News and Updates
Archive 2013
to 2014
Please
note
that some external links may no longer be valid. For the
latest Patlabor
news and updates to the this site, please follow this
link.
6 April 2014 - TNG Patlabor Chapter 1
Reviews + Episode
0 and Star Channel Special Legally Streaming for Free
A day after the screening of the first chapter and the reviews
are in. Certainly
not a scientific or comprehensive poll, on Yahoo! Japan
Movies, Chapter 1 has so
far received a
score of 2.73 out of 5 from 11 users.
Make of that what you will.
You can make up your own mind on Episode 0 at least by checking
it out on Nico Nico Douga for free
(Japanese dialogue only). The video includes the entire
special that was
broadcast on Star Channel on 8 March 2014.
5 April 2014 - TNG Patlabor;
Chapter 2 Trailer
Released, Original Soundtrack to Be Released in May
The trailer for Chapter 2 of TNG Patlabor apparently
went
up on Wednesday,
but I
only just realised that now. Strangely the official website
didn't announce it!
Also VAP will be releasing
the
Original Soundtrack
to the
series on 28 May 2014. The CD retails for ¥3,240. Today is the
premier
screening of Chapter 1. I note that a few of the early
sessions in some cinemas
are pretty much sold out. I hope the series is a success for
the producers, but
I can't help thinking it is a bit of a risky project,
especially with the
slapstick nature of the series. I'm not sure how the fans will
react to it.
Again I haven't updated the site during the week, but I should
on Sunday.
31 March 2014 - Chapter 2 Poster
Unveiled, Naoto Takenaka
to Guest Star in Episode 3
The poster for chapter 2 was publicly unveiled a few hours
ago. It revealed that Naoto Takenaka would be guest staring in
the
third episode "Iron Fist Akira". Takenaka provided the voice
for Arakawa Shigeki in "Patlabor 2 the movie" but is better
known for his roles in live action films such as "Shall We
Dance?", "Shinjuku Incident" and "Tokyo Fist".
Please see the TNG Patlabor news section here
for an image of the poster.
30 March 2014 -
"The Next Generation - Patlabor -" Updates
I haven't had much time to update the site recently.
Unfortunately the amount of
info coming in about TNG Patlabor is making the section on it
kind of unwieldily.
I've tried to improve it a bit and will work on it a bit more
in the next week
or so. I expect the week leading up the screening of the first
chapter to be
info heavy. I'll do my best to keep up. All news relating to
TNG Patlabor will
be posted here.
Seriously, when I started this site I thought it was a dead
franchise and didn't
really expect I'd be updating the site to include a new
series, let alone a live
action adaptation.
15 March 2014 -
"The Next Generation - Patlabor -" News for the Week, Team
Strike! To
Release 1/64 SV2 Mini Patrol Car Garage Kit
First up all of the
"TNG Patlabor"
news of the last couple of days; The full sized Ingram prop
and carrier will be
displayed at "The Next Generation - Patlabor -" booth at
AnimeJapan
2014 from 22 March to 23 March 2014. The convention is being
held at Tokyo Big
Sight at Odaiba in Tokyo. The
booth number will be J17 if
you're going. And the news gets weirder. The Roke-Ben
Festival in Skytree Town (next to Skytree in Tokyo of course)
will be opening
a temporary "Shanghai Tei" restaurant
(which is the
fictional restaurant in the series) from 11am to 6pm, 1 April
to 13 April 2014
in Sky Arena area
of Skytree Town.
Unfortunately a menu isn't available online yet. Also some
crappy merchandise is
being sold. Groove
Garage will be releasing
the first piece of TNG merchandise; a
folding container.
The size of
the container is 530mm x 366mm x 334mm (folds down to a height
of 95mm), has an
internal volume of 50.1 litres and weights about 2.65 kg. It's
due for release
in late April 2014 and costs ¥6,250. And finally Kadokawa
announced the sale of the second light novel.
It will be due for release on 25 April 2014, but isn't up for
pre-order yet.
The TNG
section
has been updated with
all the news of the week, plus images of the new footage of
the series from the
Star Channel Special broadcast on 8 March 2014.
Team Strike! has announced a
new 1/64
resin garage kit of the SV2 Mini Patrol car.
The kit contains parts to build the Movie version or the TV
version. The kit
costs ¥3,000 but can
only bought from their website
and which unfortunately only ships out to Japanese residents.
10 March 2014 - Episode 0 Thoughts,
Madman Solicits Second TV Collection and
"The Next Generation - Patlabor -" Info Galore
Unfortunately I haven't been able to update the website over
the last week or
so. There is just too much Next Generation news (most of it on
the promotional
side), so I have compiled it on the TNG
section.
The highlights
include a new
virtual tour of the SV2 hanger on the official website and an announcement
of a satellite broadcast of the series on Star Channel only
three weeks after
the theatrical releases. Madman Entertainment have solicited
the second volume
of the anime TV series. The set will be released on 18 June
2014, will include
episodes 25 to 47 and will cost AU$69.95. None of the online
stores have it up
for pre-order yet
And finally Star Channel in
Japan
broadcast "Episode 0" on 8 March as part of a 26 minute
special on
"The Next Generation - Patlabor -". As you can imagine, it's
out there
online already. Seriously it's not as bad as I expected. It's
very Oshii with
some atmospheric shots as Shigeo Shiba gives a run down of
Labors, the SV2 and
what happened after the completion of the Babylon Project. It
looks great, the
actors, including Erina Mano aren't too bad (admittedly only
Mano, Shigeru Chiba
and Yoshikazu Fujiki appear in the episode), but my hopes were
dashed when the
mechanics began singing... I'll see how the other episodes pan
out before making
a final judgment. Hopefully there's a little less silliness
and a bit more
seriousness, but I
doubt it.
24 February 2014 -
"The Next Generation - Patlabor -" Light Novels To Be
Released from 25
March
A few listings have popped up for the first volume of a light
novel version of
"The Next Genration - Patlabor - ". The Ami
Ami website states
that the
release date will be 25 March 2014. The Neowing
website is stating that Mamoru Oshii is the author.
The price will be ¥462 and will be published on Kadokawa's
Bunko imprint.
Despite the listings, none of the them are currently live, so
it looks like it's
not actually up for pre-order yet.
