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Patlabor EZY Anime Reveals 5 Cast Members

The official website for the Patlabor EZY anime project revealed more cast members for the anime on Friday. The new cast members include:

Ami Koshimizu as Saki Hirata, the 25-year-old commander of Ingram-02, and a native of Aichi Prefecture. She paid her own way through college, and tried a corporate career track after she graduated, which she found to be a poor fit for her. She joined the force soon after. She is smart and collected, and skilled at IT tasks. She is a realist that doesn't like surprises, and is not fond of horoscopes. She can be inflexible at times, a weakness she herself acknowledges. In arguments, she corners people with her logic, but performs poorly in situations that defy logic.

Chikahiro Kobayashi as Akihiko Hazama, the 29-year-old pilot of Ingram-02, and a Fukuoka native. Prior to his selection to SV2, he was a sergeant in his home region's police. He has an old-fashioned sense of pride and empathy, and often serves as SV2's conscience. He doesn't trust AI technology much, and therefore loads his Ingram with only the bare minimum of software assistance possible. He is a 4-dan in kendo, and once aimed to be a member of the Jutsuka Tokubetsu Kunren (Special Technical Training, "Tokuren" in short), a group within the Metropolitan Police that practices and disseminates technical martial arts training among the police. An injury from an unfortunate accident put an end to that dream. He often makes dad jokes from the Showa era.

Setsuji Satō as Yūta Yanai, the 25-year-old carrier driver for Ingram-01, who hails from Kanagawa. He used to help out at his family's diner, but he turned to a police career when his family closed shop. Though not the tallest in the section, he boasts a strength gained from frequent workouts. He is efficient at household chores, and has an outlaw streak that belies an inner heroism. He sometimes exhibits a worldly wisdom beyond most people, but is nevertheless the type that becomes too considerate that he fails a task.

Yume Matsumura as Hachikuma Yuzuki, the 24-year-old carrier driver for Ingram-02, who comes from Gifu Prefecture. After taking a gap year after college, Yuzuki signed up with the police force. Though one of the tallest in SV2, Yuzuki has a surprising lack of motor skills. Yuzuki's parents coined "Hachikuma" from the Hachikuma hawk, as a symbol of their wishes for a strong child after a premature birth. Yuzuki is the most ladylike person in SV2, and hopes to one day take care of a cat.

Megumi Hayashibara as Kimika Saeki, SV2's 34-year-old captain. She hails from Miyagi Prefecture. Respected and relied upon for her skills, she has a good grasp on the peculiarities of every officer under her command, and performs missions with a practiced calm, steadiness, and coolness under fire. She is tough enough to not get pressured by those around her, and instead often confounds others with remarks with hidden nuances or implications. She doesn't chase medals in the job, but prizes incidents where "nothing happens." Though she is often stumped by the eclectic crew of SV2, she thinks the section has room to grow.

Previously announced 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 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 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.

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. 

Other 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.

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.Izubuchidirected 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