The official poster for Part 2 of
Mamoru Oshii's
live-action The Next Generation -Patlabor- series and film revealed on Monday that
Naoto Takenaka will make an appearance. Takenaka voiced the pivotal role of Shigeki Arakawa in Oshii's 1993
Patlabor 2: The Movie.
Former Hello! Project singer and actress
Erina Mano also stars as pilot Akira Izumino (as opposed to the earlier anime's heroine Noa Izumi). The cast also includes
Seiji Fukushi as Yūma Shiobara,
Rina Oota as Ekaterina Krachevna Kankaeva ("Kasha") from Russia,
Shigeru Chiba reprising his anime role as maintenance crew chief Shigeo Shiba, and
Toshio Kakei
as Captain Keiji Gotōda (the successor to the anime's Captain Kiichi
Gotō). Part 2 — with episode 2 "98-Shiki Sakidō Seyo" (AV-98, Relaunch!)
and episode 3 "Tekken Akira" — will premiere in Japan on May 31.
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 Oshii (
Ghost in the Shell, Sky Crawlers), script writer
Kazunori Ito (
.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, was released in theaters in Japan in 2002.
The Next Generation -Patlabor- project is not a
remake of the earlier
Patlabor anime stories, but a completely new work. The story is set in Tokyo in 2013, and it represents the "third generation" of
Patlabor.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police has disbanded its Section 2 Division 1 of
police robots, and Section 2 Division 2 barely survived the budget cuts
due to the long recession.
The production is budgeted at 2 billion yen (US$20 million), and
principal photography ran from June to the end of December. The two
life-size Ingram robots were built at the cost of several tens of
millions of yen (several hundred thousand US dollars). The production
also
used Suidobashi Heavy Industry's real-life rideable
robot Kuratas.
Oshii commented that the seven-part series will have a "slapstick"
ambiance, while the feature film will be serious. Oshii and Kei Yamamura
are writing the scripts for the series, and
Kenji Kawai is returning to the franchise to compose the music for both the series and the feature film.
The production company
Tohokushinsha Film Corporation announced at France's Japan Expo in July that Oshii is involved in this year's live-action
project of
HEADGEAR's
Mobile Police Patlabor anime.
Omnibus Japan,
an audio and computer graphics studio tied to Tohokushinsha, is
co-producing the new project. The company worked on the graphics in
Ghost in the Shell and the
Evangelion films.
Central Park Media released the OVAs and television series in English before
filing for bankruptcy in 2009.
Manga Entertainment,
Bandai Visual USA, and
Geneon released the three films stateside but are since out of print. The North American licensing company
Maiden Japan announced last year that it acquired the
Mobile Police Patlabor television anime series. The same company
announced the rights for the video anime series last year.
