MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 04, PANZER COP

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There're some Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they don't have detailed explanations about the contents. My Mamoru Oshii book collection is far from complete, but I'd like to write some short summaries for each of those books.

I apologize in advance for grammatical errors and misinformation.

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title: 犬狼伝説

(Kerberos Panzer Cop)

release: 12/20/1990 (revised and reprinted on 11/20/1993, 06/01/1999, 09/01/2000, 02/16/2010)

publisher: Nihon Shuppannsha (revised and reprinted by Nihon Shuppansha, Kadokawa Shoten, Gakken Plus)

[contents]

*the original 1990 version

Introduction

ACT 1

ACT 2

ACT 3

ACT 4

database and design sheets of Kerberos universe

essay by Ei Takatori

script of ACT 3

analysis by Junichi Tomonari

afterword by Mamoru Oshii

afterword by Kamui Fujiwara

reference list

staff list

[review]

A publisher called Dark Horse already released an English version of Panzer Cop, so I don't have much to explain to hardcore Oshii fans.

Let me talk about the background of Kerberos Saga for beginners.

Kerberos Saga started from a live-action film called The Red Spectacles. Oshii didn't intend to make a series at that time. After the film release, an editor called Kazuya Shioiri asked for a manga series about armor from the film. The armor called “protect gear” was so cool that the editor was interested in it. Panzer Cop started from that proposal. It is a prequel to The Red Spectacles.

Oshii was influenced by Daisuke Sato and military-simulation novels in those days, so he wrote Panzer Cop in the political/ military fiction style. Weapons and equipment are German-style just because Oshii loves them. (Yutaka Izubuchi, the original designer of the protect-gear was a fan of German weapons, so Oshii intentionally asked him to design German-style armor.) The alternate history was used as an excuse for German-style. Later, Oshii criticized himself saying that sci-fi shouldn't reflect creators' personal tastes. Anyway, he decided to make a realistic military-manga with Kamui Fujiwara.

Act1 and Act2 were released in a very obscure, elitist manga magazine called "Amazing Comics", but the magazine was canceled soon. Later, Acts 1 to 4 were released in Nihon Shuppansha's legendary military-manga magazine called "Combat Comic". However, the story was not finished in Act4. Oshii started shooting Stray Dog around that time, so Panzer Cop was suspended for a while. The series was completed in Panzer Cop Part2.

The story is set in an alternate Japan that was once occupied by Germany. Germany plays the role of the U.S.A. in this series. Like GHQ tried in real history, Germany founded a new police organization in Japan. They needed to fight against the armed communists called "sect", so they also established another armed police force called Special Unit. It was supposed to be a deterrent force against other police organizations as well. In this era, many Japanese police officers wanted to bring back the old centralized police-system, so the German government needed to restrain them. And thus, the head members of the Special Unit are former members of the Imperial Japanese Army, not from the police. The Special Unit is, in a sense, a descendant of the Imperial Japanese Army.

On the other hand, a public security officer called Bunmei Muroto was formerly in Home Ministry. The Imperial Japanese army and Home Ministry traditionally didn't like each other. (The same theme can be seen in Patlabor films as well.) The latter half of Panzer Cop focuses on their political conflicts.

In other words, Panzer Cop is a story of a battle between the specter of the old army and the old bureaucrats. In Panzer Cop Part 2, Special Unit launches a coup and gets destroyed. It becomes the dogs’ tragedy.

Oshii metaphorically called them Shinsengumi or Yoshitsune. He means that Panzer Cop is a story of losers. He knows that Japanese people love the losers' stories.

Oshii also put an ideological metaphor of the new-left movement (and probably the Mishima incident) into the story. The mixture of leftist ideology and militarism is not so uncommon. For example, Kaiji Kawaguchi mixed 2.26 Incident and anti-emperor ideology in a manga called 血染めの紋章. The same can be said to Panzer Cop. The specter of the Imperial Japanese Army is, paradoxically, a metaphor of left activists at the same time. The Special Unit and the Sect: the two conflicting groups are metaphors of the same thing.

There're five versions of this manga. The original version is an ISO-B5-size book. As far as I know, only that version includes Tomonari Junichi's analytical essay.

