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In 2013, the SV2 is barely surviving. The Babylon Project has been completed long ago and Labors in use are generally far and few in between. A long recession in Japan has forced the Metropolitan Police Department to cut back on Patrol Labors. Division 1 has been disbanded with division 2 only remaining using two AV-98 Ingrams which have been remodelled countless times mostly without help from the manufacturer. Shigeo Shiba (or just plain Shige to everyone), now head mechanic, begins another day at the SV2. He recalls the first generation of of the SV2 and where they are now. Asuma Shinohara became the head of Labor development for his father's company while Noa Izumi became his test pilot and eventually his partner. Hiromi Yamazaki went back to run his family's business. Shinobu Nagumo created a security company and employed Isao Ota and Mikiyasu Shinshi. However bad management bankrupted it within a year. Shinshi later formed his own successful software company. Ota is currently in prison for assault. Shinobu is apparently working for the UNHCR in a Middle Eastern country. Kiichi Gotoh's whereabouts are unknown. Shige thought the second generation which followed in the original SV2's footsteps where so mediocre that he no longer remembers their names. The considers the current generation as just hanging on and up against their parent Security Bureau who doesn't really want them to exist. They're considered bad apples and the "decline of the SV2". Standing in front of one of the AV-98 Ingrams, Shige is joined by the Labor's pilot Akira Izumino. The pair begin to talk about the Labor and the police force in general as Akira wonders if they are really the good guys. Shige laments that the Labors can only move for a maximum of five minutes now. The talk of Labors sets him off as he curses Japan for falling behind in robot development and stupidly concentrating on bipedal robots when everyone else was developing pilotless drones. Vice head mechanic Yoshikatsu Buchiyama interrupts him to tell him that the mechanic are lined up awaiting orders. Shige realises that Akira has long gone and he had been talking to himself. Shige orders the mechanics to sing their morning song, "Glory in My Arms". While thy are doing that he visits in the small shrine in the SV2 hanger dedicated to the deceased Seitaroh Sakaki.
This short "Episode 0" is essentially to fill the viewers in on what has been happening in the world of Patlabor since the events of "Patlabor 2 the movie" which was set in 2002. The episode director was Kiyotaka Taguchi. This episode was originally broadcast on satellite TV on 8 March 2014 and released to cinemas on 5 April 2014.
Yet another morning dawns on the SV2 as the Labor crews and the mechanic head to the SV2 hanger on the plot of reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay. They include team 1 forward Akira Izumino, her back up Yuma Shiobara and their Labor carrier driver Hiromichi Yamazaki. The second Labor team also arrives; forward Isamu Ohtawara, back up Ekaterina Krachevna Kankaeva (or Kasha for short) on loan from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and their Labor carrier driver Shinji Mikiya. Their captain Keiji Gotoda, has been called into headquarters, and as per usual as there is nothing to do, the crew revert in their normal modes. Akira plays video games, Yuma reads military magazines, Kasha constantly chain smokes, Shinji slavishly updates data, Yamazaki fawns over his chickens and Ohtawara continues to get drunk and shouts for some action. The only places which does lunch is the Shanghai Restaurant which has gotten sick of the SV2's orders over years and just delivers them a giant vat of fried rice, much to Yuma's disgust who feels like they're being treat like pigs. After lunch the mechanics do martial arts exercises and everyone is later forced by Shige to weed the plot of land the hanger sits on. Later Yuma explains via voice over that due to the cut backs and loss of Section 1, the SV2 is on constant 24 hour standby, on call all the time. Both Labor teams take turns to do eight hour shifts around the clock. A situation that Yuma describes as like a convenience store with only two staff. There is literally no time to have a private life. The night shifts are filled up with bickering, playing video games, watching TV and internet. They live off convenience store food and whatever the Shanghai Restaurant decides to bring them. Several false alarms go off during the night as Yuma, Akira and Yamazaki are nearly sent out on a mission. Eventually the alarm goes off again and it's a real case. Yuma only just makes it back after doing an unauthorised convenience store run. A drunken Labor worker has used his Labor to take another worker hostage. Gotoda tries to negotiate, but eventually sends in Akria in the Ingram.
