Synopsis
Set in the year 2000 (between the events of Patlabor and Patlabor 2), when the level of Labor accidents begin to escalate around Tokyo Bay, police detectives Kusumi and Hata are assigned to investigate. What they discover leads to a series of government cover-ups, conspiracy concerning a new biological weapon entitled WXIII-Wasted Thirteen and a tragic, personal connection to Hata. The only hope to stop this threat is to cooperate with the military and lead WXIII into a showdown with the Labors of Special Vehicle Division 2.
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Cast
- Hiroaki HirataDetective Shinichiro Hata (voice)
- Katsuhiko WatabikiSenior Detective Takeshi Kusumi (voice)
- Atsuko TanakaSaeko Misaki (voice)
- Ryusuke OhbayashiKiichi Gotoh (voice)
- Mina TominagaNoa Izumi (voice)
- Toshio FurukawaAsuma Shinohara (voice)
- Michihiro IkemizuIsao Ota (voice)
- Akimasa OmoriPatrol Department Manager Yamadera (voice)
- Daisuke GoriHiromi Yamazaki (voice)
- Issei FutamataMikiyasu Shinshi (voice)
Recommendations
- 63
New York Post
Lacks excitement, although its solid story makes for decent viewing. - 60
TV Guide Magazine
The backgrounds are handsome and moody, and the character animation is less distractingly cartoonish than that of films like the otherwise breathtaking Metropolis (2001). - 60
Chicago Reader
The romantic denouement is so predictable it must have driven the animators mad as they worked, but their modest art is eerily effective. - 50
The A.V. Club
Where the too-rarefied style and the too-simple substance meet, a compromise is reached, and something uniquely haunting is formed. - 50
L.A. Weekly
The two encounters with the beast WXIII -- first in a darkened factory, and later in an empty stadium, to the strains of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in G Minor (Pathétique) -- elevate the disappointingly flat animation into a vivid fable of monster and morality. - 50
Village Voice
A competent if overlong blend of policier, sci-fi conspiracy thriller, daikaiju eiga (giant monster) stompfest, and tragic romance. It's also anime (short for "cheaper than live-action"). - 50
San Francisco Chronicle
Follows the Japanese tradition of humanizing movie monsters, this time in a rather disturbing way. - 40
The New York Times
With its many unsolved mysteries, WXIII joins a long list of film-noir projects that end up stranded in the maze of their own invention.
