Getting into Mamoru Oshii’s cult classic The Red Spectacles has sent me down a full-blown “Kerberos Saga” rabbit hole, from the live-action Stray Dog: Kerberos Panzer Cops (1991) film to the Kerberos Panzer Cop (1988) manga. And now, after the recent news of a 4K theatrical re-release for The Red Spectacles, Oshii’s Jin-Roh is also joining the lineup with its own 4K restoration.
In celebration of Jin-Roh’s 25th theatrical anniversary, the 2000 anime film will be restored in 4K from the original 35mm negatives, with Dolby Atmos audio, and will be available March 25, 2026. The two-disc set will include a Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD disc, featuring extras like theatrical trailers and trinkets, including a booklet and a three-sided case with new art from director Hiroyuki Okiura, who also handled the film’s character designs.
But fans in Japan will be able to see the film’s new restoration ahead of its home release, with screenings starting March 6 at 14 theaters nationwide, where the 4K set will be available for purchase.
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade’s story and screenplay were written by Oshii, and Production I.G produced the film as its last theatrical release to utilize traditional cel animation. Jin-Roh takes place in an authoritarian, alternate-history postwar Japan where Nazi Germany won World War II, occupied the country — an Allied power in this timeline — and later reverted to a Weimar-style republic. Germany’s push to modernize and globalize Japan ignites civil unrest, giving rise to the Sect, a left-wing anti-government terrorist movement.
Constable Fuse, a member of the Capital Police’s elite Special Unit, is sent to break up a Sect protest when he crosses paths with a young girl hiding in Tokyo’s sewers. Hesitating to pull the trigger puts him under investigation, interrogation, and “reconditioning.” Her death lingers in his mind — and in the face of her sister, whom he grows close to. But Fuse’s hesitation has made him a liability to powerful forces. As pressure closes in from all sides, he’s forced to confront what’s real, what’s right, and where he stands.
Despite being set in an alternate reality, the premise and the civil unrest feel uncomfortably familiar today, and seeing how Japanese soldiers and citizens act in such a distorted world is genuinely harrowing. Everyone is forced to question their humanity and beliefs, and the turmoil reduces society to its most basic instinct: kill or be killed. It’s also refreshing to see renewed attention on Oshii’s “Kerberos Saga,” a body of work long overshadowed by Ghost in the Shell. With the care going into these new restorations and re-releases, it’s clear this is a universe Oshii has always held close to his heart.
If you’ve never seen the film and are interested, stream Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade on Crunchyroll; it’s worth watching.