20 February 2014 - Erina Mano To
Perform Theme Song for
"The Next Generation - Patlabor -"
In slightly unsurprising news, the
official website has announced today that idol singer Erina Mano, who plays
Akira Izumino in the series, will perform the themes song for
the series. Titled "Ambitious!", the song was written by Ryuji
Sakai (of the Japanese rock band the Arrows) and was composed
and arranged by Tomohiro Nakatsuchi. The single will be
produced by Taisei of the pop/rock band Sharam Q, who also
produced Erina Mano's debut recording (post Hello! Project),
"My Piano" in 2008.
Surprisingly there has been no announcement of an actual
release of the song on any format yet.
14 February 2014 - Web Newtype "The
Next Generation - Patlabor -"
Article
Newtype magazine's website has posted
a new article on TNG Patlabor.
It covers a shoot on 24 December 2013 near the Wakasu Park
camping ground in
Koto, which is in Tokyo Bay. The article states that the media
were used as
extras that day and includes a few new photos of the shoot.
10 February 2014 - New "The Next
Generation - Patlabor -"
Blu ray and DVD Extras
I thought I'd just mention the extras to be included in the
first volume of the
"The Next Generation - Patlabor -" Blu-ray and DVD; physical
bonuses
include a booklet and slip cover (which is limited to first
pressing only).
Video extras include a 50 minute "making of", an interview
with Erina Mano,
teaser and theatrical trailers. "The
Next Generation - Patlabor -"
section
has also been
updated.
7 February 2014 - New "The Next
Generation - Patlabor -"
Trailer + Video Schedule
I haven't been able to update the website this week which is
unfortunate as
there has been a lot of news. First up, there's a
new 70 second trailer.
Looks
like there's a bit of humour which I expected, but luckily
it's not slapstick
stuff. Surprisingly it doesn't look too bad. I expected a lot
worse to be honest.
The other big news is that the DVD and Blu-ray schedule has
been released; Volume 1 Episode 0 and 1: 26 April 2014, Volume
2 Episode 2 - 3: 28 June 2014, Volume 3 Episode 4 - 5: 2
August 2014, Volume 4 Episode 6 - 7: 27 September 2014, Volume
5 Episode 8 - 9: 8 November 2014, Volume 6 Episode 10 - 11: 26
December 2014 and Volume 7 Episode 12: 31 January 2015.
As expected, no mention of English subtitles. The discs are up
for pre order at
Amazon.co.jp and other online shops. I hope to have links up
over the weekend.
24 January 2014 - "The Next
Generation - Patlabor -"
to Be Broadcast on Star Channel
This
website
(which bizarrely seems
to be a online make up shop) is reporting the broadcast
satellite station Star
Channel
will screening the "The Next Generation - Patlabor -"
series from (northern hemisphere) Spring 2014.
20 January 2014 - 13 New Stills
From "The Next Generation - Patlabor -"
Published
"The Next Generation - Patlabor -" official website has published
13 still shots from the first episode.
Three of these have been previously been published (two via
the teaser trailer,
the third is from the Kuratas press photos). I think an
additional one was
previously published on the "In
& Up!" Facebook page.
19 January 2014 - "The Next
Generation - Patlabor -"
Chapter One Home Video Release Date
There's been a couple of reports via Twitter in regard to the
first home video
release of "The Next Generation - Patlabor -". Happinet
Pictures will
be releasing the first volume on 26 April 2014. The Blu-ray
will cost ¥5,800
(catalogue number BIXJ-0121) and the DVD will cost ¥4,800
(BIBJ-8461). No
retailers have the discs up for pre-order yet. I seriously
doubt these releases
will include English subtitles.
7 January 2014 - Real 4 Metre Tall
Commercial Robot to
Be Used in "The Next Generation - Patlabor -"
Yesterday afternoon, Eiga.com
posted
an article that stated that Suidobashi
Heavy Industry's 4
metre tall "art piece" robot, Kuratas,
would feature in
the project. The website also posted two new images which
feature the Kuratas in
the film. The second shot shows the robot holding a hapless
man by his leg. The
article states that after the production staff saw the robot,
they thought it
looked like a Labor and decided to use it in the project.
Mamoru Oshii
stated that now that they have the Kuratas, there would be no
need to use CG
shots it was in. Though an "art piece", Kuratas has limited
movement
and has a wide range of functioning robotic accessories. 100
million yen robot
was unveiled to the public in 2012 and is built to order with
a variety of paint
and accessory options.. The robot was designed and created by
Japanese
blacksmith Kogoro Kurata, who is most famous for creating a
full sized Armoured
Trooper from the 1983 anime series "Votoms".
21 December 2013 - New Patlabor
Shoulder Tote Bags From
Cospa
Cospa will be releasing a SVII
Shoulder Tote Bag
and a HOS
Shoulder
Tote Bag
in December 2013.
The bags will cost ¥2,100 each and the size of the bags is
40cm
x 36cm and 13cm deep. The bags feature an inner pocket which
can be closed with
a press stud, and is big enough to hold commuter pass or
mobile phone. Currently it is only available
to buy via Cospa/Gee! Store outlets and on the Cospa website,
however it will be
sold in other shops from February 2014.
20 December 2013 - First "Next
Generation - Patlabor
-" Trailer, Episode Directors and Theatre Listing
First the the most important part, the
trailer.
I must say it looks a
lot better than I thought it would be. Very slick. The episode
directors have
been confirmed too; Takanori Tsujimoto ("Bushido Man") will
direct episode 2,
4 and 8, Kiyotaka Taguchi (assistant special effects director
for "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters
All-Out Attack"
and "Godzilla x Megaguirus") will direct episode 3, 5 and 11,
and Hiroaki Yuasa
(director of photography for "Assault Girls") is handling
episode 9
and 10. A list of cinemas screening the series can be found here.
The films will play in Shinjuku, Kanagawa, Kawasaki, Yokohama,
Ebina in Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama,
Utsunomiya, Isesaki in Gunma, Hokkaido, Sapporo, Osaka, Kyoto,
Kobe, Miyoshi and
Hakata in Fukuoka. The screenings will be limited to two weeks
for each part.
The Next Generation website has also been updated
and
a
twitter account
has been launched.
