Approximately 40 years after the original OVA series began in 1988, Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor returns to the big screen with a completely new work: Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor EZY (hereafter EZY). The 8-episode story will be released in three theatrical parts.
From left: character original designer Masami Yuuki, director Yutaka Izubuchi, scriptwriter and series composition Kazunori Ito.
Too High a Hurdle: “We Have to Do It Ourselves”
――The new generation of Special Vehicles Division 2, led by Towa, is a major focus. How did you feel about introducing these new characters?
Izubuchi: To be honest, I never imagined we would create a world set nearly 30 years later.
Yuuki: We all thought that (laughs).
Izubuchi: There are many ways to approach it, but for me, Patlabor is a series that ages alongside its fans. So it felt more natural to have an entirely new generation rather than forcing the previous cast back in.
Ito: But Noa and the others had a miraculously good balance. I thought it would be impossible to surpass that.
Yuuki: There was definitely a sense of “the hurdle is too high, we can’t do it.” But then Ito said, “We can do it” (laughs).
Ito: Sorry, I was just bluffing (laughs).
――Mr. Yuuki, you participated as character original designer this time.
Yuuki: But I wasn’t able to be very involved. I attended early meetings, but then my serialization of Shinkuro, Hashire! got busy, and I couldn’t make it to later script meetings. Initially I had trouble grasping the characters, but since I wasn’t drawing the manga myself this time, I enjoyed seeing the finished product without knowing much. It felt fresh, like “Oh, so that’s how it turned out.”
――When the project started, were you all very excited?
Ito: It was more like a sense of mission. We felt no one else could do it.
Izubuchi: We had to create characters that could surpass the previous generation, and that hurdle was incredibly high. Ito really struggled with that part.
A scene from Patlabor EZY File 1.
――How did you go about establishing the new characters?
Ito: It was like gradually shifting the archetypes. For example, Towa takes the Ota slot.
Yuuki: Right, the hot-headed role.
Ito: And we moved Hiromi’s position to Hachiman. Since Hachiman is a girl, I made her even more girly than Hiromi. We shifted things little by little without copying directly.
Normally we’d need more time to develop them, but with only 8 episodes, it feels cut short for me. You need a certain number of episodes for the story to flow and for highlight moments to expand. I wish we could have done more.
――Does it feel like returning to the Early Days OVA?
Ito: Yes, exactly that.
Izubuchi: By shifting the roles, the result also brings a nostalgic feeling of the original cast, which gives a sense of reassurance. Ito did a great job weaving the story so it doesn’t damage the atmosphere of the original. He said elsewhere, “You raised them, Bucchan (Izubuchi),” so you could say Ito is the birth parent and I’m the foster parent. Then Yuuki’s character design was added, and through discussions and direction, the characters solidified. I even have hidden backstories, like specific hobbies, even though they aren’t shown this time.
A scene from Patlabor EZY File 1.
――This new work is said to connect to the timeline of the “New OVA” series. But when you think of a later Patlabor, Oshii’s live-action film seemed to have a different interpretation. Did HEADGEAR members have different visions?
Ito: There’s no unified vision. In terms of world lines, Oshii’s live-action film stands apart as its own “Oshii World.”
Izubuchi: Right. The live-action film doesn’t seem connected to anything else.
――What concept did you use for the “world after” in this project?
Izubuchi: Initially we considered a more realistic direction: a story about the Babylon Project ending and Section 2 collecting Labors. After all, the world where Labors exist was born in the bubble era of the 1980s. But 1998, which was supposed to be a decade ahead, is already in the past. There are no Labors in present-day Tokyo. However, the series can’t exist without them. So we had to decide how to depict a future line in a world where Labors do exist.
When starting the EZY project, thinking about current realism and logic, Labors are an extension of industrial machinery, but manned operating machines are becoming obsolete, gradually replaced by AI-driven autonomous robots. And Labors can become weapons or tools for crime. The public would be collecting and scrapping all Labors. That made me think: it would be natural to make Section 2 a unit that cracks down on hidden, unregistered Labors used for crime. But if we did that, once all Labors were collected, Section 2 would lose its reason to exist.
――Indeed.
Izubuchi: But I felt that could create drama from the team’s existential conflict. When I pitched that to the producer, he shot it down saying, “That’s no fun. It would end the series” (laughs). So we set aside realism and logic and decided to make it a collection of varied episodes like a never-ending cultural festival, returning to the feel of the original series.
