Mobile Police Patlabor, Vol. 1

機動警察パトレイバー [Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor] #1

by Masami Yuuki

This adventure story, tells about the brave rookies of Patlabor Section Two and how they begin their training. The squad comes up against a terrorist Labor (a humanoid robot) rampaging in Tokyo, and this is only their first mission!

Genres: Manga, Comics, Comics Manga, Science Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 1988

Reviews

[Jokoloyo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I start this review with my personal experience: For the last three weeks, I have been busy in moving to another house. One of the issue is the books. Long story short, I found my Patlabor series, and I decided at new home this series will be stored not among my manga collection, but among my Science Fiction collection.

This manga is one of my personal favourite. It is one of the true science fiction manga. Unlike majority mecha theme manga that focus on battles and war, on this manga, the mecha (which called labor) are used for daily activities. The people life really affected with the labor technology. Labors are used for civil services (firefighting, law enforcement), heavy industries, military, and even passionate crime (sorry if I misremember it, between manga and anime. But I believe at least one version there was case of a person snapped out and using mecha madly).

For a science fiction series of 1980s, this series has some serious vision about 1998-200x era. One example: the manga told a kid that installing a computer game with size 1 GB. At 1980s I didn't even imagine there would be a game at size 100 MB.

Not only the setting., but the plots are interesting too. It is not just a dumb fighting an evil lord or tyrant. It is about fictitious industrial crime using labor.

Now the character. In this manga I found two favorite fiction characters. Captain Goto as the commander police officer of labor a division, with smart witty unorthodox approach to do his job. Another fav character is the mastermind of the antagonist. And one of the unique approach of this manga is, until the end of the story, these two character never meet each other face-to-face. Their duels are mind duels, try to outsmart each other.

Two smart characters having battle of wit sounds familiar to you? This manga was written years before Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom.

Oh, and the implicit romances, good spices for sub-plots.

One more thing, the reason I edit the review at late 2016: on this manga I found two minor detectives, investigating the mysterious crimes. Lately I have been reading some Japanese detective stories, and found some resemblance of two detectives with Inspector Imanishi Investigates .

[Guguk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aku lupa dulu pinjam sampai tamat atau nggak (^ ^;) tapi aku suka banget sama ceritanya!

Kesatuan polisi dengan labor yang keren, tokoh utama yang enerjik, persaingan antara 2 tim dan 'percikan' romance antara kedua komandan tim tersebut (^,,^)

Oiya, romance tokoh utamanya pun masuk subplot dan hanya terasa tersirat ketimbang tersurat~ *melirik seseorang* Iya, kamu..Pin! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Gambar : 4 bintang, labor-nya digambarkan keren sekali~ ada adegan lucu juga saat polisi pengguna labor berniat meniru koboi yang memutar pistolnya (^ww^)

Cerita : 4 bintang, sebenarnya agak lupa kasus-2nya seperti apa, tapi seingatku seru dan gak kayak komik shonen kebanyakan (^ ^) kadang pemecahan masalahnya masih open-ending dan berlanjut ke kasus berikut, tapi justru terasa lebih real ^ ^

Oiya! Dulu sebelum (atau sesudah?^ ^) baca komiknya, aku ngikutin anime-nya di tv lokal, masih keinget opening song-nya..."OH! LANGIT BIRUU~"

*cuma itu doang yang keinget* ^ ^

[Eressea · Rating 5 out of 5]

20250122 9th read
網飛上了大搜查線TV版
以前就一直聽說大搜查線導演深受機動警察啟發
於是找回來看看
大搜查線致敬福音戰士的地方很容易看出來
但致敬機動警察就不容易從表面上找到關聯了

機動警察動畫久沒看了印象有點薄弱
漫畫的表現有點冷面笑匠的風味
跟大搜查線浮誇的搞笑其實沒很像
而且大搜查線的基層長官到最後幾集才長出肩膀
特車二課的課長可是一直很挺下屬的呢~

感覺大搜查線跟機動警察
像的只有基層員警無奈的日常吧
但這樣好像也未必是致敬?
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20231108 8th read
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20220803 7th read
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20200104 6th read
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20181216 5th read
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20180828 4th read
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20180224 3rd read
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20140507 2nd read
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20101109 1st read

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This world is so engrossing, full of competition and wonder for rapidly advancing technology. Featuring a huge cast of characters with distinct personalities and clashing egos. Grounded with conflict by way of misuse of Labor tech by criminals. It’s cops and robbers with big robots, not giant robots, just big ones. Unfortunately they’ve only printed the first two volumes in English. Seek out the Patlabor Blu-ray collection!

[Michael Zhou · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the slower pacing and more gradual introduction of the characters to work better for stronger characterization (compared to the original OVA). Also was cool to recognize the setting more after spending time in Ueno and near the Sumida River.

Goto and Nagumo have the same great dynamic and the cast just flows better with having a little more time to get used to each other.

Read at the AWA (Anime Weekend in Atlanta) manga room

Excited to find some time to read the second volume sometime later this week.

[Alex Fyffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Noah Soudrette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This manga represents the third incanation of the Patlabor series. There is a OVA/Movie continuity, a TV series continuity and now a manga continuity. The manga is written by Masami Yuki, one of the creators of the Patlabor universe and his manga version of the story starts out with a subtle retelling of the first OAV origin. I quite like this retelling as it is different enough to be interesting yet still close to the spirit of the show. The other thing I really admire about it is that it's not afraid to take it's time in developing the plot or story. That is something I wish more manga would do, rather than rush right into standard characters and redundant plots. All in all, a big thumbs up!

[Ossy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One the best manga for me...

[Reza · Rating 3 out of 5]

the best manga ever