This episode continues to set up the story of series by showing what life is like in the SV2. It's very similar to the first Early Days OVA "Second Unit, Move Out!" especially the weeding sequence. The dialogue Gotoda says while negotiating with the drunken Labor worker is pretty much identical to Gotoh's dialogue in the TV episode "You Win!". The animated sequence with Yuma explaining the shift rosters for the SV2 is similar to that used in "Minipato", right down to the use of sticks. The tokusatsu TV show "Garo" is briefly watched by Akira and Yuma. Omnibus Japan produced that show as well as this series. The film "Bushido Man" is also briefly seen on a convenience store TV. The episode director for this series, Takanori Tsujimoto, directed that film. Hiroshi Kanbe ("Samurai Fiction", "Always: Sunset on Third Street", "Thermae Romae") guest stars as the drunken Labor pilot. This episode also makes use of the Kuratas robot which is a real rideable and user operated robot built by the Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industry and retails for US$1.3 million. The episode director was Mamoru Oshii. This episode was released to cinemas on 5 April 2014 and first broadcast on satellite TV on 26 April 2014.
The mechanics make improvements to the Unit 1 Ingram and enthusiastically ask Akira to try various karate moves with the Ingram as a test. While the initial moves seem to indicate everything is OK, Shige becomes worried that it is putting a huge strain on the leg joints. He's correct as the Labor loses hydraulic pressure and falls over becoming in operable. Gotoda receives a phone call from the head of the Security Bureau that the SV2 will participate in this year's "Equipment Overhaul" (where police units display their equipment and demonstrate it) in front of the Police Commissioner. Someone in the Security Bureau has gotten wind of the latest SV2 diaster and has informed the director's underlings. The director of the Security Bureau feels this would be an excellent opportunity to get rid of the Labor team as the SV2 won't be able to demonstrate they can operate the Labors. Unfortunately parts from Unit 2 where put into Unit before Akira broke it, so they have no working Labor. Gotoda constantly pleads with Shige to fix the Labors even though Shige rationally explains it's impossible. However to save the SV2 Shige and the mechanics are forced to do the impossible and work day and night until they are literally zombies to get the Labors working. They even force Jitsuyama out of retirement in order to get Shinohara Heavy Industries to manufacture new parts for the Labors. Security Bureau realises that the SV2 will be able to make the Equipment Overhaul and decide to throw another spanner in the works; they must fire the Revolver Cannon as a salute to the Police Commissioner. The Revolver Cannon isn't in too bad condition and the head mechanic assures Gotoda it will be ready in time. Unfortunately they don't let on that there are no blank rounds available to fire a salute and they scramble for a solution behind Gotoda's back. However a solution isn't forthcoming... The auto balancers on the Labors aren't working well so Akira and Ohtawara have to go through a series of absurd training regimes in order to balance the Labors manually. Suddenly it is decided without warning that the Police Commissioner will visit the SV2 hanger personally. They only have 20 minutes to get ready. Somehow they do it and present themselves and the Labors to the Commissioner. However it puts a strain on the Labors and pilots as his prostate and long speech forces them to stand far longer than the Ingram's intended capabilities. Not only that but the Commissioner wants a salute with the Revolver Cannon...
The dialogue where Ohtawara asks Gotoda to do shooting practice is very similar to near identical scene in the first Early Days OVA "Second Unit, Move Out!". The final shot of the Ingram Labors is an obvious parody of the final moments of the RX-78-2 Gundam in the original "Gundam" TV series and the "Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space" movie and the opening animation to the early 1980's anime TV series "Fang of the Sun Dougram". Ryo Iwamatsu ("Air Doll", "Cutie Honey", "Zebraman", "Samurai Fiction") guest stars in this episode as the head mechanic in charge of the Revolver Cannon. The episode director was Takanori Tsujimoto. This episode was released to cinemas on 31 May 2014 and first broadcast on satellite TV on 21 June 2014.
