Cheap Patlabor 1: The Movie (Video) (Mamoru Oshii) Price

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Customer Reviews of Patlabor 1: The Movie

Near Future Detective Science Fiction
This isn't the kind of Anime that really moves fast and has alot of violent action. It's kind of different seeing an Anime with no gore or blood. This is something Hollywood sure as hell could never do. This is like a combination of detective and investigation type movies, merged with a little bit of mecha action. If you like Anime and detective, mystery movies than this is definately for you. It's interesting throughout and sometimes very suspencefull but it's pretty slow moving, some would call it dull, but it's pretty good, though it could have used a little more action, violence and music to go along with it. The dubbing is OKAY at best, try the subtitles. I would actually give this 4 1/2 stars but I can't. and deciding between 4 stars(80%) or 5(100%), I'm gonna have to say that it's close to 5 stars. This is the kind of movie that stars out with a 0 percent excitement level then steadily rises. It could have been more suspencefull at it's climax, but considering it's a detective, cop, investigation movie, what do you expect.

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Simply Breathtaking
A more than slight change (for the better) from the origanal tv series. I love this movie, the plot is so engulfing that once I started watching it, I couldn't stop. Set in the future, Labors (mechs) are very common. When some of the work labors go on the rampage and start reiking havok, it's up to Azuma, Noah and her labor Alphonse to get to the top of this mystery and solve it. The animation is beautiful with simply awesome city shots and stunning character animation. The character design is great. Everyone has a different personality, which brings life to this great anime. Like other reviewers have said, this isn't an action packed movie (though it does have its moments), but don't let that discurage you from buying it. All in all, this is one of my favorite animes (ranking up there with Akira, Mononoke, and M.P.). Get your stinking credit card and buy it!!

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Perfectly Watchable But Basically A Jazzed-Up TV Episode
* Fans of the PATLABOR anime series know the basic scenario:
in the near future, big robotic machines known as "Labors"
are common in industrial and military roles, and to combat
crimes performed by Labors a police "Patrol Labor" group is
set up. The heroes of the series are the personnel of
"Patlabor Division 2", a self-described "gang of losers" that
manage to get things done in spite of a maverick reputation.

The PATLABOR 1 movie involves Division 2 dealing with a rash
of Labors running amok, with suspicion falling on the operating
system for the Labors. Suspiciously, the chief designer of the
OS, an E. Hoba, committed suicide under bizarre circumstances.
The devious Captain Goto of Division 2 enlists (using a
little trickery) officer Asuma Shinohara to get to the bottom
of things, and soon a frightening plot emerges ...

The PATLABOR 1 movie is a reasonably well put together piece
of work, with good (if not extraordinary) production values,

and an intelligent (if not extraordinary) script. It is certainly
better than much of the indifferent anime that gets churned
out on a regular basis by Japan's animation studios.
However, PATLABOR 1 is basically just a scaled-up PATLABOR
TV episode, and the only thing it really brings to the party
is better production values over the TV show.

If you like the PATLABOR TV series, you'll probably like this
movie. If you were lukewarm on the TV series, you might not
find the movie very stimulating. In comparison to the
follow-on and outstanding PATLABOR 2 movie, it looks more like
a creditable practice exercise for producer Mamoru Oshii,
preparing him for better work to come.