Live-Action The Next Generation Patlabor New Visuals, 1st Teaser Video Revealed

New key visuals and a teaser video have been revealed in the line of the upcoming live-action  The Next Generation Patlabor.  The project will star Erina Mano, also known as a Former Hello! Project singer and Kamen Rider Nadeshiko from Kamen Rider Fourze. Erina Mano will play as lead character Akira Izumino.

Erina Mano will be joined by Seiji Fukushi as Yuma Shiobara, Rina Oota as Ekaterina Krachevna Kankaeva ("Kasha") from Russia, Shigeru Chiba (Dr.Ulshade/Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger) reprising his anime role as maintenance squad chief Shigeo Shiba, and Toshio Kakei as Captain Keiji Gotōda (the successor to the anime's Captain Kiichi Goto).

The new story is set in present day Tokyo with the 3rd generation of Patlabor. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police has broke up the Section 2 Division 1 of police robots while Section 2 Division 2 has survived despite the budget cuts.

The Next Generation Patlabor project will be directed by Mamoru Oshii and will have a seven-part series engagement with 13 episodes (48 minutes running time each) in total, including an episode 0 (about 10 minutes long) starting this April 5th 2014. Remaining schedules are Part 2: May 31th, Part 3: July 12th, Part 4: August 30th, Part 5: October 18th, Part 6: November 29th, and Part 7: January 1st.

In addition, The Next Generation Patlabor will have a full length feature film that is set to premier in 2015.  Mamoru Oshii is part of HEADGEAR who used to serve as the writer-director and one of the original creators of the Mobile Police Patlabor anime series.Graphics and audio studio, Omnibus Japan that is  tied with TOHOKUSHINSHA, is co-producing the new project. Omnibus Japan's known works include doing graphics for Ghost in the Shell and the Evangelion movies.

The latest Live-Action Patlabor Visual was recently released after it project was revealed at the Taiwan International Comic Exposition. The Next Generation Patlabor website has also been updated, following from the Patlabor mecha images circulating online that was reported to be the prop for the said live-action movie.

Source: ANN