The latest installment in the Patlabor EZY anime project, "File 1," opened at #8 at the Japanese box office, earning 99,744,820 yen (approximately US$627,000) in its first three days. This film, which opened on May 15, is the first of three theatrical releases for the eight-episode anime series. "File 1" and the upcoming "File 2" (releasing August 14) will adapt the first six episodes in an omnibus format, while "File 3" in March 2027 will conclude the story with the final two episodes.
The story of Patlabor EZY is set in the 2030s, exploring a Japan grappling with labor shortages and AI-driven automation. Piloted mecha, once cutting-edge, are now commonplace and increasingly replaced by autonomous robots. The SV-2 unit continues its mission to prevent Labor-related crimes, utilizing upgraded versions of their original SV-98 Ingrams. Yutaka Izubuchi, who also designed the Patlabor mecha, is directing the J.C. Staff production, with Kazunori Itō handling the script.
In other box office news, the live-action film adaptation of Mitsuhiro Mizuno and Akira Ōtani's Shōjiki Fudōsan (The Honest Realtor) manga debuted strongly at #4. The film, based on a concept by Takeshi Natsuhara, earned 179,443,360 yen (about US$1.13 million) during its opening weekend, following the success of its live-action TV series adaptation which began in 2022.
Meanwhile, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie reclaimed the top spot in its fourth weekend, bringing in 360,360,530 yen (about US$2.26 million) and pushing its total earnings to over 6.43 billion yen (US$40.47 million). Detective Conan: Highway no Datenshi maintained its strong performance, staying at #3 in its sixth weekend with cumulative earnings exceeding 11.95 billion yen (US$75.16 million). The live-action Sakamoto Days film saw a slight drop to #5 in its third weekend, having earned over 2.18 billion yen (US$13.75 million) to date.
Source: Anime News Network
