Episodes
47 eps
Division 2 wrecks its aging Labor during an arrest just as Shinohara Heavy Industries prepares the new AV-98 Ingram. Noa Izumi arrives for her Patrol Labor aptitude test and immediately becomes involved when the new machine and its carrier are stolen. Her determination to recover the Ingram gives Asuma and Ohta their first look at the rookie who may become its pilot.
Division 2 returns to the Police Academy to train with the new Ingrams and meets Kanuka Clancy, a Japanese-American lieutenant visiting from the New York Police Department. A Labor combat tournament will decide the unit's pilot assignments, putting Noa directly against the highly capable newcomer. For Noa, losing would mean giving up the machine she has already named Alphonse.
Noa discovers that life at Division 2's isolated reclaimed-land headquarters involves far more than piloting a giant police machine. When the mechanics run a police boat aground, Ohta makes the problem worse by sinking his Labor while trying to help. With chief mechanic Sakaki unexpectedly returning, the entire unit scrambles to hide the disaster long enough for Noa to pull everything out of the water.
Reports of a huge creature tearing through a mountain forest send Division 2 into a case that sounds more like a monster movie than police work. The local authorities insist that the beast be captured alive, hoping it might become a tourist attraction, while Ohta is much more interested in shooting it. Noa and the others have to determine whether they are chasing an animal, a disguised Labor, or something stranger.
Division 2 is summoned near Mount Fuji with almost no explanation and ordered to intercept a runaway machine. They soon realize the target is an unmanned experimental military Labor whose true identity has been hastily concealed. Programmed to attack the first city it reaches, the X-10 has already escaped the military that built it, leaving the SV2 to stop it before civilians are put in its path.
An explosion traps a visiting foreign minister and other civilians inside the massive Tower City construction project. With the normal Labor entrance blocked, Division 2 must be lowered into the burning structure from above while international news crews watch every mistake. Ohta's aggressive rescue attempt creates more danger, leaving Noa to make the careful approach needed to reach the survivors.
Division 1 receives the advanced SRX-70 prototype, a machine that appears to outperform the Ingrams in nearly every category. Goto and Asuma become suspicious when the manufacturer insists on supplying its own mechanics and discover that the company is connected to Shaft. Captain Nagumo must decide whether the improved police Labor is worth using when its operational data may ultimately support military development.
Goto sends Noa, Asuma and Hiromi to investigate sabotage surrounding a highway project in the village of Onifuri. The disputed route runs through a sacred tree that villagers claim is protected by demons, while Asuma suspects someone is using Labors to manufacture the legend. What begins as a straightforward fraud investigation becomes harder to dismiss as mere superstition.
Public Security pulls Noa and Asuma into the hunt for Itchoku Inubashiri, a former military Labor pilot tied to an anti-Babylon terrorist group. Their real concern is a Soviet L99 Doshka attack Labor secretly passing through Sakata, a machine the terrorists may try to steal. Goto distrusts the official story, and the mission quickly fills with spies, hidden agendas and far more interest in the Doshka than anyone admits.
On Christmas Eve, Kanuka's grandmother disappears while searching for a memory from fifty years earlier, but Division 2 is called away before Kanuka can continue looking. Vehicles and police units have begun vanishing inside the Tokyo Port Tunnel while communications around the area fail. Noa and Ohta enter the tunnel and find Division 1 already defeated, only to be surrounded by armed Brocken Labors.
The attack in the port tunnel escalates when the Phantom Labor uses electromagnetic interference and a powerful weapon to disable the Ingrams. Ohta is captured, Noa is forced back, and Division 2 joins a covert military response while Goto searches for the people controlling the operation. With Kanuka also confronting her grandmother's fear of losing her to police work, Noa returns to face the Phantom with little room for another retreat.
Ohta's aunt arranges a meeting with Ayano Fuji, a young woman who seems genuinely interested in both him and Labors. Their first encounter goes badly enough that Ohta assumes the matter is finished, only for Ayano to ask to see him again. The normally explosive pilot has no idea how to handle the possibility that someone might actually like him.
