Patlabor EZY Anime Gets Novelization in 2027
The "Fantasia Bunko Grand Fan Appreciation Festival 2026 Online" event on Sunday announced that a novelization of the Patlabor EZY anime project will launch next year. Toshihiko Tsukiji (Maburaho, Kämpfer) is writing the novelization, and the Patlabor franchise's longtime character designer Akemi Takada is drawing the cover illustration.
『機動警察パトレイバー EZY』
ノベライズがファンタジア文庫で発売決定しました！
著者は『まぶらほ』『けんぷファー』などで知られる 築地俊彦先生！ 表紙イラストは『機動警察パトレイバー』で キャラクターデザインも担当された 高田明美先生が担当‼️
続報をお待ちください #パトレイバーEZY #patlabor
— 富士見ファンタジア文庫公式/10月20日新刊発売 (@fantasia_bunko) October 25, 2026
The Patlabor EZY anime consists of eight episodes, and is opening theatrically as three films. "File 1" opened on May 15, and "File 2" opened on August 14. The first two films feature the anime's first six episodes in an omnibus format with stand-alone stories. "File 3" will open on March 5 and will contain the last two episodes which 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.
Shigeru Chiba is reprising his role as Shigeo Shiba in the anime. Chiba has played the role since the original anime's debut almost 40 years ago.
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.
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.
Sources: Fantasia Bunko Grand Fan Appreciation Festival 2026 Online livestream, Fantasia Bunko's X/Twitter account
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.