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The OAV is a favourite and the movies are of course terrific and wonderfully atmospheric and Oshii-esque, especially the second one.

Haven't really bothered with the TV series yet. While I'm sure it would be worthwhile, from what I did see it seemed kind of inferior in most ways. Availability of a good quality release has definitely kept me away as well. The boxes are pretty cheap for the amount of content but at the brink of Blu-ray I don't really feel like putting down $100 on LD dumps.

On that note I should mention that the entire series was remastered for the Memorial Box released in Japan last year. It was a limited release but as has been mentioned in the thread, cdjapan still has it in stock (expensive as hell and no subs of course.)

Edit: And yes, the AV-98 Ingram is one the best-designed mechas of all time. The head especially has a very unique look, and it's overall quite elegant in its simplicity (love the reactive armour version from P2 as well). Not like so much of the generic stuff where the main goal of mecha-design seems to be to use as many different colours and put as many wings and rods and trinkets and triangular stuff poking out of the seams as possible.

penguintruth wrote:

I'm very happy about Mobile Police Patlabor being featured in this Buried Treasure article. I've been a pretty big Patlabor fan for a while. I like it just as much when it's serious as it is when it is silly.

It's also nice that Peter Marinker, who was a astoundingly good dub voice for Captain Gotoh in the sea of otherwise monotone voices in the English cast of the first two Patlabor movies. The new voice for the Honneamise re-releases just doesn't suit him as well, though they're somewhat better than his voice in the dub for the OVAs and TV series.

It's too bad about the dubs, but one should really listen to the original Japanese cast anyway, since it sports the talents of Toshio Furukawa and Yoshiko Sakakibara.

I have the boxset of the first OVA and the three movies in various releases. It's one of the quieter mecha franchises, but very entertaining. Certainly a buried treasure.

Really o,o? I found Gotoh's VA to be the most disappointing after Ota's (talking the Manga dub). He sounded more like a film noir gumshoe rather than the laid back officer/ mentor type that he is imo <.<

In a weird twist of fate, I had just checked out the first two volumes of the TV series from my local public library a couple weeks ago. I always had the impression that this was one of the "classics" of anime, and so far I've been enjoying it. I like the flow of the "sit-com plus steady character development" structure.

Been watching the subs mostly, only switching to dubs to get a flavor of the various performances in another language. I thought the dub actor for Gotoh did a pretty good job of capturing the character, but I've only seen a handful of episodes so far so that may be premature.

Ahh, one of my favorite anime franchises of all time. The first movie is my favorite anime movie ever (the second never really clicked with me, and the third...I should rewatch it). I feel like going out an buying the whole series now.
I only ever saw the OVA and TV series dubbed on AZN (and then the "new files" subbed on IA). I didn't think the dub was horrible (I thought it was kidna charming actually), but I agree that Asuma's voice stood out as the best.

The first thing I saw of Patlabor was the movie. I remember expecting an all-out action movie, and then being taken by surprise by what it turned out to be. And I've been in love with the SV2 gang ever since (*pats his revoltech Alphonse on the head*)

I'm still holding out a tiny sliver of hope that someone will rerelease the manga (Viz only released the first 2 and that was before the manga boom), which I hear is pretty darn good.

Dakishimete, Midnight Bluuuuue!

Patlabor has always had a long cult following in Japan. The 1988 Anime TV series was widly popluar back in its day, the 1989 O.A.V also had a strong early following when ME licensed it back in the mid 1990s and the 1993 movie a.k.a. "Patlabor 2" was quite the hit.

The most recent film in the franchise was "Wasted XIII: Patlabor" released in 2002.

I don't think the CPM T.V. series dub is bad. It's starts off solid, but then it get's mediocre by the second season. (I got it on DVD-R) I did have the O.A.V and movie on VHS recorded from Encore back in early 2004, but my mother accidently recorded over it a few years ago.(DAMN IT!)

Hey, Justin are you still considering doing "801 T.T.S. Airbats" in your buried treasure segment? It's been out of print for three years now and getting harder to find. So you should considered getting it soon before it becomes almost inaccessable.

Last edited by belvadeer on Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:13 pm; edited 1 time in total

I wish I had seen this. I remotely heard it about back in my younger days, but to think it was actually a huge hit, I feel cheated now T__T

Nice to see Patlabor in Buried Treasure. Since this is the hot topic of the day, I was wondering what those who have the first OVA from CPM think of the discs' quality. Is the video nice and crisp or washed out? Is the audio clear, or hissy? How are the subtitle translations? In light of the review about the English dub, I'm not going to ask about it.

I just hope that if I do decide to buy it, that CPM doesn't lose the license and BV decides to do a deluxe release. That would really make me scream.

Speaking of that, I'm strongly thinking about checking out the manga. In Canada, it's available in French and they're at or about volume 18. For those who have read the manga (in whatever language they read it), how does it compare to the various animated versions?

I honestly did not know this was a comedy. It certainly seems to be well-received, but can I still expect some genuine drama if I choose to watch this?

Responding to nothing specific, I first saw this dubbed way back when, and I thought the dub was pretty good for when it came out. But having watched it again recently, yeah, it's not so good compared to what we have now. I've been waiting for years for either the price to drop significantly on the tv series or for me to have lots of extra money, and fortunately, both of those happened recently. And now that the semester's over, I can get to watching it. Much fun.

The Shade wrote:

Since this is the hot topic of the day, I was wondering what those who have the first OVA from CPM think of the discs' quality. Is the video nice and crisp or washed out? Is the audio clear, or hissy? How are the subtitle translations? In light of the review about the English dub, I'm not going to ask about it.

