Source
r/Patlabor•
CarderSC2

Some quick thoughts about Patlabor III

I finally watched Wasted XIII or what ever its also called. I had been avoiding it all this time. Mostly because I heard it wasn't very good. But I've been starving for more Patlabor, and recently got a hold of the Patlabor Blu ray set, so I figure I have to watch it. And... I didn't hate it hah. I actually enjoyed my time with it. I liked the pacing of the film, and the detective story angle. The focus on the detectives reminded me of the first Patlabor movie. Palabor 1 is book ended by some Mecha action at the start and the end, but the meat of the movie is actually our characters just trying to figure out whats going on, in parallel to the detectives looking into the background of the programmer. So, I appreciated that aspect of III. Where it fell flat for me was, well, making it a Patlabor movie. You could take all the Section 2 Division 2 characters out of this movie, and replace them with anyone else, even characters from another franchise, and it wouldn't matter. The plot wouldn't really change. I'm also not that big of a fan of the sea monster bit. I prefer a little more grit in the fantasy world of giant robots, lol.

Anyway, I did like it. And I'd watch it again, I liked the colors and the animation. It's just not really a Patlabor movie, in it's execution IMHO.

Posted Apr 12, 2021, 6:13 PM UTC

138
HonMaguro•

Its true that our favorite characters were only a minor part in the movie, but i really liked how they took a story from the manga and expanded it.

5
Bauzzzz•

Given the reputation this movie has...I also consider it underrated.

Yeah it is definitely different than the first two movies, but it does well as an entertaining monster movie.

5
Dat_Chicken04•

Visually and artistically, I find it great. However, one of the major aspects that makes Patlabor so appealing to me is the original characters and their interactions. I was disappointed to see them sidelined for most of the story, and that’s probably tainted my view of the third movie a bit.

4
Cat_eater1•

Personally I love the film. I do feel it's almost like spin off rather then a true sequel/ prequel. Seeing something like a monster in the patlabor universe was very interesting you never really see anime movies take on serious giant monster roles like WXIII did (atleast that I know of). But overall it feels like a stand alone movie that was easily forgotten by time.

3
ThePowerLord•

agreed

2
coitus_ergo_sum•

I like to describe it as Patlabor's Castle of Cagliostro. It's an excellent movie on its own, but in relevance to it's source material, it's "eh".

2
J765•

I don't think any Lupin anime is greatly relevant towards the original Manga. It's as episodic as it gets.

But yeah, it could be better marketed as just "WXIII", like it's the case with Castle of Cagliostro. Some western publishers calling it "Patlabor 3" really is annoying.

2
ThePowerLord•

Patlabor 3 is really good as a stand alone anime film

2