Finally decided to give this one a watch as I gave up on waiting to watch the live-action miniseries with english subtitles. And it turned out to be such a surprise!
I knew this live-action would take place after the events of the anime movies, but I didn't know it would take so much from Patlabor 2's story, which is, hands down, one of the best animated movies of all time. For that reason, I regret not watching this right after Patlabor 2 when it was still fresh in my mind. The mood and philosophical themes are still here, even the soundtrack sounds exactly the same. The boat scene under the bridge is clearly an homage to the same scene in Patlabor 2. There's some siliness too, which used to be so common in the tv show and the animated miniseries.
It is still possible to follow the story of this movie without prior watching of the live-action miniseries. Well, at least I felt like that it was a new story created for this movie. However, it definitely feels like I was missing a lot of the characters' backgrounds and sense of companionship from not watching these characters' adventures before.
The action and special effects are awesome, yet it isn't what makes these series so interesting (especially the movies), so it won't be for anyone who's just looking for that.
I knew this live-action would take place after the events of the anime movies, but I didn't know it would take so much from Patlabor 2's story, which is, hands down, one of the best animated movies of all time. For that reason, I regret not watching this right after Patlabor 2 when it was still fresh in my mind. The mood and philosophical themes are still here, even the soundtrack sounds exactly the same. The boat scene under the bridge is clearly an homage to the same scene in Patlabor 2. There's some siliness too, which used to be so common in the tv show and the animated miniseries.
It is still possible to follow the story of this movie without prior watching of the live-action miniseries. Well, at least I felt like that it was a new story created for this movie. However, it definitely feels like I was missing a lot of the characters' backgrounds and sense of companionship from not watching these characters' adventures before.
The action and special effects are awesome, yet it isn't what makes these series so interesting (especially the movies), so it won't be for anyone who's just looking for that.