A Basset Hound recurs several times in the film: in a commercial, on the street in flyers on the wall, in the garbage man's picture. The Basset Hound has no significance symbolically or thematically - director Mamoru Oshii just likes Basset Hounds.
The following dialogue from the film is a direct quotation from the Bible (I Corinthians 13): "When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am a man, I have no more use for childish ways. What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete - as complete as God's knowledge of me".
The lyrics to the title song "Making of a Cyborg" were written in ancient Japanese. The romanized Japanese lyrics are as follows: A ga maeba, kuwashime yoini keri A ga maeba, teru tsuki toyomu nari Yobai ni kami amakudarite Yoha ake, nuedori naku. Tôkamiemitame (x4). English translation: When you are dancing, a beautiful lady becomes drunken. When you are dancing, a shining moon rings. A god descends for a wedding And dawn approaches while the night bird sings. God bless you (x4).
In ordinary anime, characters would at least blink to create the feeling of "being animated", but in this movie, Motoko's eyes intentionally stayed unblinking many times. Director Mamoru Oshii's intention was to portray her as a "doll".
There are multiple references to Mamoru Oshii's earlier film Angel's Egg (1985) in the final climax. The tree of life in a room filled with fossils is taken directly from Angel's Egg. Also, the feathers are in the climax of both films.
Mamoru Oshii: [gun] The usage of guns and Togusa preferring to use a revolver over a semi-automatic pistol.