History Franchise / Patlabor

* IDontKnowMortalKombat: Izumi did badly on a ''Patlabor'' arcade game largely because she was too used to piloting a real HumongousMecha. The trope is very apt, amusingly, as the difference between the game (depicted only in the anime, as a 'hunt-and-kill' simulator) and Noa's job is about as big as the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' series and a UFC event.

* AndYouWereThere: Shige's bizarre dream visit to New York is mostly populated with blonde American versions of [=SV2=] personnel, down to the old maintenance chief threatening to chuck people into the Hudson.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Eichi Hoba leaves behind several clues that reference the story of the Tower of Babel before he commits suicide in the first movie.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: As mentioned above, Shinshi is an extremely mild-mannered, helpful, ''nice'' individual, but if he feels you've insulted his wife--or even ''the institution of marriage''-- he ''will'' go berserk on you (and probably injure himself as a side effect).

* ButNotTooForeign: Lt. Clancy, who is half-Japanese and half-American.

** In the ''Mobile Police'' continuity, Asuma and Noa go to an arcade center on their day off and end up running into [[AffablyEvil Richard]] [[ChessMaster Wong]] and [[TheDragon Bado]], who would later become the [=SVU's=] main antagonists during [[WhamEpisode the Griffon arc.]]
%%* ClipShow: Episode 23 of the TV Series. ZERO CONTEXT EXAMPLE

* ColonelBadass: Gotoh was too observant for his superiors' liking and they didn't want him underfoot, [[ReassignedToAntarctica so they reassigned him to a command position with Special Vehicles.]] Which, as Detective Matsui observed, [[BatmanGambit "is right where he wants to be."]]

* DeadlineNews: Momoko Sakurayama won't let a little thing like danger get in the way of a good story--or being made into unknowing hostages by a criminal labor pilot. Her antagonistic relationship with Section 2 just makes all the more fun to see Otah stuff them back in their news van by hand.

* DisqualificationInducedVictory: How Outa got the job of piloting Unit 2 in the anime despite constantly causing problems by being a blindly aggressive trigger-happy dumbass. Kanuka beat him during the mini-tournament used to select the pilots, but since she's only on loan from the NYPD for six months to train with the Special Vehicles squad, it would be cost-prohibitive to train a Labor on her movement patterns and then have to reset it for a new pilot when she returns to the United States.

* TheDreaded: Sakaki. Even the labor pilots fear Sakaki. Considering he's in charge of the mechanics that maintain their machines, their fear is somewhat justified.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Richard Wong isn't exactly ''evil'' per se, but he otherwise adheres to this. (If he'd been a bit more ruthless, for example, there would have been no need to throw so many Schaft Labors at the Ingrams, given that security at Special Vehicles 2 is practically nil. [[spoiler:And in the manga, they take advantage of this.]]) Of course, his objective isn't to destroy the Ingrams, it's to be seen defeating them, and sabotage or attacking them while they were down for maintenance would not have provided proof of the superiority of his own designs.

* EyesAlwaysShut: Richard Wong/Mr. Utsumi. They open from time to time.
%%* {{Facefault}}: CONSTANTLY.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Loudmouthed and trigger-happy Ohta. Who gets to shine in the episode where he goes into an ''omiai'' ([[ArrangedMarriage very formal arranged date]]) and ends up helping his prospective girlfriend, who he ''did'' like, ''save the man she loves''.
** In one episode, Noa discovers that Ohta, known for causing massive property damage, especially with his trigger-happy use of his labor's revolver, is actually a perfect shot. When she asks Gotoh about this, he points out that none of Ohta's shots have ever injured anyone.

* {{Omake}}: The third theatrical movie was packaged with three humorous "Mini-Pato" shorts, which explained the mechanics behind the Revolver Cannon the Ingrams use, the background to the creation of the series as a whole (as well as a cynical look at the MechaShow genre), and how the perpetually cash-starved Special Vehicles 2 was able to keep feeding itself (hint: Gotoh worked some magic, apparently some of his finest).

