Yutaka Izubuchi
The film has many references to the anime industry with characters being named after animators such as Yasuo Ōtsuka and Ichirō Itano, designer Yutaka Izubuchi, writer Kazunori Itō, and composer Kenji Kawai. The director of the film within the film is named Rei Maruwa, which was a pseudonym for Oshii on several of his projects.