Patlabor: The Movie 2

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For the main article, Patlabor saga; see Patlabor.
機動警察パトレイバー２　ｔｈｅ　Ｍｏｖｉｅ
Patlabor 2 the Movie

Region 2 Regular DVD released in 2004.
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
Produced by Bandai Visual
Production I.G
Written by Headgear
Kazunori Ito
Starring Miina Tominaga
Toshio Furukawa
Ryunosuke Ohbayashi
Yoshiko Sakakibara
Music by Kenji Kawai
Editing by Shuichi Kakesu
Distributed by Flag of Japan Bandai Visual, Shochiku
Flag of Canada Flag of the United States Manga Entertainment (Former), Bandai Visual (Current)
Flag of Germany Panini Video and Polygram Germany
Flag of Italy Shin Vision
Flag of the Netherlands Manga DVD
Flag of Russia MC Entertainment
Release date(s) Flag of Japan August 7, 1993
Flag of Germany July 15, 1999
Running time 107 Minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Followed by WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Patlabor: The Movie 2 (機動警察パトレイバー Kidō keisatsu patoreibā the movie 2?) is the sequel of Patlabor: The Movie, once again directed by Mamoru Oshii. The movie has taken some liberties from being a mecha-themed movie in theme to a political-themed one with domestic and international issues that the Japanese government had faced during the 20th century. The main theme of the movie is mainly based on the status of Japan, which had been economically, politically and technologically progressing under prosperous years without being involved in another war after the nation's defeat by the Allied Forces in World War II.

It was shown in Japanese theaters in August 7, 1993.[1] Later in 1998, the movie was released again with Dolby Digital 5.1 channel remix and additional music.[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

The year is 2002, three years after the events of Patlabor: The Movie had ended. Noa Izumi and Asuma Shinohara are now working for the Shinohara Heavy Industries. Isao Ota has been assigned to the police academy as a labor instructor. Mikiyasu Shinshi had been reassigned as the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's head of General Affairs. Seitaro Sakaki retired with Shigeo Shiba taking over his position as head of the labor maintenance team with Hiromo Yamazaki, Kiichi Goto and Shinobu Nagumo remaining with the unit as Kanuka Clancy had permanently returned back to New York. Most of them had been replaced by fresh labor pilots from the local academies.

Suspicious events began to materialize with the face of a military takeover of Tokyo by JGSDF forces and declared Martial law after the Yokohama Bay Bridge was destroyed by a missile, with belief that the JASDF was the culprit with protests in various JSDF bases as a means of conveying their denial of the Yokohama Bay Bridge attack. Before long, public panic came with the attack on several bridges in Tokyo Bay and various communication centers with SV2 headquarters, supposedly by JGSDF-marked gunships with the release of a supposed deadly gas after Special Assault Team snipers shot an auto-piloted blimp that was responsible for jamming all electronics in the Greater Tokyo Area.

Goto and Nagumo once more assembles the original Section 2 members in a hidden subway passage as they embarked on a secret operation to apprehend Yukihito Tsuge, the JGSDF officer who had gone AWOL after the disastrous UN Peacekeeping operation in Cambodia back in 1999. When the JSDF and the police couldn't see that Tsuge was the culprit for bringing confusion into Tokyo, Goto and Nagumo authorized an operation to capture Tsuge without backing from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Tsuge was eventually arrested by Nagumo herself after she and the other original Section 2 members were able to storm an artificial island used as his hideout.

[edit] Characters

See also: List of characters in Patlabor

Shigeki Arakawa (荒川　茂樹 Arakawa Shigeki?)

Voiced by: Naoto Takenaka (Japanese), Blair Fairman (English, Manga Entertainment dub), Kim Strauss (English, Bandai Visual dub)

A supposed intelligence officer from the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces Chief of Staff assisting Goto and Nagumo in locating and apprehending Tsuge into custody, it was discovered that he is also a member of the National Defense Family, who had gone renegade after disagreeing with Tsuge's plans and used the SV2 unit to his advantage in order to arrest Tsuge himself.[3]
In the course of the movie, Shigeki assists the SV2 by providing pictures of Tsuge's assets via American military spy satellites and secretly meeting up with Goto to pass on him intelligence obtained on Tsuge, earning the irk of Nagumo due to her suspecions about him and his intentions.[4]

Yukihito Tsuge (柘植 行人 Tsuge Yukihito?)

