News

Patlabor EZY Anime's Teaser Unveils Cast, More Staff, 3-Film Release Starting in May

The official website for the Patlabor EZY anime project unveiled a new teaser trailer and visual for the anime on Tuesday. The teaser announces the anime's cast, additional staff members, and three-film theatrical release starting in May.

The anime will consist of eight episodes, and will debut theatrically as three films on May 15, August 14, and March 2027. "File 1" and "File 2," debuting on May 15 and August 14, will consist of the anime's first six episodes, and will be in an omnibus format with stand-alone stories. "File 3," debuting in March 2027, will contain the last two episodes, and will tell a two-part story.

The above new visual shows the original Patlabor (with protagonist Noa Izumi and the AV-98 Ingram on the left) with Patlabor EZY (with protagonist Towa Kuga and the AV-98Plus Ingram on the right).

The story is now set in the 2030s, with Japan facing increased labor shortage and increased automation via AI. Labors, the piloted mecha that was once considered cutting edge technology for manual labor, has become just another part of life, with piloted Labors themselves increasingly being replaced with autonomous robots. SV-2's job of preventing Labor crimes remains the same even in this age, as they use a tuned-up version of their original SV-98 Ingrams.

The new cast members include:

Sumire Uesaka as Towa Kuga, the 22-year-old pilot of Ingram-01. She is a Tokyo native who has a strong sense of justice and fighting spirit. Bold to the point of occasional recklessness, she never shies away from the possibility of close combat, confident of her hand-to-hand skills more than her shooting skills. She thrives and enjoys being in high stress situations, trusting her own instincts and experience. She was a normal police officer on a safe career path before being assigned to SV-2. She has an older brother who is higher in the police bureaucratic ranks. Her skills make her a perfect complement to Kippei Atori.

Kikunosuke Toya as Kippei Atori, the 23-year-old commander of Ingram-01. Hailing from Saitama, he is the one ultimately responsible for Towa's reckless antics, but supports her to the best of his ability. He often has a life hack for many situations, and dislikes things that defy common sense. He was initially undecided on whether to choose the Self-Defense Forces or the Metropolitan Police for a career, but decided on the police in the end. A mecha lover to the point of putting a distinct figure of Noa's original "Alphonse" AV-98 on his desk, his goal to join the service was to pilot a mecha. He maintains a positive attitude, and is trusting to a fault. He is a romantic who likes astrology and horoscopes.

The site also showed the AV-98Plus Ingram (seen below), the updated refit of the original AV-98 Ingram. The Ingram frame has seen service for almost 40 years, and is called by some officers as an "old piece of junk." Nevertheless, the "Ingram Plus" features an upgraded frame, mechanical capability, and software. The pilot helmet features a helmet-mounted display with augmented reality projection to display vital information to the pilot, and complements the heads-up display physically in the cockpit.

The newly announced staff members include Kōzō Kaihō as line director, Yoshinori Sayama for display design, Yukiko Itō as color key artist, Yoshio Ōkouchi as the compositing director of photography, Maki Sendo (REAL-T) as editor, GAZEN and J.C. Staff CG Dept. for CGI production, Kazuhiro Wakabayashi as sound director, Kaori Yamada for sound effects, Magic Capsule for sound production, and Yūji Matsukura as animation producer.

Yutaka Izubuchi (Patlabor mechanical designer) is directing the anime at J.C. Staff. Kazunori Itō (Patlabor the Mobile Police) is writing the script. Masami Yuuki (Patlabor creator) is designing the characters. Takamitsu Satou (Lostorage incited WIXOSS) is the chief animation director and character designer. Kenji Kawai (Patlabor) is composing the music. GENCO representative director Tarō Maki (Patlabor the Mobile Police, Nodame Cantabile, Millennium Actress) is producing. GAZEN is handling CG production. The HEADGEAR group is credited for the original story. 

Akemi Takada (Patlabor character designer) is collaborating on the costume design. Kanetake Ebikawa (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury) and Toshiaki Ihara (Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time) are the mechanical designers. Masanori Kikuchi (Star Blazers 2199) and Yūta Akiyama (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma) are credited for art. Yoshinori Moriizumi (Pokémon movies) is the CG director.

GENCO revealed the Patlabor EZY anime project with a booth at the MIFA film market at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2017. The pilot for the project debuted in August 2022, and then played alongside a one-week 35th anniversary revival screening run of Patlabor: The Movie that started on September 20, 2024. Izubuchi directed the video.

The Patlabor franchise's original concept of police officers piloting robotic mecha (patrol labors or "Patlabors") was developed by HEADGEAR, a group consisting of director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Sky Crawlers), script writer Kazunori Itō (.hack, Dirty Pair), mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi (Eureka Seven, Mobile Suit Gundam franchise), character designer Akemi Takada (Kimagure Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura, Fancy Lala), and manga creator Masami Yuuki (Birdy the Mighty). The franchise spawned two original video anime, a television anime series, and three anime films. The last anime film, Patlabor WXIII, opened in theaters in Japan in 2002.

The "Mobile Police Patlabor Reboot" anime short debuted in Japan in October 2016 and began streaming on the Japan Anima(tor)'s Exhibition's (Japan Animator Expo) official website in November 2016.

The live-action The Next Generation -Patlabor- project, which debuted in 2014, consisted of a seven-part series and a feature length film.

Maiden Japan has licensed the Patlabor OVA series, Patlabor the Mobile Police: The New Files OVA, Patlabor: The Movie, Patlabor 2: The Movie, and Patlabor WXIII.

Sources: Patlabor EZY website, Comic Natalie