Forum - View topicGeneral Questions / Identifying Anime.
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10088 Location: Virginia |
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At the start of the show, Division 2 doesn't exist. Goto is tasked with starting the thing from scratch. He grabs new recruits from the Academy and new Patlabors as they are received. I don't think the new machines are intended to be the best, just the most recent government purchase. I also don't thing the powers that be intended the new division to be quite the collection of oddballs either, that is on Goto.
Also the division 1 people may have been reluctant to take the new machines as they are somewhat untested. New tech usually comes with new bugs. It also doesn't hurt that one of the division 2 recruits is the son of the head of Shinohara Heavy Industries that produces the Ingram. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11692 |
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My theory is that it was a CYA move on the part of the police and Shinohara Heavy. They gave the Ingrams to Division 2 to field test, so if they failed, or caused death and destruction, they could blame it on D2 instead of the Patlabor and not risk the personnel or reputation of D1.
Btw, apparently tomorrow is Patlabor Day, I don't know why. |
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shosakukan
Posts: 337 |
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I can understand your opinion as a realistic way of thinking. Let's suppose that there are new high-quality tanks and there are an elite army unit and a non-elite army unit. In the real world, probably the commander of the army will give the new high-quality tanks to the elite unit. But there could be different logic in the case of making/selling/consuming fiction. ・There are people (including people who make fiction and people who consume fiction) who relate to non-elite characters, misfits, and the like in fiction. In an interview, Yūki Masami criticised corporations' and public offices' elitism, excessive seriousness, red tape, lack of 'play', and the like. The Headgear team made Captain Gotō say that Division 2 might become a Dokuritsu Gurentai. 'Dokuritsu Gurentai' is the title of a well-known 50s film directed by Okamoto Kihachi and also is the nickname for an army unit which appears in the film and which is composed of misfits and non-elite soldiers. It suggests that people who made Patlabor related to non-elite people. 'Dokuritsu' means 'independent', and 'gurentai' means 'a gang of hooligans'. In Die Hard (1988, dir. by John McTiernan), John McClane, who wears a dirty singlet, is 'better' than elite people who wear expensive lounge suits. Interestingly, in the interview, Yūki Masami had the case of a Die Hard Blu-ray Disc. ・The power behind the Patlabor project's being given the green light was producer Unozawa Shin, who worked for Bandai. It meant that they not only had to make the protagonist pilot a cool and strong robot but also had to sell Patlabor-themed toys and plastic model kits. (In fact, Bandai sold Patlabor-themed toys and plastic model kits already in the 80s-90s.) If Dr Kabuto Jūzo had made an uncool and not-high-quality robot and had given it to the protagonist Kabuto Kōji, the Popy company, which belonged to the Bandai group, could have not sold Mazinger Z-themed toys that much. A mixture of these factors could result in Division 2's acquiring good Patrol Labours. If I remember correctly, spoiler[Divison 1 acquired AV-0 Peacemaker, which is a high-quality Patrol Labour, though.] Last edited by shosakukan on Mon Sep 09, 2024 9:37 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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shosakukan
Posts: 337 |
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In Japan, when they do number-related wordplay, 8 can be read as 'pa', 10 can be read as 'to'. (Also, 0 can be read as 'rei', if the people concerned took it into account.) 'Patlabor' in katakana is パpa トto レイrei バー. Probably this is the reason why August 10 (8 10) became the Patlabor Day. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24484 |
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Thanks, peeps, interesting answers! I tend to lean towards Gina's theory that the screw-ups were given the untested new units just in case something did go south with them. I should have mentioned I was looking for an "in world" rationale as opposed to a more meta overview. Naturally, the makes of the show wanted it to be as popular as possible so from a meta point of view it makes sense to give Division 2, Section 2 the "cool" Patlabors but that doesn't satisfy the "in world" explanation.
Okay, that went so well for me I may as well toss out another Patlabor question in honor of (belated) Patlabor Day. Division 2, Section 2 are our loveable bunch of merry screw-ups... do we ever meet the people of Division 2, Section 1? Remember, Nagumo's group are Division 1 (not sure what section they are). Hmmm, I wonder if the mechanics are Division 2, Section 1? |
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shosakukan
Posts: 337 |
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It's a pleasure. Sorry about the from-a-meta-point-of-view answer.
