Patlabor: The Movie

An anime set in Tokyo. In the near future giant robots are used in construction; they are called labors. The police have their own labor unit, tasked with stopping malfunctioning machines. The problem grows: labors across the city start going out of control for no reason. The unit investigates and finds what they have in common: all of them run the same new operating system. The engineer who wrote it is dead. What he left behind is a plan for revenge, and the trigger is something in the city itself. What the film is interested in is not robot combat but infrastructure. The narrative consists largely of investigation: municipal records, construction plans and old districts being demolished. Visually, Tokyo itself is the main character. Emptied buildings, canal banks and enormous building sites are drawn in detail. Mamoru Oshii directed; he later made Ghost in the Shell and the manner here continues there. It is the first feature in the series of the same name. An important example of its genre for anyone who likes anime and science fiction. For a viewer expecting action, the film moves slowly and the confrontation is left to the end.