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Easily one of the oddest Patlabor related anime. The reason why I have included it is because it contains cameo appearances of the Ingrams. This is a short film which was screened prior to "Patlabor the movie" in cinemas in July 1989. The first part of the film (called "The Storm-Calling School Festival") is a parody of the "Universal Century" Gundam series such as "Zeta Gundam" and "Char's Counterattack" movie, done in the 'Super Deformed' (SD for short) style as "Minipato" was. This is the first of a number of short movies and direct to video episodes made with SD Gundam characters. Most of these were released in the late 1980's and early 1990's and spawned further anime and manga series and model kit releases.
The second part of the film, which is were the Ingrams make their appearance, is titled "The Tale of the SD Warring States: The Chapter of the Violent Final Sky Castle", is the first animated part of the SD Gundam Sengokuden (Musha Gundam) franchise. This franchise is set in a world based on the Sengoku period (the Age of Warring States, from 1467 AD to 1615 AD), which was a period of near constant civil war, social upheaval, and political intrigue. Super Deformed sentient mobile suits are the main characters in the franchise and tone of series is comedic and references elements of the Gundam franchise.
The story of "The Chapter of the Violent Final Sky Castle" takes place in the fictional country of Ark, where the Gundam Army and the Army of Darkness continually battle over land. The final battle is to be held in the in the fabled land called the Mominoki Field where once every 333 years a mysterious castle called Fortress of A Baoa Qu appears. Once one of the sides occupy the castle, the victor will control all of the land. Leader of the Gundam Army, the Shogundam, is told that the castle will appear in 33 minutes and he sends off troops to capture it. However the Army of Darkness also knows and makes plans as well. In order to capture A Baoa Qu castle, soldiers must place their castle's shachihoko (a stylized roof ornament with the head of a tiger and the body of a carp that is common on the roofs of Japanese castle) on top of the castle's roof to claim victory. Naturally things don't go to plan and chaos ensues in the battle.
SD Ingrams (led by an SD Alphonse and Ota's Unit 2 Ingram) make several cameo appearances, first guarding a group of captured Mobile Suits, then participating in an all out battle, with a group of them carrying a ladder in order to storm A Baoa Qu castle. At the conclusion of the battle, two of them can be seen briefly as the dust settles. There are also a couple of very quick minor cameos from the SD Ingrams. Most of the time they're hidden in the background, making it extremely hard to get any clear images of them. Interestingly, there are SD Ingram soldiers in both the Gundam Army and the Army of Darkness. The inclusion of the Ingrams in this film is very unusual as the "SD Gundam" series almost solely focuses on Gundam robots. The reason for their inclusion is of course because this movie was being screened prior to "Patlabor the movie" in Japanese cinemas.
This movie is not available in English anywhere commercially, but it has been fansubbed. Because I only like to support official releases, I won't be providing any links to download this movie. Currently Sunrise is releasing the Gundam franchise via the Right Stuf in the United States of America, including some of the more obscure anime in the franchise. There is reasonable chance that this film may eventually get a subtitled physical home video US release. There is also a reasonable chance that Sunrise's Youtube channel, Gundam.info, may stream the film with English subtitles sometime in the future.
Bandai Channel and Amazon Prime Japan are currently streaming the second part of the film, "The Tale of the SD Warring States: The Chapter of the Violent Final Sky Castle", separately in Japanese. Bandai Channel and Amazon Prime Japan's current streaming rights only include Japan.
Currently this movie is only currently avalible in the limited release SD Gundam Blu-ray Collection Box by Bandai Namco, and sold via the Premium Bandai and A-on Store websites in Japan only. All Bandai Namco blu-ray discs are region free. This movie was also previously released on VHS (rental only), laserdisc, in two separate DVD box set releases and a rental only single DVD in Japan by Bandai Visual. These releases are in Japanese language only and are not dubbed in English nor do they contain English subtitles. These releases are only available in Japan, and therefore will only work on NTSC compatible VHS, laserdisc and Region 2 DVD players (if you don't live in Japan, check your VCR, laserdisc or DVD player's instruction manual to see if it will play them). Please see the Japanese Specials and Oddities Releases Video List for a complete listing of all releases, formats and product specifications for this movie.