Manual Patlabor: Here We Go Again
This is starting to get a bit weird. Really.
Ok, first I mention Pacific Rim may help launch mecha films in America. I also wanted to see what happens in Japan with mecha and anime adaptions.
Well Japan has delivered an upcoming live action adaption of Gatchaman () and a CGI Harlock. They already adapted Yamato, and I’ve been speculating furiously on what these trends mean.
I mean what else could they . . .
. . . oh wait, here comes the live action Patlabor film. A real live one, not exactly the abortive 1998 attempt.
Sure it’s early, but it’s forming up. AKB48 is going to be on the project, I guess because apparently having their own anime wasn’t enough. Then again AKB48 is like Hydrogen, they’re everywhere.
So you can guess that, yes I’m paying attention.
Patlabor is a well-regarded series in Japan. Having watched some of it myself I found it to have a unique feel, sort of “mecha-real” take of cops dealing with robot-related crime. It’ll be interesting to see how a live action adaption goes, since when you take police procedural and giant robots, that sounds like a winner to me (and perhaps it can ride a bit of the Psycho-Pass magic of future police story).
So yeah, it’s a good choice. Nice, mecha-cop . . . yeah, you see where this was going with me. I’m wondering about the impact it’s going to have:
- First it’s Yet Another Movie Anime Adaption (YAMA) and Yet Another Live Action Anime Adaption (YALAAA – OK I need a new acronym here). It’s an adaption of another beloved property, so seriously by now we are in a trend there in Japan.
- This is an adaption of a mecha film that’s not the typical American concept of guys with great hair with silly overdecorated robots. This is police mecha stories. This will likely further intrigue the American market as it’s “non-typical robots,” which I’ve noted before may be a viable market if Giant Robot films take off here.
- This is a film whose success will be hard to screw up. It’s a beloved story, so I have no doubt it’ll be handled well. If it succeeds, Hollywood is going to pay attention.
- So in short, I think this further fuels the possibility of Hollywood going seriously Giant Robot (well, seriously as it’s own genre of films). All Pacific Rim has to do is do reasonably well at this rate.
- As Patlabor is a “non-as-some-would-expect” mecha show, I can see it getting attention here as well. Cops with robots, what’s not to love considering how many police-in-the-future stories we’ve had made in America over the years. It might get something moving over here.
At this rate my comments about what can happen in America with anime adaptions and possible giant-robots-as-genre really, really seems to be becoming more possible. It’s a bit creepy.
Besides, considering how out of ideas Hollywood is, imagine what happens when they see amazing and successful films from overseas . . .
At some point we might get sick of Giant Robots.
But I’m willing to test that.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.
