Mitsumoto leads me into a more traditional-looking animation room, which contains small cubicles filled with genga, or animation line art. "Jin-Roh" director Hiroyuki Okiura sits in one of the cubicles flipping through genga sheets, engaged in the traditional method of animation checking (a method lost on American animation directors who delegate the work to subordinates with image processing computers).

Baby-faced and extremely good-looking, Okiura inspires me to spend extra time in this room. Embarrassed by not having seen "Jin-Roh" in its entirety, I gush about the only related topic I could speak of with confidence - the "Weekly Hito-Ookami" (literally Weekly Man-Wolf, but it's a silly way of reading "Jin-Roh" which is written as Man-Wolf in kanji). This was an online serial that "Jin-Roh" character designer Tetsuya Nishio uploaded weekly to the Production I.G website in the long months before "Jin-Roh" opened in theaters.

Nishio-san's weekly, tongue in cheek, one-panel illustration and commentary depicted the staff nervously waiting out the 18 months before the film's release, hoping that it would reach screens. The weekly serial was supposed to end after the theatrical release, but Nishio continued with part two of "Weekly Hito-Ookami," where he illustrated various appearances the "Jin-Roh" staff (director Okiura, author Oshii, etc.) made at theaters and the prolific awards they received for the film. The panel also follows how after the film opened from a three-theater release, word of mouth allowed "Jin-Roh" to spread to sixty theaters. The "Weekly Hito-Ookami" is one of my favorite sections of the I.G website. Mitsumoto and Okiura snicker as I express my love for it. And when I finish, Mitsumoto finally speaks out to the man sitting quietly next to Okiura with his back to me. "Aren't you happy? She said it was really funny."

Nishio himself spins around in time to see my face flush. In blustering Japanese I apologize for not recognizing him and convey to him how much US fans would like to read his "Jin-Roh" serial. Soft-spoken and slightly shy, Nishio thanks me, but swears he'll never draw anything for the website again.

I learn that the president of Production I.G, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, has a habit of forcing the I.G staff to do things for the website no matter how busy they are. In another particularly gripping online serial, Hiroyuki Kitakubo, the director of "Blood: The Last Vampire," curses at Ishikawa every third column - all in good fun.

Mitsumoto and I head over to the less homey loft-office adjacent to the production building where Ishikawa awaits us. I climb a set of metallic stairs that look as if they belong outside - appropriate to the semi-built design of this loft-office - and get seated by the meeting table. From where I sit, I notice a work area on the opposite side of the loft filled with pictures of dogs, particularly basset hounds. It's the workplace of the canine-friendly director Mamoru Oshii, who, unfortunately, due to a seasonal cold, isn't in.