Plans for PATLABOR 2 THE MOVIE got underway in the spring of 1992. It was decided from the outset that this new film would center around the same theme of large-scale urban terrorism examined previously in "SV2's Longest Day." This two-part story was told in Episodes 5 and 6 of the original seven-episode first PATLABOR OVA series (1988-89). In that earlier story, the terror threat against Tokyo was the attempt of a rogue faction of the Japan Self-Defense Forces to overthrow the government. In August 1993, the film was theatrically released across Japan and immediately gathered attention from movie fanatics.