Division 2 hosts the young prince of the oil-rich nation of Oasis, who wants to study Japan's Patrol Labor program. He quickly takes a liking to Noa and Alphonse, turning an awkward official visit into something more personal. At the same time, a captured Brocken Labor disappears, raising the possibility that the theft and the prince's presence are connected.
A police judo tournament leaves Division 2 battered just before they are called to stop a rampaging Labor. With Ohta injured and Asuma barely able to speak, Goto places Noa under Kanuka's command, exposing how badly their working styles clash. After the mission makes their disagreement worse, Goto tries a less official solution and takes the unit drinking together.
A humpback whale enters polluted Tokyo Bay and immediately becomes a public spectacle. Division 2 is assigned crowd control while a government rescue effort repeatedly tries and fails to guide the animal back to open water. Noa and the others begin wondering why the whale keeps returning to a place that should be hostile to it.
Division 2 travels to Hokkaido for security duty at the Sapporo Snow Festival after terrorists steal two Labors and threaten an attack. Noa also meets a boy who once loved Labors until one destroyed his home, forcing her to see the machines from the perspective of someone caught beneath them. The unit must protect the festival while Noa wrestles with the possibility that Alphonse may have been involved in the boy's loss.
Goto begins receiving petty threats that quickly escalate into sabotage and attempts to injure him. Division 2 notices his strange behavior and starts investigating just as damage to their equipment threatens an operation. Goto eventually works out who is responsible and, characteristically, understands the situation before anyone else realizes what game is being played.
Popular idol Kana Matsumoto spends a week with Division 2 as part of a police publicity stunt and is allowed to train in Alphonse. Noa is protective of her Ingram but gradually takes Kana's training seriously after the singer asks for her help. When kidnappers mistake Noa for their target and demand an Ingram in exchange, the unit has to solve the crisis before Goto learns how badly the publicity exercise has gone.
A terrorist bombs the underground Geo-City construction site and threatens to flood the entire project by destroying a barrier near the sea. Noa and Kanuka enter the caverns in their Labors to locate explosives, only to encounter a large creature living in the underground water. While Goto captures the bomber above ground, the team loses contact with the two pilots just as the largest bomb becomes the immediate threat.
A private security company connected to Shaft uses a military demonstration to test a new version of the Phantom Labor under cover of legitimate business. The machine destroys a military Labor and soon appears near Oshima, exactly where Goto suspects someone wants fresh combat data. As Division 2 prepares to deploy, an argument between Noa and Asuma leaves her heading into the operation without the partner she expected beside her.
The Phantom returns and tears through the military force assigned to stop it, while Division 2 is told to avoid direct involvement if possible. That order becomes meaningless when Ohta is badly beaten and the enemy deliberately targets Noa to steal her Ingram's movement data. With a second hostile Labor supporting the Phantom, Noa is forced into another one-on-one fight against a machine designed to learn from her.
During a public safety campaign, Noa and Kanuka meet a yakuza boss whose enthusiasm for Labors is far more sincere than threatening. After Noa helps him operate his collection, his gratitude turns into increasingly awkward support for Division 2, including an attempt to assist with police work. A rival gang takes offense, leaving Noa and Kanuka trying to prevent a Labor-fueled feud from becoming an actual gang war.
Kanuka's assignment in Japan is ending, and she explicitly tells Division 2 not to throw her a farewell party. The unit ignores her, breaks into her apartment and accidentally discovers the report she has prepared for the New York Police Department. Reading her brutally candid assessments of each member turns the surprise party into a disaster before Kanuka even comes home.
Kanuka finally boards her flight back to New York, with Noa the only member of Division 2 seeing her off after the team's disastrous farewell attempt. A terrorist hijacks the aircraft and claims to have a bomb, demanding the release of a captured anti-Babylon militant. Forced to work without her checked firearm, Kanuka disguises herself as a flight attendant and begins taking the situation apart from inside the plane.