The second one is a smaller ISO-A5 version. It doesn't include the database and the design sheets.

The third one is from the Kamui Fujiwara Manga Collection series. The format is ISO-B6, so it's even smaller than the second version.

The fourth one is a collected book of Panzer Cop and Panzer Cop Part2. It includes a CD of a voice-play as well. It is pretty difficult to get that version today.

The fifth version is a two-volume set of Panzer Cop/ Panzer Cop Part 2. That version is digitally remastered and revised by Kamui Fujiwara himself, so it is the most recommendable version. It also includes some extra interviews.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 03, ANGEL'S EGG: GIRL SEASON

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There're some Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they don't have detailed explanations about the contents. My Mamoru Oshii book collection is far from complete, but I'd like to write some short summaries for each of those books.

I apologize in advance for grammatical errors and misinformation.

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title: 天使のたまご 少女季

(Angel's Egg: Girl Season)

release: 12/01/1985 (reprinted on 01/01/2004, revised on 02/25/2017)

publisher: Tokuma Shoten (revised by Fukkan.com)

[contents]

Angel's Egg: Girl Season

afterword by Yoshitaka Amano (2007 version)

[review]

This is an illustrated spin-off story of Angel's Egg.

The illustration was done by Yoshitaka Amano himself. Those illustrations are different from the imageboards of the anime. The text-part was written by Ristuko Araki. According to Amano's afterword, Oshii just gave a few pieces of advice on the editorial design, but most parts were made by Amano and Araki.

So, I can call it is purely Amano's version of Angel’s Egg. If you only care about Oshii's works, I don't recommend it to you.

Amano's images and Araki's text are brighter and more otherworldly than Oshii's world. I personally prefer Oshii's Angel's Egg to this book, but the girl’s aesthetics fit the book’s world rather than Oshii's world.

The boy doesn't appear in this version. Fishermen either. It focuses solely on the girl. And Amano added a few original characters like clowns.

Oshii depicted the scene of the crushed egg with a very dark and sad atmosphere, but Amano put a "rebirth" image into the crushed egg. Right before the crushed egg illustration, Araki wrote "I don't need the egg anymore". While Oshii's girl has a dependent nature, Amano and Araki's version shows a different character type. She has agency. She is independent. As a protagonist of a fantasy story, Amano and Araki’s girl is more likable. In other words, Oshii’s interest was not in her agency.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 02, IN THE END...

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There're some Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they don't have detailed explanations about the contents. My Mamoru Oshii book collection is far from complete, but I'd like to write some short summaries for each of those books.

I apologize in advance for grammatical errors and misinformation.

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title: とどのつまり…

(In the End...)

release: 11/20/1985 (reprinted on 03/10/2004)

publisher: Tokuma Shoten

[review]

This is a manga written by Mamoru Oshii and drawn by Yuji Moriyama. Yuji Moriyama is a good animator, but he is not a manga creator. The visual quality is not so good compared to other Oshii manga drawn by professional manga creators.

Oshii's Lupin III project was canceled right before the manga, so some ideas from Lupin III were brought to it.

It's a story of a young guy who believes that he's an animator. One day, he meets a mysterious boy. He is called an ALICE/ “unregistered kid”. In this world, whoever harbored ALICEs is arrested by the armed police called CARDS for unknown reasons. The protagonist runs away with the ALICE and hides in an anime studio. He knows that there is an anti-government animator group called CATS, so he tries to rely on them. However, any of those animators don't reveal their identity. They say "CATS doesn't exist because it shouldn't. You can't join a non-existing group." The protagonist still tries to join CATS, but the animators get killed by CARDS. The protagonist runs away to another anime studio.

Even in the second studio, animators and a director don't reveal CATS' information. Suddenly, the protagonist realizes that he sucks at drawing. He was not an animator. Moreover, he realizes that he doesn't remember who he is, what job/role he does.

After some battles and conversation, he comes up with one theory. CATS never existed from the beginning. The protagonist believed CATS because the animators behaved like they're hiding something. They manipulated him to believe CATS. The anime creators made up an image of the non-existing organization by keeping the protagonist ignorant. The whole world is like one big role-play.

