Character Profiles

Meet Izumi Noa, the female protagonist of the series. From the beginning, her dream was to become a labor pilot, thus she was accepted to the Special Vehicle Section 2 and assigned to pilot the AV-98 (Ingram), which she loved very much (and named her labor “Alphonse” after her previous pets, a bird and a dog).

Noa is the cheerful one in the squad, and a very good labor pilot (compared with Ohta). Unfortunately, she isn’t very good with guns and often miss her target. When not on a mission, Noa usually cleans and polishes Alphonse by herself.

Originally, Noa came from Tomakomai, Hokkaido. Her father runs a liquor store, which Noa and Asuma often come to visit (and having a drinking competition) during they holiday.

Seiyuu: Tominaga Miina

This is Shinohara Asuma, the backup of the first team along with Noa. If Noa pilots the Ingram, Asuma drives a mobile commando as her backup, and his responsibility is to provide strategy to the first team whenever they’re in combat.

Asuma is the smart person type, but sometimes he doesn’t realized being manipulated by Captain Gotoh. He goes well with Noa in a bond of strong friendship, but the series never showed whether they’re in love or not.

Asuma came from a rich family. His father owns the largest labor manufacture industry in Japan called Shinohara Heavy Industry. Unfortunately, Asuma doesn’t go well with his father and always argue whenever they get the chance to meet.

Seiyuu: Furukawa Toshio

Ohta Isao is the assigned pilot for the AV-98 02. While not so skilled to pilot the AV-98, Ohta is a true gunman (or just a trigger-happy guy?). Let just say that he’s better (or worse?) with guns other than anyone else (excluding Kanuka).

Ohta has dedicated his life for guns only, the bigger the better. And so his only way to solve any problems is with a revolver. He rarely use his brain thus ending him with wrecked labor in almost every mission. Ohta’s only weakness is with women, especially the pretty ones. Kanuka or Kumagami are the ones who can gain complete control of him.

Ohta is the oldest member of SV2 (he was 24 when he joined the team), originally came from Kamaishi in Iwate prefecture. Little is known about his background, except that his family always wanted him to get married.

Seiyuu: Ikemizu Michihiro

Kanuka Clancy is a fine officer from New York City Police Department. She joined the SV2 for sometimes to train and learn all about labor in Tokyo. Kanuka acted as the strategist/backup for the second team (Ohta’s labor). Later in the series, Kanuka went back to New York and Kumagami took her position in SV2.

I don’t know how to describe her besides being a cold and pretty but deadly woman who’s very good with guns and labors. She’s an excellent commander and strategist, unfortunately she doesn’t get along well with the other SV2 members since they’re always afraid of her.

Kanuka is Japanese-American. She lives with her grandmother whom she always wanted to care. Fortunately, her grandmother knows that Kanuka’s best place is in combat.

Seiyuu: Inoue You (passed away in February 28, 2003)

Kumagami Takeo came from the Hong Kong Police Department as Kanuka’s replacement in the SV2. Like Kanuka, she’s also a fine officer who dedicated her life for her duty as the servant of justice.

Kumagami is the “soft” version of Kanuka while having almost the same look and attitude. She’s so good at her work thus made Captain Gotoh thought about making a third labor division under her command (told in the new OVA). Every SV2 members respect her, especially Ohta who’s always speechless whenever Kumagami’s gives him strict command. Like a normal woman, Kumagami also has a weakness; she’s very afraid of ghosts (and related stuff about it).

Kumagami’s father is a professor who specializes in Japanese folktales and loves Japanese traditional ghost stories. He often tells them to Kumagami which induced her present fear of ghosts.

Little is known about Kumagami’s background except that she once had a close relationship with Richard Wong (Utsumi), the villain behind the creation of J-9 Griffon, perhaps the toughest enemy of Ingram.

Seiyuu: Yokozawa Keiko

In the beginning, Shinshi Mikiyasu act as backup for the second team (Ohta), however, this position was replaced when Kanuka arrived, as Shinshi couldn’t control Ohta’s attitude in the mission. Later he was assigned to drive the labor carrier. He’s also good at computer programming as it was his previous work.

