History Anime / Patlabor

* ThanatosGambit: The first movie starts of with the BigBad jumping into the ocean. As a result, the police can't find out in time how his virus works. A second, [[EpilepticTree less clear gambit]], may be that [[spoiler: he attached his employee badge to his pet raven to set of a NeverFoundTheBody-paranoia, and give his pursuers a SecretTestOfCharacter. Division 2 is only able to prevent the destuction of Tokyo because they decide to try and save Hoba when they think he's alive. They wouldn't have made it to the backup-system in time if they had decided to collapse the Ark with him still in it.]]

** The tenth episode openin of the second OVA is a shout out to BladeRunner, with Ota as Deckard.

* Hiromi Yamizaki, a GentleGiant who drives the Division's patlabor-carrier truck.
* Lt. Takeo Kumagami, an ultra-competent {{Bifauxnen}} policewoman brought in to replace Kanuka after she returns to the States.
* Captain Kiichi Gotoh, Division 2's easy-going (but supremely observant) commander. A BenevolentBoss (and occasional {{troll}}).
* Captain Shinobu Nagumo, Division 1's captain and target of Gotoh's affections.

* ASimplePlan

* {{Badass}}:

** BadassCrew: SV-2. Everyone has a little bit of Badass in one form or another.
** BadassGrandpa: Sakaki. Even the labor pilots fear Sakaki. Considering he's in charge of the mechanics that maintain their machines, their fear is somewhat justified.
** ColonelBadass: Gotoh was "[[AlmightyJanitor exiled]]" to the SV.2 because he was such a Badass, HQ didn't want to deal with him ruffling all sorts of feather. ObfuscatingStupidity is his current trademark.

* BoringButPractical: A lot of the Labors are fairly unimpressive, but functional.

* ClipShow: Episode 23 of the TV Series.

** Yeah, you know they say that those cats at Schaft are some bad Mother-
* CrossCounter: Alphonse vs. Griffon in the TV series.

* DownerEnding: Oddly enough, done ''humorously'' in one episode in the second {{OVA}} featuring a maze of abandoned sewer pipes and albino alligators.

* {{Fainting}}: Takeo Kumagami when confronted with either Supernatural beings or Monsters. A Horde of stampeding rats had a similar effect.

* {{Gratuitous English}}: Averted most of the time with [[InformedAbility Ameri]][[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent can]] Kanuka Clancy, who still [[JapaneseRanguage pronounces "Roger" with an L]]. Everyone else plays the trope straight.

* HotScoop: Momoko Sakurayama
* HumongousMecha: on the smaller side at about 8 meters.

* IdiotHair: Noah on occasion.

** The manga contains a different {{Kaiju}} story that doesn't appear in the anime, involving an airline crash that accidentally releases a genetic experiment that rapidly grows into an amphibious monster that Division 2 -- among others -- get called out to deal with.

* LadyOfWar: Kanuka, and Takeo. Cemented for Kanuka when she took on a mob of Yakuza in a Kimono with a wooden sword. They didn't stand a chance.

---> '''Customs Agent''': "Are you here to see the sights?"
---> '''Kanuka''': "No. Combat."

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: It's six legged (two hands, four legs), eyeless from being underground for a thousand+ years and has sensory tentacles that it can use offensively growing from the back of its head.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Episode 27 of the TV series features a pretty standard group of poltergeists with unfinished business.

* PhenotypeStereotype: In the New York city dream, most of the characters who appear are blond haired, blue eyed versions of the core cast--with a few exceptions--as is everyone else in New York City. They're also all Gun-Crazy.

** Um, except that the TV series has in its main story arc a flying shiny black giant robot with wings that wouldn't look out of place in a latter-day Gundam show, and a labor with ''[[FrickinLaserBeams frickin' laser beams]]'' ''[[AustinPowers attached to its head]]''.
** Exceptions. Both were special models not meant for mass production. The Griffon was also built without cost in mind and overtiming from most of shaft's engineers. It also helps that said flight was extremely limited and was brute thrust all the way.

* RedShirtReporter: Momoko Sakurayama won't let a little thing like danger get in the way of a good story--or being made into unknowing hostages by a criminal labor pilot. Her anatonistic relationship with Section 2 just makes all the more fun to see Otah stuff them back in theri news van by hand.