In the climax, however, real CATS members appear. Even the dead animators from the first studio come back. The protagonist is forced to join the protest movement like a new-left group and charge into CARDS troops. The fiction/dream suddenly becomes real. He regrets that he has to join the battle before knowing his own identity. He has to fight without any motivation nor necessity.

After an explosion, he falls into the sky (like Beautiful Dreamer) and wakes up in a bath. The whole story was just a dream. However, the director of the second studio shows up in the bath. He says "You can't run away by making it into a dream. Everyone has to play their role even in the 'reality'. Your reality is the fiction. You're just a dumbass actor who forgot your role. The boy called ALICE is your <motivation>, and I am a <director>."

As Oshii fans already noticed, this manga includes various elements from other Oshii's works, like Urusei Yatsura, Dallos, The Red Spectacles, Talking Head, Panzer Cop, etc. Even the airship symbol already appears in this manga. It is a chaotic mixture of Oshii's dreams and symbols.

Oshii has repeatedly said that Angel's Egg is the archetype of his works, but this manga feels more like an "archetype" to me. If I was to use Oshii's phrase, I’d call it "pure bean paste without a cake". I'm not sure if it is a fun manga to read, but it is recommendable to Oshii fans.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 01, THE FATHERS

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There're some Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they don't have detailed explanations about the contents. My Mamoru Oshii book collection is far from complete, but I'd like to write some short summaries for each of those books.

I apologize in advance for grammatical errors and misinformation.

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title: 父たち 「うる星やつら」番外編

(The Fathers: Urusei Yatsura Side Story)

included in: 少年サンデーグラフィック うる星やつらNo.3

(Shonen Sunday Graphic: Urusei Yatsura No.3)

release: 09/12/1982

publisher: Shogakukan

[review]

This is Urusei Yatsura spin-off manga written by Mamoru Oshii and drawn by Akemi Takada.

The story focuses on Lum's father and Ataru's father. Oshii depicts their friendship, sadness, and resentment. It is a very short manga, but it somehow feels very Oshii. Oshii repeatedly said that he tried to bring his manliness into Rumiko Takahashi's very feminine world. He almost confronted and tried to deconstruct Rumic World. This manga typically shows Oshii's attempt.

In the audio commentary of Beautiful Dreamer, Oshii also said that he likes Ataru's mom. Her ordinary atmosphere underpins Urusei's chaotic world. That structure was inherited by Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai, I guess.

MAMORU OSHII book review [extra] unreviewed nonfiction books

-----

There're some Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they don't have detailed explanations about the contents. My Mamoru Oshii book collection is far from complete, but I'd like to write some short summaries for each of those books.

I apologize in advance for grammartical errors and misinformation.

-----

My reviews lack some nonfiction books, so I'd like to introduce them with short comments.

The Sky Crawlers Storyboard

It is an ordinary full storyboard book. Oshii even stopped to care about timing in this storyboard.

It includes an interview with Oshii. He talks about his shot composition principle and Tarkovsky's influence on his films. 

The Sky Crawlers Design Sheets Collection

This is a mechanic/ character/ environment design sheets collection of The Sky Crawlers. Tetsuya Nishio fans should get it. It doesn't include any interview page. Short explanations are written beside some sheets, but they don't help much to analyze the film. I suppose it's a book for creators.

Mamoru Oshii Shoots Assault Girls

This is an interview collection of Assault Girls. It covers interviews with Mamoru Oshii, shooting staff, visual effects staff, and actors. It also includes a manga epilogue drawn by Kamui Fujiwara. Fujiawara's assault girls are cute, so I'm glad to get it.

The Reality of Wars

Mamoru Oshii talks about weapons and wars with a military commentator called Isaku Okabe. It covers WW2, Iraq War, JSDF, main fighter aircraft, Japanese maritime security policy, etc. Oshii's imagination and comments lack information accuracy, so I really don't recommend it. Even if you don't expect accuracy, it is not a fun book to read.

Enrage the Half of the World

It is another collection of Oshii's e-newsletters. This volume doesn't cover any anime topics, so anime fans don't need to read it. He just talks about politics and current issues. It's not worth money.

