I have only discovered now that the Kazunori Ito interview in that special Patlabor issue of Model Graphix magazine (the January 2026 issue) contained some very interesting information about how the idea for "Patlabor Ezy" came about. Unsurprisingly it was due to negative reactions the other Headgear members had to Mamoru Oshii's live action version, "The Next Generation - Patlabor -" and the positive reaction they had to "Patlabor Reboot". Below is a quote from Ito on how the idea behind "Patlabor Ezy" began;
"Before the live-action version began, the members of Headgear asked Oshii-san to 'please stop the cheap naming' like changing Noa Izumi to Akira Izumino, but Oshii-san forced it through. After watching the work, on a day with heavy snow in Shibuya, Bucchan (Yutaka Izubuchi), myself, and Takada-san (Akemi Takada) met and talked, saying, 'That wasn't Patlabor, was it? If so, should we do a new Patlabor ourselves?' Immediately after that, there was Mobile Police Patlabor Reboot at the Japan Animator Expo, and it was very well made, and we got excited, saying, 'If it's that quality, we'd like to try doing it'."
In 2017 they asked the director of "Patlabor Reboot", Yasuhiro Yoshiura, to be the director for "Patlabor Ezy", however he was already in pre-production for his next film, "Sing a Bit of Harmony", and had to decline the offer.
