and feels like an Oshii flick. One of the best parts of the film is some heavy philosophizing by Goto and Arakawa. They discuss how Japan’s apparent and relative peace (and economic development) is based somewhat on foreign wars. The Japanese remove themselves from these wars, feelingit has nothing to do with them, or perhaps they are only lying to themselves. Maybe everyone knows the truth. Additionally the concept of a just war verses an unjust peace comes up. Not to mention the film asks the very pressing questions: what is the purpose of the JSDF? What is the true job of the Tokyo Police? What are these organizations supposed to do? What are they there to defend? This film came out during, and reflects, an important time in Japanese foreign affairs where the nation was finally becoming more willing to engage overseas by using the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (in peacekeeping missions for the United Nations). After so many years of refraining from using the military in anyway overseas, what would be next for Japan? Although Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution renounces war and the threat of force as a means to settle disputes, Japanese soldiers are still somehow deployed overseas and engaged in combat. In fact some even died. The JSDF was created to be a purely defensive force, but how far can those definitions be stretched and how leniently can they keep interpreting Article 9? Since this film has been made a contingent of the JSDF have been deployed in Mozambique, Iraq, Nepal, and the Golan Heights. While supposedly only there for humanitarian, peace keeping, reconstruction, or assistance, it really stretches the limits of Article 9. Oshii’s concerns were very valid. The art is in a style I’ve come to love, traditional Production I.G. looks, with realistic character designs, wonderful backgrounds, and a subdued but beautiful color-tone. The animation while really great, will not completely blow you away. There are some interesting “camera angels” used, like extensive use of the fisheye lens. The music was done by Kenji Kawai whose soundtrack is almost spiritual. Bandai Visual’s Los Angeles dub sounds bored and uninspired. The actors are all uninterested and seem like they could have used better direction or something. This is a professional sounding dub, just not a very good one. Manga Video’s London Dub was directed by Michael Bakewell, one of the best and most interesting ADR Directors, and it boggles the mind why this dub is excluded from Bandai Visual’s release. Why did they even re-dub it at all but not dub other films they released that had no dubs? Manga Video’s dub stars one of my favorite actors, Peter Marinker as Goto, and he yet again delivers a performance that blew me away. Not to mention the script is a thousand times better and this dub just flows more naturally. The L.A. dub is a bit stilted and makes the film harder to comprehend then it should be. Bandai Visuals DVD case looks amazing, with two wonderfully detailed booklets and tons of extra features. But the lack of the better dub is hugely disappointing and frankly a stupid decision. If I can find a problem in this film, it is that Oshii obviously wants to tell a very political story, but seems to have been forced yet again to revisit the same old franchise, one it appears he has already moved on from. But he handles this well enough. While Oshii wants to tell a political film, he only has police officers to work with here, so there are a few contrivances you will have to overlook. And the Patlabors are, for most of the film, not even used. But these are easily forgiven as the rest of the script is excellently written. The film is a mature, political, and thoughtful work that only older audiences will fully understand. This is a classic in every meaning of the word. * I am well aware this movie takes place in a different continuity then the TV series, and actually follows the OVA series. But until that is re-released by Maiden Japan, it is difficult to come by legally. (review originally posted at: http://predederva.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/patlabor-2-the-movie/ )

"In Patlabor 2, I wanted to describe the Cold War for Japan. It was a war, but a silent war. When the Cold War existed between the U.S. and Russia, the "stance" of Japan was not to be directly involved. Even though Japan was involved, it kept insisting for fifty years that it wasn't. I wanted to describe that fake peace." - Mamoru Oshii Patlabor 2 opens on UN peacekeeping mission in which a labor unit led by Lieutenant Colonel Yukihito Tsuge is ambushed but has has strict orders not to fire back, leading him to watch as his unit is killed while he cando nothing. Tsuge, the main villain of this film, aims to awaken the Japanese people to this complicit peace, which is enforced though war. Tsuge attempts to achieve this by breaking the hollow peace Japan has fetishised. Through the use of domestic terrorism Tsuge disrupts this hollow peace while the Japanese government bureaucratically sweeps it under the rug. While putting the city under martial law. This is followed by scenes of the JSDF weaving them selves into to everyday life. Showing that they don't have a plan except looking like they have a plan to fight this string of domestic terrorism. This shows the absolute terror the Japanese people have of war and to what extent they will go to protect this false peace. It is in this chaos that patlabor 2 delivers its most powerful scene, where in Arakawa and Gotou discuss the current situation and if that that the current peace, achieved by force, is better than a just war and if that fighting to protect peace is hypocritical. When Nagumo confronts Tsuge she says "even if it is an illusion there are those who accept it as reality and live in it". Mamoru Oshii has expressed on multiple times that he identifies with Tsuge's beliefs but not his methods. At the end of the film it asks is their something inherently wrong with this ignorant peace and is this unjust peace worth fighting for? Even after over 20 years since the film was first made the message still hasn't aged a day and this film's philosophical message will still be relevant for years to come.