Production
Mamoru Oshii had wanted to create what ultimately became Jin-Roh several years prior. It was planned to be the third and final live-action feature film of the Kerberos trilogy, but its production wasn't possible until 1994, while Oshii was already working on Ghost in the Shell. As he was unable to produce two films in the same time, but also did not want someone else to direct his final episode, Oshii decided that the third episode would be an anime instead, as opposed to the live action productions used for The Red Spectacles and StrayDog.
The project was originally pitched as a six-episode original video animation, as Oshii knew Bandai Visual was interested in having him do a series for them and his original Kerberos Panzer Cop manga was formed by six chapters. As he proposed the project to Bandai Visual at a meeting, they asked him to direct Ghost in the Shell, but nonetheless greenlit the series for pre-production.[4] The production eventually evolved into a feature film following the international success of Ghost in the Shell, as Manga Entertainment wanted a similar hit and saw potential in Kerberos Panzer Cop after the manga had been published in the West as Hellhounds.
After reluctantly giving up the directorial role, Oshii considered who to hand the project to. He originally sought Patlabor 2: The Movie animation director Kazuchika Kise, but he had no interest in chief direction at the time. He then committed Jin-Roh as a debut film to a trusted young collaborator, Hiroyuki Okiura, who had worked with Oshii on animated films such as Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor 2.[5] Oshii considered him the most able candidate among the younger staff of the studio, and both Production IG and Bandai Visual, knowing about his directing ambitions and his interest in creating a serious drama, wanted him to do his debut for them.[4]
Oshii wanted to at least be entrusted with the screenplay, as the prospect of working with Okiura changed his previous reluctance for merely writing films. This was not originally in Bandai's plans for the film, but Oshii expected Kazunori Itō, his usual screenwriter, to reject their offer as he had previously told him that he did not want to write a story involving dogs following his work for The Red Spectacles; after he did so, he was offered the role. He ultimately still found the experience frustrating both during the writing process ("The moment you write, you want to direct") and after realizing the result would unavoidably be much different from what he pictured in his head. Lacking any creative control on the process, he chose to distance himself from the animation production while looking forward to the final product.[4]
Okiura favored traditional animation, and thus the film was almost completely drawn by hand, requiring 80,000 cels.[6] Oshii, who characterized him as "allergic to computers", admitted that had he directed the film he would have relied on computer animation just as he did in Ghost in the Shell and no more than 30,000 cels would have been needed.[4] Still, the celwork was subsequently processed through the Animo software to enhance some visual effects, textures, and camerawork.[7]
The film's musical score was composed by Hajime Mizoguchi.