17 December 2013 - "Next Generation
- Patlabor
-" Theatrical Dates, New Poster, Titles for First Two
Episodes + New Cast
Members
An absolute info dump of material today on the live action
project. First, go here
for the new poster. Second, the dates for all seven parts have
been announced; Chapter
One: 5 April 2014, Chapter Two: 31 May 2014, Chapter Three: 12
July 2014, Chapter
Four: 30 August 2014, Chapter Five: 18 October 2014, Chapter
Six: 29 November
2014, and Chapter Seven: 10 January 2015. The Youkids News
blog is
saying the titles for the first two episodes are;
Episode Zero: "Glory to Special Vehicles Section Two (Eikoo no
Tokusha Ni
Ka)" and Episode One: "Mobilize the Third Generation (San
Daime
Shutsudoo Seyo)". They have also listed four new characters
(who appear on
the new poster); Otawara Isamu played by Horimoto Yoshinori,
Yamazaki Hiromichi
played by Shigekazu Tajiri, Shinji played by Kohei Shiotsuka
and
Buchiyama played by Yoshikazu Fujiki. I think I may have
screwed up some of the character
names (I'm sure I've got the actor names right) and maybe the
titles of the
episodes as Japanese is certainly a language I'm not fluent in
at all. If anyone
wants to correct me, feel free.
14 December 2013 - Yutaka Izubuchi
Art Prints, Next Generation
Phone App CG Labor Footage + Site Updates
The Tokuma
Shoten Art Gallery
has released a number of high quality framed art prints by
Yutaka Izubuchi.
These include two Patlabor prints; "Multilegged
Walking Police Robot"
and "Black
Evil One".
Both
were pieces used as exclusive artwork on the cover of
"Patlabor the movie - Limited Collector's Edition"
DVD box set originally released by the ill fated Bandai Visual
USA in 2006. Both
prints measure 388mm x 297mm and cost ¥23,310 each.
On to Live Action news; on
23 November
2013, the Next Genertaion - Patlabor - website announced a new
smart phone app
which included a whole 6 second CG sequence of an AV-98 Ingram
walking backwards
on to it's service platform inside the SV2 hanger. As
you can see,
it's not the most
exciting piece of footage. I haven't been able to update the
site at all of the
last month which has been a bit frustrating. I'm expecting to
be able to fix few things
up by the start of the new year or hopefully a little earlier.
Over the next
month or so, I
expect more promotional material for the live action project
start to be
released to the public, with an avalanche of material from
February onwards.
I'll endeavour to update the site, but I recommend checking
out the "In
& Up!" Facebook page
as well as the "In
& Up!" blog
for
behind the scenes photos of the shoot. It's a bit odd, but
western fans don't
seem to be linking to these sites, but instead are more
interested in other
western fan sites compiling the same images, often weeks after
they were first
published.
23 November 2013 - New Patlabor
Messenger Bag from
Cospa
Cospa will be releasing a Shinohara
Heavy
Industries reflective messenger bag
(courier bag) in December 2013. It will cost ¥4,410 and the
size of it is 48cm
x 27cm and is 16cm deep. It can hold up to 5kg of weight.
Currently it is only available
to buy via Cospa/Gee! Store outlets and on the Cospa website,
however it will be
sold in other shops from January 2014.
18 November 2013 - Madman Solicit
First TV Collection +
Delete the 2 Disc Movie Collection
Work has finally eased off, but I still haven't found much
time at all to update
the site. Luckily not much has happened in the last month or
so! Today the first
Patlabor TV set appeared
on Madman's B2B site.
A 3D
mock up of the package can be found here.
Titled "Patlabor - The Mobile Police TV Series Collection 1",
it will
retail for AU$69.95 and contain the first 24 episodes on DVD
only (4 discs in
total), so it looks like the series will be complete in two
sets. Apparently the
extras will include; "Meet the Director", "A history of
Patlabor", "Meet the characters" and "Art
gallery". We'll see if any of those actually appear on the
final product. I
wouldn't hold my breath, but as Maiden Japan isn't actually
involved in this
release per se, maybe we might get lucky. Currently there is
no word if the dub is cut or not on this
release. No retailers have the set up for pre-order yet. Also
of note is that
the two disc movie collection had vanished from Madman's site,
presumably out of
print for good. This is notable as it was the only version
still in print which
had the original 2.0 stereo Japanese audio (which was
completely rerecorded in
1998 and never issued on DVD or BD in Japan) and Manga
Entertainment's English
dub.
21 October 2013 - Site Downtime and
Future Updates +
Live Action Film Shoot in Atami
You may have noticed that the site was down from at least
Friday until Sunday
night. The hosting company said it had to do with changing of
servers, but I
thought that had been completed in July, so I'm not sure what
to make of it all.
Hopefully everything is sorted now. Not much news to report
except that there
was some filming for the live action series in Atami (Shizuoka
Prefecture) from
13 October to about 15 October 2013. There were a number of
photos of the shoot
that appeared on Twitter from onlookers but also from Kazunori
Ito's Twitter
account (who I don't believe is working on the film, at least
not in terms of
screenplays). I want to upload them, but unfortunately work is
eating into any spare
time at the moment. Hopefully I'll have time at the
weekend.
5 October 2013 - Maiden Japan
Solicit Final TV BD and
DVD + In & Up! Facebook Page Asking For More Extras
Maiden Japan have recently solicited the last volume in their
Patlabor TV
release. The DVD and Blu-ray versions will have episodes 37 to
47 and as per
usual no extras whatsoever. As per the previous collections,
the DVD set will retail for US$59.98 and BD set will retail
for US$69.98. Both will be released on
7 January 2014, and of will have CPM's English dub (uncut, I
hope) as well as the original Japanese dialogue and English
subtitles.
The cover artwork comes from the second volume of the original
1990 Japanese VHS
and LD release (see here
for Maiden Japan's covers). See Upcoming Product Releases
above for retailer
links. One can only assume that the the New OVA Series (aka
New Files) will be
released in March 2014. I also note that there hasn't been a
peep out of Madman
Entertainment since June regarding their DVD only Australian
release. I suspect
the cut dub is causing problems for them. I have also noticed
that the "In
& Up!" Facebook page
is asking for more extras for the live action project. The
extras are needed between
10 to 14 October 2013.
26 September 2013 - Patlabor – The
Next Generation Nico Nico Live Press Conference Wrap Up
I've just got enough time to give a reasonably thorough run
down of the information which came out in the last day or so.
As has been previously reported via leaks and as hinted by the
project’s title, the project is not a remake of the original
but a new story set in Tokyo 2013. The production staff refer
to the characters in the project as the third generation of
the SV2. Somewhere in the intervening years between 2002
(“Patlabor 2 the movie”) and 2013, the Tokyo Metropolitan
Police disbanded Division 1, but Division 2 managed to survive
despite budget cuts due to a long recession. However Labor
crime is still rampant in the city. Division 2 consists of a
new set of officers which seem just as oddball as the original
first generation officers (in the original anime).
