Mokuyobi Post - Patlabor

Patlabor is a 7 episode mecha OAV series directed by Mamoru Oshii.  The series was originally released in Japan in the late 80's.  The OAV series is related to the manga of the same name and is also related to a few movies, TV series and a follow up OAV series.

    In a future vision of Tokyo mech's known as Labors are employed in all sorts of job related environments.  The Tokyo Metropolitan Police have had to create a special Labor division to deal with any Labor related crime.  New recruit, Izumi Noa, has to try and fit in with the misfit division as she gets use to piloting her Patlabor while dealing with all sorts of crazed Labor wielding criminals.  At the same time the division has to fend off retribution and funding cuts from the police department.

    This is a fun and somewhat light hearted mech series.  Its kind of like Police Academy with mechs.  The animation is very typical to the style from the end of the 80's and beginning of the 90's.  Many of the people involved with this series worked on other popular anime from the time period.  The feel of this series is close to that of Dominion Tank Police and fans of that show are probably already fans of Patlabor.

    This series was moderately popular in North America and most of the video versions of it are readily available.