James Cameron's favorite sci-fi anime, Patlabor, is getting a follow-up series

James Cameron's anime recommendation gets a surprising revival, with eight new episodes on the way

Two cult-classic anime have suddenly found their way back into the spotlight thanks to a recent Guillermo del Toro interview, where the filmmaker revealed he and James Cameron regularly swap anime recommendations. Del Toro pointed Cameron toward Battle Angel, while Cameron championed Patlabor, a timely pick, as the long-dormant mecha series has just been announced to return with eight new installments.

On Dec. 13, after a screening at Aichi Nagoya International Animation Film Festival (ANIAFF), director Yutaka Izubuchi, screenwriter Kazunori Ito, Genco production team president and general producer of the film festival Taro Maki, and Makoto Asanuma, president of Bandai Namco Film Works, announced that Patlabor EZY, originally announced in 2017, will be an 8-episode OVA series, with production starting in 2026. A previous OVA premiered at special screening events in Japan in 2022.

During ANIAFF, Izubuchi said the idea of Patlabor in today’s era is interesting, and although he never intended to direct, it’s fun to do so. He also revealed all the installments of the OVA will be standalone and follow a more anthology format with a new production team from the initial OVA.

Patlabor is a classic mecha series that skips epic space wars in favor of something way more relatable: a bunch of tired cops just trying to do their jobs in a near-future Tokyo where giant robots are basically heavy machinery, called Labors. The story follows an underfunded police unit stuck dealing with malfunctioning Labors, office politics, and their own unreliable mechs. It mixes goofy workplace comedy with surprisingly smart sci-fi, using robots as a way to talk about technology, bureaucracy, and everyday life. Instead of treating mechs as power fantasies, Patlabor makes them feel like tools, and that grounded approach is what makes it still stand out today.

Based on the original work by the Headgear collective, Patlabor EZY is directed by Izubuchi at animation studio J.C. Staff, which got a lot of bad press recently for its work on One-Punch Man season 3. The series features scripts and composition by Ito, CG direction by Yasutomo Moriizumi, music by Kenji Kawai, CG production by Gazen, and overall production handled by Genco. Patlabor creator Masami Yuuki is handling the character designs, with Takamitsu Satou serving as chief animation director and character designer. Asanuma is also involved in an unspecified capacity.