WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3 (2002) poster
2002 · mecha · mystery · drama

WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3

Directed by Fumihiko Takayama, Takuji Endo1h 47m2002
ElsewhereIMDb6.61kRT54%Metacritic47TMDB6.650
  • sombre
  • intense
Movie DNA

Sombre, steady, measured mecha / mystery, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Set in the year 2000, 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.

Our read · WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3 (2002) reads as a sombre, steady, inventive mecha · mystery · drama entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of WXIII

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a serious Patlabor anime about police mecha, conspiracy and a biological weapon.

ends unsettlingit leaves you shakensteady all the waygrips by minute 15attention 4/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violence

Skip it tonightMecha action mixed with government cover-ups and tragic personal stakes feels grim.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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