Patlabor: Mobile Police - Movie 2 DVD

Three years after the events of the first film, the Special Vehicles Unit has been disbanded and its members scattered across different postings. Captain Gotoh is still maneuvering quietly from the sidelines. Commander Nagumo has moved on. Then a false-flag terrorist attack destroys Tokyo's Bay Bridge — news footage shows an unidentified F-16 in the vicinity, pointing toward Japan's own Air Self-Defense Force as the culprit. As the city's democratic institutions begin to buckle under the pressure of manufactured fear, Gotoh traces the conspiracy to Tsuge, a former JSDF officer and old colleague of Nagumo's, whose experience commanding a UN peacekeeping unit that was abandoned without support in Southeast Asia left him with a very specific theory about Japan's postwar pacifism — and a plan to force the country to confront it. The investigation pulls the scattered SVD back together, but the real conflict in the film is not between police and terrorists. It is between the idea of peace as a comfortable lie and the cost of the truth.

Patlabor 2: The Movie is Mamoru Oshii's most politically dense and formally austere work — a film that uses its mecha franchise as a vehicle for a sustained meditation on Japanese pacifism, constitutional legitimacy, and the moral responsibility of a nation that outsources its security. Released in Japan on August 7, 1993, it was described by Oshii as his most personal film and by critic Jonathan Clements as one of the finest anime ever made. Kenji Kawai's score is among his most celebrated. The Bandai Visual USA DVD released July 11, 2006 presents the film fully remastered in anamorphic widescreen for the first time in North America, with new Dolby 5.1 surround sound for both English and Japanese audio tracks and a new English dub recorded for this release. Liam O'Brien appears in a minor supporting role.

Notable Staff & Voice Talent

Director: Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor 1, Jin-Roh, Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer)
Screenplay: Kazunori Ito (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor 1, Megazone 23)
Original Franchise: Headgear (Masami Yuuki, Mamoru Oshii, Kazunori Ito, Akemi Takada, Yutaka Izubuchi)
Mecha Design: Yutaka Izubuchi (RahXephon director, Birdy the Mighty supervisor)
Character Design: Akemi Takada (Urusei Yatsura, Kimagure Orange Road)
Studio: Production I.G
Music: Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh, Vampire Princess Miyu TV, Patlabor 1, Hyper Police)

Japanese Cast:
- Ryūnosuke Ōbayashi as Kiichi Gotoh
- Yoshiko Sakakibara as Shinobu Nagumo (Sol Bianca: The Legacy, Black Magic M-66, Princess Nine, Patlabor 1)
- Miina Tominaga as Noa Izumi (Patlabor 1, Tenchi Movie 2, DNA²)
- Toshio Furukawa as Asuma Shinohara (Urusei Yatsura 2, DBZ, Metropolis, Patlabor 1)
- Shigeru Chiba as Mikiyasu Shinshi (Gate Keepers, Urusei Yatsura 2, Metropolis, Patlabor 1)
- Issei Futamata as Shige (Urusei Yatsura 2, Oh My Goddess! OVA, Patlabor 1)
- Naoto Takenaka as Tsuge

English Dub Cast (Bandai Visual USA, 2006 — new recording):
- Roger C. Smith as Kiichi Gotoh
- Briony Glassco as Shinobu Nagumo
- Julie Ann Taylor as Noa Izumi (801 TTS Airbats, Hyper Doll)
- Doug Erholtz as Asuma Shinohara
- C.J. Mills as Hiromi Yamazaki
- Liam O'Brien as 2nd Unit Officer (Night on the Galactic Railroad, RG Veda, Descendants of Darkness, Captain Tylor OVA)

DVD Features (Bandai Visual USA Standard Edition)

- Newly Remastered Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer (first U.S. anamorphic release)
- New Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound — English & Japanese (first U.S. 5.1 release)
- New English Dub (2006 recording)
- Japanese Theatrical Trailers & TV Commercials
- Bandai Visual USA Previews

Spoken Languages: English & Japanese Audio, English Subtitles

Edition Details

Japanese Title: 機動警察パトレイバー２ the Movie (Kidō Keisatsu Patorebā 2: The Movie)
Runtime: ~113 Minutes
Director: Mamoru Oshii
DVD Release Year: 2006 (U.S. Release, July 11 — Bandai Visual USA); Limited Collector's Edition also available (numbered, 10,000 copies)
Original Release Date (Japan): August 7, 1993
Publisher: Bandai Visual USA
Rating: 13+
Region: Region 1 (U.S. / Canada)
Genre: Political Thriller, Sci-Fi, Mecha
Themes: False Flag Terrorism, Japanese Pacifism, Military Coup, Mamoru Oshii Political Cinema, First U.S. Anamorphic Release

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.