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I love this movie so much

Strong and Moving!

Best movie ever!

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The movie Patlabor: The Mobile Police is an animated film about a world where robotic machines have been invented to help ease the work load in the labor department and as well used for policing. Soon into the movie you'll learn that the robots start to act on their own and cause destruction in their paths. This brings in the case of "who" is responsible for this and "why" this is happening in the first place, which helps bring in the backbone and understanding of the main problem in and of itself.Now you're probably wondering why I gave this movie such a low rating right? Compared to great anime series such as Death Note and Code Geass (although these are TV series) which also has the same investigation-type story to it, Patlabor comes nowhere close. What these other two anime's do so well and what Patlabor lacks is the bringing in of the "why" and "how", leaving necessary hints throughout the films, which gives a mind-blown/adrenaline rush when everything that's happened and happening finally clicks. Death Note does a fantastic job at explaining on the go of the intentions and plans being put forward, and if information is left out, it will explain it soon after on why things happened the way they did. Code Geass does very well with explaining the mysterious power behind it and how it works exactly. Sadly these key elements are nowhere to be found in Patlabor.A typical "robot malfunction" story just done in a different way, which in some aspects actually reminded me of the I Robot film starring Will Smith. However the issue in which I soon came to realize is the drastic lack in given information and explanation for situations that arose. One simple example of this is the dry story of the villain (Hosha)--and I say dry because they really don't give you any information on him--in which you find out he's the one who started the malfunctions. But if you think they'll give a background story you'll be disappointed, neither are his motives explained when it comes to "why" he planted viruses in the machines. You'll understand quite vaguely that (spoiler alert) the reason behind the robots defections are due to a program the creator (Hosha) pre-installed. Kind of like a virus that goes off when activated by a specific situation, with this a certain wind velocity did the trick (which also wasn't explained).Looking from this perspective you might be disappointed, or it might just be me. But going from this angle while watching this film you might now notice the overall lacking of information given, and this is just one scenario. This movie however just doesn't do a good job in bringing explanations into play, which help push the story along.Besides the fact that there are sequels to this, there still needs to be an understandable plot and story without the help of its sequels. But alas there isn't, and because of this Patlabor: The Mobile Police shouldn't be on one of your top lists of anime films to see, there's so many animated series/movies out there that has a lot more in store for you than this.

I was fortunate enough to come across this video early in my exploration of Japanese animation. It was also the first video where I began to take notice of the greatly different pacing that the Japanese have in terms of plot & character developement. This is a story about a scientist that commits suicide after creating a virus that will eventually cause giant robots known as Labors to malfunction and lay waste about them. (Labors are manned, humanoid machines used in heavy lifting, construction and peacekeeping (domestic & military) tasks.) The action is split between the policemen who struggle to contain the destruction as the first infected Labors begin to malfunction and a pair of detectives who painstakingly retrace the dead doctors last steps before his suicide. If you're looking for something to cut your anime teeth on that's not too outlandish.. I highly recommend this video!

Isaac Asimov meets Akira in this detective-oriented science-fiction Japanese Manga film. Set in the near-future, Tokyo is undergoing a huge re-development program: old suburbs are being demolished and man-made islands are being constructed in Tokyo Bay. Most of the work is being done by giant man-operated robots called Labors. Labors are prone to go out of control and cause chaos, so units of the Police force have been set up to deal with them. These units, divided into squadrons, also use giant robots to tackle the out-of-control Labors. Asuma Shinohara is a sergeant in Second Squadron, who discovers that the crazy behaviour of the Labors is due to a bug in their operating system which was deliberately put in by Eiichi Hoba, the OS programmer. Hoba has since committed suicide confidant that his plan to destroy Tokyo will take effect...Patlabor is typical Manga with plenty of action and violence, but also a good deal of appeal and characters. These range from Asuma, quick-tempered and insubordinate, but a good detective; Captain Goto, the quietly manipulative commanding officer; and Officer Noa Izumi, Asuma's long-suffering, child-like colleague-cum-girlfriend, who ultimately saves the day.

Much as I love Patlabor the OAV and TV series, I found this film too be too slow moving at times and all too serious. The quality of animation was slightly above the OAV's and the character designs also kept closely to the OAV (as opposed to the more mature look in P2).As I understood the plot, a mysterious hacker introduced a virus into the operating system (called H.O.S. or Hyper Operating System) for ALL labors in Japan. This virus could cause unmanned units to go beserk, and is activated by a unique ultra-sound frequency created at random by the gusty winds that blow across the Tokyo skyline.Tied in to all this is the newly completed tower of the Babylon Project to reclaim land in the Tokyo bay. Apparently the tower is a giant tuning fork which could give the doomsday signal when a great storm hits the bay.All this sounds intriguing, but it takes way too long for the plot to advance to a coherent stage. There is hardly any action save for the last 20 minutes or so. Most of all, I missed the great dialogue and humour in the video and TV series.