――If Mr. Yuuki were to draw a manga version, what kind of “after world” would you have made?
Yuuki: I’m not sure. It probably would have been close to this one. In that sense, I thought from the start, “This is a crazy project” (laughs).
Achieving Detail with 3DCG – New Mech Action
Teaser cut from Patlabor EZY.
――The new design of the Ingram is also a big talking point. What was the intention behind that design?
Izubuchi: Actually, I thought we could keep it the same. But the producer asked us to change at least some parts, so we ended up with that design.
Personally, I’m against introducing new mecha too easily, like in many robot shows. The protagonist’s mecha is often a one-off, built at enormous cost, and it’s unrealistic to replace it so quickly. For example, the F-15 fighter, developed in the 1970s, is still on the front line. Sometimes not changing is more realistic.
――In the original series, Unit 2 had different shoulder parts because Ota kept breaking it and parts ran out. That design reminded me of that reconditioning motif. Was that intentional?
Izubuchi: That was just Ota’s character quirk (laughs).
A scene from Patlabor EZY File 1.
――This is the first digital work in the long-running series. How has the visual evolved?
Izubuchi: Labors are inherently in the category of industrial machinery, so they have high affinity with 3DCG. Also, hand-drawn animation can no longer handle the mecha action we wanted. With 3DCG, we can depict finer details. So we could achieve “our own attention to detail” and also respond to “the quality audiences demand.” It took time, but I think we reached a satisfying result.
Ito: In the old days we could just go on momentum, but now it’s impossible.
Izubuchi: Indeed. Looking back at the TV series or Early Days, the animation quality is rough. Viewers at the time were used to it, so they might not mind, but for new fans, a new work with that level of quality is unthinkable.
Yuuki: There are many scenes where I’m glad they used 3DCG.
――Finally, could you share your hopes for the future of the series? Mr. Yuuki first.
Izubuchi: I’d like Yuuki to draw a manga of EZY!
Yuuki: Drawing mecha is tough on my stamina (laughs).
Izubuchi: I’ll send you data for any needed mecha poses! (laughs).
Yuuki: Personally, I’d like to see more disaster rescue stories.
Ito: I’m satisfied with these 8 episodes, but Bucchan says he wants to do more, so I’ll go along (laughs).
Izubuchi: Now that the characters have developed, I want to draw and nurture them a bit more.
Yuuki: It would be a shame for the characters not to get more screen time.
Izubuchi: I’m already thinking about the story after File 3.
――We look forward to the “never-ending cultural festival”!
A scene from Patlabor EZY File 1.
Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor EZY Release Information
Theatrical release in three parts:
・File 1: Now showing
・File 2: Starting August 14, 2026
・File 3: Scheduled for March 2027
Cast
Kuga Towa: Sumire Uesaka / Amatori Kippei: Kikunosuke Toya / Hirata Saki: Ami Koshimizu / Hazama Akihiko: Naohiro Kobayashi / Yanai Yuta: Setsuji Sato / Yuzuki Hachiman: Yume Matsumura / Saeki Kimika: Megumi Hayashibara and others
Staff
Director: Yutaka Izubuchi / Script & Series Composition: Kazunori Ito / Character Original: Masami Yuuki / Costume Design Cooperation: Akemi Takada, Akihiro Yamada / Character Design & Chief Animation Director: Takamitsu Sato / Mechanical Design: Kanetake Ebikawa, Toshiaki Irahara / Mobility Design: Shoji Kawamori / Display Design: Yoshinori Sayama / Direction: Kozo Kaiho / Art: Masanori Kikuchi, Yuta Akiyama / Color Design: Yukiko Ito / Photography Director: Yoshio Okochi / Editing: Maki Shindo (REAL-T) / CG Director: Hitoshi Morizumi / CG Production: GAZEN, J.C.STAFF CG Department / Sound Director: Kazuhiro Wakabayashi / Sound Effects: Kaori Yamada / Sound Production: Magic Capsule / Music: Kenji Kawai / Producer: Taro Maki / Co-Producer: Yuya Machida / Animation Producer: Tomoji Matsura (J.C.STAFF) / Animation Production: J.C.STAFF / Produce: GENCO / Opening Theme: “Reimei Compass” by Mori Calliope / Ending Theme: “Baton” by Mariko Nagai / Distribution: Shochiku ODS Business Office, Bandai Namco Filmworks / Production: Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor EZY Production Committee
© HEADGEAR / Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor EZY Production Committee