Akira heads to the change room after another dull day of work. There she sees Kasha's motorbike suit and daydreams about fighting her in a video game. Kasha sees her spacing out and asks if she'd like to try the suit on. Akira declines, but Kasha suggests she doesn't go anything but daydream and that she doesn't like people who are stuck in a rut. A little bit narked off at her attitude, Akira heads to her local Game Centre (where Akira is currently placed third on it's wall of champions) to blow off some steam. She sees an old guy taking on everyone in the Game Centre on a two player fighting game and winning every time. Akira tries her luck, to which the old man says she can try until she has no coins left. She is beaten time and time again but doesn't give up, that is until she runs out of money. He tells her that she has no talent and that she should spend her money more wisely. He refuses to give his name and leaves. As Akira goes home from the Game Centre, she spots a group of juveniles ganging up on the old man in an attempt to extort money from him. She watches as he knocks all of them out as they attempt to attack him. Akira is highly impressed by him and is determined to find out who he is. However after questioning everyone at the Game Centre, she has no answers to who he is or where he came from. Just as she is about to give up, she spots the old man at a restaurant across the road from the Game centre. She casual sits next to him and orders her meal. They eventually start talking and Akira is surprised that he knows that she is a police office. She explains to him that she only wants to battle him again on the fighting game. They continue their conversation in a cafe where Akira tries coax his name and back story out of him. The old man spins a tale about how he used to be a student learning piano at a music school in Paris but had to give it up for gaming when he injured his hands. However the story is a lie. He tells her she has to overcome herself before she can beat him and leaves promising her he will play her again if she can do this. Akira is determined to beat him and begins her training by pretty much flooring all the mechanics and anyone else who gets in her way at work. Yuma seems impressed by this and decides to be her personal coach. Though some of the training is silly, Akira is impressed when Yuma brings in a 4th Dan Karate Master. However behind her back Yuma has set up a betting ring in order to make money off the upcoming match.
In the fantasy sequence, Akira is dressed as Ling Xiaoyu from the video game franchise "Tekken". The tile of the episode also takes it's name from the game. A number of quotes and lines from various works by Japanese avant-garde poet and playwright Shuji Terayama are spoken by the old nameless man in this episode. Naoto Takenaka guest stars as game playing the old man. He previously played Arakawa in "Patlabor 2 the movie". He has also had major roles in the live action films "20th Century Boys", "The Great Yokai War", "Ping-Pong", "Waterboys", "Shall We Dance?" and "Tokyo Fist". The episode director was Hiroaki Yuasa. This episode was released to cinemas on 31 May 2014 and first broadcast on satellite TV on 21 June 2014.
It's another peaceful but boring day at the SV2. Akira is tasked with getting lunches for the members of the SV2 from a local convenience store. She grabs the various instant ramen her co-workers want and notices two men entering as one of them rush past her to go to the toilet. As she gets on her moped to return to hanger, she recalls who he is and checks the police criminal database on her phone and realises on of the guys in the store is a wanted criminal. Unfortunately that guy is behind her staring her down as she is still in uniform. She quickly rides off, but the criminal pulls out a rifle out of his car and shoots at her. Back at the SV2, the other realise that Akira should have returned by now and decide to Yuma out on his bicycle to find her. He enters the convenience store only to be captures along with Akira, the staff and a customer who are hostages. Realising something isn't quite right, they send Yamazaki out in one of the mechanics car. Yamazaki finds the store empty, but is captured by one of the criminals who was hiding. Bizarrely the hostages seem rather unconcerned about their capture and end up eating the convenience store food for free, goaded on by the staff and Yuma. Eventually Kasha goes out her her bike. Far more cautious than the rest of the SV2, she scopes out the store with binoculars and sees the criminals with guns drawing the blinds. She advises Captain Gotoda of this and the SV2 are put on alert. Both the SV2 and the riot squad arrive at the same time. The Security Bureau tells Gotoda to withdraw however he refuses as three of his squad are hostages. Gotoda's negotiations go badly as the criminals shoot at the riot squad and the SV2. Inside they have speaker cabinet filled full of C4 explosives and a M240 machine gun. Apparently they were to meet their associates to hand over the weapons, but obviously their plans have gone awry. The criminals demand a boat to make their escape by sea, and have announced that there is C4 at the entrance and rear of the store. They'll detonate it if their demands aren't met. The SV2 plans to send in one of the Ingrams via remote control (operated by Ohtawara) to distract the criminals while Kasha goes in from the rear entrance to rescue everyone. Kasha discovers that back door is booby trapped with C4. As Ohtawara clumsily remotely pilots his Ingram towards the front the store and draws the Revolver Cannon, Yuma realises what is about to take place and ushers everyone behind the counter in order to protect everyone from the chaos which is about to occur.
