The project began when Asaura's editor mentioned him during a meeting about Saekano, leading A-1 Pictures producer Shin-ichirō Kashiwada, who had read Asaura's gun-themed work Death Need Round, to invite him to create a new 'girls with guns' anime.

Asaura's initial pitch was much more militaristic, serious and dark in tone, but director Shingo Adachi felt that a gloomy anime could not compete with Gunslinger Girl, so the story was reworked to focus on the bright relationship between Chisato and Takina.

Shingo Adachi, previously known as a character designer and chief animation supervisor on works like Working!! and Sword Art Online, made his directorial debut with this series, and he said his goal as director was to make viewers laugh every five minutes.

According to official character material, Fuki was originally conceived as the story's main character during early planning stages, before Chisato and Takina became the central duo.

Character designer Imigimuru, known for Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru!, was recruited after a chance meeting with Adachi at Winter Comiket, and unusually was kept on through the entire pipeline from concept art to final animation model sheets, despite never having designed characters for anime before.

The design for the Lycoris school uniforms was created by Kimika Onai, a designer known for real idol group Nogizaka46's stage costumes, at Adachi's suggestion, which is unusual for an anime production.

Chisato's hair was originally designed as a bluish-tinted white with a shadowy look, but was changed to a yellowish white to diverge from a more conventional heroine appearance, while Takina's long black hair look was decided early on to embody a 'quiet person' archetype.

Villain Majima was originally conceived as a psychopathic film director who commits terrorism to capture dramatic footage, which is why his character retains a strong interest in movies in the final version.

Voice actress Misaki Kuno asked before recording what Kurumi's age was and was told simply that she is 'the only adult in LycoReco who can speak to Mika as an equal,' so she chose to perform the character with the mental age of someone in her 40s.

The non-lethal bullets used by Chisato were designed by Mika in-story as frangible rounds made of red-colored plastic and metal powder that create a blood-like red mist on impact without killing the target, though they cause extreme pain and have a very short effective range.

After episode 11's eyecatch depicted a character lighting and smoking a red spider lily (Lycoris radiata), which is poisonous, the animator issued a warning not to imitate it, and the streaming version's eyecatch was replaced starting September 30, 2022.

The first Blu-ray volume sold 21,000 copies in its first week, the best result for any 2022 TV anime according to Oricon, and the light novel spin-off Ordinary Days received a public endorsement from Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and sold over 250,000 combined physical and digital copies within about a month of release.

Character names in the series follow series creator Asaura's recurring habit of using flower names; Chisato's name derives from the legend of the Nishikigi-zuka and its 'thousand bundles' (chisato) of nishikigi branches, while Takina is a regional Western Japanese name for the hosta plant, reflecting her 'quiet person' flower meaning.

The opening theme 'Alive' by ClariS was described by group member Karen as a 'soul-throwing' song, marking what she called a new step for the duo, while it also received an instrumental variant used as an insert song in the final episode.