Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese Dub and English and Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) Subtitles
Length: 15 minutes (Episode 0), 48 minutes (Episodes 1 to 11), 32 minutes (Episode 12)
Production Date: 2014 - 2015
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
Eleven years have passed since the events of “Patlabor 2 the movie”. The construction of the Babylon Project is a long distant memory and a deep and long recession has hung over Japan. As a result Labors are far scarcer and so is Labor crime. Special Vehicles Unit 2 (SV2) therefore was halved with Division 1 being made redundant. Only two AV-98 Ingrams remain and have been remodelled endlessly with little help from the manufacturer. All of the original SV2 staff have left with only Shigeo Shiba (known as Shige within the SV2) remains and is now the head mechanic. Shige recounts the changes in the SV2. While he was indifferent to replacements for the original staff, he sympathises with the current SV2. The SV2 are under the constant threat of being dissolved by their parent group the Security Bureau.
But the current members of the SV2 are just as odd as the original members were; Akira Izumino (played by Erina Mano) is the video game loving first Labor pilot, Yuma Shiobara (Seiji Fukushi) the back up for the first Labor and military otaku who is constantly making plastic models, Ekaterina Krachevna Kankaeva aka Kasha (Rina Ohta) the chain smoking, back talking back up for the second Labor on loan from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, Isamu Ohtawara (Yoshinori Horimoto) the second Labor pilot who is a trigger happy maniac cop and an alcoholic to boot, Hiromichi Yamazaki (Shigekazu Tajiri) the first Labor team’s carrier driver who is way too soft to be in the SV2 and cares for chickens in his spare time, and Shinji Mikiya (Kohei Shiotsuka) the second Labor team’s carrier driver who is recently divorced and uses his Pachinko addiction to pay his child support. Presiding over this ragtag group is Keiji Gotoda (Toshio Kakei), the rather easy going captain.
Most days at the SV2 are filled with boredom as the mechanics and Labor teams try to get through the long days by bickering with each other, playing video games, watching TV and other pastimes. With the manpower essentially halved since the dissolution of Division 1, the two Labor teams are constantly on standby and are forced to take turns in doing eight hour shifts around the clock. This leaves with no personal life at all. Food is an issue with the only local restaurant, the Shanghai finally getting sick of 15 years of orders from the SV2 and just delivering large vats of fried rice and noodles. The only other option for food is a poorly stocked convenience store several kilometres away. Occasionally there will be a Labor incident, but this is rare. More likely the real threats come from the harassment from Security Bureau wanted to shut them down as well as members of Public Security trying to force them to take on missions out of their scope, due to their history under the former two captains. Worst is the fact that with no support from the manufacturer, the Labors barely work for more than a five minute at a stretch and constantly break down when they do.
As the series progresses, the SV2 are forces to deal with some very strange situations from batteling giant Kappa monsters, terrorists holding convenience stores for ransom, game centre battles, fighting rouge Russian Labors, mad bombers, assassins and being chased by raptors under the labyrinth of sewers beneath the SV2. It’s pretty much as per normal when compared with their predecessors.
This is the infamous recent movie series (released in cinemas first in seven parts, broadcast on satellite TV a few weeks later, then on home video. Much like the “Yamato 2199” series) helmed by Mamoru Oshii based upon the late 1980’s and early 1990’s anime. Believe it or not, since the late 1990’s there have been a couple of attempts to make the franchise into a live action film. First Christophe Gans (“Brotherhood of the Wolf”, “Silent Hill”), had a go but couldn’t get past the script stage. A pilot film directed by Oshii mysteriously appeared in 1998, however it was never revealed as to why it was made. In 2013 we finally found out that this was a film project that Oshii was determined to make. The promotional material for the series certainly made it quite an anticipated project; it was given a two billion yen budget (which included a full length theatrical feature to conclude the series) and two eight metre Ingram Labor props were built for the series and were later used in promotional events.
The reality turned out to be quite different. This series seems to be despised by fans of the anime. Online Japanese retailers are filled with one star reviews for the series. Most of the reviews average out to barely two and a half stars out of five. The main complaints are that it’s quite hammy (it’s mostly a comedy) and the Labors don’t get much use at all. And there’s also the use of an idol as the lead character (Erina Mano is a graduate of the Hello! Project, most famous for giving the world the idol group Morning Musume). Having finally seen the series in its entirety, some of these criticisms are quite valid, others not so much. The original “Patlabor” OVAs and TV series were comedies, absurd, even farcical at times, and many episodes didn’t feature the Labors at all (it’s a work place sitcom essentially), so I think it’s a bit rich to complain about “The Next Generation - Patlabor -” being a comedy which hardly features the titular robots. However as it is very much a series based in reality and a fair wack of the comedy, especially the parts mimicking manga-like elements, comes off as a bit cringe worthy. However these are mostly confined to the early parts of the series. As the series progresses it uses these elements sparingly, and the episodes become more dramatic and serious, though there is always a farcical element in each episode.
Oshii certainly knows how to frame a great shot. A lot of the footage is utterly gorgeous, especially of Tokyo. Even the pollution filled waterways look beautiful. The scripts, mostly co-written by Oshii himself, can be quite funny at times, though his usual self-indulgent philosophical moments do crop up. The action is also surprisingly well choreographed. A gun battle inside a convenience store and a short battle between an Ingram and a Russian Labor are two of the highlights in the series. Oshii has quite a lot of interesting things to say in the series such as highlighting the absurdity of Japanese corporate and public servant culture and the way the SV2 obsess about their hobbies over work because of that soul crushing culture. But the major problem with the series was the blatant recycling of material from the anime. The main cast are facsimiles of the original characters with minor tweaks to their personalities (I will give Oshii points for recasting the original voice actor as Shigeo Shiba). Great swathes of dialogue from the anime are reused, word for word in some scenes. And bizarrely two episodes are practically remakes of two anime episodes, with only minimal changes to names and dialogue. I don’t understand why he has done this. Perhaps to parody or satirise the original?
The CG elements of the show are quite reasonable when you consider the budget of the show. The Ingrams in motion aren’t spectacular, but get the job done. Certainly the setup of the show was a work around so there would be as little Labor action as possible. The acting is also not brilliant but more than passable. It’s certainly not as hammy or silly as I was expecting. A lot of it is played straight (with the exception of a few characters) and comes off as quite natural in the more serious parts of the series. Kenji Kawaii supplies the music again. As per usual it’s brilliant. The series got an English subbed release from Hong Kong distributors Panorama last month. I thought the concluding film would get a subbed Hong Kong release, but to get the series subbed as well is quite unexpected. There aren’t any extras as such (except for an unlisted 10 minute recap). The subtitles are a little on the mediocre side. A lot of it reads very in a stilted manner, possibly a little too literal in its translation. Towards the middle there are a lot of typos and little of the on screen text is translated. Overall it’s passable. The show itself fairs the same; it has flashes of brilliance and can be quite entertaining for much of its length. But yet again Oshii is terribly self-indulgent and goes over the top with farcical elements (luckily the philosophical elements aren’t quite as prominent in this work). The series finale is a short prologue to the feature film, which should really have been tacked on to the start of the film itself. On balance the series deserves a 6.5 out of 10, but it really isn’t a patch on the any of the anime versions.
Remaining Backlog: 11 movies, 6 OVAs/specials, 13 TV series, also waiting for second parts for four shows to be released before viewing them.
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