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The Central Park Media release prefers to use "Gotoh", for instance, instead of "Gotou" or "Gotō". (The reason likely being that that third syllable, the "u", is typically meshed with the second when pronounced correctly in Japanese.) Maiden Japan, however, uses "Goto".
** This is also the case where Bado/Bud is concerned, since his name alternates between both spellings, as seen in the subtitles of different episodes of the anime. This is also the case of the manga version, which initially referred to him as "Baddo" (with two d's, rather than one), but eventually settled on calling him "Bud".

* SuperDeformed: The "Mini-Pato" {{omake}} shorts.

%%* UnnecessaryCombatRoll: In giant robots, even.

* VillainTeamUp: Episode 42 of the TV series, titled appropriately enough "The Men Who Returned" features 3 previous villains teaming up--and forming a TerribleTrio.

%%* WholeEpisodeFlashback

->''"Labor: The common name for robots designed for heavy industrial use. The rise of labors sparked a revolution in construction and civil engineering, but labor-related crime skyrocketed as well. To combat this new threat, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police created a patrol labor unit, the Special Vehicles Unit Second Section. This was the origin of Patlabor."''
-->-- Tagline used in the Early Days [=OVA=]

** The Helldiver Prototype that appears in the OAV ''SV-2's Longest Day'' is equipped with a Gau-8 Avenger, but the massive recoil it generates, [[UnfinishedUntestedUsedAnyway along with the fact that the mech wasn't completely finished yet]], results in it being shaken to pieces by its own weapon after a mere few seconds of combat. The production model's primary weapon is scaled down considerably to what appears to be Bushmaster chaingun mounted to a its right forearm.

Watch ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', ''Anime/ArmoredTrooperVotoms'', or ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' if you are interested in more RealRobotGenre shows. Compare with ''[[Anime/MazingerZ the]]'' ''[[Anime/GreatMazinger Mazinger]]'' ''[[Anime/UFORoboGrendizer trilogy]]'', ''Manga/GetterRobo'', ''Anime/VoltesV'' and ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'' to have an idea of what the SuperRobotGenre is about, or [[Anime/BravePoliceJDecker]] for a Super Robot police-themed mecha anime. Contrast with ''Anime/GunBuster'' or ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'' to see what the opposite end of the scale is.

Watch ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', ''Anime/ArmoredTrooperVotoms'', or ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' if you are interested in more RealRobotGenre shows. Compare with ''[[Anime/MazingerZ the]]'' ''[[Anime/GreatMazinger Mazinger]]'' ''[[Anime/UFORoboGrendizer trilogy]]'', ''Manga/GetterRobo'', ''Anime/VoltesV'' and ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'' to have an idea of what the SuperRobotGenre is about. Contrast with ''Anime/GunBuster'' or ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'' to see what the opposite end of the scale is.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** A large point of praise for the series is how it takes great pains to not depict just a realistic robot in the Labors themselves, but in how it incorporates Labor and technological development into something coherent and unique. Just about every element of the series is accounted for in some way, be it the Labors being extremely fragile so they can support their own weight, or the fact that the Patlabors are usually supported by multiple small vehicles to relay orders and intel on-the-fly thanks to Labors having shielded cockpits and thus limited ability to see. Plus for every actual robot in the field, they have about twenty people back at base to do the maintenance.
** The series touches upon a significant aspect of public bureaucracy in the fact that the [=SVU2=] is seen as a huge liability and a waste of taxpayer's money. In one episode of the series, Ohta is put under insurance review following some property damage he produced during an operation, recounting the events and how everything happen. The insurance reviewer approves the claim in favor of the [=SVU=], as she deems that it would be nigh impossible to prevent property damage, and that Ohta acted on good faith and protecting the public order, justifying the damage.

* AesopAmnesia: Episode 29 centers around virtually all of the SVU getting crippled by issues with their usual lunch place, first because Ohta offends the owner and gets them blacklisted from delivery for half the episode, followed by their order being contaminated by a disgruntled delivery driver and causing them all to get food poisoning once they're back in the restaurant's good graces. Takeo notes that they can't allow themselves to be too dependent on a single source of food again. Then Noa comes by to pick up the day's lunch orders, from the same restaurant, and Takeo makes her order without thinking. Of course, it should be noted that the reason they always buy from that one restaurant is because they have no choice - their base is so far out of town that nobody else will deliver there, and that one restaurant likely makes an exception for them because the entire base orders lunch from them every day.

