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I've been a fan of the Patlabor anime franchise since seeing the first film on Australia's SBS television channel, sometime around 1999 (as best as I can recall). Not long after I saw the second film and enjoyed it even more. My Gemini client, AV-98, is named after the AV-98 "Ingram" police labor from the series (following a pattern of naming my clients after mecha which was established by Gopher client VF-1 - I'm actually not much of a Macross fan, but the SDF public access unix system, which has played an undeniable role in keeping Gopher alive in the 21st century, was originally a system by and for Macross fans, and I wanted to acknowledge that).
For almost all the time that I've been a Patlabor fan, I was also a fan of a delightful old-school fan website called "Schaft Enterprises", online at http://patlabor.info. Sadly, this website went offline sometime around the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023, and not long after the domain seemingly expired and is now being squatted. The site says that its first incarnation was uploaded in April 2003, so it had very close to a twenty year run! Not bad for a one-person passion project. It's a terrible shame for old fan websites like this to disappear.
In May of 2023 I emailed the original author asking for permission to rehost their content based on the Internet Archive's most recent snapshot. I was hopeful when the email did not bounce back, but to date I have not received a reply. After three months of silence I considered it fair game to rehost the content in Geminispace, verbatim and with full attribution. Aside from this introduction, nothing else here is my own work. It was written by "a Caucasian male in [his] mid 40's [at time of the last snapshot in 2022] living near Canberra, Australia". If I ever hear back from the original author and they ask me to take this fan capsule down, I'll do so, but I don't expect that to happen.
I don't plain to maintain this capsule in any way going forward after the initial conversion is complete. I'm not sure if it is entirely up to date with regards to everything that has happened with the Patlabor franachise. I am a fan mostly of the animated stuff from the 80s and 90s, and I've never seen, nor am I terribly interested in, the various live action reboots that have popped up in the 21st century. This fan capsule is not supposed to be a complete, authoritative and up-to-date reference on Patlabor. Instead, it is equal parts fan shrine to Patlabor, and to a time before sites like MyAnimeList or generic, template-based fan wikis, when the disemination of information about series depended upon the committment and enthusiasm of individual fans, and the sites they built themselves (often after learning how to build sites for that very purpose).
This site is dedicated to a much under appreciated anime (Japanese animation) named "Mobile Police Patlabor" (commonly known in Japanese as "Kido Keisatsu Patlabor", written as "機動警察パトレイバー" in Japanese). Originally released as a 7 part direct to video series in 1988, it spawned a further 16 part video series, three theatrical releases, a 47 part TV series, 22 volumes of manga (comics), a 3 part 'super deformed' theatrical short, a series of novels, a large number of model kits, countless CD releases, video games and a ton of other merchandise which is still being released today.
Patlabor is an amazing series with excellent characters, plots which range from absurd comedies to political drama, wonderfully designed mecha, and a sense of realism which you don't find in most robot anime. It was often described by anime fans in the 1990's as the "Hill Street Blues" of anime, though the stories usually focus on the characters and not so much on the crime aspect. To me I think the series is more similar to British cop shows such as "The Last Detective" and "New Tricks", though with a much younger cast, more geared toward comedy and much less emphasis placed on police cases. Unlike most robot anime character development is the main focus of the series, rather than the robots being the focus as most robot anime tends to be. In fact some of the stories don't feature any robots at all.
Unlike most robot anime, Patlabor is set in a near future world (only ten years in the future) where robots are just everyday vehicles, like construction equipment for example. All of the main cast are adults (generally in their early 20's) who have adult problems. There are no teenagers full of angst or heroes piloting large robots against an alien enemy. It's just a refreshing slice of life, a comedy/drama set in a Tokyo police division - they just happen to use robots in their line of work.
This series was created in 1988 by Headgear, a small creative team who planed the original 6 part video series as well as the manga. A movie followed in 1989, with an additional direct to video episode released just before the movie. A TV series followed in late 1989. When the TV series was released on video, a new video episode was released with every volume (a total of 16 new episodes). The second Patlabor film was released in 1993. Finally in 2002, a third film "WXIII Patlabor the movie 3" debuted, along with three 'super-deformed' theatrical shorts called "Minipato". A new short was placed at the beginning of each "WXIII Patlabor" print over the course of three weeks, so to see all three you would of had to pay to see the main feature three times.