I Have Always Loved Kaiju

It is a kaiju essay written by a sculptor of The Red Spectacles. He talks with Oshii at the end of the book. Oshii talks about his canceled kaiju film project called "D". He wanted to show the metaphor of the USA's indiscriminate bombing by flying kaiju. That project is mentioned in Mechaphilia too.

I Don't Need Communication

At some point, Oshii started to release this type of self-help books. I don't recommend them. Here are titles of the similar books.

押井守のニッポン人って誰だ!?

ひとまず、信じない　情報氾濫時代の生き方

押井守の人生のツボ

凡人として生きるということ

友だちはいらない。

やっぱり友だちはいらない。

"How to Win" series

Oshii loves football/soccer. This series started as an essay about soccer and strategy, but it was somehow changed into a film essay series. The series includes four books:

How to Win (勝つために戦え! ): This is an essay collection about soccer and strategy

How to Win, Director Chapters (勝つために戦え！ 監督篇): This is an essay collection about film directors

How to Win, Outspoken Criticism Against Film Directors (監督稼業めった斬り 勝つために戦え！): This is an enlarged version of the second book

How to Win, The Director Screams (勝つために戦え！監督ゼッキョー篇): Another essay collection about film directors

Oshii tells his thoughts on his inspiration sources like Tarkovsky. He mentions why he lost interest in Tarkovsky in that part. Some Oshii fans might enjoy them.

There are some other essay books about films.

押井守監督が語る映画で学ぶ現代史

押井守の映画50年50本

仕事に必要なことはすべて映画で学べる

シネマの神は細部に宿る

JIN-ROH SPECIAL COMIC, WEEKLY JIN-ROH

It's a collection of 1-panel essay manga series written by Tetsuya Nishio. Production IG serialized it on their website to promote JIN-ROH. It is not directly related to Oshii himself, but he sometimes appears in the manga. Oshii used to grow a beard in those days, so he was called "guru" by the staff. It's a cute and interesting manga.
It is an important manga to Patlabor fans as well. According to a certain dojin, the project of Minipato actually started from this manga:
Tetsuya Nishio depicted himself like Nanami from JIN-ROH in this manga. Nanami was called Jibaku-chan by the staff. The Jibaku-chan's 1-panel manga became popular, so Production IG decided to make some short anime with Jibaku-chan. That project somehow turned into a spin-off of Patlabor series. That's Minipato.
*It is included in JIN-ROH DVD box DTS edition

Patlabor Chronicle

It's a revised version of Takarajima's magazine called Patlabor Perfect Book. Most of the contents are just a summary of the series, so you don't need to buy it. The interviews with Headgear members are a bit helpful when you analyze the background of Patlabor series.

Shonen Sunday Graphic Patlabor: New World of Masami Yuuki

It is another Shonen Sunday Graphic issue. This volume covers Patlabor the Movie. It doesn't include much new information, so you don't need to read it. Some of the contents were reprinted in other books anyway.

It mainly focuses on storyboard, screen captures, and design sheets.

It also includes interviews with voice actors. 

Patlabor OVA & TVA Archives

It is another extra item of Patlabor DVD limited edition. The DVD covers the OPs, EDs, previews, and some special videos from Patlabor OVA/TV series. 

Like the Movie Archives, it contains interviews from Patlabor Digital Library. It also covers Oshii's canceled storyboard of ep1 (The same thing is included in the 30th-anniversary brochure.)

It also includes newsletters called P-CLUB.

The other parts are short summaries of OVA/TV episodes.

It is not a recommendable item compared to Movie Archives.

Production I.G 1988-2002

It is an interview collection of Production I.G.

It includes an interview with Mamoru Oshii and Kazuchika Kise. They talked about the meaning of loli Motoko's last smile in GitS. Oshii didn't tell anything to Kise, but Kise intended a "devilish" smile. Motoko can be both angel and devil in that scene. Oshii agreed with Kise's interpretation.