* AlternateHistory: Global warming got a bit more serious that sea levels started to rise up during the Cold War. This led to [=R&D=] of labors in the construction industry before various police forces and militaries found some benefit in using them. Otherwise, everything else is the same.

* BatmanGambit: Nagumo gets rid of the SRX-70, and more importantly, the corporate maintenance crew trying to steal its operational data for use in weapons development, by telling the chief that she'll only accept it as a permanent piece of equipment if the trigger-happy Ohta is transferred to Division 1 and made its pilot. The chief returns the Labor rather than risk what might happen if Ohta gets his hands on the SRX-70's 42mm autocannon.
* BeachEpisode: The TV series, episode 40. Although it's the last scene of the episode that treats the viewer with a view of the team enjoying beach games and suntanning.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Schaft Enterprises is a ruthless corporation that produces military mecha, among other things, and uses highly illegal means to test their vehicles. An odd case, in that it remains a monolithic entity with no BigBad in charge of it, though their agents Kurosaki and Richard Wong/Utsumi give it a human face. Schaft even has its own private army of mercenaries that operates in a great part of Southeast Asia.

* DetachmentCombat: The Griffon sacrifices its hydrojet pontoons to draw Noah's fire while the rest of it climbs out of the water to ambush her.

* EnergyWeapons: Only one Labor type ever uses one, and it's quickly abandoned by the corporation building them because they're too expensive and not as effective against cannons and good old-fashioned pummeling as they thought. It was likely deemed AwesomeButImpractical, as we only see it fighting the AV-98s.

* EyeBeams: The Phantom, the Labor that uses the aforementioned EnergyWeapons, has a creepy, skull-like face & fires the beams out of the skull's "eyes", but the main camera is actually located in the "mouth".

* LowerDeckEpisode: A few eps revolving around the mechanic team. (Shige ''insists'' that this was supposed to be the Upper Deck, in one of the Mini-Pato shorts...)

* MidseasonUpgrade: Almost inverted in the TV series where there are plans to downgrade from the Ingram to the cheaper Economy Model Ingram mk. I, but its performance is simply too poor. Played straight for SV1, who trade in the obsolete Pythons for AV-0 Peacemakers, a massproduction version of the PsychoPrototype "Zero" from the first movie (which was in a different continuity, but whatever). The Griffon also gets one in ''The New Files'', replacing its wings, which broke off after it crashed into a mountain, with a pair of back-mounted hydrojets.

* MotionCaptureMecha: The Ingrams have a pair of retractable arm harnesses inside the cockpit to allow the pilot to control the mech's arms directly for precise movements like opening doors, though these are optional and most of the finer details of its actions are handled by the on-board computer. One notable scene features Noah practicing with the mo-cap harnesses by tying a piece of steel cable into a butterfly knot.

* NoFourthWall: The manga, multiple times, for the sake of comedy.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Richard Wong/Mr. Utsumi, the cold and calculating agent of Schaft Enterprises, hides behind a happy-go-lucky facade. (Mind, he actually ''is'' that happy-go-lucky under most circumstances -- he just ''stays'' that way as he calmly orchestrates a calamity.)

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Episode 27 of the TV series features a pretty standard group of ghosts and poltergeists with unfinished business, the only thing being that they're made up of former inhabitants of ever era all the way back to Sengoku...
* ParanormalEpisode: The anime is, at its heart, a SliceOfLife, CopShow[=/=]PoliceProcedural, with HumongousMecha. But, during the 27th episode of the TV series, the [=SVU2=] encounter ghosts, while holding indoor training execrcises in an abandoned building. It turns out that the ghosts were [[spoiler: the spirits of earthquake victims, who once lived there. Their spirits couldn't rest because of an undiscovered burial site, which contained the remains of slain samurai, directly beneath the building [=SVU2=] was training in.]] The spirits were lain to rest, once it was discovered, and rites were performed on the site.