Akira Izumino (played by Erina Mano) is the first Labor pilot.
She loves Labors and Police TV Dramas. Apparently she’s also a
genius gamer who enters a state of super concentration when
“in the zone”. Captain Keiji Gotoda (Toshio Kakei) is Captain
Kiichi Goto’s successor. Like Goto he is resourceful and
cunning. Because of these attributes he is considered to be
like a reincarnation of Goto. Yuma Shiobara (Seiji Fukushi) is
Akira’s backup. According to his profile
he is a gun otaku and can be found drinking on duty and making
plastic models. Ekaterina Krachevna Kankaeva (aka Kasha,
played by Rina Ota) is a Russian officer on loan to train with
the SV2. She is back up to the second Labor. She drinks
heavily, owns an AK-47 and rides a Ducati bike. Finally we
have Shigeo Shiba (played by Shigeru Chiba, who voiced the
original character in the anime). Seemingly the only surviving
member of the original SV2 in this project, he took over
Seitaroh Sakaki’s job as head mechanic sometime before
“Patlabor 2 the movie”.
The project is split into two parts. The first part is a 12
part series of 48 minutes each with a 10 minute “Episode Zero”
prologue. Confusingly the series will be released in seven
sections as limited “Roadshow” theatrical screenings beginning
in April 2014. The total budget of the project is 2 billion
yen with principal photography running from June 2013 to
December 2013. Two full size AV-98 Ingram Labor props were
built at a cost several tens of millions of yen. Mamoru Oshii
will be chief director of the project (with other directors
directing individual episodes) and he noted that the series
will have a “slapstick ambience”. Oshii and Kei Yamamura are
writing the screenplays for the episodes. Oshii will also be
writing directing a full length (around 100 minutes)
theatrical feature due for release in 2015. The feature film
is presently untitled. Kenji Kawai will compose music for both
projects. Shochiku will be distributor of the films and the
official website notes that Shinjuku Piccadilly cinema complex
will premier the theatrical feature in 2015.
25 September 2013 - Patlabor - Next
Generation Nico
Nico Live Press Conference
Unfortunately due to work commitments, I'm going to be really
lazy and direct
you to ANN's
coverage
of what was announced
today. There's some really interesting stuff in the report,
but a lot of it has
already been leaked. I will do a proper write up this weekend.
Sorry! Also I
have just noted the Patlabor
- Next Generation website has
been updated with a lot of information about the
project.
21 September 2013 - In & Up!
Blog and Facebook Page
Linked to Live Action Project Website
Yesterday the Patlabor
- Next Generation website updated
it's splash page to link to the previously mentioned "In
& Up!" Facebook page
as well as an "In
& Up!" blog.
Both
have the same content. New behind the scenes photos are posted
daily on each
site. Nico Nico Live has put up a
new announcement page
about
the live action project which will be streamed live at 11am on
25 September 2013
(Japanese time). Apparently cast members for the project will
be announced.
Hopefully I'll be able to update the section on the project
this weekend.
17 September 2013 - Live Action
News: Nico Nico Douga Announcement and Facebook Page with
Behind the
Scenes Photos Appears + Anime News: Patlabor TV on Hulu
The special 15
September announcement regarding the live action project
(previously
mentioned on Mamoru Oshii's "Ticking off Half the World"
blog on the Nico Nico Douga site)
did
yield a few new nuggets of information; Takanori Tsujimoto ("Bushido Man") will be
the director and Noa and Asuma won't
feature in the project at all. A further announcement will
be made on 25 September 2013 on Nico Nico Douga site. In the
last couple of days there has been a bit of buzz about
a new Facebook page called "In &
Up!". Quite a
number of photos with rather vague
descriptions have been posted since June 2013. All of the
shots seems to be from the sets of the Patlabor live action
project. Some of the more
interesting photos include a fake convenience store and
courier, a smashed police car and what seems to be details
of the
interior of the SV2 hanger. Of note is that Takanori
Tsujimoto himself has liked one of the
posts, so it seems legit. And finally Hulu is now streaming
the first 20
episode of the Patlabor TV series
(available to US residents only).
12 September 2013 - New Live Action Project Info;
TV Drama Episode Count, Oshii to Director + Partial TV and
Movie Staff List
The Youkids News
blog has posted some
new info relating
to the live action Patlabor project, and some of it is quite
surprising. The TV drama will be twelve parts long and will
be broadcast towards the end of (the northern
hemisphere) Autumn 2013. Mamoru Oshii will be the
supervising director and Takanori Tsujimoto ("Bushido Man"),
Kiyotaka Taguchi ("Neo Ultra Q") and Hiroaki Yuasa (director
of photography for "Assault Girls") will be episode
directors. Mamoru Oshii will be the director of the movie
version which is due for a summer 2014 release. Takahide
Sano and Isao Kaneko
(assistant director on "Avalon") will be assistant directors
on the film. Izumi Kazuyoshi is the line
producer for the project. Cinema Sound Works are credited
with recording and a company called Dummy Head will provide
Special makeup design. There are no sources listed on the
blog for this information, but going on the past record of
the blog, I'd say most of this info, if not all, is probably
correct.
5 September 2013 - Patlabor Live
Action TV Drama First,
Then Movie + Cast to Include Erina Mano, Fukushi Seiji and
Toshio Kakei
According to the
Nikkan
Daily Issue website
the cast for the
upcoming Patlabor live action project will include Erina
Mano (pop idol formerly associated with
idol unit Ongaku Gatas. In 2008 she embarked on a solo idol
career), Fukushi Seiji
("Swing Girls", "Nodame Cantabile" TV drama series and
movies) and Toshio Kakei ("Bayside Shakedown", "Space
Travellers").
The article doesn't mention their actual roles. The website
also seems to
confirm the rumours that the project will first be TV drama,
then a movie will
be made. It also mentions that principle photography will
wrap up in October.
Also according to Mamoru Oshii's "Ticking
off Half the World"
blog on the Nico Nico Douga
site, he will be making a
special announcement
about the project on 15 September. And finally, I have
updated the section
on
the live action movie
a couple weeks
back. I suspect I'll be updating it quite regularly from now
on.
15 August 2013 - New Official Live
Action Movie Images
Released
A
teaser poster for
the forthcoming Patlabor Live Action film has been publicly
shown at the
TFC booth at the 14th Taiwan International Comic Expo. Also
the official
live action
Patlabor website, patlabor-nextgeneration.com, has changed
it's background image
again. This time it shows an Ingram Labor out on Tokyo Bay.
