This is a character guide to the radio drama, film, manga and anime works Kerberos saga (ケルベロス・サーガ, keruberosu saga). Characters are sorted by organizations or groups according to the original works. The English adaptation equivalents are mentioned when available.
Shutoken chian keisatsu kikoh: often shortened to Shutokei (首都警) is the third Japanese armed forces together with the Self-Defense Force and the Self-Police. "Metropolitan Police" and its initials "M.P." are used as official translation in the English-language written synopsis available in all Kerberos Panzer Cop Japanese editions - as well as in the licensed versions published in Asia in the 2000s. The original version of Jin-Roh, released in Europe one year prior to Japan, translates the synopsis term as "POSEM" (contraction of "POlice de SÉcurité Métropolitaine"), French for "Metropolitan Security Police". However the English language anime version kept the manga's 1994 English adaptation - Hellhounds - with "CAPO" (for "CApital POlice") rather than "Metropolitan Security Police". Also Hauptstadtpolizei (shortened to Polizei), the German term for "Capital Police", is used as an additional emblem on the M.P.'s (首都警) aerial reconnaissance helicopter Fa-330, while it was not featured in the manga version.
The Metropolitan Police Defense Division (首都警・警備部, shutokei keibibu) directed by Isao Aniya is the main branch of the M.P. This division is famous for its Special Armed Garrison nicknamed "Kerberos".
The Special Armed Garrison (首都警・特機隊 ~ケルベロス~, shutokei tokki-tai ~keruberosu~) is the core unit of the M.P.. This garrison is in charge of Tokyo's public peace and order. Notable members include Koichi Todome, Soichiro Toribe, Midori Washio, Inui and Kazuki Fuze.
"Jin-Roh the Wolf Brigade" (人狼, jinroh) is a self-preservation secret unit formed among the Special Armed Garrison to maintain its own existence against the Public Security Division, Self-Police, National Safety Commissioners joint conspiracy. The conspirators main motivations is to create a single chain of command in the Tokyo police, and to avoid direct confrontation between the rival anti-riot units of the Self-Police and the Metropolitan Police. Hajime Handa is the head of the Jin-Roh group, his adjutant is instructor Hachiroh Tohbe.
Panzer Jäger Unit (ギア部隊) a.k.a. Armored Soldier (機甲隊員), the military counterpart of the M.P.'s Tokki-tai except it is equipped with antitank rifles.
Tetsurō Kai is the JGSDF's 1st Airborne Brigade leader. In Kerberos Panzer Cop Act 5 he appears as a trainee of the Metropolitan Police Special Armed Garrison's Academy Training School "Zucht Schanze". Tetsurō Kai is impressed by his instructor Midori Washio, so after completing his session, the young man sends her an invite to the JGSDF public exhibition held in the Mount Fuji from December 17 to 20 of 19XX. Curious she goes to the parade with her fellow instructor Hachiro Tohbe and met there Tetsurō Kai wearing the Panzer Jäger full-body armor Type 61 (Protect Gear). In Act 8, Tetsurō Kai orders for the final battle against Tatsumi Shiro's Tokki-tai (Special Armed Garrison) during the "Kerberos Uprising" event.
Hanseifu soshiki toshi gerira: Antigovernment groups appeared during the Economic High-Growth era. With the end of the occupation period, the country had entered internationalization under a forced economic re-organization of the whole society. Re-organization caused massive unemployment and floods of poverty appeared in the capital slums. Vicious organized crime and black market corruption increased rapidly as did opposition parties ranks. A part of the population refused the new society and started to protest in the capital. In order to protect the institutions, the government answered by police repression and authoritarian policy which worsened the situation turning public protest movements into underground guerrilla groups using sabotage and terrorism eventually leading to an armed conflict within the capital's urban area.
Revolutionary Communist student groups.
The Sect (セクト, sekuto) emerged from forbidden anti-government leftist party cells and became an organized terrorist group fighting with the Police. The Sect uses the Tokyo sewers to transport and store firearms and explosives. Teenage girls nicknamed Little Red Riding Hoods are used as bomb carriers. The Special Armed Garrison was created by the government to get rid of the Sect activities.
An adolescent girl used by the Sect's Division Jacobson (ヤコブソン機関) to transport satchel charges without being suspected, nor checked, by the police patrols. While discovered in the sewers by the Kerberos brigadier Kazuki Fuze, she ducked her bomb and committed suicide in front of him causing heavy damages in Tokyo, heavy criticism against the Special Armed Garrison and an investigation about Kazuki Fuse.
While she was a teenager, Foxy Croquette used to be a Little Red Riding Hood courrier for the Sect when she was busted by a platoon of Kerberos. Brought to the Public Security Division headquarters she was used as a mole by Bunmei Muroto.
Kusaba is a saboteur who infiltrates the Transport Company's Aeronautical Experiments Platoon (航空実験小隊) to sabotage the Jagdhund assault helicopter newly delivered to the Special Armed Garrison. Even though he gets into Hachiro Kishu he eventually betrays him by ruining the latter's dream.
