The North American licensing company Maiden Japan announced on Wednesday that it acquired the Mobile Police Patlabor television anime series. The company will release the 47-episode anime in conjunction with home video distributor Section23 Films on bilingual DVD and Blu-ray Disc on July 16 and in digital formats.

Naoyuki Yoshinaga (Maison Ikkoku, Parasite Dolls, Urusei Yatsura episode director) directed the 1989-1990 series. Kenji Kawai (Eden of the East, Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers) handled the music for the series, Akemi Takada (Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Kimagure Orange Road) designed the characters, and Yoshinori Sayama (RahXephon, Mobile Suit Gundam UC) and Yutaka Izubuchi (RahXephon, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack) handled the mechanical design.

The series revolves around Noa Izumi, a newcomer to the Second Special Vehicle Division unit of the police that pilots giant robots called Labors to fight against criminals who use Labors to commit crimes. Central Park Media previously released the series on DVD in North America.

Maiden Japan is also releasing the seven-episode Patlabor video anime series in conjunction with Section23 Films on bilingual DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

Update: Press release link, background information added.

Image © 1989 Headgear/Emotion/TFC.