The not uncontroversial Patlabor movie The Next Generation -Patlabor- has finally gained some credibility with the involvement of Mamoru Oshii and sexy idol Erina Mano…
Aside from the obvious promise of Ghost in the Shell production veteran Mamoru Oshii (who also directed the original Patlabor) as director, ex-Hello Project! idol Erina Mano’s casting as lead heroine Noa Izumi has enthused those who like cute girls atop their giant robots:
The movie itself is due a series of theatrical releases in 2014, to be followed up with a full-length movie release in 2015.
Not all are convinced however:
“Mano-chan!”
“Not Oshii…”
“This’ll be another load of incomprehensible philosophical tripe…”
“He’ll just turn this into another one of his onanistic films.”
“Guaranteed not to sell.”
“Her face is a perfect fit.”
“She does look absolutely perfect for Noa.”
“She’s cute but I wonder if she can pull off the role?”
“I still think this will end horribly.”
“Considering the huge budget I can’t help but think they should have just made another anime…”
“They are just going to blow the entire budget on CG so they may as well have done an anime.”
“Expect an overly long drama with barely any ‘labor action.”
“I wish they’d stop making Japanese live action adaptations of anime. And this is hardly Oshii’s strong point either.”
“It is doomed.”
“Japanese live action movie. Oshii. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Wow, she’s landing a nice role after her graduation. But hell yeah for a proper Hello Project idol to star in it. The idol agency that actually has cute and genuinely sweet girls in it, unlike a certain one that’s popular right now for some reason.
Oh wow, she is just… Those first two pictures… She’s adorable! <3
I love how that short hairstyle rounds out her face and gives her this sort of everyday 'girl-next-door' cuteness which is *super effective* on me. With long hair she literally just looks like every idol…
It's a shame they're a new cast of characters, because she really would make a perfect Noa with that look.
Either way, I can't wait to see how this movie turns out.
that giant robot sure is sexy.(no clue where it’s from though, I generally don’t watch animes with giant robots, I find them boring with generic robot fight scenes here and there)
Oshii’s actually good at doing his own works… but whenever he gets his hands on someone else’s story he absolutely fucking butchers them. I think the only thing he’d have a chance of adapting well is Eva.
Everything else, Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell, Urusei Yatsura(?!), he just sucks the life out of them and leaves the mortal husk twitching on-screen. No joy. No comedy. No fanservice. No fun. Dark, high-contrast lighting, and lots of characters sitting around brooding. The man could do a version of Pani Poni Dash that makes people kill themselves.
Uh, Patlabor _is_ one of Oshii’s own works; he’s a member of Headgear. Other than that, I agree with you. His work on the Ghost in the Shell movies is a goddamn war crime.
The second Patlabor movie is a masterpiece though, it’s like a Tom Clancy novel with giant robots. It’s also got some very beautiful cinematic sequences not unlike the Ghost in the Shell movie (Which he made like right after), but they don’t feel as out of place because there’s still stuff going on that’s telling the story, it’s not just scenerybation.
After having recently seen it for the first time in years when it came out on bluray, it’s quickly become one of my favorite anime films.
The first Patlabor film is good too, but I actually prefer the more realistic look of the second movie.
The third movie…holy s♥♥t. That is a total crapfest. Only good thing about the third movie, is that they made Mini-Pato to accompany its theatrical run, and Mini-Pato is fucking hilarious. :U
Agreed about the 2nd Patlabor movie. It really is that good and I got the same Tom Clancy vibe from it. It, along with Macross Plus, is what turned me into a fan of Anime as a art form. It’s a anime that you can show non-fans and get them interested in the genre.
That’s interesting… I was looking at the manga and TV series as the originals, which he wasn’t credited for. I actually haven’t seen the original OAV, so I can’t comment on what he did there. I just saw the usual rift between the manga/TV and movies as with Urusei Yatsura or GITS.
2nd Patlabor movie was all atmosphere and scenery but very little actual substance. Plot moved at a painfully slow pace, you really don’t need to show quiet city covered in snow for more than 3/4 of the movie to get your point across.
You seem to be confusing it with GitS’s utterly pointless ‘moody scrolling sequences’ that– while visually pleasing –add almost nothing to the story.
There’s only two that immediately come to mind in Patlabor 2, and one acts as backdrop for a monologue, and the other is meant to show Tokyo’s ‘new reality’ under martial law (and how little the general public cares.)
This will be Japan’s Bayformers, instead of getting tons of enjoyable-if-excessive explosions, you get tons of existential inflection.