The Duality of Licking Rice

While I’ve spoken at length as to why the character design in Patlabor is an excellent representation of what the show can be, I came across what’s probably my favorite shot in the franchise thus far and it’s my favorite for the exact same reason.  In episode 33, there’s a shot of Noa, isolated from the rest of the group.  It’s in the middle of a conversation about the most significant threat to date, the music is deathly serious and everyone, including Noa, is wearing a grim expression.  We get a close up on Noa, and almost comically, she has rice on her lip from her dinner.  Then comically, she licks it off while still holding a venomous gaze as she listens to the plans for how to deal with the Griffon.  I adore this shot because similar to the way the character design perfectly describes the tone of the show, this shot functions the same.

The Subtle Villainy of Takeo Kumagami

Episode 26, I’m Takeo Kumagami, of Patlabor is by far my favorite episode so far, trumping even episode 19, Shadow in the Geo-Front.  While episode 26 is definitely lacking visually in the first half, with rather shaky lines and frequently off-model and inconsistent characters, this episode and the one prior brings so much to our attention.  The character growth and progression of everyone that would easily go unnoticed thanks to the extremely small increments they occur in being an example.  K-ON progresses and develops the characters in a similar way, very slow, small and naturally to the point that it’s nearly unnoticeable until it’s pointed out.  This is something I would love to talk about, however, this time I’m going to examine another part of the episode that perfectly illustrates how to write a great villain and make us hate him/her with only the most subtle and non-extreme ways imaginable.  Takeo Kumagami is by no means an evil character, but she is the target of our ire for majority of the episode by doing what amounts to little more than scolding a puppy.  To understand how excellently executed this is, we need to first understand the circumstances of her arrival and the relationship of whom she’s replacing with Noa Izumi.

Why Watch a Bad Mature Cartoon When You Can Watch a Good Children's Cartoon?

As an adult with adult problems, I want to enjoy media that portrays and treats its audience as much.  Characters struggling with complex problems regarding their own self-identity and their place in society.  Themes about clashing ideologies which show that no singular belief is right, nor wrong.  Stories that challenge me and that will often make me reconsider my own morals and beliefs.  Things that I would believe most of us would like in any of our stories.  There is a source for these adult and mature themes, in fact, and they’re called children’s shows.

Over the last year or so I’ve been watching more and more anime aimed directly at a younger demographic.  The Ghibli Fest, an event where a different Ghibli movie is aired each month in select theaters, is where this really began and was a turning point for my taste at large. While not a Ghibli movie, this change in taste came to my attention after watching Mary and the Witch’s Flower when I realized that the highest praise I’d given anything over the last few months was that it was charming.  Prior to this I had dismissed most children’s shows not for any negative reason but because I didn’t see enough value in them.  Why watch something with overly simplified themes when I could be watching the complexity of an adult’s show?  From this point on I began revisiting some of my old haunts of my childhood like Teen Titans, Samurai Jack, and Avatar the Last Airbender while also picking up Precure and more magical girl shows in general, especially during the dry spell that was Summer season 2018.  Now re-entering the seasonal anime world it’s come to my attention that shows aimed at a more mature audience simply don’t have the same weight nor nuance to them, highlighting my hubris in assuming adult shows were better at story telling.  It’s almost as if the creators take for granted that they’re making something for adults and just cut out the nuance and subtlety because they’re aimed at adults.

Patlabor is Good, yo

I began a quest during the last season of anime to watch some older shows, part to burn through my backlog, part to better understand why and how certain genres came to be how they are, and mostly because the season was pretty slow.  The most recent one that I’m currently watching is Patlabor, a genuine masterpiece that definitely deserves attention.  Not only are the OVAs and movie my favorite Mamoru Oshii projects that I’ve seen (in all fairness there aren’t that many), but even the television series is stand out and great by its own merits.  As such a high-quality product, it’s not much of a wonder as to how Japan has a nationally recognized Patlabor Day, but it is a wonder how it only came to be this year.