Shinshi is a gentle and shy person who loves his wife so much. This make the other members often tease him, especially when his wife make him lunch box. But if he’s pushed far enough, Shinshi turn to be a dangerous person that even Ohta’s afraid of him, especially when he is holding a cooking knife.

Shinshi married to a woman named Tamiko who love him so much that she’s always worry whenever Shinshi goes into action. He usually goes home to meet her when off duty. They both live in a small apartment, but they always look like a happy couple.

Seiyuu: Futamata Issei

Yamazaki Hiromi wanted to be a labor pilot, but since he’s so huge and there’s no cockpit that would fit, he finally serves as the labor carrier driver. Since he is very strong, Hiromi usually assigned to a big rifle when SV2 are on special missions (like in Patlabor The Movie).

Hiromi is a very gentle person despite his posture. He always shy whenever he wants to express his feeling. When not on duty, Hiromi works on “something” else; he raises chicken and plants tomatoes (and maybe other vegetables). This really helps when there’s no food on the table since SV2 hangar is far from any store or restaurant. He makes friend with anyone, and I think everyone in SV2 likes him too.

Hiromi came from a family of fisherman from Okinawa. He always visit them whenever there’s long vacation for SV2. Hiromi’s father was already passed away.

Seiyuu: Gohri Daisuke

Sakaki Seitaro is the chief of mechanic in the patrol labor division. He leads a bunch of skillful mechanics with the help of his loyal subordinate, Shige.

Often called “Old Man” by SV2 members, Mr. Sakaki prefer the old ways to handle mechanical things, and dislike computers. He’s a very strict man, even Captain Gotoh pays him big respect. Mr. Sakaki often complains whenever both labors come home in pieces, but he does a very good job to put things together, labors or ordinary machines.

Mr. Sakaki lives peacefully in a decent house along with his pet, a dog and a cat (Patlabor The Movie 2). As far as I know, Mr. Sakaki’s wife was already passed away.

Seiyuu: Saka Osamu

Character Profiles

Special thanks to Elizabeth Ito for providing additional information on some of the characters.

Seiyuu (voice actors/actress) information was taken from M Whitley’s site.

MAIN SV2 MEMBERS

SV2 SENIOR MEMBERS

Shiba Shigeo is a very skillful mechanic under Mr. Sakaki’s command. But instead of following the Old Man’s taste for computer and new technology, he is actually fond of them. In fact, Shige is very good with computers and machine modification. So good that once he was invited by the NYPD to help them getting along with labors.

Shige is getting along fine with the other SV2 members, and especially with Asuma. He loves machines so much that once during his early days in SV2, Shige modified a regular police motorcycle and equipped it with rocket booster. Surprisingly, a policeman rode it and crashed into a warehouse. Fortunately no one was injured.

Shige lives in a rundown section of Tokyo with his mother. She has no wife nor girlfriend.

Seiyuu: Chiba Shigeru

The infamous Gotoh Kiichi (or Captain Gotoh to his subordinates) is the leader of the SV2. Don’t be fooled by his sleepy appearance and lazy behavior because in reality Gotoh is a very smart and sharp man. He is so clever that the top brass decided to put him leading the newly formed SV2 in some distance reclaimed land, far away from them.

When it comes to investigation, Captain Gotoh is very good at manipulating people, especially Asuma, who always thinks that Gotoh is cheating him, but usually he realize it just after the investigation is finished. But overall, Gotoh is the perfect Captain for SV2.

Gotoh doesn’t have a family, and when he’s not at SV2 office, he lives alone in an apartment in Tokyo. Actually Gotoh has a crush on Captain Nagumo, but she never show any feeling towards him. Gotoh was born in Iriya, Tokyo.

Seiyuu: Ohbayashi Ryunosuke

Nagumo Shinobu is the captain for SV1, a somewhat more elite team than SV2. She’s rather upset when the Tokyo Metro Police Department decided to give three new AV-98 Ingram units to the new SV2 and let her stuck with the older police labors.

