Patlabor 2: The Movie, directed by Mamoru Oshii, is now considered a gem in the mecha and cyberpunk genres. The event takes place in a fictional Tokyo where most violent and technologically advanced crimes were left to be handled by giant robotic police known as “Labors”. This movie is a continuation of the Patlabor series but this time focuses more on the political aspects and the role of military in contemporary society.
It all starts with a strange incident in South East Asia during a United Nations peacekeeping mission. The remote context which caused concern, eventually leads to a situation in Tokyo when a high profile terrorist group initiates a chain of events alongside several attacks, such as targeting the Bay Bridge in Japan with missiles. These reasons were valid enough to pursue for declaration of a state of emergency which saw Japan moving on the verge of martial law. All these events led to one single motive, which was to find the ring leader of these attacks.
A prevy deputy police force commander, Yukihito Tsuge, who was frustrated with the continuous fighting across the globe & Japan’s no war policy, turns out to be the one behind the scenes. His actions are fueled by the perception, that Japan has lost its spirits and become too reliant on the protection given by foreign militaries. But Tsuge is not simply a terrorist seeking destruction, his plan, is aimed at provoking Japan into realizing its deficiency so that they can start formulating a military policy.
In the chaos of the city, Kiichi Goto and Shinobu Nagumo, former officers with the Special Vehicles Section 2 (SV2) are pulled back into the narrative of action. This Now let’s outsmart Tsuge during the story with this and that’s what the plot goes as the film progresses further. As the perception of justice collides with reason, high stakes aim at an embrace between logic and chaos that culminates towards the end.
Cast & Crew
- Directed by: Mamoru Oshii
- Story ?: Kazunori Ito, Mamoru Oshii
Main Cast:
- Toshio Furukawa as Asuma Shinohara – Transfer From Former SV2’s Labor Team.
- Ryusuke Ohbayashi as Kiichi Goto – A Captain of SV2 with sharp-witted strategies and planning.
- Yoshiko Sakakibara as Shinobu Nagumo – A former commander with management and strategy skills.
- Taro Ishida as Yukihito Tsuge – The expected villain with a twist to his character.
Production Crew:
- Character Designer: Akemi Takada
- Mechanical Designer: Yutaka Izubuchi
- Music: Kenji Kawai
One of the strongest parts for the film was the team involved who made sure the anime-style artwork was balanced with the philosophical side of the storyline while making sure the military technology used was also realistic.
Patlabor 2: The Movie is well-praised on IMDb with a score of 7.8/10 on the scale of 1 to 10. The storyline and overall theme is well rated among the anime fans as well as experts. On release, it received quite a lot of praise for mature character development, impressive visual effects, and situations. Critiques often draw attention to the film’s intertwined stories highlighting the political sphere, moral vacillation, and its audacious outlook towards Japanese pacifism after World War 2.
It was one of the first projects to successfully incorporate computer graphics along with classical animation and the effects speak for themselves. The beautifully constructed and carefully chosen music sets a haunting tone to the film making it even more impactful and truly remarkable. Others noted even before his film ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (1995), he was already using his distinct directorial touches with Mamoru Oshii, using dramatic slowness, heavy and complicated conversations, overbearing philosophizing.
Though there was quite a lot of publicity and advertising for the movie, it turned out to be an enthralling political drama with much less focus on the battle between machines and more focus on the mental and political warfare; this new concept was quite hard for many supporters of the genre to stomach along with the pacing.
Conclusion
Patlabor 2: The Movie is indeed a movie full of superb significance other than an anime action movie. It’s an intelligence and visually stimulating examination of a range of issues including geopolitics and technology as well as the disposition of human beings. Mamoru Oshii ingeniously mixes the appetites of political thrillers and philosophical hunches, which makes him an immortal artist whose canvas is not limited to anime only.
Topics of public apathy, overseas military action, and fighting for the peace are all relevant. One of the most complex is Tsuge, who still has an entourage and cannot easily be dealt with, and because of this the film retains a multileveled depiction of the human beings’ self-sabotaging struggle to achieve duty, peace and more importantly to seek and redefine perceptions of reality.
In the end, Patlabor 2: The Movie occupies a very special position in the history of anime, being a provocative large scale work of art to create a wide variety of feelings among viewers on a number of aspects of contemporary wars, politics, and people’s roles in the society. With its overwhelming political plot and compellingly beautiful images, it cannot go wrong as one of the classics of Japanese film art.
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