For anyone who lives in Niigata or is planning on heading there in the next couple of days, please be sure to obey all the laws and regulations of the prefecture. It’s not that they have odd rules that are going to catch you off guard, it’s the fact that there is a gigantic, police labor robot, or Patlabor, that has arrived in the prefecture. Its appearance has caused a bit of a commotion and the robot is, potentially, fully prepared to take out any criminals while it’s stationed there.
Oh, and if you think you might be able to commit some sort of crime out of sight of a robotic police presence, the human officers have a very speedy patrol car in the area as well.
When we talk about giant robots in Japan, usually they have something to do with manga or anime. This intimidating giant is from Mobile Police Patlabor which was originally released in 1988. The series follows the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Section 2 and takes place in what was, at the time of the anime’s release, the near future (1998-2002), with robots, called Labors, used in for labor-intensive roles. The police also used these Labors as Patrol Labors, or Patlabors, to deal with various crimes, plots of terrorism, and general misuse of Labors around the city.
▼ Because who doesn’t want to take a giant robot out for a police patrol?
More recently, Patlabor was transformed into a live-action movie set in 2013, titled The Next Generation –Patlabor-. These 12, 45-minute “mini-movies” were released in 2014 and 2015, leading up to a full-length film that was released last May. In order to promote the franchise and get people excited for the new version, this life-sized Patlabor patrolled various cities around Tokyo.
The triumphant return of the eight-meter (about 26 feet) tall Patlabor is to promote a special director’s cut being given a theatrical release followed by the DVD and Blu-Ray versions hitting stores on November 3. Fans were surprised that the robot traveled all the way to Niigata, but residents were very excited that perhaps the prefecture could be known for more than just its delicious rice and manga baseball player statues.
▼ Don’t mind us, just putting on the robot’s arm for its big show!
Patlabor devotees were also surprised to see a Mazda RX-7 police patrol car, which really has nothing to do with Patlabor, but everything to do with adding more of a “cool factor” to Niigata. Don’t think about leading the police on a wild car chase, they might just break out some Initial D moves in order to catch you.
Back to the robot at hand though, hopefully this epic advertisement will be seen in different places around the country and more fans can be engrossed by the robot standing up from a truck bed. Strangely enough, this is exactly how Mr. Sato gets up in the morning, epic music and flashing lights included.
Make sure you catch the Patlabor in Niigata while you can, and don’t miss the special director’s cut version of the film coming soon on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Source: Hamsoku
Images: YouTube/qoo tauon ,Twitter/OLIOSPEC