Techno Police started in 1978 as an idea for a TV series from Artmic Studio founder Suzuki Toshimichi as a coproduction with Studio Nue. After 4 years in development the series was scrapped and the existing footage was compiled into an 80 minute movie and distributed by Toho.
Hisaishi Joe, who provides the synth-jazz score and is well known in the west for having created the soundtracks of several anime and live action films. Part of the animation and design staff were also Kawamori Shouji and Miyatake Kazutaka from Studio Nue, who are now famous for their mecha designs from MACROSS. Their work in Techno Police actually served them as preparation during the pre-production design phase of the first Macross series.
English dubbed versions of the film were released in VHS format during 1984 and 1987. Outside of the English speaking world unedited video versions of Techno Police 21C were seen in France, Germany and Spain, with even a theatrical run in Cuba.
In 1994/5 Techno Police was re-released by Best Film & Video Co on NTSC VHS to cash in on the popular rise in anime and Cyberpunk at the time with OVA's such as Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed, Dangaiou, Patlabor, AD Police, Armitage III and Cyber City Oedo 808.