Five Bullets on KILLERS

It is an interview book with five directors from an omnibus film called Killers.
Oshii has been a chair judge of a film competition called Gun-Action Movie Competition. “Killers” was planned as a promotional film for the competition winners. For the advertisement of the young creators, Oshii joined the project and made one of the five parts. The title is ".50 Woman"
In the interview, Oshii says that the commercial insert in .50 Woman is not supposed to be a comedy.

Shin Onna Tachiguishi Retsuden: script, storyboard, and booklet

These are a booklet of DVD Collectors' Box and a script book. Both of them include nothing special. If you want to collect all of Oshii's storyboards, you should get it. Making and interview videos in the extra DVDs are much more important.

Kill: storyboard and booklet

These are a storyboard and a booklet of DVD Special Collectors' Edition. They're almost the same as Shin Onna Tachiguishi Retsuden.

Assault Girls: storyboard and booklet

These are a storyboard and a booklet of DVD Special Collectors' Edition. The books are boring, but a making video in the extra disc is interesting.

Sansara Naga 1x2 Guide Book

It is a walkthrough guide of Sansara Naga 1x2 Game Boy remake version. It includes an interview with Mamoru Oshii about video games. He says that unsatisfaction with console games is the starting point of Sansara Naga project. He doesn't like powering up characters in games because he doesn't like that most games don't tell why they become stronger. That's why he put the eating system into Sansara Naga. He also doesn't like the "chosen one" cliche, so he made the protagonist into an ordinary person. He also says that level design is so difficult.

The books I don't own

The storyboard of Beautiful Dreamer (うる星やつら記録全集 演出資料編):

The storyboard of BD is included in a certain dojin, but that dojin is one of the rarest Oshii items. I really hope someone reprint it.

Patlabor Perfect Database (パトレイバー完全設定資料集):

This is a design sheet collection series of Patalbor. It is not too rare, but it is too expensive. Vol.1 is sold for more than 9000 yen.

Storyboard of Talking Head (Talking Head 絵コンテ集):

A storyboard of Talking Head was apparently sold only in theaters. It's available on some web-auctions. It's a bit expensive, so I didn't buy it. 

books about The Sky Crawlers (スカイ・クロラ オフィシャルガイド):

Official guidebooks of The Sky Crawlers. I'm personally not interested in those books.

Directing Method of Animation Film (アニメーション映画の演出術 押井守監督作品『スカイ・クロラ』にみる映像技法):

This is a textbook of Oshii's directing method, apparently. The book format and the visual materials are too small, so I didn't buy it.

Key Animation Sheet Collection: Ghost in the Shell (GHOST IN THE SHELL / 攻殻機動隊 原画集 -Archives-)

A key animation sheet collection of GitS. It includes correction requests, apparently. 

Mamoru Oshii's Video Diary series (押井守の映像日記):

A film and TV show essay series

*My Mamoru Oshii collection mainly consists of post-2000 books and magazines, so I don't know much about '80s items. Please let me know if I missed some important items.

Plus, I don't have theater merch like brochures.

MAMORU OSHII book review [nonfiction] Part 39, THE RED SPECTACLES SOUNDTRACKS

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There are several Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they do not provide detailed descriptions of their contents. My collection of Mamoru Oshii books is not yet complete, but I would like to write a short summary for each of those books.

I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors or incorrect information.

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title: 紅い眼鏡 Complete Revival

(The Red Spectacles Original Soundtrack)

release: 03/24/2010

publisher: King Record

[contents]

essay, "A Certain Composer's Dry Laugh" by Kenji Kawai

comment on each soundtrack by Kenji Kawai

prose, "The Story of a Man Who Was Once a Dog" by Mamoru Oshii

comment by Shigeharu Shiba

backgrounds of the film

[review]

These are liner notes of The Red Spectacle soundtrack CD.

Kenji Kawai's essay is so funny and interesting, but I'd like to focus on Mamoru Oshii's prose. It clearly shows Oshii's intention in The Red Spectacles.

The Story of A Man Who Was Once A Dog

It was about 20 years ago. He was a high school student. He never dreamed that he was a dog, but in fact, he was a dog.

