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| Patlabor: The TV Series | |
 Patlabor: The TV Series first DVD cover | |
| 機動警察パトレイバー ON TELEVISION (Kidō Keisatsu Patoreibaa ON TELEVISION) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Action,comedy,police drama[1] |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Naoyuki Yoshinaga |
| Produced by | Tarou Maki |
| Written by | Hiroyuki Hoshiyama Kazunori Itō Mamoru Oshii |
| Music by | Kenji Kawai |
| Studio | Sunrise |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | NTV |
| English network |
|
| Original run | October 11, 1989 – September 29, 1990 |
| Episodes | 47(List of episodes) |
Patlabor: The TV Series, known in Japan asPatlabor the Mobile Police on Television (機動警察パトレイバー ON TELEVISION), is a 1989–1990animetelevision series. It was created byHeadgear, animated bySunrise, and based on thePatlabor animefranchise. The story focuses on Second Special Vehicles Division (SV2), a group of Patlabor policemen who fight and investigate crimes. The TV series is an alternate timeline to the originalPatlabor OVAs and films, with an all-new origin story.
The television series was animated bySunrise and was directed by Naoyuki Yoshinaga.
With the success of the first movie,Patlabor became one of the firstOVAs to be ported toTV. Originally planned for 24 episodes, (up to the end ofKanuka's practicum at SV2), the series was extended twice. First to 36 episodes, to cover the conflict with Schaft, and then to 47 episodes in order to conclude the series.Later in the story, Kanuka Clancy leaves and a new character is introduced in Takeo Kumagami, a character originally shown in the manga, episodes 26 through 35 even being more closely based on the manga. ThePatlabor: The New Files OVAs are a follow-up to the series.
At the request of thesponsor,toymanufacturerBandai, the TV series was to include some action with labors. (Labors are the heavyconstruction equipment after which this series is named.) However, the toys made for the series did not sell as well as expected.[citation needed]
In the original broadcast, the labors were making more metallic "kshang!" sound, but were revised to motor whirring sound like that of the movie when the whole series was released onLaserdisc.[citation needed]
The 47 episodes aired onNippon TV from October 11, 1989 to September 29, 1990.
Bandai Visual has released the television series onLaserdisc,VHS, andDVD. TwoBlu-ray box sets that contain two halves of the series were released on August 27, 2010[2] and September 24, 2010.[3]Central Park Media released the series (under their U.S. Manga Corps label) on subtitled VHS from July 7, 1998 to February 8, 2000, spanning nine volumes. They later released two dubbed VHS volumes from August 14, 2001 to June 11, 2002 and later dropped the rest of the VHS releases. CPM also re-released the series on DVD, spanning 11 volumes and three box sets (with the 11th volume on the 3rd box set) from August 14, 2001 to August 9, 2005.[4][5] All of the DVDs are now out of print. The English dub was produced at Matlin Recording inNew York City,New York.Maiden Japan re-released the TV series in North America on July 16, 2013 on DVD and Blu-ray.[6]
While it's primarily a police drama, it has an interesting flair for comedy and still provides some good mech action.
