Mantan Web started streaming the press conference video for the upcoming seven-part live action series The Next Generation Patlabor that happened yesterday. The cast, led by Erina Mano (Kamen Rider Fourze, Minna! Esper Dayo!), the staff, as well as director Mamoru Oshii was present in the event.


Instead of a remake of the original, The Next Generation Patlabor will be a completely new story set in Tokyo, in the year 2013, following 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 project will start on a seven-part series that Shochiku will screen in special theatrical engagements starting next April. The seven parts are composed of an episode 0 (about 10 minutes long) and 12 full episodes (about 48 minutes long), then a feature-length film (about 100 minutes long) is scheduled to be released on 2015.