After an 18-month hiatus one of our main segments is back by popular demand! Tonight we go back in time to the 80’s of the anime world; where the mecha genre (especially Gundam and Transformers) was all the rage. While America had MTV, arcade shops, and a movie where nerds finally got revenge on their bullies, a select few of us old school otaku were engaged in Japanimation – or at least knew about it. For the first time since its hiatus we welcome back Throwback Thursday to the blog, with its first 80’s anime title being Mobile Police Patlabor!

Mobile Police Patlabor is a classic late 80’s shonen anime title created by the group known as Headgear; with members Masami Yuki, Mamoru Oshii, Kazukori Ito, Yutaka Izubuchi, and Akemi Takada. The franchise itself has its own anime and manga, as well as three movies and a few OVAs. Although its a shonen title this series is known for using mecha in its policing works and military, as well as industrial jobs such as construction.

Here’s the Non-Spoiler’s Overview: The story takes place between 1998-2002, where robots called Labors are employed in construction work. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police also have their own Labors that they use in order to combat crime, as well as rescue any Labors that happen to find themselves in any dire need of rescue. Noa Izumi is the main character of the series as he works in the second division of the Tokyo Police Special Vehicle Section, however the story arcs focus on the entire second division as a whole. The TV series has a different plot however; as division two combats a Schaft Enterprises Labor called the Type J9 Griffon.

The OVA has only seven episodes while the series has 47 in total. It’s even noted that this series was the inspiration behind the Hollywood blockbuster Pacific Rim, which is something that even we did know. (How about that? XP)

On that note that will do it for our first Throwback Thursday title of 2019, and it won’t be our last! Until next post guys and girls, stay nerdy! 😉