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Apr 14, 2018 7:16 AM
#1
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May 2016
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Do I have to have seen the previous OVAs in order to understand or enjoy this movie.
May 17, 2018 11:36 PM
#2

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Sep 2013
1073
Not really. The OVAs familiarize you with the cast a bit, but the storylines of the OVA and the movie are unrelated.
Jul 2, 2019 5:44 PM
#3

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Sep 2018
2272
robotical said:
Not really. The OVAs familiarize you with the cast a bit, but the storylines of the OVA and the movie are unrelated.


I'd actually suggest watching this before the OVAs. I somewhat wish I had of, I may have enjoyed it more as seeing the OVAs first just made me focus on how this was much worse than the OVAs.
Aug 11, 2019 8:31 AM
#4

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Jul 2008
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robotical said:
Not really. The OVAs familiarize you with the cast a bit, but the storylines of the OVA and the movie are unrelated.


I agree with this person and disagree with kandi_gloss.

When I first started watching the OVAs I wasn't really into the sort of slacker police vibe it had going, but it grew on me. Also, there's a character who pops up in the movie near the end who only those who watched the OVAs would care about. Also, I think she's one of the very few who considers the OVAs superior to the movie.
Aug 12, 2019 9:49 AM
#5

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Dec 2015
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Ero-Camel said:
she's one of the very few who considers the OVAs superior to the movie.

I love the OAVs and the movies, but to be fair, you can't consider one format superior to the others. They have been made in totally different optics. It would be like comparing the "superiority" of Blues Brothers, The Elephant Man and Raging Bull.


@kandi_gloss I see. Thank you. And a "continuity" is only a world/canvas where the creators paint/tell what they wants to.

That's actually why I liked the OAVs-films series, I was first presented a world and a group of characters as living beings of this world and then the movies tackling interesting issues seemed even more engaging since it happened to/around those same characters. So, in a way, the movies exploited well the fact they were set in the same series. As for characterless shells? Is that supposed to express the fact that they seem less "happy" than in the OAVs? Because it never felt to me like they were acting "out-of-character" or character-less, on the contrary the way they (re)acted to several things seemed perfectly in line, especially in the first movie (that still keep the characters relatively important, unlike the second movie where the situation/world is almost the only thing that matters, and for the best)
Rei_IIIAug 20, 2019 1:03 AM
Aug 16, 2019 10:00 AM
#6

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Sep 2018
2272
Rei_III said:
Ero-Camel said:
she's one of the very few who considers the OVAs superior to the movie.

I love the OAVs and the movies, but to be fair, you can't consider one format superior to the others. They have been made in totally different optics. It would be like comparing the "superiority" of Blues Brothers, The Elephant Man and Raging Bull.


None of those things are part of the same continuity of the same series though. My issue is that the OVA built up these characters and you got to know them quite well and then in this movie they are reduced to characterless shells that only exist to give overly long dialogs that explain things that could have been shown instead. If I hadn't have had the character build up of the OVAs I might have cared less and actually enjoyed the film. Maybe I didn't word my previous post correctly but I was still pissed off, having just finished the film.
KristiwazhereAug 17, 2019 11:41 PM
Aug 23, 2019 10:02 AM
#7

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Sep 2018
2272
Rei_III said:


@kandi_gloss I see. Thank you. And a "continuity" is only a world/canvas where the creators paint/tell what they wants to.

That's actually why I liked the OAVs-films series, I was first presented a world and a group of characters as living beings of this world and then the movies tackling interesting issues seemed even more engaging since it happened to/around those same characters. So, in a way, the movies exploited well the fact they were set in the same series. As for characterless shells? Is that supposed to express the fact that they seem less "happy" than in the OAVs? Because it never felt to me like they were acting "out-of-character" or character-less, on the contrary the way they (re)acted to several things seemed perfectly in line, especially in the first movie (that still keep the characters relatively important, unlike the second movie where the situation/world is almost the only thing that matters, and for the best)


I don't know, maybe the issue is that I watched this subbed and this is a rare case where the dub is better? But to me, at least in the version I watched, the characters had no personality at all. They didn't really seem upset about anything either, in fact the way they acted (or didn't act) was more like "bad things are happening, oh well." they just wandered around and told the story of the movie, at some points it didn't even seem to matter who was talking, they were literally just shells telling a story.
KristiwazhereAug 23, 2019 4:07 PM
Aug 23, 2019 10:34 AM
#8

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Aug 2014
3992
This is some old ass topic. But I more or less agree with the above.

First movie - feels like proper Patlabor
Second - great movie that's just borrowing the Patlabor cast
Third - half ass monster movie that isn't really Patlabor

And in the unlikely scenario that the OP is still thinking about watching the movies but haven't a year later, yes you can enjoy the movies without watching the OVAs, but I consider only the second movie and maybe the first worth watching that way. The OVAs are the best of Patlabor, and I do think the first movie utilizes the characters built up in the OVAs very well.
Sieg Zeon!
Aug 23, 2019 7:15 PM
#9
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May 2016
1857
QuattroVaginas said:
This is some old ass topic. But I more or less agree with the above.

First movie - feels like proper Patlabor
Second - great movie that's just borrowing the Patlabor cast
Third - half ass monster movie that isn't really Patlabor

And in the unlikely scenario that the OP is still thinking about watching the movies but haven't a year later, yes you can enjoy the movies without watching the OVAs, but I consider only the second movie and maybe the first worth watching that way. The OVAs are the best of Patlabor, and I do think the first movie utilizes the characters built up in the OVAs very well.


A fantastic summary, as of this comment I've only seen the first movie, life has been busy. So I'll get to it....eventually.

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