Finished watching Patlabor

Didn't expect that Slice of Life mixed really well with mecha.

Last week i just finished the tv series for this title and i find 47 episodes was really fun experience. I watched the dub version at first because i am unable to find the subbed one but i didn't expect that the dub is decent actually.

Just i had discussed before, The tv series focused around special mobile squad 2nd division of Tokyo police dealing with crimes in their city and their daily life. This division known to public as dysfunctional considering the attitudes of their members but Division 2 members are actually dedicated with their duties as police.

First of all i will introduce some characters you should need to be familiar with in order to understand about the series.

Main protagonist of this series Noa Izumi which is unusual since mecha titles mostly have their main character are males. She serve as 2nd Division labor pilot, Noa is a patlabor freak in a certain extent that she name her unit Alphonse.

The male lead protagonist in this series is Asuma Shinohara, he serve as Noa's operator and possibly romantic interest as well. He is the son of Shinohara industry one of the leading labor manufacturer, he decided to be a police because his relationship with his father is rather bitter.

The other main character of this series is Ohta, 2nd Labor Pilot. The word that fits perfectly for his personality is Reckless. He is often acts as Comic relief due to his brash actions and a Gun Maniac since he prefer to shoot his target rather than subduing them. However his marksmanship skill is exceptional and he always obey his superior.

The last person that i will introduce is Kiichi Goto, the captain of the 2nd division. Despite his subtle appearance he is man of intelligence, he always managed to know what is going on before anyone realize. Goto supposedly deserve a higher position than his current one but because his higher ups are too afraid with him due to his intelligence. If he decided to overthrow his higher-ups i think he can make it.

Probably my favorite character from this series is Liutenant Clancy Kanuka, She is a police from New York who joined 2nd division for 6 months for experience. Kanuka is a really competent officer who had several achievements, during her stay with 2nd Division she is at odds with Noa but later she become good friends with her. Kanuka is really perfect as a police and as a woman as well, she would be Yamato Nadeshiko if she was fully Japanese.

Unlike most mecha series where the lead mecha is nearly invicible, Ingram are not that powerful. Despite Ingram being the latest Patlabor it is not as powerful as some labors such as Brocken or Griffon. The armament itself is relatively modest as well for a mecha, it is armed with stun baton and revolver cannon only and probably the strongest armament it has is Riot Gun.

The reason why the series is good for me is probably the story and character development, the story is not as epic as saving world from evil or anything similar but it is just plain good, even though the mecha animation is not as good as any other. the character interaction is splendid as well at first the relationship between the team is not that strong but later Division 2 begin to work well as team.

Patlabor is probably a rare mix of genre and actually really good. Probably i will watch the OVA and Movie if i have any spare time. If are looking for Light-hearted mecha anime, Patlabor would be a good choice.

Final score: 8.5/10