April 1989, manga artist Masami Yuki slips and falls breaking 4 of his fingers as he tries to stop his fall. At that moment in time he was illustrating and writing for the Patlabor manga series and was a member of the production company Headgear (comprised of Masami Yuki, Yutaka Izubuchi, Kazunori Itō, Akemi Takada, and Mamoru Oshii) who were in charge of the Patlabor franchise as well as being Patlabor’s creator. This caused a problem as they still wanted Patlabor to be in Weekly Shonen Sunday but without Masami being able to draw and write the manga they wouldn’t be able to have it in on time.
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(Patlabor Shonen Sunday Cover 1988-1994)
After much debate and searching for a Mangaka who could fit their style and tone they decided on Naoki Urasawa who at the time was creating Yawara! For Big Comic Spirits and Master Keaton for Big Comic Original with Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki (who wrote what would become controversial later) to create some mini arcs whilst Masami healed. He would be on and off with stories due to other arrangements with last story of his last arc being published in 1994 just months before Monster was released. Although Urasawa was technically free lance he was made a temporary member of Headgear for copyright reasons.
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(Image from Master Keaton |1988-1994)
 
Urasawa’s Stories

Matsui in Laborland: After Urasawa was chosen he was told to pick a character from the roster of Patlabor characters. He chose Det. Matsui Takahiro and decided to put him in dark comedy about a murder mystery set in a dysfunctional theme park. There’s been a murder at the Tokyo Laborland and Matsui being experienced in Labor related crimes is sent to investigate. What follows is plenty of dark comedy as suspicious Matsui finds himself having to deal with the Laborland bosses who are a bunch of rich idiots, the terrible awkward security and the staff which is made up of a mixture of bored students and annoyed adults as well as possible murderer amongst them who is very crafty at causing accidents and malfunctions.
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(Matsui as presented in Patlabor the Movie 1989)

Tonally different from a lot of his later work (being entirely a black comedy with a murder mystery to drive the story) it has a lot elements of Urasawa’s later work from 21st Century Boys (Friendland, evil childlike antagonist) and his earlier works (Characters designs from Yawara! And Master Keaton pop up frequently). It would become quite popular and the smaller arc allowed it to be finished in 8 issues which helped the rather busy Naoki greatly. The story is remembered for its humorous scene where Matsui and Tetsuo the janitor must face down a murderous hot dog labor stand in a scene that perfectly encapsulates the series odd humour and dark comedy.
 
Strange People: In Urasawa planned to set his next story in Germany and to be about Schaft Enterprises. Tensions and protests started to occur in East Germany just as the series started in Early October 1989 and the wall will have fallen by the time it finished making the series come off as a period piece with a few months. Tensions start to occur between East and West Germany when a West German Labor engineer called Karl is kidnapped whilst visiting family in the East. It’s up to BKA Inspector Klaus Weisbach and VP Detective Herman Schultz to investigate with help from the engineer’s daughter Nina as they try and find who kidnapped Karl and what it has to do with Schaft Enterprises.
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(Klaus Weisbach get's a surprise, Patlabor Stories, Strange People 1989- English Print 1995)
A thriller with elements of spy and crime fiction added in this is more like the Urasawa people know due to the stories setting and culture of Germany being something Urasawa knows quite well (Urasawa would later return to them in the more grounded Monster) with the story sometimes delving into more psychological moments (Klaus having some rather disturbing nightmares inspired by his father’s crimes and Nina dealing with mental problems brought on by the kidnapping). It is also remembered for its references to 60s culture with all chapters being named after songs from the period and Herman being a massive fan of 60s rock n roll and soul It’s more adult tone, gory murders and political undertones would make it hard for younger teens to understand causing it to be transferred to a Seinen magazine Big Comic Spirits so it would be understood better whilst Patlabor would be continued in Shonen Sunday. This would help the series grow and would cause adults to have more interest in the Patlabor franchise (which by this point was a powerhouse).
 
