The secret story behind the birth of PATLABOR and the behind-the-scenes look at the production costs! Report on "Mobile Police PATLABOR Talk Event: I Have So Much to Say! Runaway Talk Show" Report

In a near-future Tokyo where the Reaver, a general-purpose humanoid work machine, has become widespread, "Mobile Police Patlabor" is a media mix project that depicts the daily life and activities of the "robot policeman"-Special Vehicle Division 2-as they confront a new social threat called "Reaver Crime. The project is a media mix project depicting the daily life and activities of the "Robot Patlabor" team.

The "Mobile Police Patlabor" 30th anniversary exhibition featuring the OVA and the first theatrical version, which has been touring throughout Japan, ended with the exhibition in Niigata, which was held until November 14, 2020. On this occasion, a "Mobile Police PATLABOR Talk Event" will be held at eplus LIVING ROOM CAFÉ & DINING in Tokyo on Friday, November 13! The event, titled "Runaway Talk Show," was held at eplus LIVING ROOM CAFÉ & DINING in Tokyo.

The speakers were Kazunori Ito, a member of the original team "Headgear" and the series' composer and screenwriter, and Shin Unozawa, who has been involved in the "PATLABOR" series as a producer at Bandai Visual. The three staff members were replaced by Yutaka Izubuchi, a mechanical designer who participated as a pinch hitter in place of Taro Maki, the producer of "Mobile Police Patlabor the movie" and current president of Genco, who was unable to attend due to health issues.

Saki Suzuki of the Patlabor Public Relations Office was in charge of emceeing the event. (Akemi Takada, character designer, was also in the audience!)

The event started with their impressions of the 4DX version of "Mobile Police Patlabor the movie" that was screened this year.

Mr. Izubuchi, who said that he thought the first theatrical version of the movie was suited for 4DX from the moment he heard about it, had seen it at a movie theater in Odaiba to enhance the sense of realism, and his impression was that it was a "great answer" to his question.

From there, the talk turned to memories of the "Mobile Police Patlabor 30th Anniversary Commemorative "OVA-Geki Patlabor 1 Exhibition" @ Niigata Commemorative Talk Show" held on October 25. At the stage where Mr. Ito, Mr. Maki, and Ms. Chiaki Kiyatake of the Public Relations Department took the stage, the budget for the OVA version and other topics such as "Isn't that something that shouldn't be said on YouTube? Mr. Unozawa said he was pale in the dressing room when the budget for the OVA version was discussed.

Mr. Ito then dropped the bombshell by saying, "I did not receive any script fees or royalties for the initial OVA. Mr. Suzuki's forceful summary, "I'm glad we were able to create a good work despite all that happened," led to a discussion on the theme of "Encounters with PATLABOR.

The Birth of PATLABOR

The story of the birth of "Patlabor" is now told in various places and media, but Mr. Izubuchi, who was involved in the project from its inception, told the story here.

In the early 80's, Masami Yuki, a manga artist, was drawing an image of "a robot used by the police" in his story book, in which he was playing with the project, saying "I want to see this kind of scene with this kind of character". It all started when Mr. Izubuchi and Yuki were talking about the possibility of using it for something.

At the time, Mr. Izubuchi was a member of the creative group Parallel Creation, which was headed by writer and scriptwriter Aritsune Toyoda. Since he was in charge of visual content there, he was invited by Sunrise, with whom he had a connection, to submit a proposal, which became the prototype for "Patlabor" (the proposal he submitted as a set was "Gardeen," which was later adapted into a novel by Isao Hiura). However, the proposal was later sent back because it was not accepted.

At the same time, Mr. Izubuchi became acquainted with Mr. Ito and Mr. Takada through their joint radio show on the anime magazine "Animatech" (Rapport).

Mr. Ito later formed a team called "Headgear" and has performed with Mr. Izubuchi at talk events, but he confesses, "I thought you were my enemy" when they first met. He confesses that when they first met, he "thought of you as an enemy." He says that while Parallel Creation was in the limelight at the time, being featured in newspapers as a young science fiction group, Mr. Ito was jealous because he was not even in the production process.

It was only a few years ago that that was resolved," said Mr. Ito, to which Mr. Izubuchi replied, "I didn't really mind. On the other hand, Mr. Izubuchi said, "At that time, I realized that many people thought I was an enemy.

According to Mr. Izubuchi, he and Mr. Ito were both involved in the OVA "Aim for the Top" that was being developed at the same time as the initial "PATLABOR" OVA series. One of the reasons for this is that the company (Bandai Visual) was asked to decide whether "Patlabor" or "Top" was better, and as a result, Gainax was told that "Patlabor" took precedence over "Top. Mr. Unozawa recalled that the reason for this was that the company (Bandai Visual) was pricing out whether "Patlabor" or "Top" would work.

