Line #12 Anime/MobilePolicePatlaborTheEarlyDays


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/patlabor_the_mobile_police.jpg]]
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3	->''"Labor: The common name for robots designed for heavy industrial use. The rise of labors sparked a revolution in construction and civil engineering, but labor-related crime skyrocketed as well. To combat this new threat, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police created a patrol labor unit, the Special Vehicles Unit Second Section. This was the origin of Patlabor."''
4	-->-- Tagline used in the Early Days [=OVA=]
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6	''Mobile Police Patlabor: The Early Days'' (also titled ''Patlabor: The Mobile Police'') was the animated component of the ''Franchise/{{Patlabor}}'' RealRobot [[{{Franchise}} media mix]]. It was a seven-episode OriginalVideoAnimation written by Creator/{{Headgear}} and produced by Creator/{{Sunrise}}, which originally released on VHS and [=LaserDisc=] from 25 April 1988 to 25 June 1989.
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8	As the series opens, the newly assembled RagtagBunchOfMisfits that is Special Vehicles Division 2 is on standby, awaiting the delivery of their AV-98 Ingram Patrol Labors... which are stuck in traffic. With little else to do, the team starts weeding the yard of their base, until they're [[RedAlert scrambled by their commanders]] and are forced to pick up their Labors en route to deal with a terrorist incident.
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10	The OVA debuted one month after the ''Manga/MobilePolicePatlabor'' manga, and was followed up by the better-known animated film trilogy beginning with ''Anime/PatlaborTheMovie'' on 15 July 1989. It is an AlternateContinuity to ''Anime/PatlaborTheTVSeries'', which began its run in October 1989.
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12	Originally dubbed in English by the defunct Creator/CentralParkMedia, the American distribution rights to the series are currently held by Creator/SentaiFilmworks and it was formerly available for streaming on [=HiDive=].
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14	!! ''Mobile Police Patlabor: The Early Days'' contains examples of the following tropes:
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16	* ChanceMeetingBetweenAntagonists: About midway through ''"The [=SVU's=] Longest Day part 1"'', Asuma happens to meet Kai, while he's eating at a ramen noodle stall. He'd later learn, from Gotoh, that Kai was the leader of the rebel army that was laying siege to Tokyo.
17	* FailedFutureForecast: The last episode of the original OVA, "Go North, SV2!", premiered less than five months before the Berlin Wall fell, so in 1998, there is still a Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall still exists (with West German "Brocken" labors standing guard). Judging by the 2nd movie, it has ended, so it either [[AlternateHistory ended later than in]] RealLife or it was a {{Retcon}}.
18	* GatlingGood: Ohta is unsurprisingly a big believer in this, and [[spoiler:Clancy hooks him up with what looks like a ''GAU-8 Avenger'' towards the end of the first OVA series. Somehow.]]
19	* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: {{Conversed}} in a GhostStory told in "The Tragedy of L", where a civilian bystander is said to now haunt the Labor training camp after being killed by an errant shot from a Patlabor's revolver cannon during an exercise; the pilot was said to have been DrivenToSuicide. [[spoiler:Gotoh made the whole thing up as part of a ScoobyDooHoax meant to [[ScareEmStraight get Ohta to shape up]].]]
20	* {{Kaiju}}: Used in "The 450-Million-Year-Old Trap", where [[spoiler:the monster walks off into the sea immediately after it appears]]. It has an appearance similar to Gaira from ''Film/WarOfTheGargantuas'' ...and Hiromi Yamizaki.
21	* MilitaryCoup: "The [=SV2's=]'s Longest Day (Part 1)" consists of [[RogueSoldier rogue soldiers]] from the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces (JGSDF) leading a revolt against the civilian government.
22	* ScoobyDooHoax: "The Tragedy of L". After yet another PR incident caused by Ohta being trigger-happy, Commander Gotoh sends [=SV2=] to a training camp where they hear a GhostStory about a civilian being [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace killed in a negligent discharge of a Patlabor's cannon]]; the shooter then walked the Labor into the lake and drowned himself. There are then several haunting incidents around the camp, including sightings of both the ghost of the dead civilian and an apparently pilotless Labor covered in mud and weeds. [[spoiler:Kanuka exposes the hoax: the undead civilian is actually Gotoh's very-much-alive niece and the whole thing was orchestrated by Gotoh in an attempt to ScareEmStraight.]]
23	* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: [=SV2's=] most powerful weapon is a riot shotgun scaled up for use by an Ingram. Thanks to the fact that shotguns are not precision weapons, and the collateral damage from a shotgun pellet that big would be huge, it only gets used once against the Kaiju.
24	* StrictlyProfessionalRelationship: Noa and Asuma are very close, although until the later films they're just friends and coworkers.
25	* WholePlotReference: "The 450-Million-Year-Old Trap" is a hilarious ''Film/{{Gojira}}'' send-up, down to the one-eyed MadScientist and the "Oxygen Destroyer" (actually a bit of dry ice in a plastic tube).

Context Anime / MobilePolicePatlaborTheEarlyDays