Image Ent. Inc. and Bandai Visual USA Inc. are bringing the 1993 anime favorite Patlabor 2 The Movie to DVD on July 11. The film will be available as both a single-disc release and a limited-run, two-disc collector’s edition packed with bonus materials and featuring new cover art created by noted illustrator Yutaka Izubuchi, the mechanical designer of the Patlabor movies.
Patlabor 2 was directed by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost In The Shell, Jin-Roh, Avalon) and written by Kazunori Ito (.hack//, Avalon). The story takes place three years after the events of the first film, finding police commanders Ki’ichi Gotoh and Shinobu Nagumo enlisted in the hunt for Tsuge, a rogue officer of the Japan Self-Defense Forces connected with an escalating wave of terrorist attacks. As the fear of terror in Tokyo slowly brings about the end of democracy and the beginning of martial law, the investigation takes a darker turn when a shadowy military and political coalition is implicated in a terror strike that shatters the Bay Bridge.
The collector’s edition will have a limited run of only 10,000 units. The freshly remastered anamorphic transfer of the film will be available in both Japanese (with optional English subtitles) and in English with newly dubbed voiceovers. The second disc will offer a behind-the-scenes documentary titled The Making of Patlabor 2 The Movie in Japanese with English subtitles. The movie will also be packaged with two books. The first will feature 144 of pages of exposition, interviews, criticism, key animation drawing samples and additional information about the film, while the second will showcase the director’s storyoard over 300 pages. The limited edition will list for $89.99, and the single-disc version will retail for $29.99.
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