By the way, the correct pronunciation of Patlabor is PAT-LABOUR, as in Patrol Labor. It is not pronounced PAT-LA-BORE as most people tend to say it.
There are three universes in Patlabor; the original 7 part video series and the three movies form one universe, the TV series and second video series form the second. The third would be the manga series. All three do share the same kind of world. Patlabor is set from 1998 to 2002. Because of this, it's probably best to think of Patlabor as being set in a parallel universe.
In the late 1980's, the world's polar icecaps have melted causing oceans to rise. Coastal cities were effected including Tokyo. In the early 1990's barriers were constructed to stop the sea from taking the land. To aid this work, Labors (large scale industrial robots) were developed. Tokyo developed the "Babylon Project". Designed to reclaim land and eventually fill Tokyo Bay, the project had it's critics. Militant environmental groups such as the Beach House, Home of the Sea, and the Earth Defence Family used protest and sabotage to try and halt the progress of the project.
With terrorist action from these groups using Labors, and other organised crime groups using them for criminal activities, came the formation of the Special Vehicles Unit Section 2 (SV2). This section used Patrol Labors (or Patlabors for short) to combat Labor crime. The only problem is that some inside the police force, and the public seem to treat the SV2 as a joke and think they are a money pit. The SV2 hanger is stuck upon on a lot of reclaimed land in the middle of nowhere, and the first division's Labors aren't up to scratch. Division 2 does have better Labors, but the personnel isn't what you would call officer material. Most of the time disaster and bad press seem to follow them.
The story mainly follows the exploits and daily life of the hodge-podge group of people known as Division 2, as they attempt to do their jobs. They often have unwanted work forced upon them by other police units and even the military, but they always manage to get the the job done.
I created this site because I couldn't find any Patlabor websites in English that were really comprehensive. I began work on this site during September 2002, but I did not complete and publish it until April 2003. In March 2005, I renamed the website "Schaft Enterprises - A Patlabor Website". Its old name was the rather plain "Moblie Police Patlabor" (well, I couldn't think of anything else at the time). Schaft are the company that continually challenge the SV2 in their quest to obtain data for their military Labors in the Patlabor TV series and New OVA Series. I became a bit frustrated at trying to find Patlabor information, so I decided to compile every bit of Patlabor info I could lay my hands on with the idea of incorporating it into the current website. In March 2008, just in time for the 20th anniversary of the series, I revamped the look of the site, gave it a real URL and expanded it to include sections on novels, included new sections which listed music, videos, games, books and other commercial product releases, as well as greatly expanding existing sections. This site is broken up into five main sections which can be accessed via the links at the top of every page on this site;
Where you are now. This section contains general information on the website as well as subsections on the creators of Patlabor, Headgear, a section on the development and early concepts for the series and a Patlabor news and site updates section.
This section contains information on the world of Patlabor and includes several subsections on Labors, the characters in the series and a map of Tokyo highlighting where the main action of the story takes place.
The World of Tokyo 1998 - 2002
Naturally this section is about the animated versions of Patlabor and includes synopses for every episode and movie as well as release and broadcast dates and availability of them in English. Also included is other related Patlabor animation and other filmed oddities that are somehow related to the series.
This section focuses on the Patlabor manga and novels. It contains synopses as well as information on their availability.
This section is for everything else that doesn't fit; comprehensive lists of Patlabor videos releases, music releases, book and manga releases, model kit releases, computer game releases, a cast and staff list, song lyrics and links to Patlabor related websites. The title of this section refers to the bank of computers at the SV2.
Since the series is practically over, I only update the site when I come across new information or if I spot a new Patlabor release like a DVD or a book. The updates are fairly irregular, sometimes happening 6 months apart or more. The site is quite big now, much larger than what previous versions were, and it may not be apparent where everything is so to find what you're looking for, so head over to the Site Map to find the sections you're interested in.
As this section serves as an introduction to the website, here you will find pages on the group that created Patlabor, Headgear, information on the development and early concept of the series, a link to Patlabor news and updates on the site and contact details. Just click the links below.