With Kanuka gone, Shinshi becomes Ohta's backup and quickly discovers how difficult it is to control the unit's most aggressive pilot. A lucrative offer to return to computer programming gives him a clean escape from the frustration, complete with better pay and greater responsibility. Shinshi has to decide whether his old profession is really where he belongs after becoming part of Division 2.
Takeo Kumagami joins Division 2 and immediately seems absurdly overqualified for the assignment. She cooks, types, handles computers, masters Ingram movement patterns almost instantly and has even turned down interest from Interpol. Her arrival makes Noa wonder whether Goto intends to reshuffle the team and whether Kumagami has been brought in to replace her.
Division 2 uses a cluster of abandoned buildings for urban combat and hostage-rescue training, only to hear local stories that the site is haunted. Strange computer messages, ghostly figures and unexplained encounters begin affecting even members who would rather blame equipment or nerves. The exercise turns into an investigation of whether the area's history of death has left something behind.
Noa and Asuma meet Utsumi and a gifted boy named Bud at an arcade without realizing both are connected to Shaft. Behind the casual encounter, Utsumi and Kurosaki are preparing the Griffin, an experimental black Labor built to exceed conventional combat machines. Their next step is to provoke Division 2 with a Saturn Labor and measure how the Ingrams respond.
Division 2's remote headquarters faces a crisis more immediate than terrorism when its food delivery never arrives. Ohta goes out to escort the restaurant's next delivery and disappears, followed by mechanics who leave to find him and fail to return. Hunger, isolation and the stray dogs roaming the landfill turn a simple missing-meal problem into a full-unit search.
A mysterious black Labor attacks Captain Fuwa's military team, steals a movement disc and leaves behind a message announcing the Griffin. Utsumi now wants Division 2's movement data, while police leadership considers replacing the Ingrams with cheaper mass-production models. Noa's attachment to Alphonse and Goto's doubts about the new machines bring the unit to the Tokyo International Labor Show just as the Griffin project closes in on them.
Division 2 provides security at the Tokyo International Labor Show while Utsumi and Bud quietly prepare their attack. Asuma borrows Noa's movement disc to test the Economy Ingram, leaving her unable to respond immediately when the Griffin bursts from a truck and attacks Ohta. The black Labor defeats both Ingrams, reveals that it can fly, and escapes after Kumagami recognizes Utsumi and is shot by his fleeing associates.
The apparent wreckage of the Griffin is found in the mountains, but Goto and the others soon learn the destruction was staged. Kumagami's description lets Asuma identify the mysterious Richard Wong as Utsumi, tying Schaft directly to the Griffin project. As Schaft sends its private security force to shut the rogue project down, Kanuka returns to Japan and rejoins Division 2 for the investigation.
Schaft's own security force closes in on Utsumi and Kurosaki, but the pair escape with the Griffin rather than surrender the project. Goto learns that the black Labor is still operational, while Utsumi decides to bring it into Tokyo for one more demonstration. With Ohta's Ingram still damaged, Noa heads toward the confrontation knowing she may have to face the Griffin without her usual backup.
The Griffin reaches the Babylon Project's Castle Gate as Schaft Security, Division 2 and the media all converge on the same battlefield. Three-S attempts to destroy the machine while Noa fights it directly, but reporters and explosives repeatedly turn clean shots into unacceptable risks. A blast finally catches both Alphonse and the Griffin, leaving the two damaged machines to settle the fight at close range.
Noa and the Griffin continue fighting with both machines already heavily damaged and losing sensors. Ohta manages to support her from a distance while Asuma guides Noa through the final exchanges, forcing Utsumi to order Bud to retreat. The Griffin escapes into the air but crashes into Tokyo Bay, ending the immediate battle while Utsumi and Bud slip out of Japan and Kanuka again says goodbye to Division 2.
