Patlabor Recommended

Publisher
Manga Entertainment
Director
Mamoru Oshii
Production
Bandai, Production IG, Tatsunoko Productions
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Film
Running time
100 mins
Year
1989

Patlabor Movie 1

By Stephen Lerch
17th Apr 06

Patlabor Movie 1 is an Anime movie based off of the Patlabor universe. The movie made its debut July 15, 1989 and was directed by Oshii Mamoru.

This set also marks Bandai Visual’s debut in the Region 1 Anime market under its Honneamise label. Honneamise was setup to give Bandai Visual direct access to the R1 market and release what they feel are high quality releases of their titles. Kind of like a Criterion of Anime if you will.

This review covers the Region 1 Limited Collector’s Edition (limited to 10,000 units), though the video section of the Extras portion, Video and Audio portions of the review are relevant for those looking into the regular edition as the discs are the same (with different silk screening).

Short Synopsis:

1999. Labors, robots that are driven by humans that perform all sorts of functions, are being employed to build a huge artificial island in Tokyo Bay. Early on we find out that practically all the Labors in Japan have been upgraded with a new OS dubbed Hyper Operating System, or HOS. It turns out this system has a fatal flaw, a sort of virus that infects a system and remains intact even with an OS downgrade, that isn’t discovered until after the upgrade has been completed and several Labors go berserk, sometimes even booting up on their own.

Enter the Metropolitan Police’s Special Vehicle Division who are tasked with stopping the rampaging Labors and also investigate the lethal virus that was installed unwittingly in many of Japan’s Labors and also stop the master plan of the HOS creator.

Video:

This release is a proper anamorphic widescreen transfer, unlike the Manga release on DVD several years ago. The video uses the remastered video from the original Japanese Region 2 release, so it has been color corrected and many defects in the film removed. There is very little by way of dust and dirt, but there are instances of this.

During my viewing there were no noticeable areas with compression blocking or other compression errors.

The release has high quality video throughout.

As far as the animation goes, this was a movie from the 80s and appears to have had a very nice budget. It is highly detailed and has extremely smooth animation.

Audio:

You have 2 audio options, spoken Japanese 5.1 and spoken English 5.1. English subtitles are optional.

During the Japanese remastering process done for their DVD release, not only was the video remastered, but the original Dolby Digital Stereo mix was remixed and remastered into Dolby Digital 5.1 as well. The channel separation is fantastic (I only watched in Japanese) and the bass is at a satisfactory level.

There are no dropouts or other noticeable audio distortions.

Both tracks are encoded at 448 Kbps.

Extras:

Given the high quality of the audio/video on the movie DVD, the only video extras available are TV spots and trailers for the movie. However, there is a second disc full of extras that collect the Making of featurettes that were originally released on Japanese Laser Disc. The audio for the extras are Japanese language with optional English subtitles. The featurettes include interviews and explanations of the Patlabor world, with an exploration on where the animation team came up with the world of Tokyo as they envisioned it 10 years after the movie’s release (released in 1989, the movie is set in 1999).

Also included in the Limited Collector’s Edition are 2 books. The first book is a storyboard book that collects all of the storyboards from the film and is translated into English. The second book is packed full of interviews and information on Patlabor and is translated into English as well. The storyboard book is in black and white, whilst the interview book has full color pages.

Packaging:

I have to say that this is one of the few instances where a Region 1 release has gotten a release packaged in a style similar Japanese Region 2 limited edition movies. The box in which all the goodies are stuffed is made of high quality chipboard and has a foil type coating. The cover is of the Zero Labor introduced in the movie while the back has a description of the movie and several screen shots.

The DVDs are held in a digipak case styled like a hardback book. The case is all black with a white line drawing of the Zero Labor. My only complaint is that the case can be a little difficult to close properly.

Final Analysis:

Patlabor Movie 1 is an amazing debut from Bandai Visual’s Honneamise label. If this release is any indication on how they will present future releases then I will fully support every release they put out without fail.

For those with the original DVD release of the movie, you will have to decide on your own if the new remastered anamorphic video and new 5.1 audio is worthy of an upgrade. I would say so, but I enjoy the movie so your mileage may vary. I also leave the decision of going for the expensive LE or the much cheaper regular edition to the reader. This decision all depends on how the books and packaging appeal to you personally.

As for the movie, having been directed by Oshii Mamoru, I had expected a bit more of a “thinker.” That isn’t to say that the movie can’t jog your brain a bit, but compared to Urusei Yatsura Movie 2 and Ghost in the Shell, I had expected something with a lot of deeper meaning. There is plenty to investigate in your mind, but there doesn’t seem to be any exploration in the film itself of difficult ideas similar to those presented in UY Movie 2, that being time and dreams or eternal life and integration of man and machine in Ghost in the Shell.

These types of releases, of Anime movies from the 80s, make me wish more theatrical Anime were released and people put as much time, love and care into Anime today as they did then. Sure, a lot of the releases today look good, but something has to be said for the feel of hand drawn and painted animation at a level of quality such as this one.

Patlabor Movie 1 Limited Collector’s Edition will be an amazing addition to any collector’s DVD racks. The regular edition would also be a notable addition given its over all quality as well.

Highly recommended.

-- Stephen Lerch 17th Apr 06

Patlabor Images