* RunningGag: Noa frantically running from something, almost fainting, quickly recovering. Happens at least three times in the course of the series. Usually from something monstrous--like albino sewer crocodilians.

* {{Sentai}}: Parodied in one episode in which Shige dreams that the Division is a team of international crimefighters.

** Another Gundam Shout Out occurs in episode 32 of the TV series, where some mercenary labor pilots attempt a [[MobileSuitGundam Jet Stream Attack]]. It failes spectacularly. It hurts that the one pulling the surprise attack [[CallingYourAttacks shouted]] out "Jet Stream Attack" before he hit--his target actually telling him to "Shut up!". Apparently, he's something of an Otaku.

** The New York episode has SO MANY it's hard to track them all. ''TheManFromUNCLE'', ''{{Ultraman}}'', ''{{Lassie}}'', ''MazingerZ'', ''Tetsujin28'', [[JamesBond Q Branch]], [[Anime/{{Yatterman}} Doronjo]], ''U.F.O.'' and even '''[[MontyPythonsFlyingCircus The Spanish Inquisition]]''' show up in some capacity. They were quite unexpected.

* SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic: Differs. See Mood Whiplash above. The two movies helmed by Mamoru Oshii are highly realistic with situations that could happen in the real world; the antagonists in both are terrorists that utilize methods that can be and have been used in real life. The TV show is realistic in its portrayal of labor crime as well... until the main story arc kicks in, and the SV-2 battles Bond villains [[strike:SPECTRE]] Schaft and their super-robot prototypes. Oh, and monsters, dragons and ghosts too.

* VillainTeamUp: Episode 42 of the TV series, titled appropriately Enough "The Men Who Returned" features 3 previous villains teaming up--and forming a PowerTrio.

* WholePlotReference: An entire (dream) episode devoted to an ''{{Ultraman}}'' homage, specifically harking back to the series ''{{Ultraseven}}'' with the squad acting secretly as a monster/alien defense team. They even go for some of the classic sound effects and the big bad of the episode is an {{Expy}} of Ultraman's classic enemy: Zetton. Noa gets to transform using a beta-capsul into ''Ingraman''. In fact, all the monsters and Ultramen who appear have the faces of military or police labors. The Zetton has the face of the Griffon, Ingraman is Noa's Ingram "Alphonse", "Zero" is the AV-0 Peacemaker.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Takeo Kumagami is extremely afraid of ghosts. She hides it initially with skepticism, but the mask soon falls away. One the Ghosts spirits are put at rest, she presents the spirits with an offering of flowers, sake and an incense stick.

Watch ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' or ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' if you are interested in more RealRobotGenre shows. Compare with ''[[Anime/MazingerZ the]]'' ''[[AnimeGreatMazinger Mazinger]]'' ''[[UFORoboGrendizer trilogy]]'', ''Manga/GetterRobo'', ''Anime/VoltesV'' and ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'' to have an idea of what the SuperRobotGenre is about. Contrast with ''Anime/GunBuster'' or ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'' to see what the opposite end of the scale is.

* {{Kaiju}}: Subverted in episode 3 of the first OVA series, where [[spoiler:the monster walks off into the sea immediately after it appears]]. It has an appearance similar to Garia from ''War of the Gargantuas''...and Hiromi Yamizaki. Other examples are played straight: The fourth and 19th episodes of the TV series feature different monsters as well. The first is a mammal of some sort--an escaped genetic experiment. Some think it looks like a bear, others like a cat or raccoon-dog. The Audience never sees it though.[[hottip:*:Actually we do, briefly, and it's Mughi from "DirtyPair" (which shared staff with Patlabor).]], In 19, the monster is an underground-adapted [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon]]. Izumi insists on calling it a real Kaiju. Kanuka calls that a childish fantasy--and [[HypocriticalHumor insists on calling it a surviving Dragon]] [[WildMassGuessing descended from the ones in the middle ages]].