Back at the Police Academy for additional combat training, Noa becomes discouraged by Ohta's superior scores and her own lack of recognition. While fetching dinner she spots large-denomination bills floating down a stream and follows them, hoping the trail will lead to a case she can solve herself. When she fails to return, Division 2 learns that a robbery has occurred nearby and starts searching for their missing pilot.
Division 2's enormous record of property damage finally draws the attention of its insurance company. Investigator Naoyo Yamada stays with the unit to decide whether their coverage should be renewed and watches them complete an arrest without damaging anything. The victory lasts only until cleanup, when Ohta turns moving a truck into another chain of accidents and insurance claims.
Food, alcohol and even chickens begin disappearing from Division 2's isolated headquarters, convincing the unit that someone is sneaking onto the property. A chase leads them to an old network of tunnels beneath the reclaimed land, where Ohta and Shinshi disappear while pursuing the thief. The others descend after them and discover that getting lost is not the only danger waiting underground.
Shinohara Heavy Industries asks Division 2 to evaluate an improved prototype of the Economy Ingram. Noa remains skeptical while Ohta accuses her of judging every replacement against her attachment to Alphonse, but the engineers use their feedback to improve the machine rapidly. The debate ends in the most direct comparison possible when Noa is chosen to fight the prototype in her Ingram.
A fishing-boat accident near the coastal village of Shikura is blamed on a local sea monster known as Plessie. Division 2 arrives to investigate just as television crews and curious tourists turn the story into a profitable spectacle. The villagers appear suspiciously ready for the sudden attention, leaving the SV2 to determine whether a monster exists or someone has simply found a very effective tourism campaign.
Two incompetent terrorists accidentally blow apart the top of a hotel while trying to attack a Babylon Project convention. The damaged panoramic restaurant begins to collapse above a buried airport fuel line, while the terrorists take a bartender hostage and continue making the situation worse. Noa and Ohta are forced into the absurd position of rescuing the criminals at the same time they are trying to arrest them.
A string of ATM robberies bears the unmistakable signs of Labor use, along with strange chalk markings left at each scene. Goto recognizes details connected to earlier cases and suspects that surviving members of the anti-Babylon group Home of the Sea are involved. Division 2 prepares for the group's return before the thieves can turn another robbery into something more dangerous.
Police leadership volunteers Division 2 for a television feature about women in the workplace, placing Noa in front of reporter Momoko Sakurayama's cameras. The publicity piece becomes real police work when a suicidal Labor pilot threatens to crash into a fuel depot and Momoko gets herself taken hostage while chasing the story. Noa must rescue the reporter without giving Division 2 another public-relations disaster.
Mechanic Shige travels to New York for training with the city's Labor police and walks into a bizarre version of everything he knows back home. Kanuka introduces him to the secret underground headquarters of CLAT, the Crime Labor Attack Team, whose members bear an uncanny resemblance to familiar faces from Division 2. The trip unfolds less like an ordinary exchange program and more like an increasingly ridiculous fever dream.
During a military demonstration, Noa gets the chance to pilot the advanced Helldiver and impresses Captain Fuwa enough to receive a recruitment offer. The possibility forces Noa to ask whether she loves police work, Division 2, or simply the act of piloting a Labor. After making a mistake on a later mission, the military path starts to look less hypothetical and much harder to dismiss.
Division 1 receives the new Shinohara AV-Zero, whose advanced control system and automatic responses clearly surpass the aging Ingrams. Noa still handles a rampaging Labor with minimal damage, but a complaint over a scratched VIP vehicle feeds talk that the SV2 may soon be reorganized. Faced with a machine that could make Alphonse obsolete, Noa retreats into the cockpit of the Labor she refuses to treat as replaceable equipment.
Praise for Division 1 and the AV-Zero leaves Division 2 questioning its future, and Noa returns home to Hokkaido while she tries to sort out what Alphonse and the job mean to her. Asuma follows and convinces her to return, only for both divisions to be mobilized against a terrorist Labor hiding in a fuel depot. With the Zero and the Ingram working the same scene, Noa gets one final chance to prove that police work cannot be measured by specifications alone.
