The show has an ensemble feel but the main police pilot is a gal called Noa, who has a special attachment to her Labor, calling it Alphonse. She's a gifted pilot and has the kind of the tenacity needed to be a police officer in a large city with the special demands such an assignment entails. The DVD doesn't spend a lot of time rehashing the television series so those of you with no background in it (I used to buy the tapes as they were released) will have to keep in mind that there's an extensive history to this one that will allow you to more fully appreciate this OVA (originally made in 1992 I believe) if you watch the older stuff. With some of Japan's leading creative anime forces like Yutaka Izubuchi and Yoshinori Sayama (who later worked on RahXephon), Akemi Takada (from KOR), and Kazunori Ito (from ), the show looks a bit retro in style nowadays but considering that it came out over ten years ago, it looks pretty recent in many ways too.

There were four episodes this time, a factor I believe will be standard throughout the 16 episode series, starting with 1) Griffin Resurrected, then moving on to 2) Shaft's Counterattack!, 3) The Greatest Showdown In History, and ending with 4) Game Over. The four episodes worked well as a self contained story revolving around an arms dealer, Richard Wong, trying to sell his development team to a group of interested bidders by setting his advanced model, the J9 Griffin, against the best trained labor pilots of the SUV. Setting up a series of confrontations with the police, he provides the engine which drives the initial volume, with the inevitable confrontation between Noa and the mysterious J9 (that's as detailed as I can get without spoiling it for you). It was a basic story but had some nice depth to it lacking in many more contemporary shows. If you like police shows combined with mech-robot fighting series; you'll enjoy this one a lot. I only wonder if the following volumes will be able to keep up the steam of this four episode arc.

I liked the original series well enough to keep buying it years ago on tape so this was obviously right up my alley. I'm rating it as Recommended due to the way the story was weaved into the character's strengths (and weaknesses), the manner in which the pacing was nicely handled, and the complexity of the episodes (there was a lot more going on than my basic outline). It also gave me pause to think about the bigger issues involved; how the police were hampered by rules that the bad guys weren't effected by, how the industrialists were portrayed as willing participants in order to get in on the cutting edge of technology, and the impact of technology on modern day living (with such advances come many questions). So do yourself a favor and check it out.

Picture: Patlabor: The Mobile Police: The New Files 1 was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as it originally aired in Japan. For a show this old, it looked pretty good but it was not without its problems. Many of the night scenes, for example, show a disturbing amount of video noise (the blacks aren't true black either, with plenty of minor interference on deck), and some compression artifacts popping up on occasion. It still looked better than the tapes used to by a wide margin so don't take my splitting of hairs as evidence of a poor transfer, just an observation of the limitations of the source material that fans will easily forgive in most cases.

Sound: The audio was presented in with the usual choices of either the original Japanese 2.0 stereo track or a newer English dub. Both were pleasant with entertainment value and each contained English subtitles (the dub had song subtitles) that appeared to fit the story elements. There wasn't a lot of separation between the channels and the music & effects appeared to be unaltered on the dub rather than enhanced as some companies have been doing. I watched it both ways and thought fans of subtitles will have their cake without the fans of dubs getting the short end of the stick either (it seems that some fans complain on companies who devote more resources to one track or the other; which wasn't the case here).

Extras: The only extras on the DVD were some trailers and a short sketch gallery. I would've appreciated more from the DVD but it did have four full episodes and was value priced so I can't complain too loudly compared to other companies.

Final Thoughts: Patlabor: The Mobile Police: The New Files 1 was a decent show with some nice value. I have long enjoyed the exploits of Noa as she piloted Alphonse in a show that was destined to set the stage for a variety of other series that followed. In some ways, the overall Universe provided some solid ideas that were later expanded upon in both anime, mainstream media, and even videogames; having left a mark that true anime connoisseurs shouldn't overlook given the recent glut of product that seems to be more about flashy style rather than substance with replay value. I haven't seen many releases from US Manga/Central Park Media in recent years but if this is indicative of their stuff, I may have to make more of an effort.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003 and Best Of Anime 2004 article or regular column Anime Talk