The first fully new project in ten years, Mobile Police Patlabor EZY, has returned to theaters as a three-chapter release. Following File 1 on May 15, File 2 opens on August 14—set in 2030, it reunites the familiar "Headgear" lineup of director Yutaka Izubuchi, writer Kazunori Ito, and composer Kenji Kawai. While that excitement is still burning, on August 10 an item lands that shoots old-school fans straight through the heart: the Mobile Police Patlabor Early Days MUSIC COLLECTION CD BOX—a reissue set that seals the entire early-era Patlabor music into eleven discs.

From "Early Days" to the first film, the origin revived across eleven discs

What it gathers is the music that colored everything from the 1988 "Early Days" OVA era through the first theatrical film. The image soundtrack albums "INTERFACE" and "INTERCEPT," the song collection "INTERMISSION," "INFINITY∞," "INQUEST," the best-of "INTENTION," and even 1999/PATLABOR THE MOVIE SOUND RENEWAL. On top of that, the three-disc "CD BOX DELUXE"—once known for its LD-sized packaging—is resized to CD dimensions and bundled whole, right down to the audio from the CDV works "CONTACT-1&2": a true "everything from the early years" collection. The audio is remastered on UHQCD and revived disc by disc in paper-sleeve form.

  • This is the first music-CD reissue in a full twenty years, since the 2006 "Memorial Collection" limited edition. Audio you could long only find on the secondhand market is finally available together as an official release.
  • Box art of the "98-Type AV Ingram Unit 1" freshly drawn by Yukio Kittsu in 2026, plus a reprint of the 188-page separate booklet. The price is 22,000 yen before tax, catalog number LACA-39187, with masters licensed by Warner Music Japan.
  • At the core of the composition is, of course, Kenji Kawai. The starting point of that distinctive blend of "wa" and electronics—the sound that would later shake the world in Ghost in the Shell—is packed densely right here.

Revisiting the invention called the "image album"

What impresses me most in this box is the presence of those early image albums, "INTERFACE" and "INTERCEPT." Before the animation even reached the world—or running alongside it—they wove score and vocal tracks together to present "another story" through sound alone: that lavish craftsmanship born of the late-1980s OVA culture. Not a mere "in-show BGM compilation" but a construction meant to be heard as an album with real peaks and valleys, and facing it again now, it is startlingly bold. The swing between the humor of the SV2 march and the chilly shadow of Kawai's signature electronics is the body temperature of Patlabor itself. In an age where BGM is sold off track by track on streaming, being able to savor this "album that carries a story" as a whole carries real weight.

Breaking a twenty-year silence, with impeccable timing

And above all, what lands is the timing. A twenty-year-overdue audio revival collides head-on with the theatrical run of the new EZY. The same Kenji Kawai is still scoring the same story of the Ingram—and with that fact as its spine, the late-1980s "origin" and the "newest" chapter depicting 2030 connect as one continuous line. Rather than the nostalgia that often accompanies old reissues, the beauty of this box is that it functions as a disc that reinforces an ongoing series from the listener's side. Just before File 2 opens, you tune your ears with the early scores and then head for the theater. This summer, that luxurious kind of homework is actually possible.