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Hokkaido Dreams: Set back in Japan (Sapporo) and now in a Seinen magazine, Urasawa decided to really stretch the source material for all it’s worth and create one of the most bizarre mini arcs in all his stories. Kenji Shinohara is a former police detective who was fired after becoming a drunken mess who has cleaned himself after becoming a private detective. Now mostly dealing with jilted lovers and affairs he finds his life much easier and spends most of his time painting and writing crime stories for magazines. His life is turned upside down when he’s accused of murdering Patlabor officers and he start receiving messages from a mysterious person who claims to be a wolf in human form. Although the accusation goes nowhere Kenji has to work with a Captain Takeo Yamzaki who thinks the murderer maybe amongst his subordinates all whilst Kenji has to deal with spectre of his past who tries to push him over the edge.

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(Takeo looks at Kenji's picture, Patlabor Stories, Hokkaido Dreams, 1990)
A psychological thriller with large undertone of surreal horror it can be seen as prelude to the work he start creating over the next decade. It’s rather infamous for creating ersatz version of the original SVU II and having them either be brutally killed off, psychological tortured or to be mentally ill (Spoilers with the ersatz version of Noa being the mentally ill killer) as well as it’s rather disturbing imagery (Many of it referencing red riding hood and the big bad wolf). However the character of Kenji is remembered in good light and his chemistry with Takeo is considered to be interesting due to the large amounts of homoerotic subtext (Urasawa didn’t said anything about it until 2014 when he mentioned that he thinks that Kenji was bisexual but not much else has been said). It’s also remembered for being one of the few Patlabor stories to actually have any Patlabor members who weren’t parts of SVU II which was a considered a change for the franchise. Although it was success another Patlabor Stories wouldn’t be made in till the end of 1991 due to scheduling and the some poor response from the heads of Big Comic Spirits which properly helped the next stories impact.
 
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Lit Match: After about a year later at the end of 1991 Urasawa would return to the world of Patlabor. Set in the morally grey world of the former Yugoslavia this story returns Naoki to kind of stories he started illustrating for other people with Pineapple Army and Master Keaton being obvious influences. Japanese War reporter Kanna is in the former Yugoslavia reporting on the conflict. However when she uncovers a plot involving stolen army labors and corrupt companies she will have to work with former JNA soldier Edin to help expose the truth. However things aren’t what they seem with Edin and he has skeletons in his closet.

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(One of the many pictures used for research,1991)

The second to last Patlabor story this was one of the worst received stories of them all (although Strange People caused some controversy when it was released due to its nature) it has however received recent acclaim for it interesting take on the war story. Whilst mostly being a war story with large amount of thriller elements it is well remembered for its eventual romance between Edin and Kanna as well as its complex look at the situation in Yugoslavia as well as its past. However the series managed to achieve some controversy mostly due to the fact that it was address a war that was actually occurring with last story being released just as Bosnia declared independence. The stories controversy, fans turning away from Patlabor stories and Naoki being less interested in doing them anymore instead doing other affair the story would be shut down for about year and half. However other forces would bring him back in for one more story.
 