Both images show a new logo for the project.
4 August 2013 - Full Sized Live
Action Movie Labor
Props Spotted in Yokohama + New Live Action Patlabor
Promotional
Image Released
A
number of photographs have appeared on twitter
apparently yesterday
showing a full sized Ingram, it's carrier and a command car.
It is assumed these
are for the live action Patlabor film which is currently in
production. The
photos were shot in Yokohama in the Nanbushijo area. And in
slightly more prosaic
live action movie news, the official live action
Patlabor website, patlabor-nextgeneration.com, has a
new background image
showing mechanics
inside the SV2 hanger. Unfortunately nothing else has been
added to the webpage.
3 August 2013 - MVM Entertainment's
"Early Days" OVA
Release Date, Price Point and Pre-Order
MVM
Entertainment's Anime-On-Line.com
website has revealed the release date for the "Early Days"
OVA, 18
November 2013. The retail price for both the DVD and Blu-ray
will be £24.99.
See Upcoming Product Releases above for retailer links.
1 August 2013 - MVM Entertainment
to Release
"Early Days" OVA in the UK
MVM
Entertainment announced
on their Twitter account today
that they
will be releasing the "Early Days" OVA series on DVD and
Blu-ray in
the UK in November. No price point has been announced. Most
likely the Blu-ray version
will be a dupe of the discs that Maiden Japan and Madman
Entertainment released.
It's plausible the DVD version will also be a dupe of the
Madman release.
26 July 2013 - Maiden Japan
Solicits Third TV Collection, No Extras On Collection 1
Discs + Guillermo del Toro Admits Patlabor Influenced
Pacific Rim
Maiden Japan in the US have solicited the third collection of
the TV series. This collection covers the episodes
25 to 36 of the series. As per the two previous collections,
the DVD set will retail for US$59.98 and BD set will retail
for US$69.98. Both will be released on
5 Novemberr 2013, and of will have CPM's English dub (uncut, I
hope) as well as the original Japanese dialogue and English
subtitles. Currently only the Right Stuf has the sets up for
pre-order (see Upcoming Product Releases above for
links). As to the extras on this set and the other two, well
there are none. The
updated artwork for collection 2 doesn't mention any extras
and despite the
cover stating collection 1
contains clean opening closings, they don't actually appear
anywhere on any of
the discs.
This is old news, but I
thought I might
mention it anyway; in an
interview on Ain't It Cool News
in regards to the film "Pacific Rim", director Guillermo del
Toro
states that Patlabor was an influence on the film as well as
"Tetsujin 28 (Gigantor)",
"Voltron (Go Lion/Dairugger XV)", "Space Giants (Ambassador
Magma)"
and "Ultraman",
but he
didn't "consult them like a Bible". He also states that "the
DNA of Patlabor is in the DNA of how we conduct business in
the Shatterdome
(i.e. the headquarters of the Pan Pacific Defence Corps in
the film)".
Having seen the film, I can say that the Shatterdome is
nothing like anything
depicted in Patlabor at all.
The only comparison
you could make is that the SV2 hanger and the Shatterdome
are both used to repair and store giant robots,
that's it. Finally I've been as sick as a dog during the
last week and also have
been exceptionally busy at work, so don't expect many (any?)
updates at all for
quite a while.
13 July 2013 - Maiden Japan's
Patlabor TV Sets Have
Edited English Dubs
Now to the almost never ending saga that is the current
English language release
of "Patlabor On Television"... Hard as it is to believe,
according to this
post on
the Fandom Post forums,
the English dub on the first set of Maiden Japan's release of
the Patlabor TV
series is edited. According to the post, the edited dub is
from a TV broadcast
from seven or eight years ago. The differences between the
original Japanese
version and edited dub are dealt via seamless branching, so it
seems the
Japanese version is presented uncut. There are warnings
presented on screen and
in an insert inside the case in regards to the edited dub. But
of course this
info is NOT printed on the outside of the disc case, so you'd
have no idea until
you bought it. You may remember I previously questioned the
solicitation for
this release in regards to the disc listing an extra labelled
"Undubbed
Footage". Well, this extra compares the edited English dub
with the uncut
Japanese footage. Mystery solved. Why Maiden Japan couldn't
get the uncut
English dub from the original CPM DVD releases is beyond me. I
should be able to
confirm the post on the Fandom Post forums next week when I
get my copy. However
I will say that this current release (both Maiden Japan's and
Madman
Entertainment's) is turning out to be a bit of a dog's
breakfast.
5 July 2013 - Mamoru Oshii
"Involved" in Live Action Patlabor +
Disappearing Extras on Patlabor DVDs and Blu-rays
Although this was previously
announced
back in March
by Japanese
news blog Hobbylog, Tohokushinsha
Film Corporation (TFC) announced at its booth at the 14th
Japan Expo in Paris that Mamoru Oshii is involved in live
action Patlabor
project.
Though in what capacity, who knows? Remember that Oshii is
currently working on "The Last Druid: Garm Wars" which is due
for release sometime next year. I would guess that his role
would be only
a supervisory one, but who really knows. Rumours
in April
also had Kiyotaka Taguchi (assistant special effects director
for "Godzilla X Megaguirus" and "Godzilla, Mothra and King
Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack", episode director for
"Neo Ultra Q"), Takanori Tsujimoto (director of "Monster
Killer" and "Bushido Man") and Hiroaki Yuasa (cinematographer
for "Monster Killer" and Mamoru Oshii's "Assault Girls")
attached to the project. In May casting director Junichi
Tayama set up a blog calling for
volunteers as extras and and as part of production team. TFC also updated the
project's website
to read "Mamoru Oshii
X The Next Generation -Patlabor-". I'm hoping to update the
live action
section of the website this weekend with most of this
information.
And now more news on those disappearing extras on the new
Patlabor releases in
the US and Australia. Having seen a copies of Madman's DVD and
Blu-ray releases
for the "Patlabor Early Days" I can confirm both do not
contain a
single extra on them besides trailers for other titles. Also a
reader has helpfully pointed out to me
this
post on
the Fandom Post's
forums from Maiden Japan's Janice Williams. She states the
previously solicited extras for the
second collection of
their Patlabor TV release are actually for a completely
different title they're
releasing; "Medaka Box". This was apparently a "cut &
paste error". I should have twigged
when I read the first extra being "Jump Festa Promo". The
Patlabor manga was published in
Shonen Sunday, not Shonen Jump for starters... The
company is still stating that the first BD and DVD set will
include clean opening
and closings, but I'd bet London to a brick that the sets will
not contain these.
