MiniPato

MiniPato appears unassuming, perhaps the SD Gundam concept applied to Patlabor? Some silly jokes with chibi characters? However, seeing Oshii had written the episodes made me reconsider, and I was right to, but MiniPato truly goes the extra mile for supposedly ancillary shorts. Episode one is narrated by Gotou and has him on a rant like treatise on Labors and their weapons. Gotou has a sarcastic wit while being insightful and has an Oshii gag style in the visuals and with slapstick. Episode two continues this but ups the ante by featuring Shige, whose actor Shigeru Chiba is iconic in Oshii’s work for his ability tospout off in a craze until fainting. Here, Shige is in a frenzy, going on a systematic, unhinged, and impassioned lecture on the Patlabor concept and its place and meaning to the mecha genre. From these two episodes, MiniPato has taken an essay style to its script, one that almost philosophically treats the mechanical design and function, relative realism, and the organization of SV2 with how much depth the characters are able to articulate. Oshii also uses his famous serious-silly style of tone where it will interval between the two in a moment, and where great jokes land in both. The third episode is more enigmatic, the hidden meaning is that the food culture of SV2 is a clever metaphor for the work culture of Studio Ghibli under Miyazaki, simply put, a parody of how they use in-house meals to keep the staff together like a family. Delivered by Shinobu, this one is sternly serious in its treatment of a bizarre yet silly mystery. As for the animation, MiniPato uses a 3DCG paper puppet style which I.G would later use on Oshii’s intellectual masterpiece Tachiguishi Retsuden. This alternative style lends to a unique look and tons of inventive visual gags. The puppets with Tetsuya Nishio’s chibi style artwork with thick outlines look fantastic, which goes without saying as he’s one of the best artists in anime, and the other uses of 3D space were meaningfully and seamlessly used. This is overall one of the most visually perfect anime of the 00’s. Kenji Kawai made a stunning amount of music for this under 40 minute anime, original songs and remixes appear. What’s also great is that MiniPato largely bases itself on Oshii’s OVA’s and movies, with much reference to the masterpiece second film. Overall, MiniPato is gorgeous, hilarious, intelligent, and concise. Behind Oshii’s two films this is a must watch.

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