The name of the convenience store chain is Max Weber who was a German philosopher and sociologist from the late 19th century. Along with with Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx they are considered the three founders of sociology. Quotes from Weber appeared in Oshii's film "Innocence (Ghost in the Shell 2)". The anime on the convenience store promotional posters is the 2007 Production I.G TV series "Reideen", a remake of the 1975 TV anime "Brave Raideen". Kazuki Namioka ("Space Battleship Yamato", "13 Assassins", "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift") and Masanori Mimoto ("Bushido Man", "The Ninja War of Torakage") guest star as the criminal duo. The episode director was Takanori Tsujimoto. This episode was released to cinemas on 12 July 2014 and first broadcast on satellite TV on 2 August 2014.
Something strange is happening in Ajiro Bay in the tourist town of Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture. The fishermen are reporting their catch is was down and worse 13 surfers have gone missing over the course of two months. The mayor asks Professor Nanami Kotoko to discover what is going on. She returns with bad news; she hypotheses that there is a large aquatic creature causing the disappearances and low fish stocks. The claims the lack of bodies or any other trace of the surfers only adds to the weight of her hypothesis. The mayor finds the surfers a problem but is more concerned with the small catches. He fears that the professor's hypothesis will scare off tourists and orders the investigation to be shut down. The professor protests, but is interrupted by a phone call from the local police. Nearly 130 surfboards have washed up on the shore with no sign of the surfers. The local police chief has several theories inducing that it's a hoax and the surfboards were stolen from a shop and dumped on the beach. He has no interest on the professor's theory. The professor takes a sample of gelatinous substance off one of the surfboards. Captain Gotoda who went to university with the professor, rings he and tells her he is in town on a workplace trip. They have drinks at a bar and talk about the professor's case, but Yuma, Ohtawara, Yamazaki and Shinji burst ion to bar and interrupt their reunion. Every one get drunk (or drunker) and Ohtawara and the professor end up fighting after Ohtawara insults her karaoke performance. Eventually they leave the bar and Gotoda hears something coming from the ocean. The group rush to the pier where they witness what seems to be top of the head of a huge Kappa monster (a creature from Japanese folklore, a water imp) in the bay. A large group of onlookers behind them also witness the monster just before it submerges again. The media have a field day publishing photos taken by witnesses. It also increases tourism to the area which had been on a decline recently. The SV2 are called up to duty (as Gotoda volunteered them to observe the creature) and are stationed on the shorefront with one of the Labors. As they sit around waiting for the monster, a bunch of Labor otaku take photos of the Ingram. Eventually they begin criticising it and ask where the Revolver Cannon is. Ohtawara blows his top and brawls with one of them. Strange things happen; a self proclaimed Venusian turns up with an altar claiming the monster will bring destruction and Professor Kotoko brings in the eye patch wearing Professor Seirewaza in to help with her investigation. Eventually the SV2 leaves as the monster doesn't show up. However it appears straight after they leave which forces them back. This strange cat and mouse game is repeated several times. Later each member of the SV2 gives their theories to what the monster is and how to catch it to the mayor. They're all rubbish and and a bit useless. However Shinji suggest they use beautiful women to try coax the monster out of the bay as that's what they do in giant monster films. Amazingly this plan is given the go ahead. So Akira, Kasha, Professor Kotoko and the mayor's secretary are used as "bait" in this harebrained scheme.