** The 2nd OVA (made in '92) had a character [[IKnewIt ask about]] renting DieHard 5.

* SeriousBusiness: The two Maintenance Division centric episodes end up with [[spoiler: most of SV2 going mysteriously missing one by one and a small civil war among the unit including beatings, [[PuttingOnTheReich nazi-esque]] morality units, kidnappings and crucifixions- respectively.]] The culprits? [[spoiler: Some spoiled food and the confiscation of a sizable porn stash.]]

** The tenth episode of the second OVA is an almost (but not quite) WholePlotReference to BladeRunner.

* BlueWithShock: Happens to the pilot of a rogue construction Labor in the first movie when he realizes Ohta thinks he's making the Labor wreak havoc when in fact it's completely out of control due to a computer virus in the Labor's onboard computer.
** Uh no, he loses it when he realizes that the ''Second'' Unit is here to rescue him "I'M DEAD!!", [=SV2=] has a bit of a rep.

** Uh no, he loses it when he realizes that the ''Second'' Unit is here to rescue him "I'M DEAD!!", SV2 has a bit of a rep.

* EagleLand: In the Aforementioned New York dream sequence. Type 2 for the most part, but the Shout Outs rampant throughout make it even more humorous.

* {{Every Car Is A Pinto}}: Played straight with cars, but averted with [[HumongousMecha Labors]], which require a self-destruct to explode.

* GatlingGood: The AH88 Hellhound helicopters, Extor battle robots, & AL-97B Hannibal labors in the movies are all armed with 20mm rotary cannons.

* Lt. Takeo Kumagami, an ultra-competent {{Bifauxnen}} policewoman brought in to replace Clancy after she returns to the States.
* Captain Kiichi Gotoh, Division 2's easy-going (but supremely observant) commander. A BenevolentBoss.

* ReallyBigGun: ''Mecha scale''. Most Labor firearms are upscaled versions of regular guns. The titular Patlabors actually rely on ''hand-loaded revolvers''- the ''pilot's'' hands, that is. However, the guns have normal proportions relative to the mecha themselves.
** They need to get special permission to use their one mecha-sized riot shotgun. Letting Ohta hold it is probably a bad idea.
** Ohta at one points, after his labor is disabled, gets Harumi's help to lift the labor-sized revolver up to take a shot at the Griffon labor. It's heavier than they are put together and almost as big as Ohta. He only fires one shot from it and it almost kills them both--but he hit it where he needed to!

See also: ''[[{{ptitlerxy73029}} WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3]]''

See also: Anime/WXIIIPatlaborTheMovie3

See also: WXIIIPatlaborTheMovie3

* {{Nakama}}

* ICallitVera: Police Officer Noa Izumi upon joining the squad affectionately names her Ingram AV-98 Patrol Labor 'Alphonse'. She previously had a dog and a cat named "Alphonse" as well, making the labor "Alphonse III."

* {{Every Car Is A Pinto}}: Played straight with cars, but averted with the [[HumongousMecha Mecha]], which require a self-destruct to explode.

* {{Gratuitous English}}: Averted most of the time with [[InformedAbility Ameri]][[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent can]] Kanuka Clancy, but still [[JapaneseRanguage pronounces "Roger" with an L]]. Everyone else plays the trope straight.

* ActionGirl: Noah, Kanuka and Takeo--both in and out of a labor. Noah is less a badass out of her labor than in, but she's the only one who can last more than 3 seconds against Takeo in Judo. She lasts 8. And Noah also defeated a criminal who was armed with a knife, she only used her bare hands.

* [[AscendedFanboy Ascended Fangirl]]: Noa -- she joined the police force in the hopes of piloting a Labor because she'd spent her childhood watching [[HumongousMecha Mecha]] {{Anime}}.

* BigOlEyebrows: Ohta.

* BoringButPractical (A lot of the Labors are fairly unimpressive, but functional)

* BrotherChuck: Clancy is never seen or heard from again in the OAV1/Movie-verse after the final battle between Alphonse & Zero. {{Fanon}} has it that she was killed by shrapnel from the shotgun blast Noah used to take out Zero, but that doesn't seem to fit the cheerful mood the rest of the team displays as the rescue choppers come to pick them up at the end. Then again, they never did seem to like her very much...
** Shinshi is seen helping Clancy up when the helcopters arrive.

See also: [=~WXIII: Patlabor The Movie 3~=]