Mr. Ito and Mr. Unozawa's encounter with PATLABOR

Next, Mr. Ito talked about his encounter with PATLABOR. When he first met Mr. Izubuchi, he was introduced to the project that would become the basis of "PATLABOR," but "Mr. Izubuchi's presentation was so poor that I couldn't understand what was so interesting," said Mr. Ito. Mr. Ito was not very interested in robots," said Mr. Izubuchi. "But then I met Yuki-san, and when I saw the robot standing downtown (drawn in the story book), I thought that was interesting. I thought it would be interesting," says Ito. However, he was not sure how to incorporate it into the story, so he suggested combining it with the movie "Police Academy," which gradually brought it closer to "Patlabor.

Next, Mr. Unozawa and "PATLABOR" met.

At the time, Mr. Izubuchi often held parties, and one day a Christmas party was scheduled. Mr. Unozawa was invited to the party and presented the project that Mr. Ito had put together as a Christmas present.

Incidentally, one of the memorable phrases written in the proposal at that time was "an animation oriented toward grilled fish set menus," which was the direction of the work. According to Mr. Ito, he wrote it because he thought, "I can write in this direction. The common people's sense of the phrase "yaki-gyo-ish teishoku-oriented" is a clear embodiment of the worldview of the "PATLABOR" series.

When Mr. Unozawa received the presentation, he thought, "I thought a robot story would be science fiction and war, but when I heard that this project was about robots that don't kill each other and don't fight between enemies and allies, I thought it would be good because it doesn't conflict with Gundam. At the time, the impact of Gundam was so strong that robot animation featuring "war," "robots as weapons," and "humans killing each other" was being produced like bamboo shoots after rain. In such an environment, a robot animation with a "Patlabor" approach must have seemed very sharp.

Initially, Mr. Izubuchi had a TV series in mind, but in the end, no toys were produced, and at best a plastic model was released. According to Mr. Unozawa, "Our goal was not to sell toys, but rather to sell the video products themselves," he said, explaining the intentions of the makers.

The OVA version of "Patlabor" was marketed by Bandai's video brand "EMOTION," which at the time was known as a toy manufacturer. The brand was launched because "Bandai was a sponsor and a toy company, so they were thought to be disliked by the animation industry," said Unozawa. He also revealed a surprising backstory: "We established EMOTION because we are on the side of the creators.

In response, Mr. Izubuchi said, "I don't like that kind of tactless attempt to make a good story out of it! (Laughter)" but he added, "Creators can't manage money. If there is someone who can create a work and create a place for it, whether it is a hard worker or an akindo (banker), I am happy to help.

According to Mr. Izubuchi, the initial OVA series of six episodes was composed as a "collection of unique episodes from the TV series.

There was also an initial proposal for a total of 13 episodes, but in the end they settled on 6 episodes. Mr. Ito, who was in charge of the series composition, says that this was a great help to him, and that he is glad that he was able to keep it at this length because the series is a series of read-aloud episodes, and that he thinks the series would not have lasted if it had been 13 episodes.

Nevertheless, each episode is very unique. This is because "those were the days when we were experimenting with different approaches" (Izubuchi) and "we were young, so we weren't afraid of failure" (Ito).

From here, we move on to the raw story of production costs.

The initial OVA series of "PATLABOR" was produced with less than half the budget of a typical OVA at the time.

The manga version of "Patlabor" was not originally planned to be drawn by Masami Yuki, who wanted to produce only 10 episodes of the series for a tie-in without royalties from the anime.

As you know, however, it ended up becoming the longest series in the "Patlabor" media development.

He also told an episode in which the manga was first published in "Monthly Newtype" (KADOKAWA) instead of "Weekly Shonen Sunday" (Shogakukan), which surprised many visitors (it was a short story based on the OVA, and Koukan Hana and Clancy appeared from the beginning).

Behind-the-scenes story of the initial OVA and the first theatrical version!

After a 10-minute intermission, the second part of the lecture went into depth about the early OVA series and the first theatrical version, and discussed how the world of "PATLABOR" was constructed.

Episode 1: 2nd Platoon, go to work!

According to Mr. Ito, "I wanted to make the National Museum in Ueno the location of the final battle in the first episode, and I wanted to work backwards from there and have him say, 'I'm from Iriya, so don't make me go there. I just wanted him to say, "I'm from Iriya, so don't make me go there.

Mr. Suzuki also said, "I like the rocket punch scene. When Ingram fires the punch, the screen changes to a cityscape and only the sound of a "gong" is heard, which he described as "stylish.

