Forum - View topicBuried Treasure - Patlabor TV & OAVs
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KabaKabaFruit
 Posts: 1878 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Am I the only one here who noticed that the first few tunes to the TV opening sounds almost identical to Olivia Newton John's Let's Get Physical?
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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There is absolutely no point in waiting on BluRays of most anime TV series made before 2004 or so, IMHO, as they were made on 16mm film and standard definition video, and will not benefit from the increased resolution of the new format. Most don't even have enough detail in their artwork to really say you'd be missing anything on VHS (though digital clarity and soft subtitles are obviously a plus). |
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UKfan
 Posts: 280 Location: Manchester UK |
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I absolutely loved Patlabor TV and the OVA/ Movies. It's one of my favourite series along with You're Under Arrest!
Even the fact the New Files weren't dubbed wasn't too disconcerting as the voices were that similar it didn't make much difference. Ok, so it was a bit corny in some places but that just added to the charm in my opinion. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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Ironically I'm usually the first one to say this. I suppose when it comes to R2 editions the price difference between Blu-ray and standard definition is usually rather small, especially when shipping is factored in. I even think that Macross Zero and Utawarerumono are cheaper as Blu-ray box sets compared to there original R2 releases. This is why I mention it might be better to wait for a Blu-ray edition for R2 releases even though the image improvement to the HD remastered standard DVD will be minimal. I will say that there are a bunch of television and OVA series (mainly from before 1998) that I would rebuy remasters for in either standard definition or Blu-ray since the original releases look so awful. There is definitely a huge video quality difference between a poor standard definition release (Southern Cross, Silent Mobius, Cybuster) and a clear DVD release (Ghost in the Shell SAC, Gunbuster, Flag) compared to the smaller increase that Blu-ray offers. Although Blu-ray releases might not look much better than a standard definition reference disc they should look at least as good as this fairly low benchmark. With standard definition DVDs I'm often surprised at strange rainbow effects, poor contrast, screen shaking, splotching of colors and blocking amongst many other issues. Some of these older shows are really awful looking due to poor masters and bad encoding which should be absent in a new transfer. I would be less concerned about Blu-ray if all anime being released looked as good as the Miyazaki or Honneamise releases, but sadly enough many DVDs don't look as good as standard definition DVDs should. |
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beelzebozo
 Posts: 308 Location: Aurora, Colorado |
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It is sad the reception that this series got in the US. Back in the 'old days' I remember people refering to it as "Patla-boring". But some of us loved it from the beginning. Goto quickly grew to be my favorite character, the man who kept the team going and knew much more than he ever let on. Even the super-competent Clancy (also one of my favorite characters) never managed to pierce that veil. Only Asuma managed to really get a glimpse of his boss's mind.
The best episodes were either political intrigue or the character comedies, especially when the cast goes drinking. You see the cracks in some of Clancy's armor the first time and the face-off between Clancy and her replacement at a hot springs in a later episode (OAV?) was priceless. And if you really want to laugh your ass off, find the episode where Section 2 has to track down a terrorist that took refuge in a public bath. But for the mecha fans, wait until later in the TV series and you'll see a very badass mech that goes toe-to-toe with Alphonse... the Griffin. Both Noa and Goto get a nemesis in Shaft. |
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Aizen-chan
Posts: 79 |
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I love Patlabor, particularly the TV series, but I though it started to go downhill when the Griffin showed up. It's a neat looking mech, for sure, but it brought in that whole "kid in a giant robot" thing that 's so common in other mech anime. And the whole thing that appealed to me about Pato was precisely that it was different then those other shows because it was about *adults* who just happened to have mecha as part of their job. Bud, with his silly name and silly hair and his prodigy like ability to pilot the Griffen just dragged everything down. I though the Phantom was a much more genuine and terrifing oponent for the Pato team. I also really liked the episode where they had to fight that military mech that developed a mind of it's own. I also like how GITS SAC remade that episode years later. 
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Jih2
 Posts: 403 Location: East coast |
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Have heard some very bad things about both of the films, apparently they have a ton of dialogue but no action so it's just characters talking about what they should/want/must do, but this article alone makes me want to buy and watch the TV series of Patlabor, the OVA and both films. My tastes may not line up with Patlabor but hey, if it's well made and/or a popular franchise I should check it out anyway right?
