Taiho Shichauzo the MOVIE

—by Ivevei Upatkoon

It all begins when the Bokutou police are called in to tow away an abandoned car. It's just another routine job for Yoriko and Aoi, until they lift up the trunk and find a boggling collection of automatic weapons. It raises more than a fuss at headquarters, but when the traffic light system goes haywire the very day Natsumi and Miyuki return to duty from their temporary transfers, the station is suddenly saddled with something much more complicated.
With everyone working around the clock to crack the weapons smuggling case, Natsumi has hardly enough time to recover from her hangover before she and Miyuki are called in to bust a shipment in a nicely choreographed covert ops sequence. In addition to guns, they also find a briefcase with a single MO disc. All attempts to access it yield only a single map of Tokyo, even though the size of the data file leaves no doubts that there is something else hidden within. At this point the higher-ups step in, and before anyone can even begin to put the pieces together, the Chief is placed under custody to seal his lips on what mysterious information he possesses about the whole case. That leaves the rest of the station to fend for themselves as the situation quickly escalates out of control.
You will be forgiven if you think this sounds more like PATLABOR THE MOVIE than TAIHO SHICHAUZO. And for the most part, you would be right; it is an unapologetically somber, serious presentation that hardly tries to reproduce the light atmosphere of the original OVAs or TV series. In that sense, it follows in the footsteps of PATLABOR, also another far cry from its OVA predecessor, except that there are no veiled attacks on the Japanese right wing.
Some theatrical releases, like DRAGONBALL and SLAYERS, are simply higher budget copies of their TV brethren. One comes to expect this, because it makes little sense to spoiled a well-proven formula unless you are aiming for a significantly different audience. So it was with pleasant surprise that I first read a teaser for TAIHO SHICHAUZO THE MOVIE. Fans of the original may be disappointed to hear that it has a very different feel, and I agree that that had a charm of its own, but in this case reworking the concept has resulted in a decidedly superior production for theater.
The first thing the viewer will notice is the highly detailed backgrounds modeled after actual locations in Tokyo. The character designs have also been brushed up in favor of a mature (realistic would be an exaggeration) look which, thankfully, make Natsumi and Miyuki in particular look less like children and more like the competent officers they are in this film. Only one scene actually takes place at night, but due to the plot and the nature of the coloring the movie tends to feel quite dark for a significant portion.
Lest the above makes TAIHO sound as humorless as GHOST IN THE SHELL, I will declare now that it is, when all is said and done, an action flick, and a pretty darn good one at that. The story is serious, but luckily the director has not forgotten that TAIHO SHICHAUZO is about fun, not political or societal commentary, and just as things are getting slow and cumbersome, it all kicks into high gear.
There are several action sequences scattered throughout, as well as long stretches when your mind begins to wander a little, but it is the climax that really gives it a real oomph. Without spoiling too much, I can only say that the creators very conveniently ignored the constraints of physics and human physiology at all the right places. I found myself grinning throughout. There was even a smidgen of slapstick humor thrown in that worked extremely well. The art and animation, while showing the strains of cost-cutting, were still highly consistent and more than adequate to the task.
The only complaint I have, aside from slightly uneven pacing in the middle, is that the anticlimax is quite dissatisfying. Granted the high tension right before makes it difficult to follow through the conclusion without it being a letdown, but still I would have hoped for something with a little more impact.
It has been a while since I had so much fun watching action anime, and so I unreservedly recommend TAIHO SHICHAUZO THE MOVIE. They say that the middle road is not given to producing good material, probably because it takes the safe, well-trodden path. Sometimes, though, it works very well. TAIHO does not try to sell itself on a complex plot, nor does it churn out the no-brainer formula—it just tells a decent, intelligent story with the right amount of service thrown in. It's not going to win any awards, but it's good entertainment. We need more anime like this.

Produced by: TBS, Bandai Visual, Toei, Studio DEEN
Theatrical Release (100 mins)
Where to buy