He hated school, education, and even the whole world. Every morning he got on the train, but he couldn't get off at the transfer station. He made it a routine to take the circle commuter line several times a day while indulging in delusions. He kept going around and around like a stray beast. Each time he went around, he got further away from the reality. As he watched people around him hurriedly getting on and off the train, it felt strange that only he had no purpose. Then, hunger attacked him relentlessly and drove away his bubbling imagination. Soba noodles were not widely available in those days. He had no choice but to devour bread and daifuku on sides of roads.
He sometimes felt he was like a stray dog. For a long time, he could not escape from that "circular motion between delusion and appetite." The centrifugal force finally launched the day-dreamer in the tangential direction and made him switch to a private train. He got off at a strange station and continued walking along the banks of an unknown river, devouring oden and okonomiyaki from street stalls. His home town was a blur on the other side of the river. His school was even further away. He couldn't even tell where his house was anymore.

In the fall of that year, a man died on a bridge not far from his house.
The world suddenly turned excited after that incident.
He started barking. He went to school aggressively, almost just to find someone to bark at.
He barked so loudly that the teacher called him and his parents.
When the teacher said, "Your son is a dog", the mother whined. "I didn't know you're a dog." The father barked. "How dare you become a dog!"
He felt like he obtained a pedigree as a stray dog. "Now I'm officially a dog. Then I'll bark and bark. I'll bite anyone. I can do that because I am a dog."
He was completely isolated in the classroom. However, there was, at least, one dog in every classroom. They soon joined together and formed a pack. Since there was nowhere else to stay, they spent the day lounging around on top of the school building.
The clouds were beautiful. He thought the sky would keep him away from looking at the unpleasant reality on the ground.
He had a feeling that his turn would come soon.
All the dogs believed that they would bite ferociously when it came.

The following summer.
He was looking down at the ground with a few friends from a tall building in the central Tokyo.
An older dog barked that the war would start soon and that the whole city would become a battlefield. He had been dazzled by the fantasy that his school and home would crumble in red flames, so he easily believed the older dog's words. Strangely enough, he had no fear or regret.

"It's going to happen. It must happen. If it doesn't happen, I will be in a big trouble." Another fellow dog mumbled with a straight face.
The city was full of dogs.
Dogs were everywhere, in movie theaters, in coffee shops, on train platforms, and in soba noodle shops.
If they all rise up at once, he thought, there will surely be a war. When it happens, the game is ours.
He didn't care if he would win or lose. He knew he would die instantly in the first attack.
He had become a perfect dog.
A few years passed.
There were several conflicts in the city, and a large number of dogs were captured. However, there was no war.
He was still a dog, waiting for the call to arms. He spent most of his time in movie theaters. Some dogs were still barking on screens.
A few more years passed and still no war. He thought it might be a bad idea and felt a little sorry for himself for waiting so long. He was embarrassed like an actor who had put on all the makeup and costumes and never got to play. In that era, no one cared the fact that he was a dog.
He went out into the world. He got a job, fell in love, ate, bought a house with a mortgage, and in short, did everything a human being does. More years have passed, and people have almost completely forgotten the fact that the streets were once filled with dogs. Before we noticed it, we had entered the age of <cats>, the animals who forget everything after three steps.
He still prefers the darkness of movie theaters and soba stalls. Some people say that it is just a remnant of his dog habits, but he doesn't think so.
He's still a dog even today.

He no longer waits for orders.

MAMORU OSHII book review [nonfiction] Part 38, MAMORU OSHII'S FIELD NOTES

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There're some Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they don't have detailed explanations about the contents. My Mamoru Oshii book collection is far from complete, but I'd like to write some short summaries for each of those books.

I apologize in advance for grammatical errors and misinformation.

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title: Mamoru Oshii's Field Notes

included in: 押井守シネマ・トリロジー 初期実写作品集

(Mamoru Oshii Cinema Trilogy)

release: 02/25/2003

publisher: Tokyo News Service

[contents]

The Red Spectacles

background

proposal document (final version)

unpublished document

script of an early version (extract)

shooting diary

script of "Directing The Red Spectacles"

interview with Kenji Kawai

screen captures

Stray Dog

fake documentary: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Came to Shoot Dog Films

an essay by Ryusuke Hikawa

interview with Yosuke Mamiya

screen captures

Talking Head

anime-production terminology from Talking Head

background

storyboard for proposal

storyboard of the anime part

short interview with Yoshinori Kanada

interview with Shigeru Chiba

an essay by Ryota Fujitsu

<review>

This is an extra item of a DVD collection, which covers Oshii's early live-action films.

