New Zoids Series Features Crossover With Classic Mecha Franchise

The Tomy Company has announced a new manga featuring its iconic toy brand, Zoids. The new series isn’t any normal manga, though; it’s a crossover with a beloved mecha series, Patlabor. The new series is called Zoids x Patlabor -Code Name B.U.D.D.Y.-, published on IMAGIC Infos’ Heroes Comics website. The crossover is written by Kazunori Ito and drawn by Naoto Tsushima, with character and mechanical designs by Akemi Takada and Hidetaka Tenjin, respectively. The first chapter was released on Saturday, August 29th, and is available to read in its native Japanese on the Heroes Comics site. No official English translation of the chapter has become available at the time of this writing.

The premise for Code Name B.U.D.D.Y. is that the Zoid Hunter Wolf has been mysteriously transported into the world of Patlabor. Hunter Wolf protects tokyo alongside a new model of the police sanction Labor robot, the Ingram Mark III Labor. The manga interestingly chose to star the Hunter Wolf mecha rather than the more widely recognizable Liger. Patlabor is the latest brand to cross over with Zoids, which has been making multiple partnerships to celebrate the series’ ongoing 40th anniversary and 25th anniversary for the Zoids: Chaotic Century anime.

Everything to Know About Zoids and Patlabor

Zoids and Patlabor are both mecha franchises that began in the 80s. Zoids focuses more on animalistic mobile kits, whereas Patlabor started as a manga series that evolved into a popular anime franchise. The original Mobile Police Patlabor manga ran from 1988 to 1994 under the penmanship of author Masami Yuki. The series took place in the near future, where giant robots roam Tokyo as construction vehicles. These machines are called Labors, and the Tokyo police have their own fleet of robots called Patrol Labors, which is shortened as the titular Patlabors. The original manga starred a young female office worker named Noa Izumi, who has a special bond with her Patlabor and treats it as a pet. Patlabor achieved renown in the 90s with two cult-classic animated films, directed by Mamoru Oshii, who would go on to direct Ghost in the Shell.

Zoids has slightly deviated continuity among its various anime adaptations. The classic Zoids: Chaotic Century anime was a hard sci-fi that took place in the far reaches of the Milky Way, where Zoids are living mechanical creatures that humans can pilot. Even though the iconic Chaotic Century has been difficult to watch legally in modern times, Takara Tomy, the company behind the Zoids toys, has been hinting at the return of the original anime to commemorate the show’s 25th anniversary.

Besides Patlabor, Zoids has collaborated with Monster Hunter, Transformers, and Evangelion. One of the most recent Zoids video games, Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed, has been delisted on the Nintendo Switch in North America for unknown reasons. Given the absence of Chaotic Century on nearly all available streaming services, Zoids fans are worried the franchise is getting neglected in the West. Fortunately, fans have Zoids x Patlabor -Code Name B.U.D.D.Y.- to look forward to.

Excited for Zoids x Patlabor -Code Name B.U.D.D.Y.-? Believe Zoids or Patlabor have been underrappreciated in the West? Comment below to share your thoughts!