Patlabor The Mobile Police Original Video Animation (OVA) Series [AKA Early Days]

	Released 25 April 1988 to 25 June 1989
	Staff
	Director/Storyboards: Mamoru Oshii (episodes 1 to 6), Naoyuki Yoshinaga (episode 7)
	Screenplay: Kazunori Ito
	Original Story: Masami Yuuki
	Character Designer: Akemi Takada
	Mechanical Design: Yutaka Izubuchi
	Music: Kenji Kawai
	Production: Studio Deen

The first anime outing for Patlabor. Originally intended as a six part direct to video series, a seventh episode was created to promote the first Patlabor movie in 1989. For the most part, these episodes are comedies with some robot action. Episode 5 and 6 are a two part political drama, which would later provide the basis for the second Patlabor movie. One of the reasons for the success of this series was the retail price point, ¥4,800, which was much cheaper than other OVAs at the time which were generally priced from ¥8,000 to ¥10,000. To beef up the budget and possibly because of nervousness of the producers wishing to recoup the costs of the production, an animated commercial which featured Noa and the Ingram for AXIA blank audio cassettes was inserted midway through each episode for the first six episodes. With the release of the 1995 Japanese laserdisc box set, the series was re-christened "Early Days" in every subsequent Japanese release to differentiate it from the 16 part New OVA series.

The OVA series is no longer avalible to stream anywhere in English legally. It was previously avalible on Hidive and VRV's services for streaming in United States of America and Canada until early 2022.

Discotek Media/Eastern Star currently have the English language physical home video rights to the Early Days OVA series in the United States of America only. The Discotek Media/Eastern Star blu-ray set is only available in the United States of America, and therefore will only work on region A blu-ray players. If you don't live in the United States of America, check your blu-ray player's instruction manual to see if it can play region A discs. Please see the English Language Early Days Series Releases Video List for a complete listing of all releases, formats and product specifications of this series in English.

Bandai Channel, d Anime Store and Hulu Japan are currently streaming the entire series in Japanese. Bandai Channel, d Anime Store and Hulu Japan's current streaming rights only include Japan.

This series is available in on two single DVD releases and a single blu-ray release in Japan from Bandai Visual. These DVDs and blu-rays do not come with English subtitles or an English dub. These DVD sets are only available in Japan, and therefore will only work on DVD players that are both NTSC compatible and will play region 2 discs (if you don't live in Japan, check your DVD or blu-ray player's instruction manual to see if it will play the discs). All Bandai Visual blu-ray discs are region free. Please see the Japanese Original OVA (AKA Early Days) Releases Video List for a complete listing of all releases, formats and product specifications for this series.

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