The Kerberos series is a series of stories by Mamoru Oshii set in a fascist Japan in an alternate history. The series contains the manga Kenrou Densetsu or Kerberos Panzer Corps, its English subtitle (this translated into English by Studio Proteus as Hellhounds Panzer Cops), the Jigoku no Banken series (trans.: hound of hell or hellhound) of live action films The Red Spectacles and Stray Dogs: Kerberos, and the animated feature film Jin-Roh.
The backstories and timelines of how Japan became a fascist country differ between the two live action films and the manga and animated film. The live action films take place in the then-future decade of the 1990s and the rise of fascism is never really explained, while Kerberos and Jin-Roh take place in the 1960s. The opening narration to Jin-Roh explains that Japan lost the Second World War, but instead of to the American forces, the war was lost to the Germans, who also occupied Japan for at least a decade. The occupation of Japan by German forces provides an explanation regarding the usage of German military equipment, vehicles, weapons, and architecture by the Japanese.
While the background of the four stories differ, the stories use the same characters (either as the principal characters or background characters), reference the same incidents, and typically feature the same institutions, props, and settings. Any changes involving the background of the four stories can probably be thought of as variations on the same theme. When place together, the four stories tell the same overall story.
The Kerberos Story
The overall plot of the four tells the tale of a special police anti-terrorist unit, known as the Capital Police or as the Kerberos. The main duty of the Kerberos was to handle a multitude of various terrorist groups, with the largest and most influential organization known as the Sect, and keep the matter as a police issue, to avoid bring the military into the fray. As a result, the Capital Police report to the National Public Safety Commission. As the country stablized from political upheaval and looked to the future and economic prosperity, the people and government of Japan wanted to suppress the horrific memories of the past. The Kerberos unit and its members, due to the unit's brutal tactics and its ruthless reputation served the country during its troubling times, no longer had a place in the new police organization and was to be eliminated. After an incident in which a terrorist leader was killed rather than having him enter into police custody, the Kerberos unit was ordered to be disarmed and disbanded. However, the unit refused the order, sequestered themselves in their headquarters and fought the police, holding out for days before the military was called in to finish the job. Many of the unit were killed or arrested, save the leader of the uprising, Koichi Todome, who escapes. Kerberos Panzer Corps and Jin-Roh cover the days of the Kerberos unit before the uprising as well as the political machinations that result in the rebellion, while the Jigoku no Banken films encompass the reappearance of Koichi Todome in Japan, as well as the reasons for his return. The Kerberos standoff is only covered briefly in two live-action films and the as-yet-untranslated later chapters of Kerberos Panzer Corps manga.
The Individual Stories
This is presented in order of the overall timeline, and not in order of release.
Kerberos Panzer Corps
Kerberos Panzer Corps is more of anthology of vignettes, all of which contribute to the tale of the closing battles with the Sect and the fall of the Kerberos unit. The opening chapter features concerns a Captial Police trooper, Toru Inui, who fails first fails to kill a suicide bomber in the sewer system and later fails to apprehend a suspcious wounded man in the company of an innocent woman escaping from a manhole. The wounded man is shot by police snipers and revealed to be an armed terrorist. Inui is reassigned to training and his superiors not only wonder why he failed to shoot, but why he transferred into the unit ('perhaps because of the smell of his own kind', one of many dog references in the series). He is sent back into the field and while covering the rear of the patrol, comes across the same woman and another injured man. Before he realizes what is going on, the seemingly innocent woman reveals herself to be a terrorist and shoots Inui dead. This story in many ways is similar to the story of Jin-Roh.
Another story concerns Hachiro Kishu, a helicopter pilot whose dream has been the thrill of flying and the challenge of aerial combat. Stuck to flying recon and traffic in an antiquated, war-surplus helicopter, Kishu gets his chance when the Kerberos unit is issued a new state-of-the-art attack helicopter and he has been assigned to fly it. Meanwhile, outside police are tracking down a mole within the Kerberos unit, but before they can arrest him and his accomplices, an undercover Kerberos team raids an accomplice's house, killing much of the cell, but the mole escapes. When the police inform that Capital Police commander Muroto that, while they have not identified the mole, they uncovered a plot to sabotage the unit's upcoming parade demonstration. However, the Capital Police commander does not inform his unit and allows the parade to go on. The Sect mole, revealed to be aircraft mechanic, plants a bomb onboard the helicopter, which explodes during a parade demonstration. Kishu can only watch in horror as his dream falls to the ground.