Mr. Unozawa commented that "Oshii-san is good at making poor animation," and Mr. Ito said, "The direction (of Oshii's animation) may be rather live-action-like. Mr. Izubuchi said, "When I make animation, I direct live-action. When I make live-action, I direct live-action." They exchanged opinions about Oshii's dramaturgy.

In addition, Mr. Ito said that what he paid attention to in the first episode was "to show each character" and "to move the reaver in the downtown area.

He also revealed that in his communication with Director Oshii, the director suggested the idea of "separating the rooms so that the captain is the teacher and the members are the students," and that Director Oshii had Mr. Ito write only the first draft of the scenario, saying, "I'll take care of the rest on my own.

When Mr. Izubuchi was asked about the episode of the design of "Pikkel-kun," the reaver that appears in the first episode, he recalled that he had received an order from Director Oshii to make it "something not cool.

Incidentally, "Pikkel-kun" was a walking mecha at the scenario stage, but it was Mr. Izubuchi's idea to add rollers to its legs. The reason for this was that "it would be difficult to draw if we made him walk. This was also a low-budget animation, and by making the mech look as if it were moving by sliding it, the number of drawings could be reduced! This was a desperate measure to reduce the number of drawings.

However, Mr. Izubuchi said that this frustration was a good thing in the end, because it resulted in "what everyone wanted to do" in the film version.

Episode 2 Long Shot

In the second episode, Kankanuka Clancy makes her first appearance, but in the manga version, she does not appear until much later in the story. As to the reason for this, Mr. Ito said, "Maybe Yuki-san didn't like Kankanuka very much," to which Ms. Takada, who was in the audience, replied, "Yuki-san said it was because he didn't understand Kankanuka. He added, "Instead, it was Takeo Kumamimi who came out.

Mr. Ito came out and said, "I didn't understand Nomei," which caused a stir in the audience, but Mr. Izubuchi said, "Everyone has a different interpretation, so the work has a wider range," reaffirming the depth of the "Patlabor" series.

It was revealed that the second episode was the first time the new Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was depicted in the anime, and that the futuristic feel of the building was created by using materials that were publicly available at the time.

Episode 3: 450 Million Year Trap

This episode depicts a battle between a mysterious underwater creature and the Special Vehicle Section 2, and is reminiscent of a certain popular monster movie. Ito, who laughs bitterly, "I didn't expect to do 'Gamera' later on. ......," says, "I was initially thinking of a story similar to 'Waste No. 13' (the manga version of the episode on which the movie "WXIII: Mobile Police Patlabor" was based)."

Regarding this episode in particular, which contains many parodies and homages, Mr. Izubuchi said, "At that time, compliance was lax. I guess I was drawing on 'Urusei Yatsura,'" recalls Izubuchi.

According to Mr. Ito, illustrator Yuji Kaida told him, "This is not what I want to see in anime! He said that he was furious with him.

Episode 4 The Tragedy of L

This is another oddball episode that begins with a ghost story. Mr. Ito says, "I wanted to make it into a 'Great Operation of the Weird' episode. However, the episode did not turn out to be "Operation Kai-Kai," and it was the last difficult episode to be written in the initial OVA.

Mr. Ito had a hard time writing it, but with the advice of Mr. Oshii, he was able to complete it.

Episode 5 The Longest Day in Section 2 (Part 1)

This episode is still highly regarded by fans, and according to Mr. Izubuchi, "We had talked about doing a Self-Defense Forces episode" from the beginning. He also says that the base of the two films incorporates various homages to live-action movies such as "Kenka Erejii" and "August without an Emperor"!

It is also well known among the fans that the exchange at a standing-only noodle shop is impressively depicted in the film, and it is said that this is the first episode in which Director Oshii's love for standing-only noodle shops was revealed. (According to Mr. Ito, the germ of this love had already begun around the time of "Urusei Yatsura").

Episode 6 The Longest Day in Section 2 (Part 2)

In the second part, Mr. Goto was told that the razor Goto-ness had not yet appeared in the story.

Also, the impressive long lines of Captain Nagumo's dialogue, according to Mr. Ito, "When I write 5 lines of dialogue, the director makes it into 10 lines. The volume of the dialogue increased as a result of the catch-up with Director Oshii.

Incidentally, Ichiro Itano directed this episode. Itano-san is an animator known for his dynamic animations, such as "Itano Circus". In order to maximize Itano-san's taste, the budget was gradually pooled for other episodes, and all the saved energy was put into the sixth and final episode.

According to Mr. Ito, "The response to episode 5 was good, but episode 6 was not enough. I was told that people expected more intellectual development.

In response, Mr. Izubuchi said, "It's easy to create a sense of anticipation. But it makes it difficult to fold the film. The film version is the one that succeeded in doing that." He said that there was a flow from the initial OVA to the film version.

Episode 7: The Special Vehicle Corps Goes North!

