MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 11, RAINY DOGS

-----

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.

-----

title: 犬狼伝説 紅い足痕

(Kerberos Saga Rainy Dogs/ Red Footsteps)

release: 10/26/2005

publisher: Kadokawa Shoten

[contents]

00

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

THE KILLERS

afterword by Mamoru Sugiura

afterword by Mamoru Oshii

afterword by Kamui Fujiwara

[review]

This is a manga written by Mamoru Oshii. It is a sequel to Panzer Cop Part 2/ prequel to The Red Spectacles.

The artist was switched from Kamui Fujiwara to Mamoru Sugiura. Sugiura is an ex-assistant of Kamui Fujiwara. Rainy Dogs is Sugiura's first collected manga book. To be honest, Sugiura's art style and skill didn't get a good reputation compared to Kamui Fujiwara. Sugiura's art is more emotional than Fujiwara in a good way, but it's not as sophisticated as Fujiwara. His panel composition technique is sometimes pretty awful. Plus, the design of protect-gear was changed as well. The mask looks more like a dog than other designs. Oshii probably likes it, but it is not loved by Kerberos Saga fans that much.

The story is almost the same as Stray Dog.

As I explained in the review of PERSONA, Oshii intended to focus on Shigeru Chiba's Koichi at first. The title was "Kerberos's Island" at that time. Later, the protagonist was changed to Inui. The title was changed to Stray Dog.

Rainy Dogs is based on the original plot, so the protagonist is Koichi. On the day of the Kerberos Incident, Koichi was abandoned by a fellow member called Kurosaki. After the incident, Koichi went to China to find Kuro.

Kuro plays the role of Koichi and Koichi plays the role of Inui. Tang Mie doesn't appear.

Since it is a road-trip type of story, it doesn't have plot development. Like an episodic series, Koichi meets various people and sees various events in China.

It is not as boring as Stray Dog, but it doesn't have thrilling action like Panzer Cop. The dull atmosphere of Stray Dog can be seen in Rainy Dogs as well. Oshii tried a different type of metaphorical storytelling, but it didn't work well, unlike Stray Dog.

Stray Dog's metaphorical transition trick is awesome. It is a very simple match-cut, but it shows meta-fictional and multi-layered themes. The traditional alley of Taiwanese slam suddenly transforms into the '60s Japanese dark memory. That transition works because it is a real environment in Taiwan. The simple magic shows both the theme of the film and the modern Japanese problem at the same time. The real scenery of Taiwan was a very convincing device.

On the other hand, anime and manga creators have to create the environment from scratch. That can't make the magic like Stray Dog.

In that kind of sense, I recommend Stray Dog rather than this manga. At least, you should watch Stray Dog beforehand.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 10, TACHIGUISHI RETSUDEN

-----

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.

-----

title: 立喰師列伝

(Documentary of Showa Underground)

release: 02/26/2004

publisher: Kadokawa Shoten

[contents]

prologue

Beginning in the Illegal Market: Ginji the Tsukimi

The Sly Fox in Front of National Diet Building: Ogin the Kitsune-Croquette

The Nightmare of Tokyo Olympics: Inumaru the Whiner

The Yochinoya Attack: Gyugoro the Beef-Bowl

Struggle against Fast-Food: Tetsu the Hamburger

The Spectre of Disneyland: Tatsu the Frankfurter

Return from Asia: Sabu the Medium Spicy

[review]

This is an original novel from the Tachiguishi Retsuden series. It was serialized in a magazine called The Sneaker. Later, it was adapted into a "super live-animation" film. Oshii wrote the novel first because a film-adaptation project is more acceptable to producers than original stories. He was already preparing for the film when he wrote the novel.

I already wrote about Tachiguishi Retsuden in the review of "Thus Spoken Tachiguishi", so I don't have much to say about the novel. It is not so different from the film.