Voiced by: Jinpachi Nezu (Japanese), Robert Clotworthy (English, Bandai Visual dub)

An ex-Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces officer with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel who had gone missing after his Labor platoon came under attack by heavily armed guerrillas in the Southeast Asian forests, Tsuge had changed from his brown hair to white and his agenda to conduct terrorist activities in the Greater Tokyo Area under the assumption of a revolt from the ranks of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. His main motive was for the people to see the reality that he had gone through when he had been a UN Peacekeeper.[5]
Yukihito Tsuge (Left) and Shinobu Nagumo (Right) during their days in the Tsuge Labor school. Their illicit relationship had been part of the movie's plot as it bothered Nagumo if she would be able to arrest Tsuge in the end of Patlabor: The Movie 2.
Yukihito Tsuge (Left) and Shinobu Nagumo (Right) during their days in the Tsuge Labor school. Their illicit relationship had been part of the movie's plot as it bothered Nagumo if she would be able to arrest Tsuge in the end of Patlabor: The Movie 2.
He was once got himself involved in an affair with Nagumo during his Tsuge School days, resulting in a scandal.[6] that reached the ear of high-ranking officers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, which was gossip for a short time.[7]
It was due to Tsuge's illicit affair with Nagumo that she was forced to accept a position with the SV2 instead of having a promising position with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's Security Bureau instead.[8]


[edit] Reception

Views on Patlabor the Movie 2 have been very positive. One review from the Anime Cafe states that Patlabor the Movie 2 is an "intellectually stimulating anime", combining the movie's mecha concept with the plot similar to a Tom Clancy novel.[9] Anime World states that while the sequel is better than the first in terms of action and drama, some viewers may not understand the political aspects of the film, though its philosophical themes may be easier to understand, especially with the concept of just war and unjust peace.[10] Japan Hero's review of the movie commented well on the side story that the movie showcased the main characters who had to let go of their past and to move on and grow up, with the fact that they had to get back together and face a threat that could make a country ruled by civilian authority or one ruled by fear and paranoia.[11] Anime News Network has noted the background music used in the movie "favors heavy, pulsing techno beats backed by airy, haunting vocals for the intense scenes and soaring synthesized scores in other places."[12]

In 1994, Mamoru Oshii had won the Mainichi Film Concours award in the category for Best Animated Film.[13]

[edit] Subject

[edit] Theme Background

JGSDF forces activating military labors after Martial law is declared.
JGSDF forces activating military labors after Martial law is declared.

Most of the prevailing theme in the movie has been casted on the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and on their legality as Japan's military since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, created on May 3, 1947 by the Allied Forces, meant that the JSDF is only allowed to defend Japanese territory from hostile invasion and not to be used on foreign soil.[14] On June 15, 1992, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa had pledged to contribute JSDF personnel to head to Cambodia and participate in UNTAC, which called for 2,000 Japanese personnel to be deployed including various JSDF personnel from the JGSDF, JMSDF and JASDF, police officers and election observers with the condition that most of them would not see any combat operations due to Article 9 regulations,[15] though this deployment was seen as a testing ground for potential future peacekeeping operations in foreign soil.[16][15]

There was some opposition from this after the Diet of Japan had passed the UN Peacekeeping Cooperation Law, allowing the JSDF to be in UN peacekeeping operations.[14] with a low approval rating of 20% when it became law. In a public poll taken, 70% percent of the public had been against sending JSDF personnel to Cambodia due to memories of World War II[17] with an SDF public relations group polling the first 600 troops deployed to Cambodia with a poll of 19% saying that they would refuse any order to be deployed in other UN Peacekeeping operations due to their confusion as the JSDF has not been engaged in any hostile activity after World War II.[18] Among those who had opposed this deployment were Kazunori Ito and Mamoru Oshii themselves from the public level.[14] Further opposition became noted in Japan when Atsuhito Nakata, a civilian election observer and Haruyuki Takada, a police officer with the rank of Superintendent.[19] were killed during a gunfight in Cambodia, resulting in protests calling for remaining Japanese UN volunteers to go home [20][16] before Takada's father went on national television and told the protesting crowd that he was proud of his son's sacrifice in order to let Cambodia have peace.[16] In addition, Ministry of Foreign Affairs representatives have issued a press statement that their deaths were regrettable, but have insisted that the JSDF's participation in UNTAC would continue and said that their deaths "were very regrettable for Japan, also indicated that world peace and security are sometimes only achieved at the sacrifices of precious lives."[16]

But after the UNTAC mission was complete, 50% of the polls taken now suggested that they actively supported JSDF personnel that were sent off to Cambodia and were hailed as heroes upon returning back home.[17]

[edit] Basis

At the time of Patlabor 2, released in 1993, a lot of issues had faced the Japanese government in both the domestic and international level. Most of the issues include the end of the Soviet Union, Japan's prosperous economic in the 1980's and the 1990's, outbreak of the Gulf War with the 1990 market crash that left many Japanese devastated.[21] In an interview with the Animage magazine on October, 1993, Hayao Miyazaki said that the opening scene of the movie was inspired by the local Cambodian scene, especially with the appearance of what seems to be Angkor Thom since Miyazaki said that it is the case. He also mentions with Mamoru Oshii on the nature of the limitations that JSDF personnel faced in Cambodia, since the JSDF was formed originally not as a sort of military body of the post-WWII Japanese government.[22]

Several real-life incidents were also mentioned or used for the movie. For instance, references to Viktor Belenko's defection to Japan in 1976 were mentioned by Arakawa himself when he spoke to Goto and Nagumo.[23] Another incident with the almost fatal dogfight over Tokyo was supposedly based on an accident in a computer simulation that forced the US military to go onto DEFCON 3 and almost went on nuclear war with the Soviet Union.[23]