This episode and the following episode take elements from the Early Days OVA episode The 450 Million Year Old Trap and the TV episode Orders of the Coast Guard, however they are much closer to the former. Professor Serizawa is an obvious reference to Dr Daisuke Serizawa from the 1954 film "Godzilla". Oshii's infamous Basset Hound makes an appearance in this episode as a framed drawing on the mayor's office wall. There are quite a number of guest stars in the episode; Bengal ("Godzilla Millennium", "Tokyo Rhapsody") who plays the mayor of Atami, Tamami Matsumoto (Sailor Galaxia in the Sailor Moon musicals) who plays Professor Nanami Kotoko, Kibaji Tankobo ("Takeshi's Castle", "Dead Girl Walking") who appears as the captain of a small cruiser, Daisuke Ryu ("Kagemusha", "Ran") as Professor Seirewaza and Kyusaku Shimada ("Library Wars") as the local police chief. The voices of Toshio Furukawa (voice actor for Asuma Shinohara) and Miina Tominaga (voice actor for Noa Izumi) also appear as breakfast radio hosts in a scene where Professor Nanami Kotoko is listening to her radio in her kitchen. The episode director was Mamoru Oshii. This episode was released to cinemas on 12 July 2014 and first broadcast on satellite TV on 2 August 2014.
The beauty as bait plan is a failure. Instead of the monster, the USS George Washington makes an appearance, apparently on joint exercises with the Japanese military. However this poses a problem; will the monster to surface due to the joint military exercises? Professor Kotoko revises her hypothesis. She can't believe the SV2 members theories about the monster being a large creature as the bay is only 50 meters deep. The "head" of the creature is 200 metres in circumference, so how can it keep it's body submerged under the water? The mayor in conjunction with a couple of the members of the SV2 commission a "simulation video" of the Kappa monster attacking the city of Atami. It's nothing more than mini giant monster film made by a film company in Tokyo. While the SV2, mostly Yuma, is highly impressed at the results, the professor is deeply unimpressed that mayor is not taking the problem seriously and threatens to go public with the film. He orders the police chief to detain her, but she pulls out some Nunchakus and knocks the mayor's guards out. The mayor's secretary knocks the professor out by breaking a vase over her head. Despite detaining the professor on Hatsushima island, the video is leaked anyway and popularised by monster film fans on the internet, which causes an increased influx of tourists to Atami. However the mayor is not satisfied He wants more people to visit the city and calls in a producer to create a song and music video about the giant Kappa monster. Professor Kotoko escapes her detention on Hatsushima island and swims back to Atami. She consults with Professor Seirewaza on what to do about the creature. He has brought a biological agent which should kill the monster. Late that night she hires out a small cruiser to fight the creature. On board is the police chief who says he want to join her to avenge the missing surfers. However the the professor, police chief and captain all get drunk and the cruiser goes off course. The next day the Japanese Self Defence Force (JSDF) shows up with a battalion of tanks and various aircraft. To try and lure out the monster, and to get the creature before the JSDF does, Captain Gotoda orders Akira to fire into the ocean. However Akira lamost hits the returning cruiser and a tourist boat. The shots seem to have worked though as the monster's head once again rises to the surface...
In addition to the guest stars from episode 5 who all return for this episode, 1970's identical twin pop idols The Lilies (Naomi Tsubame and Mayumi Tsubame) star as the duo who record and make the Kappa monster themed music video. The song they sing is a parody of "Mothra's Song" by The Peanuts from the 1961 giant monster film "Mothra". The Peanuts (Emi and Yumi Ito) where also a pop idol duo whose selling point was they were identical twins. Former Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki guest stars as the producer of the Kappa song and music video. The episode director was Mamoru Oshii. This episode was released to cinemas on 30 August 2014 and first broadcast on satellite TV on 20 September 2014.