If you're good at reading Japanese, the novel version might be more recommendable than the film. Oshii put tons of technical terms and jargon into Tachiguishi Retsuden to create the traditional atmosphere. According to Thus Spoken Tachiguishi, Oshii rediscovered the beauty of the Japanese language by reading old writers' texts like Natsuhiko Yamamoto and Shin Hasegawa. He quoted their text a lot and tried to write beautiful Japanese in this series. And thus, the rhythm and nuance of the text are lost in translation. I once watched the subbed version of the film, but I found that the sub translator skipped most of the rhetorics and jargon. Those texts might be untranslatable but they're still very important elements of this series. The first half of Tachiguishi Retsuden is funny because Oshii uses so many meaningless rhetorics for mundane fast food.

In that kind of sense, Tachiguishi Retsuden is very Japanological, but it might have the highest language barrier among all Oshii's works.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 09, AVALON GREY LADY

-----

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.

-----

title: Avalon 灰色の貴婦人

(Avalon: Grey Lady)

release: 12/15/2000 (revised and reprinted on 03/01/2003, 05/02/2008)

publisher: Media Factory (revised and reprinted by Media Factory and Enterbrain)

[contents]

Tir na mBan

Grey Lady

Old Table

Preiddeu Annwfn

[review]

This is a novel version of Avalon.

Patlabor 2 Tokyo War was a director's cut in the novel form. Night of the Beast was a remake by Oshii. This Avalon is a sequel to the original film.

The story begins after Ash reached Class-SA. The protagonist is a mercenary called Cavall. He's usually called “308” after his .308 inch bullets. Unlike Ash, he doesn't play solo. He is hired by parties and plays for points.
The original story was set in Poland, but the novel version apparently takes place in Japan. The novel says that so many immigrants came to their country, so nationality doesn't matter anyway.

One day, Ash visits a Japanese server and hires the protagonist and two other players called Garland and Murai. Their mission is to clear the impossible level and reach Class-SA. The battle for Class-Real begins.

The plot structure is pretty similar to the films. Oshii sometimes uses similar characters or similar ideas in different series (The most obvious case is TNG Patlabor Gray Ghost.) Sometimes he reuses the canceled ideas of the original film, but other times he tries new ideas for the next film. In both cases, Oshii fans need to compare different series/films and analyze what he wants to do. I have to say it's not a very fun experience. Grey Lady still has a decent plot, so it's slightly better than other cult fictions.

Tokyo War, Night of the Beasts, and Grey Lady are pretty decent novels. After those three novels, Oshii gradually came into the cult phase.

Grey Lady brings a slightly cultic atmosphere when the protagonist explains JSDF's battle rifle called Howa Type 64. Oshii probably explained it to show the personality of a side character, but it is not related to the story at all. Those kinds of meaningless explanations and trivia dominate the pages of the later novels.

Food scenes are as great as always. The protagonist eats awful bread and cheap soup in a food supply station. They're low-quality food, but Oshii's text makes them look delicious.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 08, NIGHT OF THE BEASTS

-----

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.

-----

title: 獣たちの夜 BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE

(Night of the Beasts: BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE)

release: 11/01/2000 (reprinted on 07/10/2002)

publisher: Fujimi Shobo (reprinted by Kadokawa Shoten)

[contents]

Recognition

Organization

Maneuver

Partei

Gewalt

Sokatsu

[review]

Night of the Beasts is a spin-off novel based on BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE. It is Oshii's second novel.

It was already translated into English apparently, so I don't have much to say about it.

Let me explain the background of the series.

BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE started from Production IG's education program called Oshii-juku. Production IG had increased productivity, so they wanted to develop planning and scriptwriting resources for their original IP. Producer Ishikawa asked Oshii to educate young creators. Oshii already knew that a school-like teaching method doesn't work at all, so he started developing the actual anime project from the beginning.

About 10 people joined the program. Oshii gave a different theme to the students in each session, like "Hitler", "dogs", "a neighbor lady", and "family". After checking the texts and visuals of the document, he gave them scores.

When they were working on the "vampire" theme, Production IG decided to make a feature film based on their projects. Ishikawa asked Oshii to submit one project, so he mixed Kenji Kamiyama's idea and Junichi Fujisaki's idea. Kamiyama's world settings and Fujisaki's characters were merged into one project. Hiroyuki Kitakubo was chosen as a director because he joined Oshii-juku as an "advisor".