A comparison used here was with the JGSDF intervention in declaring Martial law with planned intervention of United States Forces Japan military units over the crisis in Tokyo shadows the last days of Japan's defeat in World War II when rogue Imperial Japanese Army units planned to stage a revolt against the Emperor after he declared the country's surrender to the Allied forces.[23]

[edit] Production

Production of Patlabor the Movie 2 started after Kazunori Ito was appointed as the scriptwriter for the upcoming movie back in the early 1990s.[24] The original plan called for the same plot used in 2 of the original OVA episodes "The SV2's longest day.", which showed renegade JGSDF soldiers and officers conspiring to undermine and overthrow the democratically elected Japanese government.[25] However, it was soon abandoned when Mamoru Oshii told Kazunori Ito that maybe the scope of terrorists causing havoc under the cover of a coup would be a better movie idea.[24]

Ito soon met with other members of HEADGEAR to create some ideas that can be used for the movie, based on the theory that Patlabor 2 will be their last work on the Patlabor franchise. Soon after realizing that he couldn't take most of their suggestions, Ito had told them that he would end his consultation with them and announced that he would brainstorm the script alone and isolated himself from the rest of HEADGEAR to give him to work on the movie's script with Oshii working personally on the movie's storyboard.[26]

A reference placed in the move based on pre-World War II Japanese history is the SSN news broadcast of the Yokohama Bay Bridge attack was at 2:26. The time shown on the amateur footage is a reference of the February 26 Incident, where Kōdō-ha fanatics of the Imperial Japanese Army tried to occupy central Tokyo as part of a Coup d'état attempt.[27]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Patlabor 2, Anime News Network. Retrieved on November 21, 2007.
  2. ^ Patlabor 2 the movie, Schaft Enterprises. Retrieved on November 21, 2007.
  3. ^ Goto: "You were one of Tsuge's comrades. But you were betrayed. When Tsuge revamped the plans from a demonstrative political appeal to an all-out plan to start a war and disappeared, you were left hanging out in the cold. Because of the nature of the conspiracy, you couldn't start a public investigation. That's why the SV2 caught your attention. You used us while keeping an eye on Inspector Nagumo."
    Shigeki: "But that's all pure conjecture."
  4. ^ Goto: "But would you have given me permission to meet with Arakawa had I asked you?"
    Nagumo: "No. Of course not. Meeting with a man like him. If word got out that a police officer from the Security Bureau was having secret meetings with an SDF intelligence officer at times like this..."
    Goto: "But it's important to have contacts at times like this."
  5. ^ Tsuge: "Three years ago, I lived in that illusion after I came back. I tried to get people to realize what it was. But, no one noticed until the first shot rang out. And.... Maybe even now.
  6. ^ Goto: "Shinobu Nagumo. She became one of the brightest stars of the Tsuge School. And the greatest partner of Tsuge himself. But there was a slight mishap. None of it got recorded of course. Despite rank or position, he was a man and she was a woman. Stuff happens.
    Shigeki: "If it hadn't been for the fact that Tsuge was married, none of that would have mattered."
  7. ^ Shigeki: "You did some investigating?
    Goto: "Everyone back in HQ heard about it. Even a guy like me. I don't go digging up skeletons in my colleagues' closet.
    Shigeki: "Right. Colleague. I'll just leave it at that."
    Goto: "The police force tends to be touchy about things like that."
  8. ^ Goto: "She was on the career fast track, rising up the ranks of the Security Bureau. But instead got exiled to a strip of reclaimed land. Could that be why?"
    Shigeki: "Who knows?"
  9. ^ Anime Cafe's Patlabor review. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  10. ^ Anime World's Patlabor 2 review. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  11. ^ Japan Hero's Patlabor 2 review. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  12. ^ Anime News Network's Patlabor 2 review. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  13. ^ Manichi Film Concours: 1994. Retrieved on November 21, 2007.
  14. ^ a b c Beyond Hollywood's Patlabor the Movie 2 Review. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  15. ^ a b Japanese Participation in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  16. ^ a b c d Representative Democracy and Military Policy in Postwar Japan. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  17. ^ a b Japan's Evolving Security Policy. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  18. ^ Tetsuo Maeda: Withdrawal plan needed first on SDF dispatch.
  19. ^ Japan to dispatch police to East Timor. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  20. ^ Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affair's report. Chapter 2: Striving for a More Secure, Prosperous and Humane World, Section 2: Toward the Construction of a New International Framework. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  21. ^ An Animated Film that Reflected Timely Issues, What is Patlabor 2?, About Patlabor 2 the Movie. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  22. ^ Around the movie Patlabor 2: To put an end to the Era. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  23. ^ a b c Anime Cafe's Patlabor 2 review. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  24. ^ a b Patlabor the Movie 2 Archives Book, page 20.
  25. ^ History, About Patlabor 2 the Movie. Retrieved on August 21, 2007.
  26. ^ Patlabor the Movie 2 Archives Book, pp. 20-21.
  27. ^ Patlabor 2 Trivia. Retrieved on November 21, 2007.

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