In fact, Muroto works against his own unit's interest throughout the series, although it is unclear if Muroto is doing this out of self-interest or for loftier goals. In addition to letting a terrorist bomb the parade flight of the Kerberos' attack helicopter, it is revealed that Muroto is planning on merging the Captial Police into the National Police Agency and dismantle the Kerberos unit. Knowning that the Kerberos unit may see this as a betrayal after years of faithful service and loyalty and attempt to strike back, Muroto knows that in order for the Captial Police merger to continue, he must publically humiliate or eliminate the Kerberos unit. Following a meeting with Agency officials, he confronts an underling, Tsujimura, of leaking secrets to a friend in the Kerberos unit. Men from Muroto's faction come to take Tsujimura away, but he pulls a gun on Muroto, forcing his men to kill him. This chapter also foreshadows the downfall of the Kerberos unit, when a stray dog finds the corpse of Tsujimura in a junkyard, then wanders next to a large pile of discarded Stahlhelm helmets, machineguns, and armored personnel carriers, all presumably from the Kerberos unit, with the gleeming glass office buildings of Tokyo in the background.
Muroto first sets the Kerberos unit to deal with a hostage crisis at an foreign embassy. If any hostages are killed during the siege, an international incident could erupt. The Kerberos team assaults the embassy, eliminating the radicals within minutes. However, the embassy takeover was a diversion by a splinter group of the Sect. The main cell and their leader, Fujiwara, has hijacked a Lufthansa plane at Haneda Airport. It is soon revealed that Fujiwara's splinter cell broke off from the Sect following a series of incidents similar to the Kerberos unit: the Sect's leadership, behind bars, has compromised with the government and has abandoned it's more extremist and violent members. The goal of the splinter faction's hijacking is an appointment with glory with the Kerberos unit.
The Kerberos unit is charged with the capture of Fujiwara ("No one else is to take him") and is dispatched to Haneda Airport, but soon has a conflict over jurisdiction with the Metro Police, who polices the airport. The jurisdiction conflict comes to a head when the unit commander, Handa, orders the Kerberos unit to ignore the Metro Police blockade, resulting in an armed standoff inside the airport terminal and in front of the public. The resulting backlash quickly dumps the Kerberos unit on the tarmac, where Handa formulates one last plan to capture Fujiwara. Handa has his unit secure a service truck and sends Koichi Todome, Midori Washio, and Soichiro Toribe to infiltrate the plane as caterers delivering food to the hostages, violating the Metro Police's jurisdiction. If they are caught, they can be arrested and the scandal would destroy the Kerberos unit.
Handa launches a diversion and Koichi, Midori, and Soichiro storm the plane and kill most of the splinter faction, but before they can fully secure the plane, Fujiwara orders the pilot to takeoff. Koichi, Midori, and Soichiro force the plane down by shooting the engines. The plane crash-lands on a landfill on Showa Island and Fujiwara makes his escape. Koichi and Soichiro are in a daze from the crash, but Midori climbs up on the fuselage and begins setting up her Mauser C96 for long-range shooting. Handa and the rest of the Kerberos unit scramble to the crash site, but are beaten by the Metro Police. Fujiwara meets a wall of Metro Police in riot gear, waiting to apprehend him, but instead resisting arrest, he turns to face the distant crashed plane and Midori, who shoots him between the eyes.
Jin-Roh
See Jin-roh
Stray Dogs: Kerberos
The film begins with the last stand of the Kerebos unit. After being disobeying an order to disarm and disband, they have held out for an unspecified time: talk between the fatigued Kerebos soldiers suggests that they might have been stuck there for three days, three months, to three years. An PA system issues orders for a final stand and for Todome, Washio, and Toribe to come to the central building. A soldier named Inui wanders through the halls of the Kerebos headquarters and then witnesses Koichi Todome boarding a helicopter. Angry, Inui feels betrayed by Koichi and asks why he's running away and not fighting like Todome has asked of his men and Inui. As the helicopter takes off, the army breach the headquarters.
Years later, Inui is released from prison and is searching Taipei for Koichi. It's revealed that his release was engineered by a detective from the Special Public Security Divsion, who has been hunting for the fugitive Koichi. Inui picks up on the trail of Koichi after finding Tang Mie, a teenage girl that Todome has been involved with. She tells Inui that Koichi also left her, and the two team up to search for Koichi, and quickly becomes enamored with her. They find Koichi fishing, and after small brawl, the trio settle down together.
However, the peace is soon broken. The detective brings in a special squad from Special Public Security Division to arrest Koichi. In order to preserve Tang Mie's innocent lifestyle, Koichi attempts to give himself up, but Inui fights his former master. Having beaten Koichi, Inui heads toward the squad's staging area, an abandoned hotel. Inui confronts and captures the detective and then dons the Kerebos armor and the machinegun. Inui, in the full armor, stalks the hotel and kills most of the special squad. However, when killing the squad's leader, he is fatally wounded. A plastic ball, bought by Tang Mie, falls from his chestpiece. Inui's last action is to try and grab the ball, revealing that he did not go to the hotel to protect Koichi, but for Tang Mie.
The Red Spectacles
