Patlabor usually refers to the anime franchise known as Mobile Police Patlabor , which was originally created by the collective group Headgear. The popular franchise now consists of a TV series, a few OVAs and 3 full feature length movies.

Mobile Police Patlabor began as a serial written and drawn by Masami Yuuki in Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday Comics back in 1988. In the not-so-distance future, an alternate 1998-2002, robots called "Labors" are employed in heavy construction work. To properly police the streets, the Tokyo has their own arsenal of such robots called Patlabors (Patrol Labors) to combat crimes and accidents involved with such giant robots. The story arcs usually revolves around Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Division 2, Section 2, often with the young female pilot Noa Izumi being the main protagonist. The manga was published in English by Viz Communications.

The 47 episode TV series was directed by Naoyuki Yoshinaga at the Sunrise studio.

The first two Patlabor movies were both directed by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, 1995) and produced by the venerable development house Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire) with music from Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell).

The first Patlabor movie, titled simply Patlabor 1 - Mobile Police was released in 1989. The second Patlabor movie, "Patlabor 2 " was released in 1993. The third feature was released in 2002 as Patlabor WXIII , and was directed by Fumihiko Takayama. A new OVA accompanied the third film, Mini Pato.

All the movies, the TV series, and the first OVA series have been released on VHS, for NTSC, dubbed and subbed in English.

• The first OVA series was released as
• The TV show was released as
• The last season was released as

All the movies have been translated into English and are available in stores in Region 1 & 4 DVD format. Whilst the TV series is still in the process of being released on DVD in Region 1, the first OVA is now available on DVD in Region 1. The new OVA is also available on DVD in Region 1.

Twelve sections of the manga have been translated and released by Viz Communications as single issues and in two Trade Paperbacks.

List of major characters

• Captain Kiichi Goto, Section 2 Division 2
• Captain Shinobu Nagumo, Section 2 Division 1
• Mechanics Section Chief Seitaroh Sakaki, Section 2
• Lieutenant Kanuka Clancy, NYPD
• Sergeant Kumagami Takeo, Division 2 Team 2
• Chief Shigeo Shige, Section 2
• Hiromi Yamazaki, Division 2 Team 1
• Noa Izumi, Division 2 Team 1
• Asuma Shinohara, Division 2 Team 1
• Isao Ota, Division 2 Team 2
• Mikiyasu Shinshi, Division 2 Team 1
• Sergeant Gomika Tsutomu, Division 1 Team 2
• Detective Matsui, Tokyo Police Force
• Bud Renard
• Richard Wong/Utsumi
• Kurosaki
• Black Knight

(Section 2 is part of the Special Vehicles department of the Tokyo Police Force, composed of 2 later 4 divisions)

List of Labors

• MPL-96 Asuka (Shinohara Heavy Industries)
• MPL-97S Python (Shinohara Heavy Industries)
• AVS-99 Ingram (Shinohara Heavy Industries)
• AV-98 Ingram (Shinohara Heavy Industries)
• AV-0 Peacemaker Zero (Shinohara Heavy Industries)
• SRX-70 Saturn (Shaft Industries / Toyohata Heavy Industries)
• Type 7 Brocken (Shaft Industries Europe)
• M5 Abraham (Shaft Industries)
• 'Phantom' (Shaft Industries Japan)
• J9 'Griffon' (Shaft Industries Japan)

External links

• WXIII * PATLABOR THE MOVIE 3