The upcoming rollout of the live action Patlabor franchise as it goes into a next generation approach with both specials on TV and the big budget films is getting a bit more real for fans as we’ve not got a new 70 second trailer that gives us a good glimpse of the cast in action as well as some actual labor movement. The “Episode” specials are set to start on March 2nd in Japan as kicks off the seven almost monthly parts to it through January 2015 before culminating in the big film in spring 2015. It’s an ambitious project that builds a lot of audience potential and anticipation into it by making those opening acts essentially free/cheap to watch before getting you into the theater a year later to see what’s going to be the culmination of it all.
Plot concept: Set in 2013, this original story deals with the third generation of Patlabor members. 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.