Captain Nagumo is a very good officer who always seemed to obey any order that come from the top and breaking the rules is a taboo. Although she share the same office as Captain Gotoh, Nagumo rarely agree with Gotoh’s often reckless decision, but there are times when she finally decided to help him and break the regulation.

Nagumo lives with her family in a very big and old house. Her mother’s always wanted her to get married, but Nagumo’s only interest is her career. She also have a rather unpleasant past where she had an affair.

Seiyuu: Sakakibara Yoshiko

SUPPORTING CASTS

The old man with grey hair is Mr. Jitsuyama, the factory head chief of Shinohara Heavy Industries. His career began with Asuma’s father, hauling truck parts as their first business. Jitsuyama acts like a substitute father to Asuma, who doesn’t get along with his father. Sometimes Asuma visit him in the factory to ask about new labor, and even share the company’s secret project.

Aside from Asuma, Jitsuyama is also a good friend of Mr. Sakaki, as they both machine lovers.

Seiyuu: Tsujimura Mahito

The girl next to Kumagami is Momoko Sakurayama, a brave journalist who always takes great risk just to get the perfect scoop. Because of her job she gets to know SV2 members, and eventually helped them to uncover the mystery man behind the black labor incident.

Seiyuu: Hayashibara Megumi

Detective Matsui is one of Captain Gotoh’s few friend within the Police Department which can be trusted. They often trade information on important cases, while Gotoh rather depend on him with delicate investigations, which sometimes involved various suspects, from missing persons, mad computer programmers, sea monsters, even high ranking officers within the police force or military.

Seiyuu: Nishimura Tomomitchi

THE VILLAINS

Utsumi (or Richard Wong) is the mastermind behind the black labor incident. He works at Schaft Enterprise Japan after transferred from Hong Kong. Although always looks like he’s smiling and easy-going, he’s actually very clever and always manage to escape from police as his crimes were carefully planned.

Later, Schaft was trying to get rid of him because police was finally able to connect the black labor incident with the company, but Utsumi disobeyed the order to withdraw. The company never got him though.

Seiyuu: Suzuoki Hirotaka

Bud Renard, a 12 years old boy who actually pilot the J-9 Griffon, or known as the black labor to Tokyo MPD. A hot-headed boy who thinks piloting the black labor is a game, and Ingram is the final boss. Bud always wanted to fight “Big Sister” (this was what he called Noa when they first met at a game arcade) and defeat her.

Just like a pro gamer, Bud is very good Griffon pilot, and even defeated SV1 veteran pilots, Gomioka and Yuuki.

After the Griffon incident was solved, Bud was sent back to his homeland, India.

Seiyuu: Gouno Takuma

Utsumi’s right hand man, Kurosaki, was actually the leader of Schaft’s Griffon Project at first. Later, Utsumi came and he was placed below him. Kurosaki is a cold-blooded person type who does everything to get the job done, but never as clever as Utsumi.

Seiyuu: Haji Takaya

FACTS ABOUT THE CHARACTERS:

Fact One:

In the first OVA, Noa immediately joined SV2 while in the manga and TV series, Noa was a regular police officer who dreamed to become a labor pilot, until she was transferred to SV2.

Fact Two:

Kumagami Takeo only appeared in the alternate stories (manga, TV series, and New OVA). In the manga, she was introduced earlier and wasn’t act as Kanuka replacement.

Fact Three:

Kanuka Clancy appeared in the original stories (first OVA, manga, TV series, New OVA, and Patlabor The Movie). There’s a difference in her first appearance. In the first OVA, Kanuka was in charge of security when New York mayor visited Tokyo. Later she joined SV2 for further training with labors. In the manga, she only appeared in the Griffon case as an investigator of children trafficking (in this case, Bud Renard) and never officially joined SV2. In the TV series, she immediately joined SV2 for labor training.

Fact Four:

The Griffon incident never happened in the original stories, thus the villains (Utsumi, Kurosaki, and Bud) never appeared.