Oshii thought Kamiyama's script had a problem. However, Kitakubo convinced Oshii saying he's going to fix the problem. Oshii left the project after that. When Oshii first watched the film at the premiere, he realized that the script problem was not fixed at all.

Oshii gathered members and analyzed the film's problem. He was glad that Production IG managed to gain some merits from Oshii-juku, but he was unsatisfied with the film.

(Those stories are included in PERSONA enlarged version and COMPLETE WORKS Remix.)

That's the background of the BLOOD project. Before Oshii started making Avalon, he wrote the novelized version. Oshii made his version of Sayoko's story. He was still trying to write normal light novels in those days, so it is recommendable even to normal anime fans. (Later, his novels became cult items for enthusiasts.)

Unlike the original film, the novel version is based on Oshii's new-left movement experience. The protagonist is a high school boy called Rei Miwa. When you find a character called Rei in Oshii's fiction, it is Oshii's persona. Rei Maruwa was Oshii's other name in his early works, so he sometimes put characters called Rei. (Rei Maru-wa, all those three characters mean zero or circle, so it means OOO. Like XXX, it's an Alan Smithee-type name. BTW, the main villain of TNG Patlabor is called Rei Haibara, but that Rei is a woman. It reminds us of Oshii's remarks about the poltergeist. The spiritual gaze at him has a woman’s face, but she also looks like Oshii himself. It vaguely suggests that Rei Haibara is a variation of Oshii's <girl> symbols, like the red girl from The Red Spectacles.) Since Miwa belongs to the new-left movement, he gets into conflict with teachers and his parents. During the protest movement, he meets a weird monster and a highschool girl who slays the monster.

Some fans already know about Oshii's new-left experience and its impact on his anime. In this novel, Oshii honestly talks about that experience in the fictional form. Oshii himself once said that it was a bit tough to write about his own life.

It also includes another interesting theme: In the later works like Zombie Diary, Oshii came to depict the theme of "corpse". That was partly inspired by his sister's dance theme. Like dolls, corpses are purer than human beings because they lack intelligence and ego. He came to deal with the cultural aspects of corpses. If you marathon Oshii's works, you will realize that this novel is an important piece of Oshii's filmography/bibliography. That corpse theme is connected to Seraphim as well.

Plus, the food scene is important for Mamoru Oshii fans. Some reviewers curiously ignore this point, but Oshii has consistently depicted food in his anime/films. Soba is his icon, but he shows so many other foods. In the audio commentary of Beautiful Dreamer, he complained about the okonomi-yaki scene. Oshii ordered "Surpass Jarinko Chie" to animators, but he was disappointed at the result. Food scenes give a sense of vitality to Oshii's fiction, and Oshii himself knows that.

In this novel, the protagonist and other high school boys eat a lot of yakiniku-steak while a detective talks about corpses and vampires. That contrast is already funny and interesting. The food scene itself is well-depicted as well. When you read or re-watch Oshii's works, I recommend checking food scenes.
(Oshii says he loves Haruhiko Oyabu’s novels. He mentioned that he loves details of food in Oyabu’s novels are very important. He says the same thing about old Japanese films. Old Japanese films have a lot of food scenes. Those scenes influenced Oshii’s taste in the old days.)

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 07, PANZER COP PART 2

-----

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.

-----

title: 犬狼伝説 完結篇

(Kerberos Panzer Cop Part 2)

release: 02/01/2000 (reprinted on 02/16/2010)

publisher: Kadokawa Shoten (revised and reprinted by Gakken Plus)

[contents]

ACT 1

ACT 2

ACT 3

ACT 4

ACT 5

ACT 6

ACT 7

ACT 8

database

afterword by Mamoru Oshii

afterword by Kamui Fujiwara

a list of reference

staff list

[review]

As the title says, this is part 2 of Panzer Cop by Mamoru Oshii and Kamui Fujiwara. It is a later part of the same continuity, not a sequel. Due to publishers' financial issues and some other problems, this series was suspended for a long time. Thanks to JIN-ROH, it was restarted in Shonen Ace and concluded.

