Patlabor - the mobile police was one of the Japanese popular series in the mid- to late-80s.

Compared to other Japanese "mecha" series, (e.g. Gundam, Macross, and tons...) Patlabor appeared to be more realistic and down-to-the-ground.

The series title "Patlabor" can be interpreted as patrol-labor. The word "labors" stands for those big man-driven (or occasionally fully-automated) robots. The word "patrol" obviously stands for the patrolling tasks of the mobile police of the Tokyo Police Department.

The year was the late 1990s (remember that the series was created in the 1980s), when the world began to use big robots, labors, to perform heavy-duty tasks. Those labors seemed to be perfect tools for performing those heavy tasks; until one day... criminals adapted to the technology and began to use labors for crimes. Because of the nature that the labors were huge and heavy-armored (many of those were heavily armed, too), Tokyo Police Department had decided to introduce, experimentally, 2 police labors (Shinohara AV-98 INGRAM's) to a mobile unit -- Special Vehicle Section No. 2...

... and our story starts here ...

Apart from the TV series, there were 2 movie-versions of the Patlabor produced in the late 1980s.

The first movie was about the development of the new hyper-technology for optimal operations of labors might unveil a worldwide disaster unless the Special Vehicle Section No. 2, with the help of the original AV-98 Ingrams and a newly introduced Patrol Labor -- Shinohara AV-X0 (type-zero), could act fast enough.

The second movie was backgrounded a few years (??) after the Shinohara's hyper technology incident (in the first movie). The youthful "veterans" of the SV section 2 had headed for different careers. By the mean time, a civil war was going to break out in Japan. The doubtful Japanese government could not respond fast and bold enough to prevent a passive situation. The original SV Section No. 2 had to gather again to tackle the odds.

One of the main themes of the Patlabor series and movies was the satire of politics and hierachy. How usually a small SV section tackled the odds that the government or the big police department can't. How a humble, yet smart, SV section 2 unit 2 (relatively low ranking in the police hierachy) captain solved cases that others can't. How those youthful team members of SV section 2 out-performed those "should-be-the-best" colleagues in the SV section 1 in certain special situations.

The graphic works of the Patlabor was pretty good in comparison to other animated productions at the same time (when computer-aided graphical designs were still very immature). The drawings were clean and precise, which were crucial to a mecha-featured (robot mechanic) animated production. The plot lines of the story were quite solid and distinct. The mechanical designs of the labors were pretty "workable" in real life (disregarding the speed and maneuverability).

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