According to the manga version by Yūki Masami, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had the 'Tokka Sharyō' Special Vehicle Unit, and a section of the Tokka Sharyō unit branched and became the Tokusha (Special Vehicle) 2nd Section, and the original 'Tokka Sharyō' Special Vehicle Unit became the Tokusha (Special Vehicle) 1st Section, The real-life 'Tokka Sharyō' Special Vehicle Unit of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department uses police armoured cars, heavy construction equipment, and the like. In the first place, 'Sharyō' and '-sha' mean 'vehicle', 'automobile', 'motorcar', and the like, rather than 'robot'. So perhaps also in the diegesis of Patlabor the Tokusha (Special Vehicle) 1st Section is a section which uses police armoured cars, and if you see police armoured cars in Patlabor, they may be Section 1. |
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shosakukan
Posts: 337 |
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Nagumo belongs to Section 2 Division 1, and she is the captain of Division 1. https://patlabor.tokyo/character/281/ The mechanics belong to Section 2. https://patlabor.tokyo/character/282/ |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10088 Location: Virginia |
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@Blood-
My impression is that while Division 1 is perceived as better than Division 2, the whole Patlabor "experiment" is not well regarded by headquarters. Both units are exiled on reclaimed land in the back of nowhere. Both units and the mechanics are supplementing their rations by fishing and growing vegetables. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24484 |
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So based on the above, it seems like the Section 2s of the Patlabor divisions are the pointy end of the stick: the command vehicle drivers, the carrier drivers and of course the Patlabors and their pilots. So if the mechanics don't make up the two section 1s, I'm not sure who does. So far, I don't think there has been any direct reference to either section 1. In fact, I am inferring their existence on the grounds that if there is a section 2, that seems to suggest the existence of a section 1.
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10088 Location: Virginia |
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@Blood-
I agree that section 2 of each division is operations, that is the people in the field, I think it more likely that section 1 is admin. These are the people you don't see since they don't associate with the grunts in the back of nowhere. Somewhere, likely police HQ, you would have the commanding officer and his staff and the staff sections for each of the divisions. This would include, PR, HR, Accounting (including payroll) Quartermasters staff (logistics) and some form of intelligence gathering. Some of these people may wear more than one hat. The mechanics may be section 3 or because of their relations to the civilian companies more or less autonomous. They are clearly under their own supervision. Admin types are often listed first in organization charts as they make the charts up. It is unlikely that maintenance would be listed ahead of operations, it is usually an afterthought. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 4016 |
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The mechanics are also part of section 2. I just finished watching episode 29 and it has a scene where Shigeo says, "Second Section mechanics: move out!". The character descriptions for both Shigeo Shiba and Seitaroh Sakaki list them as Section 2 mechanics. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24484 |
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That fits with Alan45's designation of Section 2 as Operations. Mechanics are not frontline personnel obviously, but without them there are no operations.
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Beltane70
Posts: 4016 |
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I think in this case, you and Alan might be mixing up sections and divisions. The mechanics could be Division 3 instead of Section 3. All the groups fall under Section 2, with Captain Nagumo commanding Division 1 of Section 2, Captain Goto commanding Division 2 of Section 2, with Chief Sakaki in charge of the mechanics. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10088 Location: Virginia |
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@Beltane70
You are probably right, that still leaves the question of what is Section 1. I still think they are the administrative staff, probably under the leader of the entire group. We are basically making bricks without straw here. A mountain of conjecture based on a molehill of fact. 
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24484 |
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Ah yes, that does make more sense. Although just to throw out another wrinkle, to me it doesn't make sense to refer to the units in questions as "divisions." In the real world, the word division whether in the military or police or even on the corporate level usually refers to a substantial number of people. In Patlabor, a "division" seems to refer to six people (if you don't count mechanics): a captain, a command car driver, two carrier drivers and two pilots. Seems to me the word squad or platoon would be more fitting than division.
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