18 June 2013 - Madman Entertainment Not Releasing TV Series on
Blu-Ray + Geoblocking on Maiden Japan’s TV
Blu-Rays
Some really disappointing news on the Patlabor Blu-Ray (BD)
front. First is Madman’s
announcement
that they will not be releasing the TV series on BD. The TV
series will still have a DVD release.
Bizarrely it seems they still confirmed they are releasing the
New OVA Series (released by CPM as the “New Files”) on BD.
Only four of the sixteen OVA episodes were ever dubbed in
English (unless Maiden Japan has plans to dub the other
twelve, which I find highly unlikely). The company’s statement
also said that they will only release the movies on BD if the
Early Days OVA BD does well. Seeing as the movies are far, far
more popular than the Early Days OVA series,
and can be enjoyed without having seen the OVA series, Madman
Entertainment’s reasoning
seems really flawed and downright stupid. Luckily Australians
can purchase all three movies on BD from Amazon.co.jp
complete with English subtitles and English dubs (the third
film doesn’t have an English dub on the BD), and avoid this
nonsense.
And now to Maiden Japan... A major problem with Blu-Ray and
anime is that Japan and US are both Region A. This means
Japanese anime fans can import cheaper versions of
anime BDs. There have been various methods to attempt to stop
“reverse importation” such as locked
subtitles and the occasional "English dub only" disc, but now
there is a new method; geoblocking
(see here
for a discussion on the Fandompost.com forums). Apparently
some US BDs are able to detect if the BD player is not a US
player and will refuse to play the disc. The good news is that
it only seems to apply to Japanese players. However this may
not be true for all discs. The unfortunate news is that the
first Patlabor TV BD from Maiden Japan has geolocking.
Currently there is no information as to if the discs in this
set will play on players outside the US and
Japan. Early reports on some other discs (such as the
Funimation BDs) seem to
indicate there won't be a problem.
31 May 2013 - Maiden Japan Solicits
Patlabor the
Television Series Collection 2 DVD and BD
Maiden Japan in the US have solicited the second collection of
the TV series. This collection covers the episodes 13 to 24 of
the series. The solicitation curiously says the sets are two
discs each rather than the four disc DVD and three disc BD
that collection one was. The DVD set will retail for US$59.98
and BD set will retail for US$69.98. Both will be released on
10 September 2013, and of course will have CPM's English dub
as well as the original Japanese dialogue and English
subtitles. Currently only the Right Stuf has the set up for
pre-order (see Upcoming Product Releases above for links).
Again, there’s weirdness in the solicitation’s mention of
extras. This time around the discs will supposedly include;
Jump Festa Promo, Teasers, Home Video Spots, Clean Opening
Animation and Clean Closing Animation. Yet the Japanese BDs
didn’t include this material. In fact only the home video
spots have ever made it on to a home video version of the
series anywhere in the world. Considering that the clean
opening and closings never materialised on the Maiden Japan’s
“Early Days” release, I seriously have no hope that these
extras will appear either. The preliminary artwork for
collection 2 can be seen
here. This time
they've used the artwork from the original “Patlabor on
Television P-5 LD and VHS” release from 1991 (click
here for the LD cover). The final
artwork for the first collection can be seen
here. It’s not that much different
for the preliminary artwork. Of note however is the
new listing for the extras which now read “Undubbed Footage”
(whatever that means) the usual non-existent clean opening and
closing
animation.
15 May 2013 - Live Action
Production Team Call For Extras
and
Behind The Scenes Volunteers
A blog called patlaborextra.com
has
been set up
by casting
director Junichi Tayama. On the blog he is asking
for volunteer extras
to appear
in the forthcoming live action Patlabor film. Filming will
take place from June
2013 and the production staff require extras to play the parts
of labor crime
witnesses, people passing by, policemen, detectives, fire
fighters, ambulance
officers, self defence force officials and various others. The
blog says you
don't need previous acting experience and that age and gender
doesn't really
matter. Though you won't be paid, you will get a small
souvenir for your
efforts. The registration
page
also mentions the
production team is after volunteers to who have experience
behind the scenes.
The deadline to register seems to be by the start of June.
25 April 2013 - 25th Anniversary of
Patlabor, 10th Anniversary of Schaft
Enterprises/Patlabor.info
It’s a little hard to believe, but on this day a quarter of a
century ago, Bandai Visual released the first OVA episode of
“Mobile Police Patlabor”. Incredibly there is still interest
in the series with numerous merchandise releases in Japan, and
even Blu-ray and DVD releases of the series in the US and
Australia this year. And of course there is the forthcoming
live action Patlabor film due for release sometime in 2014.
This year also marks a decade of this very website. Of course
as I originally explained in the website’s introduction page,
I built the site because there was practically no information
dedicated to the series when I searched for info on the web.
Looking back through the stats, it seems that nearly 1,500
people visit the website monthly and surprisingly the amount
keeps increasing every year. It sort of mystifies me as to why
this would be. There hasn’t been any new Patlabor anime since
the rather lukewarmly received “WXIII Patlabor the movie 3” in
2002, I haven’t really updated the site for a number of years,
and websites dedicated to anime series are really old hat in
this age of Wikis, Tumblr and Twitter. Embarrassingly this
site has become a “go to” site for Patlabor information. It is
even referenced on various Wikipedia pages as a source and
even my synopses for the TV series episodes have been copied
verbatim into
this
page.
At any rate I will continue to keep this site running into the
foreseeable future and have no plans to shut it down (and um,
update much of it to be honest…). I plan to keep plugging
along with news updates, making the site look less ugly
(working on that slowly) and continue updating the section on
the forthcoming live action film. Thanks for the emails of
support over the years as well. Who knows, the website may
well celebrate another decade in
2023.
24 April 2013 - Patlabor Live Action Movie Rumours
Some very interesting rumours concerning the forthcoming
Patlabor live action movie
have been posted on the Youkids
News
blog,
apparently from an actor who auditioned for the
production. Principal photography for the project is scheduled
from May to October 2013 with a release date of (Northern
Hemisphere) Summer 2014. Not only that, there appears to be a
TV version as well.
