Patlabor: The TV Series

Patlabor: The TV Series (機動警察パトレイバー) is an anime television series, created by Sunrise, based on the Patlabor anime franchise.

With success of the first movie, Patlabor became one of the first OVAs to be ported to TV. Originally planned for 24 episodes, (up to the end of Kanuka's practicum at SV2), the series was extended twice. First to 36 episodes, to cover the conflict with Schaft, and then to 47 episodes in order to conclude the series.

Use of Labors
At the request of the sponsor, toy manufacturer Bandai, the TV series was to include some action with labors. (Labors are the heavy construction equipment after which this series is named.) However, the toys made for the series did not sell as well as expected.

In the original broadcast, the labors were making more metallic "kshang!" sound, but were revised to motor whirring sound like that of the movie when the whole series was released on Laserdisc.

Trivia

 * Mamoru Oshii turned down the offer to be over-all director of the series and instead wrote scripts for several episodes that were not relevant to the overall plot of the series. These episodes typically did not feature the Labors.


 * As character development had been accomplished within the OAV, the typical plot structure of character introductions and tensions building within the team were eschewed in favor of more story-driven and other non-character-driven episodes.


 * In episode 27 at 00:20:01 (on the paper bundle that Kumagami throws at Goto) is written the following message: "To those of you who went through frame by frame to see what is written here, we thank you for your effort."

Music themes

 * Opening themes:
 * "そのままの君でいて" (Sono mama no Kimi de ite - Please be as you were) by Yuko Nitou (episodes 1-34)
 * "コンディション・グリーン～緊急発進～" (Condition Green ~Kinkyuu Hasshin~ - Emergency Launch) by Hiroko Kasahara (epìsodes 35-47)


 * Ending themes:
 * "ミッドナイト ブルー" (Midnight Blue) by KISS ME QUICK (episodes 1-34)
 * "パラダイスの確率" (Paradise no Kakuritsu - Probability of Paradise) by JA-JA (episodes 35-47)