The Four Seasons League (四季協会, shiki kyokai) is an ultra-leftist terrorist group with members originating from the Sect. Its background and modus operandi remembers those of the real-life Japanese Red Army.
Fujiwara is the leader of the Lufthansa flight 666 hijacking group. Surviving the aircraft crash on Showa Island landfill no.8 he refused to surrender to the Self-Police and was shot dead by Midori Washio.
After the National Diet Building incident, Foxy Croquette O-Gin disappeared from the streets of Tokyo and reappeared later in Palestina as a guerrilla known as AK Ginko.
Sabuchan is a boy fascinated by ANPO Hantai protests and supports them even though he is still a child.
Akazukin: young female characters dressed in red, like in the Little Red Riding Hood tale. There is an explicit reference to the Grimm brothers version in Jin-Roh as a German written Rotkäppchen book. However the tale version narrated in the anime is a composite version based on pre-Grimm oral versions, notably on Charles Perrault's Le Petit Chaperon Rouge. In Jin-Roh, Akazukin is the nickname used by Bunmei Muroto to designate female bomb carriers of the Sect. Little Red Riding Hoods are active within the Sect's supplying division called "Division Jacobson".
The young Lady is first appearing as a mysterious mute character who leads Koichi Todome through Tokyo in The Red Spectacles. The original theatrical trailer introduces her as an allegory for fate (運命,unmei) in the meaning of fatum. In Kerberos & Tachiguishi the character's backstory is eventually revealed, as a teenager she was caught by a Kerberos patrol while she was delivering bombs as a Sect Little Red Riding Hood. As a Division Jacobson terrorist she was brought to the Metropolitan Police Public Security Division's headquarters and was selected by Bunmei Muroto to become a mole.
(Tachiguishi)
A famous Fast Food Grifter and an old friend of Koichi Todome.
Jichi kei: the Japanese local police in charge of security, peace and public security. Due to the increasing violence of paramilitary anti-government groups, the "Self-Police" soon became unable to maintain public order, hence the creation of a specialized anti-riot force, a military police called Shutokei (Metropolitan Police).
Keishicho: Metropolitan Police Department.
Nazi Germany's armed forces are the main antagonists in the Kerberos Panzer Jäger radio drama series.
(Dai 808 Senden Chutai)
In September 1942, the Captain Maki of the 808th German Propaganda Company (808th Propagandakompanie, 第808宣伝中隊) leaves the Warsaw station to deliver Protect-Gear parts to the 101st Panzer Company fighting the Soviet Army at the Battle of Stalingrad.
Tang Mie is a Taiwanese girl that used to live with Koichi Todome when the latter flew to Taipei during his post-Kerberos Riot three-years-long exile. When paroled Inui left Tokyo to find the track of his former leader/master Koichi Todome instead he bumps into Tang Mie and befriend with her. Shortly the pair leaves the condo and travel Taiwan after Koichi Todome. When they eventually find him at Tainan, the former elite Kerberos panzer cop has become a peaceful peasant inviting them to start their life anew living in a ménage à trois. Later Inui leaves the home to meet Hayashi and his own lethal destiny, thereafter Koichi, who also left the home ("the roost"), turns back to Tokyo leaving behind Tang Mie and eventually facing his death (see The Red Spectacles). Tang Mie enjoys a Platonic love relationship with both Koichi and Inui; Koichi reveals to Inui that "she was her who picked up both of [them]".
Papa's Lunch Room Waitress is a main character in The Killers short story published in Kerberos Saga: Rainy Dogs. She talks to the two killers searching for Koichi Todome.
Detective Matsui from Patlabor is hired to solve the "Fast Food Grifter Clubbed to Death Case" (マッハ軒立食師撲殺事件異聞) involving Fast Food Grifter (or "Tachiguishi") Cold Badger Masa and the Special Armed Garrison's Chuichi Koshiramaru (2nd Company, 7th Platoon). A part of the Kerberos saga staff, called Headgear, worked on the Patlabor TV series and feature films, including its creator, Mamoru Oshii, who directed two feature films respectively in 1989 and 1993.
Golgo 13 a.k.a. Duke Togo (デューク東郷), which is a mysterious identity professional assassin, appears among the killers in the bar restaurant called Papa's Lunch Room. While he's waiting at a table, a boy enters the bar delivering a large packet and asking to the crowd "Mister Togo 13, please?" ("東郷十三さん......いますか？", p. 362), "that's over here" ("掩だ", p. 362) he answers. Then he pays the boy, gets the present that comes with an happy birthday card and heads to the toilet with the packet. He later reappears smoking a cigarette, wearing mittens and holding his famous M16 rifle. A firing ensues between the five killers, Golgo 13 headshots the man in black with the two automatic pistols while the latter shoot him dead with multiple gunshots in the chest. The Killers is a short story that was published prior to the release of the Kerberos Saga Rainy Dogs manga series in Ace Tokunoh comic magazine in 2003. This short story by Mamoru Oshii and illustrator Mamoru Sugiura was added as an epilogue in the tankōbon (compilation volume) of Kerberos Saga Rainy Dogs published in 2005.
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