# Patlabor: The TV Series (1989)

> A small Tokyo police unit that patrols the city with giant robot labors tackles everyday crimes and industrial mishaps in a near future setting.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/20029

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 47
- Episode runtime: 25 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, science fiction, comedy, action
- Network: Nippon TV
- Cast: Mina Tominaga, Ryusuke Ohbayashi, Toshio Furukawa, Michihiro Ikemizu, Yo Inoue, Issei Futamata, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Akio Otsuka
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159883/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: wry, sincere, breezy, grounded, nostalgic

## Synopsis

Patlabor: The TV Series (1989-1990) is a Japanese anime science fiction series created by Headgear, animated by Sunrise, and broadcast on Nippon TV. Its single season of 47 episodes follows a small Tokyo police division that works with giant humanoid machines called labors, which are used for construction and industrial tasks as well as law enforcement. The characters voiced by Mina Tominaga as Noa Izumi and Ryusuke Ohbayashi as Captain Kiichi Goto anchor the unit, which struggles with departmental budgets, bureaucratic rivals and malfunctioning machinery. Each episode is largely a self-contained case of the week, built from concrete nouns such as robot maintenance bays, patrol vehicles, rain soaked city streets and public work sites. The show balances procedural mystery with workplace comedy and quiet character moments. Its tone is wry and grounded, with a near future setting that feels like a plausible extension of late 1980s Tokyo. Fans of Ghost in the Shell, RoboCop and Mobile Suit Gundam will find resonance in its blend of police drama, mecha engineering and social satire.

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