Considering the age of the original material, the transfer is quite good. I didn't notice any wash out, and the video is as crisp as can be expected. CPM are usually pretty good when it comes to transferring old shows to DVD, but it is from 1988, so don't expect crystal clear quality.

The Shade wrote:

Speaking of that, I'm strongly thinking about checking out the manga. In Canada, it's available in French and they're at or about volume 18.

I've been interested in the manga for a while, but I didn't even know they were available in French. Thanks for the heads up. Amazon.ca only has up to volume 14, do you have any idea where to find the others?

Zin5ki wrote:

I honestly did not know this was a comedy. It certainly seems to be well-received, but can I still expect some genuine drama if I choose to watch this?

The OVAs and the TV series do contain some good drama (SV2's Longest Day from OVA 1 comes to mind) but for the most part, it's comedy. Really good character driven comedy. The movies on the other hand are serious dramas like most of Mamoru Oshii's other works.

Justin Sevakis wrote:

Produced by Matlin Recording for CPM, the English version was simply a trainwreck.

Being a dub fan myself, I tend to be very forgiving of bad dubs; but even I have to admit the dubs for the Patlabor TV & OVAs weren't that good. There were a few highlights though. Specifically, I thought Michael Schwartz as Captain Goto and James Wolfe as Ota were able in some ways to surpass the performances the Japanese VAs for those roles.

Peter Marinker's performance in the Manga Entertainment version of the movies was excellent; but it was specifically suited to the movies. It was a very serious performance and would not have fit the lighthearted tone of the series. What I thought made Michael Schwartz's portrayal of Goto good was that he essentially delivered two seperate and unique performances. Captain Goto is a very two sided character, and I haven't found a better description of him than the one on the first DVD of the TV series: "A tactician shrouded in mystery, he disguises himself as a dullard to hide how sharp he really is." For the most part, Schwartz plays him as a sleepy dullard, but the speed with which he can switch to sharp as a tack Goto is quite surprising. And both performances are equally convincing. On the other hand I didn't think Ryunosuke Ohbayashi's performance, as excellent as it was, really brought out Goto's smart side. That's why I preferred Michael Schwartz.

The reason I preferred James Wolfe's performance over Michihiro Ikemizu's was also because of the extra dimension he added to the character. To me, in the original Japanese, Ota simply sounded like a 'big Japanese guy in a bad mood.' In fact I kept being reminded Toshihiro Obata from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. This was problably because I don't understand Japanese and couldn't fully grasp Ikemizu's performance. Anyways, James Wolfe brought a certain degree of "psychotic-ness" (for lack of a better term) to the role that made it seem like Ota was teetering on the edge of mental instability. What could be more fun than a psycho with a big gun. Twisted Evil

Also, I thought Ota was more endearing and easier to relate to in the English version.

In the end though, everybody's mileage will vary.

Last edited by babbo on Thu May 01, 2008 7:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

indrik wrote:

Responding to nothing specific, I first saw this dubbed way back when, and I thought the dub was pretty good for when it came out. But having watched it again recently, yeah, it's not so good compared to what we have now. I've been waiting for years for either the price to drop significantly on the tv series or for me to have lots of extra money, and fortunately, both of those happened recently. And now that the semester's over, I can get to watching it. Much fun.

You can find it pretty cheap on amazon used/new. My brother got the first two box sets for around $15 each including shipping. Though currently it's closer to 25ish <.<

People looking into the TV series should note that eps 43-47 are only in the third box set so you'll prolly want to avoid buying volumes 9 and 10 seperately>.>

It's hard for me to find a particularly good dub I like of Patlabor. There isn't a single dub voice actress who does Noa any justice. Nor Asuma. The dub voice of Ota in the TV series falls flat in delivery and the one in the Manga Entertainment dub tries too hard. The one in Honneamise's release doesn't stand out. I was unimpressed with the dub voice of Gotoh in the TV and OVAs, but as I mentioned, loved Peter Marinker in Manga's dub of the first two movies. I didn't really care for Captain Nagumo's voice in any of the dubs, but I tolerated them.

It's best to go with the Japanese voices, since there are some real talents in that cast.

Zin5ki wrote:

I honestly did not know this was a comedy. It certainly seems to be well-received, but can I still expect some genuine drama if I choose to watch this?

Yes, most definitely. In a lot of ways, I find it similar to the TV series M*A*S*H in terms of mixing comedy with drama.

BrianRuh wrote:

Coincidentally, it looks like CDJapan is running a special on anime box sets that includes the Memorial Box and the New OVA Box. Even with the discounts, the boxes are "only" US$762.85 and US$284.16, respectively. (Of course, if I had the money, I'd buy them since I'm such a completist.)

The Memorial Box contains the New Files so the price per episode break down is a bit better than many R2 releases. I have a hard time buying all these remastered titles that have been coming out in Japan over the last 2 years since I keep thinking that the Blu-ray editions will be released soon, especially since most of them have a limited printing.

penguintruth wrote:

It's hard for me to find a particularly good dub I like of Patlabor. There isn't a single dub voice actress who does Noa any justice. Nor Asuma. The dub voice of Ota in the TV series falls flat in delivery and the one in the Manga Entertainment dub tries too hard. The one in Honneamise's release doesn't stand out. I was unimpressed with the dub voice of Gotoh in the TV and OVAs, but as I mentioned, loved Peter Marinker in Manga's dub of the first two movies. I didn't really care for Captain Nagumo's voice in any of the dubs, but I tolerated them.

It's best to go with the Japanese voices, since there are some real talents in that cast.

The remote for the dvd player was missing for the first time I watched it so I had no choice about it. Noa kinda cracked me up after a while Anime hyper

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