* {{Roboteching}}: Seen in an episode that parodied ''[[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross Macross]]'' (as well as ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' and a few other classic sci-fi shows).
* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: The series in general remains on the Enlightened end of the spectrum and relatively idealistic - even in the worst of times. Generally, humanity growing to live with mechs coexisting with them and how they are used in society is the end result, and all other things are just consequences of it.

* ScoobyDooHoax:
** An episode featuring a "sea monster."
** The first OVA series has Goto playing one of these on his team about the ghost of a civilian killed in a negligent discharge accident in the hopes of scaring Ota onto the straight and narrow regarding his trigger-happy nature. It doesn't work because Kanuka exposes the hoax.

* SeriousBusiness: The two Maintenance Division centric episodes end up with [[spoiler: most of Division 2 going mysteriously missing one by one, and a small civil war among the unit including beatings, [[PuttingOnTheReich nazi-esque]] "security squads," kidnappings and (non-lethal) hangings, respectively.]] The culprits? [[spoiler: Some spoiled food and the confiscation of a sizable porn stash.]]

* ShootingGallery: [[TriggerHappy Otah]] gets chewed out for not only shooting an automated target, but [[CoupDeGrace charging in to smash it up with his baton afterwards]], destroying an expensive piece of equipment.

* ShownTheirWork: The series as a whole went out of its way to depict a real and modern Tokyo, deviating only when copyright or trademarks got in the way.

* UltramanCopy: The series has a dream episode where Noa homages Ultraman and transforms into a giant hero with a similar color scheme, to fight a [[Characters/UltramanTVSeries Zetton]]-like monster as a recreation of the famous [[Recap/UltramanEp39FarewellUltraman final episode]] of the original series.

Quite possibly the quintessential TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture [[HumongousMecha giant robot]] anime, ''Patlabor'' is notable for treating its mecha not as insanely powerful miracle machines, but actual vehicles with clear limitations that require constant maintenance. In fact, although there's action aplenty, most of the series focuses on the daily life of the police officers who pilot the mecha, and big robot smash-ups often take up only a minute or two, if that. It is, truth be told, a SliceOfLife series disguised as a HumongousMecha show.

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Present in the original Japanese dub for the intercept sequence of Movie 2. It's in Japanese-accented but correct English.

* WhipItGood: The Ingrams have a power winch mounted on their lower torso, the tow cable of which is occasionally used as an improvised weapon.

** The fourth and 19th episodes of the TV series feature different monsters. The first is a mammal of some sort, a genetic experiment that escaped, and the audience only catches a brief sight of it -- it's an animation [[TheCameo cameo]] of ''LightNovel/DirtyPair''[='=]s Mughi. In episode 19, the monster is an underground-adapted [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon]], which Noa insists on calling it a real Kaiju, while Kanuka [[HypocriticalHumor insists on calling it a surviving Dragon]] descended from the ones in the middle ages.

* ShownTheirWork:
** The manga version used an actual map of the city of Tokyo for accuracy.
** The series as a whole went out of its way to depict a real and modern Tokyo, deviating only when copyright or trademarks got in the way.

** The air interception sequence in ''Anime/PatlaborTheMovie2'' was [[https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/realistic-aerial-combat-movie-patlabor-2/ highly praised]] by ''Task & Purpose'' magazine as one of the most exactingly realistic depictions of modern air combat in all of fiction: the F-15s (which are based on a prototype short takeoff and landing variant created by [=McDonnell-Douglas=] in the late '80s) never actually lay eyes on their targets and are vectored in by ground controllers, who direct them in accented and subtitled English even in the Japanese dub. The real JASDF also does operate an indigenous F-16 variant like the one cited, the Mitsubishi F-2, which was still in development when the film was made.
%%* ASimplePlan

* RevolversAreJustBetter: The Ingrams carry scaled-up Colt Pythons. This is at least partly due to the fact that they're easier for the ground crew to load by hand than a magazine-fed weapon would be.

** Seen in the manga version, which used an actual map of the city of Tokyo for accuracy. Also seen in the following link with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwNRv-lubCg the intercept sequence]] of the 2nd Movie.

Do note that the franchise has [[AlternateContinuity different timelines/story arcs]], owing to when the said series/movies were first aired/retailed on video.