Anime Meta-Review
Patlabor, OAV #2
Index's
Home
Alphabetic
Quality
Genre
People
Recent
By Date
Title Info
- seen: 1-16 of 16
- type: OAV
- grade: worthy
- genre: seinen
- Other elements of this title:
- This title is a personal favourite.
- people: Oshii
- made: unknown
- Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
- mod: none
Please note : This review is currently the same text as that found in the Patlabor TV series. These two products were sold together, with 1 OAV ep. and 3 TV eps. per tape. While I reviewed them together it never really made much sense. Thus i've split them, and will re-write both reviews to make the differences clearer.
There is one important thing to keep in mind when watching patlabor, it is not actually a police-mecha series despite appearing to be so. It is firstly and foremost a piece about a group of strong individualists, the oddballs and drop outs of the regular police. Secondly it is a police story, there is a lot of politics, investigation and simply sitting around on guard. The mecha themselves are simply vehicles, the reason for the group existing but not the primary focus of the show. There are great strengths to this approach though, there are many wonderful character moments amongst the large cast, some good writing and good representation of action (especially since much of the mecha combat is hand to hand).
Those who demand a single epic tale, mass destruction and fast paced stories may find it hard to love this series, since much of the story is low scale and steady of pace. Those with a bent for the dramatic, engaging characters, dry humor and offbeat episodic stories should find patlabor quite unlike the mainstream of anime. Also note that this review covers the second OAV series and the TV episodes since the OAV is considered as an extension of (interleaved into) the TV series (although I don't see the benefit). The animation is good for a TV series, the design consistent and believable and the voices wonderful on the ears (especially the laconic Goto). This series also contains the best selection of mature characters, Sakaki, Nagumo and the impressively weird Goto (and his equally weird nemesis Utsumi) are really fun to watch. Bonus points for some of the most complete, competent, female characters (Kanuka Clancy, Nagumo Shinobu and Takeo Kumagami) and the least romantic (but what a friend!) woman of all times Noa Izumi.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:23 WST 2009