Unfortunately my Japanese language skills are pretty hopeless
to nonexistent (closer
to the latter), so It's a little confusing as to what is being
said on the blog. It seems to suggest a TV version will be
broadcast version sometime after (Northern Hemisphere) Autumn
2013 and there's mention of an original anime, but I'm
uncertain what has actually been written. Rumoured to be
attached to the project are Kiyotaka Taguchi
(assistant special effects director for "Godzilla X
Megaguirus" and "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant
Monsters All-Out Attack", episode director for "Neo Ultra Q"),
Takanori Tsujimoto (director of "Monster Killer" and "Bushido
Man") and Hiroaki Yuasa (cinematographer for "Monster Killer"
and Mamoru Oshii's "Assault Girls"). There is no source for
this story
other than the unnamed actor nor where the blogger sourced the
information from, so as the Youkids News blog post says in
closing, take the
rumours with a giant grain of salt.
22 April 2013 - No Extras On Maiden
Japan’s "Early Days" Release
It’s been confirmed on the
Fandom Post forums
(by people who received their copies early), that Maiden
Japan’s BD and DVD releases of “Patlabor The Mobile Police:
Original OVA Series Early Days”
do not contain the clean opening and closings. This is
not all that surprising as no Japanese home video release has
included clean opening and closings of any Patlabor anime
(either the OVAs or TV series), let alone the “Early Days” OVA
series. Not only that, the Maiden Japan sets do not include
any extras at all. Compare with the U.S. Manga Corps (CPM)
2003 DVD set which contained audio commentary from Mamoru
Oshii with Shigeki Mori for the first three OVAs, dub outtakes
and even a sew on cloth patch! As Madman Entertainment is
probably using the same authoring as Maiden Japan for its BD
version, I would expect the same lack of extras on their
release, or at least no audio
commentaries. I would be highly surprised if Maiden Japan's
Patlabor TV series
sets contain clean opening and closings as the pre-order info
says.
14 April 2013 - Patlabor Novels
Reissued and New Madman
Artwork for Early Days OVA
Numerious light novels
in Kadokawa's Sneaker Bunko and Fujimi Shobou's Fantasia Bunko
series are to be reprinted and sold via Animate, Gamers and
Shosen book stores. This will include the first five Patlabor
light novels which were originally released
between 1990 and 1993 and written by Michiko Yokote (who wrote
most of the the TV series screenplays), except the first
novel, an
adaptation of the first movies, which was written by Kazunori
Ito. The first novel, "Mobile Police Patlabor: Wind Speed 40
Metres Per Second", goes on sale on 20 July. "Mobile Police
Patlabor: Syntax Error" and "Mobile Police Patlabor: Third
Mission" will be issued on 20 August and the final two books,
"Mobile Police Patlabor: Backjack Part 1" and "Mobile Police
Patlabor: Backjack Part 2" will be released on 20 September.
The price of each novel will be ¥672,
except for "Mobile Police Patlabor: Syntax Error", which will
retail for ¥693. Currently only Animate has the books up for
pre-order online.
Madman have issued new cover art for their forthcoming "Early
Days" OVA release. The DVD artwork is
here, the BD artwork
here. As you can see, it mirrors the
Maiden Japan release.
30 March 2013 - Patlabor To Appear In "Super Robot Wars
Operation Extend" PSP Game + Site Updates
Banpresto's PSP
game "Super Robot Wars Operation Extend",
due for release during (the northern hemisphere's) summer
2013, will include
both Noa and Ota's AV-98 Ingrams from the Patlabor
franchise. The game will be released
in eight separate downloadable parts. The first chapter of
the game will cost
¥500 yen
and following chapters will be
¥1,000 yen
each. The full set of eight chapters costs
¥6,480 yen.
A promotional video for the game will released in May.
In other news I have
included a new
section for the
forthcoming live action film
and and corrected and updated the section on Oshii's
1998 live action pilot film.
The site does need a major clean up and does look rather crap
in Internet
Explorer 10, so I'll be fixing up sections as I see problems
(i.e. very slowly).
29 March 2013 - Maiden Japan
Solicits Patlabor On
Television Collection 1 DVD and Blu-ray Sets + Preliminary
Cover Artwork and
"Deleted Scenes"?
Maiden Japan in the US have solicited the first collection of
the TV series. The
collection covers the first 12 episodes of the series. The
four disc DVD set will
retail for US$59.98,
while the three disc BD set will retail for US$69.98.
Both
will be released on 16 July 2013, have CPM's English dub as
well as the
original Japanese dialogue and English subtitles. Curiously
the solicitation also
mentions the extras will include creditless
opening and closing animations (never included in any
Japanese video releases as
far as I'm aware), but bafflingly states that the set will
included "Deleted Scenes".
Um... What...? Again, as far as I'm aware no Japanese
release of the series on
any home video format has included these "Deleted Scenes",
so I'm sort
of wondering if this is a mistake in
Maiden Japan's
solicitation. The
company has also issued the initial artwork for the cover of
the first
collection (which can be seen here).
The cover artwork is edited from the VHS and Laserdisc artwork
for the original
"Patlabor on Television P-7" release in 1991 (a shoddy scan of
the VHS
cover can be seen here).
Currently only the Right Stuf has the set up for pre-order
(see Upcoming Product
Releases above for links).
23 March 2013 - Preview Up For
Mobile Police Patlabor 25th Anniversary Memorial Book
Publisher Takarajimasha has put up preview pages for it's
forthcoming “Mobile Police Patlabor 25th Anniversary Memorial
Book”.
The preview can be accessed by clicking the book symbol under
the image of the
cover of the book on this
page. The
book will compile material mostly from thier 2007 book "Mobile
Police
Patlabor Chronicle" as well as their 2003 book "Mobile Police
Patlabor
Perfect Book". The new book will be released on 23 March 2013,
around 191 pages
long and in B6 sized format. The price will be ¥1,575 and the
ISBN is
4-80-020917-X.
21 March 2013 - Tohokushinsha Film
Corporation Announces
Live Action Patlabor Project For 2014
2013 has been a bit of strange one for so far for Patlabor
news. You may remember
back on 17 September 2012 at a Nico
Nico Live talk show event,
Studio Ghibli Producer Toshio Suzuki asked Mamoru Oshii if
Patlabor live action
movie was in the works after apparently hearing a rumour from
Production I.G
producer Tomohiko Ishii. Oshii didn't really confirm or deny
it was happening,
but with the announcement of Oshii's live action project "The
Last Druid: Garm Wars",
I dismissed the Patlabor live action movie rumours completely.
Looks like I was wrong.
Tohokushinsha Film Corporation (TFC) have announced at first
day of Tokyo
International Anime Fair that they will be launching a
Patlabor live action
project in 2014. A website entitled patlabor-nextgeneration.com
has been set up, but currently only shows a splash page.
