Archived viewings will be available until the 11th! Director Mamoru Oshii appears in the final installment of the series! Report on the 4th "Hacking the Patlabor World" of "Patlabor Juku," a web seminar to study "Patlabor" academically.

On August 21, 2022, the fourth session of "Patlabor Juku," a web seminar to academically examine the state of Japan's social environment in the near future, 10 years after the events depicted in "Mobile Police Patlabor," was distributed online.

The theme of the fourth session was "Hacking in the Patlabor World. Multinational corporations are often portrayed as the bad guys in the world of entertainment. In the Patlabor world, the multinational corporation "Shaft Enterprises" is also active in the dark. In both the anime and comic books, the multinational corporation "Shaft Enterprises" stands in the way of the Special Vehicle Section 2. Therefore, Mr. Takuma Kishimoto, Chief Producer of Future Design Lab, from IBM Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of IBM, a real multinational corporation, was invited as a guest for the talk.

Director Mamoru Oshii also appeared on the VTR. He shared his deep thoughts on the keywords "city," "Tokyo," and "war.

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Other regulars Toshio Yabe (Media Planning Department, Urban Development Division, Mori Building), Azusa Kobayashi (actress and announcer), and Michitaka Hirose (professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo) also appeared on the program.

Once again, the topics were a mixture of hard and soft topics.

The program consisted of a video of the discussion between Mr. Yabe and Director Oshii, followed by a studio talk. The session of "Patlabor" talk, which included behind-the-scenes stories from the time of the anime's production and the latest science and technology, is a must-see for "Patlabor" fans.

When asked about the background behind the use of Tokyo as the setting for "Patlabor," Director Oshii replied, "At the time, there was the Gulf War, and images of air strikes were being broadcast in real time. What would happen if this (a city under bombing) were replaced with Tokyo? （I felt that Tokyo was a city that did not expect to be bombed even for a millimeter. I felt that Tokyo was a very interesting city. I felt that even a film could not fully depict the city," "You cannot understand Tokyo unless you consider its past as well," and "I would say that's why I made "Pato 2".

In response, Mr. Hirose praised "Patlabor 2," saying, "It is amazing that in such a peaceful time, they created a speculative design (a design that raises issues and encourages people to think deeply about the future) about what would happen if war broke out.

Mr. Yabe also commented, "At a time when all of Japan is at peace, a war may break out in Tokyo. It had a great impact to show that visually," he said, expressing his impressions as only the real-time generation could.

In this way, this time around, the actors provided commentary or supplements to director Oshii's words.

On the other hand, the topic of "the positioning of Society 5.0," which has been consistently discussed in "Patlabor Juku," was also introduced this time: "After a hunting society, an agricultural society, an industrial society, and an information society, we are going to shift to a super-smart society.

Mr. Yabe also commented that future creators should be aware of the current "transition from an information society to a super-smart society," given that "Patlabor" was an anime produced during the transition period from an industrial society to an information society.

Regarding the background of depicting the multinational corporation Shaft as an evil organization, Director Oshii said, "A large global company is always evil (laughs). Because you don't know what they are doing. There was an image that they probably became big by doing something outrageous." "The image that the evil organization of the future is a multinational corporation was almost firmly established in the world of manga and animators.

Takuma Kishimoto of IBM Japan, a guest and a member of the multinational corporation IBM, could not help but laugh at this.

The main theme of this talk was "Hacking in the Patlabor World.

Looking back on the history of IBM, which developed the world's first computer, he delved into how hacking is depicted in the Patlabor world.

In his talk, Mr. Kishimoto said, "IBM and 'Patlabor' are similar.

The story depicts technology 10 years into the future," "It is not a heroic tale, but a story about solving various problems with onsite power that combines technical and human skills," and "The female protagonist and executives and the appearance of people of various nationalities give a sense of diversity," which is IBM's goal of vision design and co-creation, These points overlap with IBM's vision design, co-creation, and the concept of diversity and inclusion.

Based on this, it is suggested that the previous "Patlabor" series depicted Japan up to the early 21st century, and the new "Mobile Police Patlabor EZY," which is scheduled for release in the future, will depict Japan around 2030. This means that the entire depiction of the third AI boom is missing from the "Patlabor" world, and Mr. Kishimoto, who is also a Patlabor fan, commented, "It is interesting to think about this missing link.

In the latter half of the presentation, Director Oshii talked about "Reaver as a PC," "Why he made Reaver a manned machine," and "At that time, when I tried to type the word 'God' in my word processing software on my PC, it always stopped working, I was horrified. The talk was lively from start to finish, with topics of interest to Patlabor fans such as "the reason why I got into this machine," and "the unexpected cause of this phenomenon.

In closing, Mr. Kishimoto said, "Nowadays, many people are thinking about various things and want to make things better, but they cannot go into it. People can't do their best unless they have something like a brocaded banner, and we live in an era where people have different visions of the future. IBM is a company that wants to make the world a better place (laugh)," he said, describing "Patlabor" for himself as an employee of a multinational corporation that is often portrayed as an evil organization.

The "Patlabor Juku" was originally planned as a four-part series, and this will be the final installment. However, according to Mr. Yabe, "Depending on the response, there may be a second part," so if you want to see the rest of the series, be sure to watch the archived distribution and send your messages of support!

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Distribution information

Patlabor Juku Part 4: "Hacking the Patlabor World

Date: August 21, 2022 (Sun.) 15:00-17:00

　　　　　*Archived distribution will be available.

　　　　　　After the live streaming ends, until 23:59 on Sunday, September 11, 2022

　　　　　Tickets for viewing will be sold until 23:59, September 10 (Sat.), 2022.

Venue: Fanbeats Patlabor Juku (4th) web seminar viewing page.

Performer:

Michitaka Hirose (Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo)

Takuma Kishimoto (Chief Producer, Future Design Lab, IBM Japan)

Azusa Kobayashi (Actress, Announcer)