To Oshii enthusiasts, this book is very important. I'd like to explain some of the details.

background of The Red Spectacles

Oshii already talked about it in PERSONA, but more detailed information is told in this book.

The Red Spectacles started from a project of Shigeru Chiba's vinyl: Shigeharu Shiba, the sound director of Urusei Yatsura, decided to release some promotional items of Shigeru Chiba (Oshii says in other books that Chiba was pretty popular in those days.) Shiba asked Oshii to write some lyrics for that vinyl.

However, they wanted to make it a bigger project. They decided to shoot a drama with a VTR camera. Somehow it was changed to a feature film with a 16mm film camera. When a camera op called Yosuke Mamiya joined the project, he advised them to shoot it with 35mm film. (Mamiya actually came to stop the project, but he got interested in it.) 16mm film looks cheap in theaters, so Mamiya didn't want to use it. Kazunori Ito joined and said he wanna do tokusatsu. The project became bigger and bigger. Shiba had some budget problems because of that.

Oshii had two ideas for the film. The first one is pretty close to the final version. The second one is a parody of Nikkatsu's Rambling Guitarist series. Oshii talked about the second idea in Panzer Cops Tokyo War.

proposal document

According to a note, the red girl was the "yellow" girl in the first document. It was changed to red in the final version. That fact connects The Red Spectacles with Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai.

unpublished document

Oshii and Ito explain the concept of The Red Spectacles in this document. They mention the decline of Japanese films and the excessive VFX in Western films. Oshii declares that he revives a tradition of entertainment films. A hero of an entertainment film needs some frameworks of the genre, like Nikkatsu's program pictures. However, those kinds of genre frameworks were already lost. And thus, they need to make up a “non-existing genre framework”. The Red Spectacles is "a side story of non-existing sci-fi action series". They tried to conceptualize the non-existing thing by making a sequel. That "non-existing things come to reality by portraying derivatives" philosophy can be seen in many Oshii films.

script

This script is not so different from the film, but it includes a hidden scene where Koichi sings with Muroto, Ao, and Midori at karaoke. According to the book, that scene was shot, but Oshii had to cut it for the screen time issue. Some of the lyrics were reused in a voice play called Waiting for The Red Spectacles, but the melody was changed at that time.

a script of "Directing The Red Spectacles"

This is Oshii's script from Image Forum magazine 1987 March issue. The story takes place at the filming site of The Red Spectacles. It focuses on a conversation between Mamoru Oshii and Kazunori Ito. They talk about a very meta-fictional theme.

Oshii says, he wants to shoot the situation including the shooting staff. Ito points out that they would need unrealistic time and money to do so, but that's not the point of Oshii's argument. Oshii says that, in anime, they have to prepare all the environments and characters from scratch. They usually need so much effort to build realistic fake images.

On the other hand, the true reality should be there in the live-action shooting site. However, if they tried to shoot it, that would just make another fictional situation. At first, Oshii thought that the filming site is real. They were shooting the fiction in the real environment. However, when Oshii imagined shooting the filming site, he realized that even that place is very fictional. The film staff was not shooting the fiction. The staff themselves were playing fictional roles. Oshii realized that fact and got shocked.

Ito says that Oshii is "a drawing artist who is overwhelmed by canvas".

I think "An artist who is overwhelmed by canvas" is a perfect explanation of Oshii's earlier phase.

interview with Kenji Kawai

According to Kawai, Oshii requested a soundtrack like Carmina Burana in The Red Spectacles. Kawai listened to it and made the soundtrack of the trailer. Oshii liked it, so he requested the same type of music. According to Kawai, Oshii said that he did "Godard" style in The Red Spectacles.

As for the soundtracks of Stray Dog, Naoko Asari requested something like Lee Ritenour's Color Rit. It was different from Oshii's initial idea.

In Talking Head, Oshii requested jazz. Kawai decided to add shehnai sound into it. He