" Mobile Police Patlabor EZY," a new anime in the popular " Mobile Police Patlabor " series, features a new character created by director Yutaka Izubuchi. Izubuchi revealed the story behind the creation of the new characters in the Special Vehicles Division 2.
The new characters appearing in "EZY" were originally designed by Masami Yuki. In addition to designing the main characters, a "casting audition" method was used for various supporting roles, using visuals of characters that Yuki had drawn in the past. Director Izubuchi explained, "The roles are completely different, but the appearance of the characters is taken from Yuki's manga. I'm casting characters from Yuki's manga. Yuki's drawings have a lot of variation, making them easy to animate and well-suited for animation."
"This time, Takamitsu Sato, who served as the animation director for EZY, was fantastic. He's a nice guy, easy to work with, and he really captured Yuuki's character," he said, and Yuuki also gave his seal of approval, saying, "I think this is the character that's closest to my own design so far."
At the premiere of the first chapter, director Izubuchi praised Sumire Uesaka's improvisational skills as Kuga Towa, saying, "She played Towa very well."
Regarding Kikunosuke Toya, who played Kippei Amatori, he said he was impressed by how he differentiated his performance from that of Denji, the protagonist he played in "Chainsaw Man ," and added, "His acting was so different that I didn't recognize him. But the moment I realized that he had also played Denji, I thought maybe it would be okay to make (Kippei) a character who loses his temper sometimes, maybe he could lose his temper for some reason. However, there aren't any such scenes in the series we're currently making, so if we ever have the opportunity to create one in the future, I might add something like that in (laughs)."
Regarding Akihiko Ma, the pilot of Unit 2, he said, "I get a bit of the same vibe as Captain Goto (of the Second Platoon in previous series)." It seems that the atmosphere was created by the performance of Chikahiro Kobayashi, who was cast in the role. Initially, the character setting written by Kazunori Ito was a bit on the serious side, but "Kobayashi's atmosphere and acting ability were excellent in the audition," and he became a character with a somewhat elusive and quirky side.
The new Second Platoon is comprised of a diverse group of members, including Hirata Saki, the commander of Unit 2, who is described as "a so-called 'science girl' with a slightly eccentric side, and probably the one who is working the hardest on the promotion exam and thinking about getting promoted the most"; Yanai Yuta, the carrier of Unit 1, who revealed that "I had pretty much decided from the beginning that I wanted to ask Sato Setsuji to take on the role"; and Yuzuki Hakuma, who was selected to play a newcomer, Matsumura Yuzume.
Director Izubuchi, who was deeply impressed by Megumi Hayashibara 's performance in " Mobile Police Patlabor REBOOT," which was released in 2016, immediately decided that "If we're going to go with this character, it has to be Hayashibara, in my opinion."
"EZY" is set in Japan in the 2030s, a time when the working population is declining and automation through AI technology is advancing. It consists of three chapters and eight episodes in total. "File 1 (Chapter 1)" will be screened in theaters from May 15th. It has also been announced that "File 2 (Chapter 2)" will be released in theaters on August 14th, and "File 3 (Chapter 3)" will be released in March 2027. Episodes 1-6 are self-contained omnibus stories, while episodes 7 and 8 form a continuous storyline.