Omnibus Japan is
co-producing the feature. No director or screen writer has
been mentioned nor is there
any information that any members of Headgear will be
involved.
Back in September 2012, Masami Yuuki
denied any knowledge of
the project,
and surprisingly said that he
wished people would not make "political moves like
that". In 1998 Oshii created a two minute live
action Patlabor pilot film (it was created
in tandem with the two pilot films, one anime, one live
action, for “The Record of Garm War”).
At the time it was never clear why Patlabor pilot film was
produced as no live
action feature what ever announced. Prior to that, in 1997,
"Brotherhood of the Wolf" and "Silent Hill" director
Christophe Gans
stated he was going to make a live
action Patlabor
film,
however the project was shelved due to budgetary
concerns. This new
announcement from
TFC is very intriguing, and though I really have a lot of
doubts considering the
poor quality of the majority of Japanese live action
adaptations of manga and
anime, I am looking forward to finished film.
21 March 2013 - Maiden Japan
Announces Patlabor On
Television DVD and Blu-ray Sets
While a complete given, it does come as a small surprise that
US distributor
Maiden Japan has announced
that
they have the rights to the Patlabor TV series.
I was a little surprised that the series is being released on
Blu-ray as well as
DVD. Central Park Media/US Manga Corps
did take almost five years to release the series on DVD a
decade ago and we know
it was a poor seller for them, so this re-release on BD
baffles me somewhat. Not
that I'm complaining. It'll be very nice to have the series on
BD in English
(and I already have it on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD...). And
hopefully the second opening
theme will be in it's right place, unlike the the US Manga
Corps release. The TV series will be
released in four
sets every other month
starting
form 16 July 2013. The artwork for the first set should show
up within a week or
two.
20 March 2013 - Madman Resolicits
Early Days DVD and
BD, New Artwork for US DVD and BD Releases and Cover Artwork
25th Anniversary
Book
While I was away overseas, a bunch of Patlabor related stuff
happened, and I had
no way of updating the site. Oh well. The biggie is Madman
Entertainment has resolicited
the Early Days OVA series not only on DVD, but on Blu-ray as
well. The release
date will be 19 June 2013. Maiden Japan has issued new artwork
for their release
of the Early Days OVA series, this time inexplicably choosing
the artwork for
the original 1988 release of the third OVA "The 450 Million
Year Old
Trap" (VHS cover here).
Kinda boggles the mind... Interestingly the new back cover
artwork shows a
timeline of the OVA and TV series which strengthens
speculation that not only do
Maiden Japan have the rights to both OVA series and the TV
series, but also the
movies. You can see the updated artwork at the
Fandom Post.
Takarajimasha has
released the cover artwork for their upcoming “Mobile Police
Patlabor 25th Anniversary Memorial Book”.
It can be seen on Amazon.co.jp.
27 February 2013 - Mobile Police Patlabor 25th Anniversary
Memorial Book
On 25 April this year, Patlabor will have clocked up a quarter
of a century since it's first OVA release. Publisher
Takarajimasha is getting in early
on the celebrations and will publish “Mobile Police Patlabor
25th Anniversary Memorial Book” on 23 March 2013. The 200 page
book will cover everything in the franchise from the manga,
all the anime and the
novels, and will feature input from all of the members of
Headgear. The price will be ¥1,575 and the ISBN is
4-80-020917-X.
8 February 2013 - The Final "My First Big Special" Manga
Release
The final volume in Shogakukan's "My First Big" imprint of
Patlabor manga will be "The Decisive Battle of Reclaimed Land"
("Umetate Chi no Kessen" - my shoddy translation is
probably wrong...), due on 8 March 2013 with a price tag of
¥650. At this stage no one has it up for
pre-order yet.
17 January 2013 - Maiden Japan Patlabor Early Days OVA
DVD and Blu-ray Release Date, Artwork and Pre-Order
Maiden Japan has already set release dates for their upcoming
Patlabor Early
Days OVA DVD and BD; 30 April 2013 (just a couple of days
after the 25th anniversary
of the release of the first Patlabor OVA). The DVD will
retail for US$29.98, the BD
will be US$39.98. The assumption is that the
discs will include CPM's English dub from 2003, but this
hasn't been confirmed.
The artwork for the sets have also been posted
on the Fandompost.com forums. At
this stage (the artwork is only tentative), they are using the
same artwork as
the second DVD from Bandai Visual's 2000 DVD release. Also of
note is that they
also using the "Early Days" title for the OVA. The
Fandompost.com is
reporting that the sets will have the clean opening and
closing animation as
extras, which is odd as they have never been released on any
Japanese home video
release as far as I'm aware. Only one retailer has
put the series up for pre-order so far, the Right Stuf. I'll
add more to the Upcoming
Product Releases
as retailers list them.
16 January 2013 - Maiden Japan
to Release Patlabor Early Days OVA on DVD and Blu-ray
Well here's something that's really out of the blue; US anime
company Maiden Japan (one of the many video companies that
appeared out of the
ashes of ADV Films), will be
releasing the original Patlabor OVA series (known as "Early Days" on every
Japanese release since 1995) on Blu-ray as well as DVD and
online sometime this year. This announcement probably explains
why Madman put their release of the series on hold in April
last
year (this
post
seems to indicate a resolicitation
from Madman soon, perhaps on BD). I do find it rather
astonishing that someone actually decided to release OVA, and
re-release it on BD, since it never did very well for previous
distributor Central Park Media (CPM). In fact CPM cancelled
the dub of the last 12
episodes of the New OVA series. It's pretty much a given that
the CPM dub will appear on Maiden Japan's release. I suspect
that Maiden Japan will also announce they're
releasing the TV series and New Series OVA. At the very least,
this announcement allows people to purchase the series without
being ripped off by Amazon sellers who are
charging more than $200 for a well worn used copy of CPM's DVD
set.
12 January 2013 - The
Next "My First Big Special" Manga and More Cospa Re-releases
The next volume in Shogakukan's "My First Big" imprint is;
"Mobile Police Patlabor -
Schaft Vs Utsumi", due on 8 February 2013 costing ¥680 (ISBN
4-09-107854-0).
Unfortunately it's not up for pre-order at Amazon.co.jp yet.
And in further predictable
Patlabor news, Cospa has reissued a number of their Patlabor
T-shirts as well as
a business card holder and tie pin. See the "Upcoming Product
Releases" section above for details.
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