The series was delayed from its original July 2020 premiere to October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Director Tomohisa Taguchi wanted to work with Kazutaka Kodaka after being impressed by his work on the Danganronpa franchise, and the two agreed to collaborate on this new project.

The project was heavily inspired by Quentin Tarantino films, especially Reservoir Dogs, as well as Pulp Fiction and The Usual Suspects, leading the creators to imagine a cyberpunk story where villains act as protagonists.

Because the main cast originally consisted of seven protagonists, the team initially planned to title the project 'Akudama Seven'.

Kazutaka Kodaka specifically chose Pierrot as the animation studio, believing the studio's previous works were well suited for an action series.

The series had reportedly been in the planning stages since as early as 2014.

Art director Yoshio Tanioka rejected comparisons to typical cyberpunk aesthetics and instead said the visual references were 'Japan, Kansai, and Showa,' carefully designing landmarks like Tsūtenkaku Tower and Osaka Castle to root the setting firmly in Osaka.

Most of the voice acting for the series was recorded in March 2020.

During recording, the Executioners were deliberately given more ruthless lines and interactions than the Akudama criminals themselves, to heighten the story's tension.

The character Hacker was originally conceived as a child but was made older during development to better fit the intended audience demographic.

Brother was originally written as older than Sister, but character designer Cindy H. Yamauchi altered their designs so they would look like twins while keeping their original outfits.

The character Boss was visually modeled after actress Judi Dench.

Yamauchi redesigned Swindler and Sister for the series' second half to give them a more adult feel, drawing inspiration from the video game Detroit: Become Human.

Megumi Ogata, known for previously voicing young male characters, was cast as Doctor specifically to create a sexually appealing adult woman, a departure from her usual roles.

The Executioners' uniforms were designed based on the Imperial Japanese Army and traditional police officer outfits.

The finale, in which the surviving Brother and Sister are sent off with hope of a new life, was inspired by the ending of the 1994 film Léon: The Professional and the survival of Natalie Portman's character.

The producers, wary of the series seemingly glorifying 'evil' criminal protagonists, decided that every Akudama character should die in a 'cool' way, echoing the ethos of Reservoir Dogs.

Swindler's tragic on-screen death, which forms a cross-shaped pool of blood and airs on Christmas Eve in Japan, was noted by critics as an intentional deeper commentary given the timing of the broadcast.

In Anime Trending's 2021 Anime of the Year Awards, the series won Best Anime, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sci-Fi, and Best Mystery.

Readers of Anime News Network voted Akudama Drive the 9th best anime of 2020.

A manga adaptation by Rokurō Ōgaki ran from July 2020 to April 2023, and its final 'Shikoku arc,' depicting what happens after the anime's ending, was almost entirely conceived by Ōgaki himself rather than the original writers.