Christmas in Tokyo: Patlabor stories return was rather unexpected when on the 30th of November 1993 it would return with not only Naoki Urasawa returning but also Kazunori Itō appearing to help write the story. The writer of the two movies and eventually the ghost in the shell anime came in to essentially create a sequel to Patlabor 2 released earlier that year. Like the movie this story is more introspective and slower than the fast paced series but Patlabor stories was already like that anyway. The story follows Captain Goto two years after the events of the film as he deals with upcoming promotion with mixed emotions as the rest of his crew have gone on to deal better things. However when an old friend from his past reappears with ill intentions he suddenly finds himself drawn back to action alongside his new and old squad.
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(Still from the anime adaptation of Christmas in Tokyo, 1996)
A mixture of introspective drama and psychological thriller this story (later adapted into a feature film by Satoshi Kon in 1996) is hailed by many as being one of the best Patlabor stories period. Remembered for character development (even Otah get’s character development) and for its reveal of Captain Goto’s past it managed to bring in the series largest sales. What is less remembered but still appreciated by fans is its beautiful images of Tokyo in the snow (similar to the 2nd movie) and it’s Christmas spirit which includes a scene of Goto celebrating Christmas with his family and his crew being considered one of the most heart warming scenes in the franchise. The villain Keiichiro is can be considered one of the most disturbing characters in the Patlabor franchise with shades of Johan and the friend from Urasawa’s other work being there with his relationship with Goto and his sinister plan being considered by Patlabor fans to be the worst of all the antagonists in Patlabor. When the series finished in February 1994 many fans were asking for more but this wouldn’t happen. Urasawa would continue working on Happy! And start working on Monster whilst Kazunori would go off to work with Oshii on Ghost in the Shell.
 
And so ended Patlabor Stories with series ending on a triumphant note with much deserved success, well in Japan at least. In the West however the stories were bought by Dark Horse in 1995 just as the movies came out in the west causing the franchise to become a hot property... for about 2 years. The series success would lead to Dark Horse buying all the other Patlabor stories and translating them as Patlabor 3 was released in the west to great acclaim. The Patlabor franchise would be quite successful and although it never reached Akria heights of fandom it had respectable fan base created thanks to Urasawa.
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(Logo of Dark Horse Manga publisher of Patlabor stories 1995-)
As Urasawa became more successful first with Monster and then 20th Century Boys being well known in the west particularly after the 2014 Monster TV Series by Guillermo Del Toro many people would go back to Patlabor Stories to see if they were similar to any of his other stories. In 2015 Dark Horse would commission an anthology comic series using the Patlabor Stories title with help from both western comic authors and also what remained of headgear. The first set of stories would be written and drawn by Faith Erin Hicks with following series written by people like Ed Brubaker, Warren Ellis and Carla Speed McNeil.
 
First Time I seen a timeline based on Anime and Manga.
Good work. Made me wish, I knew more about the background of the Show. (I seen the first OAV and the three movies. but that all.)
 
First Time I seen a timeline based on Anime and Manga.
Good work. Made me wish, I knew more about the background of the Show. (I seen the first OAV and the three movies. but that all.)
I've only seen the OAV, and it was pretty good if you ask me (thought the one episode where it had some sea monster of sorts sucked ass and it's easily the worst aspect); still I would love to see more and honestly this TL could use some improvement (or rather a revamp of sorts).
 
First Time I seen a timeline based on Anime and Manga.
Good work. Made me wish, I knew more about the background of the Show. (I seen the first OAV and the three movies. but that all.)

I've only seen the OAV, and it was pretty good if you ask me (thought the one episode where it had some sea monster of sorts sucked ass and it's easily the worst aspect); still I would love to see more and honestly this TL could use some improvement (or rather a revamp of sorts).

The idea and been into Patlabor lately.
Thanks everyone I certain wasn't expecting this timeline to come back from the dead so thanks for reading, I got into Patlabor not that long ago and started looking into it's production history a little bit.

Headgear is an interesting production company to read about and so is Manga Entertainment (I love there idea of "15ing" certain anime to make it easier to sell to teenagers). This timeline is kind of wish fulfilment (As I also like Naoki Urasawa as well) and so it's not likely to be revamped.

However I do have an idea in the pipeline for a story involving one of the top brass of Manga entertainment falling in love Patlabor and getting a third film made in the 90s (inspired by the fact that Ghost in the Shell was partially funded and produced by Manga Entertainment). Could be quite interesting (also it would be fun to have the various arguments between Japanese and English).

Also I've only seen the OVA and the two films due to fact that I live in Britian and legal copies of the TV show don't exist (I'm planning to buy the series from America at some point and hoping it works on my families Blu Ray player)
 
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