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8467 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Well really, Patlabor is not an action show, regardless. I don't know what those people who told you the movies were bad were expecting when they saw them, because Patlabor has always been about the characters first, the mecha second. Never do the mecha take over, like oftentimes in a Gundam or Macross series (although, to a lesser extent in those than in super robot programs). The movies are a more complex, serious take on a usually more lighthearted series, but there are serious moments in the OVAs and TV series. The whole "SV2's Longest Day" arc in the first OVA is practically a prototype for the second movie. Last edited by penguintruth on Fri May 02, 2008 4:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Carl Horn
Posts: 90 |
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Not only Peter Marinker, but Blair Fairman (if I have the credit correct) as Arakawa was memorable in the Manga P2 dub. In the last seven years, we've seen no shortage of people like Arakawa testify before Congress, appear on talk shows, give press conferences, and write tell-all books about how everybody in the administration was an idiot except them. We, unfortunately, haven't had the satisfaction of any American Goto placing them under arrest for their bloody mischief. But in real life, people like Arakawa also don't sound deep-voiced and sinister. Blair Fairman portrayed a man who sounded like both a careful career bureaucrat, protective of his power and prerogatives, and an sincere ideologue, convinced that terrorism is a threat able to shake society out of a dangerous complacency, from which only the defense and intelligence community--suitably funded--can save it.
It's kind of funny how we even now compare P2 to Tom Clancy, as if the kind of events the film portrays are still the stuff of fiction. I made the same mistake when I interviewed Oshii in 1995 after the Aum Shinrikyo attacks--"Isn't it ironic that it turned out Tokyo was vulnerable to terrorism after all!" without even thinking that the film might be equally relevant to my own country. |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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It's worth noting here that Flag and GitS SAC are both all-digital shows one and possibly both were even produced in high definition. Of course those will look pristine. Gunbuster was already a high-end produced-on-35mm OAV, and it was given a very expensive digital remastering that 90% of anime will never get. Meanwhile, Southern Cross and Silent Möbius were both shot on 16mm and are pretty low quality to begin with. I haven't seen the Silent Möbius TV series on DVD (I'm not a fan of the show), but I popped in Southern Cross and honestly, this is about as good as 16mm is capable of looking, and I can say with some degree of certainty that any attempt to restore them probably won't look a whole lot better than what we currently have. All this isn't to say that these shows will absolutely never look any better, but more that they're highly unlikely to ever look better. The "awful" quality can be attributed to the show itself and the production values of its age. It's something akin to complaining about movies made in the 1930s being in black and white. Last edited by jsevakis on Fri May 02, 2008 3:40 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Jih2
Posts: 403 Location: East coast |
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It wasn't so much the expectation of robots blowing stuff up as it was a quality product, i.e. they weren't impressed with the writing, I'm still going to check the movies and series out.
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penguintruth
Posts: 8467 Location: Penguinopolis |
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That dialogue that Arakawa and Gotoh have that we only hear after Gotoh's on the SV2 boat on his way back to HQ is haunting. You know, the one about "just wars". I think Marinker and Fairman (if you're right) really do an excellent job there, especially the latter. Besides being thoughful, it really shows the similarites and differences between those two characters. |
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The Shade
 Posts: 36 |
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Thanks for the information on the DVD's. Now, I'm really tempted. As for the manga, sorry, my bad. I had meant to type 14 and instead typed 18. It's still better than the 2 volumes in English. |
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ingram_pilot
 Posts: 66 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Thanks for the clarification. If you're also interested in the movies, I suggest you go for the Bandai-Visual release instead of the Manga Video one. I have both, and the first thing I noticed with the BV version is that the visual quality is much much better. The aspect ratio is adapted to look good on both widescreen and 4:3 TVs, and the English dub is quite good overall. Also, in an uncharacteristic move, the DVDs price is actually reasonable; CDN$ 27.99 on Amazon.ca. |
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Randall Miyashiro
Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I really should have compared these shows to other 16mm shows that were from the same era that have better masters like Mospeada, Zeta Gundam, Evangelion, and Bubblegum Crisis that look much better than the examples listed to make my point. I remember getting ADVs Southern Cross and Mospeada collections at the same time and comparing the quality of the transfers. I think the biggest problem I have with the "poor quality" examples that I listed is the lack of contrast that the Patlabor DVDs fortunately do not suffer from. At the very least the film splices and the frame shaking (which is very noticeable if subs are present) should be fixed. I hear many of the new HD masters (on standard definition DVDs) for Escaflowne, Macross, First Gundam, etc. that are being released in Japan have a dramatic improvement compared to the original release. Sadly enough there are not too many classics that have had a HD remaster release in the States, but if these new releases look like the Evagelion Platinum I would say that the improvement is worth it. I suppose my point is that many of these older 16mm titles can benefit from a new master since many of the older pre-digital masters look weak (compared to Eva Platinum or Zeta) but I completely agree that the extra benefits of Blu-ray probably would not add too much. The other point that I'm attempting to convey is that the Blu-ray editions (I would hope) will use the newly remastered sources and would be a nice edition to ones collection if the price is competitive with the standard definition release. Was Gunbuster shot on 35mm? This wouldn't be too surprising considering how good the BVUSA release looks, but I do recall that almost all OVAs are shot on 16mm besides a few like Megazone 23. |
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