The newest Patlabor film, like the others, is a
slow-moving, somber, depressing, rain-drenched police procedural, almost cut and
dry, and that's fine with me. I like that sort of thing, and it's uncommon in
anime. The twist here is that Ota, Noa, Goto and the rest of the usual Patlabor
crew don't even show up until the finale. The story follows a pair of detectives,
veteran Kusumi and his partner Hata, who track a series of grisly bay-area murders
to a research facility that's lost control of its newest experiment, a biological
terror called Wasted Thirteen. To make matters worse, Hata finds himself romantically
involved with WXIII's lead developer. Once a method of disposing of the creature
is discovered, the familiar faces in Special Vehicle Unit 2 are brought in to
execute the operation.
This movie isn't for everyone.
For the most part it's very relaxed in its pacing, and almost entirely humorless.
It's very realistic, and the scenes involving WXIII itself seem almost out of
place. It's reminiscent of Jin-Roh in several respects, which is a good
thing, as Jin-Roh remains one of the finest animated films I've ever seen.
Patlabor: WXIII falls short of that high standard, but it's still an interesting
police story set in a city strangling on its own politics and technological complexity.