This work was announced as a prelude to the first theatrical version, following the popularity of the first six episodes of the OVA series, and the baton was passed from Director Oshii to Naoyuki Yoshinaga, who directed the TV series. Mr. Ito recalls, "I wrote it as one of the canonical TV series."

All the members looked back on the initial OVA series up to this point at a stretch.

Mr. Ito said, "When we first talked about what to do with the villain, it was the police. When we talked about what to do with the villain, I think we settled on a terrorist because he is a police officer. But since there is not an incident every time, it became a grilled fish oriented life animation. I think it was a pioneer of the profession-based anime," he summed up.

Izubuchi commented that the manga version of "Patlabor" began to develop its own originality around the time the seventh episode was released, "From the story of Noaki joining the military, there are three versions: the TV anime, manga, and OVA. There is diversity, or rather, there are various interpretations, and if they are not too far off, they are stimulating. If that makes it more appealing, then I guess it's okay if it's different.

Mobile Police Patlabor the Movie

The discussion then turned to the first theatrical version, "Mobile Police Patlabor the Movie.

The talk began with a behind-the-scenes story about this movie, which began with a storyboard check by a professional programmer (......) regarding the depiction of the "OS" running amok, which was very advanced at the time. The talk revealed the image sources for many of the distinctive settings and depictions.

He said, "There was a lot of frustration with OVA. I wanted to do 'Daishasen Yuroki' (a movie released in 1966) with ravers," said Ito. At the climax of "Dai Sasshijin Yurokomi," Raizo Ichikawa, the lead actor, kills 100 people, which is, well, cool. So I wanted to make a movie where Ingram slays 100 Reavers," said Mr. Izubuchi. "The face of the Zero opens up like a Bunraku puppet. I wanted to apply that to robots as well," he said. He wanted to create a gimmick like the "Tamazusa Grudge," in which a doll with a beautiful face opens its eyes to express the emotions and anger of a woman. That is why the Zero doll has a beautiful, thin face.

The arm extension gimmick on the Zero is the same mechanism used by Ingram to extend his arm when he pulls out his gun, but he rearranged it to use it like a stabbing hand.

What is the source of the attraction?

Toward the end of the talk event, the source of the appeal of the work "Patlabor" was discussed again.

Mr. Izubuchi asked, "Was it a work that was difficult to imitate? When 'Gundam' hit, everyone made something that looked like 'Gundam,' but there are not many similar works that work today like 'Patlabor,'" he said.

Ito and Izubuchi agree that "Hizune and Masotan" and "Ultraman Z" are said to be similar and may have influenced various works on a genetic level, but in their opinion, there are no perfect analogues at the moment, and this is the secret of the long-lasting popularity of the "Patlabor" series. They discussed whether this is the secret to the long-lasting popularity of the "PATLABOR" series.

Mr. Ito also commented, "I think there are many reasons, but the balance of the characters is good. There are some absurd stories, but in general, the stories are well told. The characters are well-developed, so no matter what they do, they can handle it and it won't be broken by a few things," he said, pushing the appeal of the characters.

In this vein, he asked if there was a possibility of a new "Patlabor" film. a topic that is on every fan's mind.

He said that there was a time when he was exploring the possibility of expanding the world view by releasing a spin-off like "WXIII," but that plan died out when the production took longer than planned. However, when Mr. Izubuchi said, "I haven't given up yet," and "It would be nice to do a series of short films set in a world with reavers, like 'Operation Kai-Kai,'" he was greeted with enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Mr. Ito responded, "I don't want to do it. I prefer to watch rather than write," he said, adding that he would like to depict "Kiichi Goto afterwards. I think Goto quit the police force before retirement, but I want to see what happens to him. It doesn't have to be an anime. Incidentally, he is curious about what happened with Captain Nagumo, but he said, "It's better not to touch on that," and muddled the waters.

Finally, a fan asked, "What did you want to talk to Mr. Maki about? Unozawa answered, "I've been out of the field of visual productions since we started working on 'WXIII,' so I've lost touch with it. But Mr. Maki is at Jenco, so he can touch it. I am envious of that. I'm already retired, so I'd like to be included in Headgear. As a freelancer, I'd like to help out," he said, showing his love for "Patlabor.

Mr. Izubuchi concluded his talk by saying, "I want to create more opportunities for the unfamiliar generation to see the series." The talk showed that everyone involved loves "PATLABOR" and wants to develop the series in new ways if given the chance.

Those who already know the series will want to revisit it. Those who are not familiar with the series will want to revisit the series, and those who are not familiar with it will be intrigued by the episodes that were presented.

We look forward to more opportunities to hear more behind-the-scenes stories about the TV series, the OVA series, and the theater version "2" ...... in the future.