It finally focuses on Special Unit's revolt called "the Kerberos Incident" and the legendary three members' escape. Oshii also depicted the connection between Kerberos saga and Tachiguishi saga. (Both of them are very old projects. Oshii connected those two series from the time of The Red Spectacles. Tachiguishi's first appearance in Kerberos Saga was a voice play called Waiting for The Red Spectacles. Oshii released it in a radio show called Pair-Pair Animage. The original 1987 master was lost, so Oshii revised the script and re-recorded it in 2000. That new version is included in The Red Spectacles' soundtrack CD called Complete Revival.)

The Jin-Roh/ Werewolf unit first appears in this volume. One day, a member of the Special Unit killed a tachiguishi in a soba joint. Witnesses say that the murderer and the victim were quarreling about how they should eat soba. That sounds like a joke, but the investigative committee of the Special Unit finds an interesting fact about the murdered tachiguishi. He was once a trainee of the Special Unit. He was also a friend of the murderer. The committee suspects that the murderer is a member of a secret internal organization called Werewolf. The victim was probably a spy of the public security unit, so the Werwolf needed to kill him. This chapter shows that even the committee/ Special Unit members themselves don't know about Werewolf. Only the vice-captain called Handa controls the secret organization.

In the animated film, it was a bit difficult to understand Jin-roh/Werwolf unit because they don't explain much about it. This manga clearly shows that it is Handa's secret team.

Oshii also brought back the planetarium scene from the original script of Jin-Roh. In a planetarium, Tatsumi tells the fable of one stray dog. The dog licked Jesus's blood in the crucifixion scene. God came to turn dogs' souls into shooting stars after that. The same story is repeated in a manga called Harahara Tokei no Shoujo. Oshii says it is a very important scene to him.
(The fairy tale about the dog and God stems from Karel Čapek’s story called Nine Fairy Tales.)

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 06, PATLABOR TOKYO WAR

-----

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.

-----

title: 機動警察パトレイバー TOKYO WAR

(Mobile Police Patlabor Tokyo War)

release: 04/25/1994, 05/25/1994 (reprinted on 06/30/2005)

publisher: Fujimi Shobo (reprinted by Enterbrain)

[contents]

*original version

vol.1

Martial Law

Contact

Revolt

Summon

Counterattack

Battle

afterword by Mamoru Oshii

vol.2

Surprise Attack

Search Operation

Feint Operation

City of Birds

Confrontation

afterword by Kazunori Ito

[review]

This is a novelized version of Patlabor 2 the Movie written by Oshii himself. Since it is Oshii's first novel, it is pretty different from other Oshii's novels. It feels more like a normal light novel.

The basic plot and scenes are the same as the film version. Oshii had to cut non-plot-related scenes in the film due to a screen time issue. He brought back some of those scenes into the novel. It's like a "director's cut" in the novel form.

For example, Asuma was gambling at Noa's performance in the labor tests. That scene was deleted in the film.

Masami Yuki's idea was brought back as well. SV2 members talk about their changes and worries about the future in a restaurant. (It is shown in the illustration above) In that scene, Shinshi explains that Kaiho is trying to utilize patrol labor units as a tool for his political maneuver against JSDF. Noa regrets that she has never considered the social meaning of her job. It is a really good scene, and it truly feels like Yuki's Patlabor rather than Oshii. It also builds up to Noa's iconic line in the car.

Oshii also added a scene where Goto and Arakawa eat soba at a small soba joint. It is Oshii's signature joke, but Arakawa talks about a serious issue in this scene. He explains JSDF's budget and food problem in the martial law situation. Mobilized troops consume tons of food and fuel every day, but they don't have specific targets nor missions in the current situation. They have to just consume resources in the cold without any purpose. Arakawa says, "They will doubt what they're protecting from whom. Purposeless armies always self-destruct." That was probably inspired by a discussion about JSDF from a book called "Wordmap: War". The political theme of P2 is shown in that scene. Japanese people have to give purposes and vision to JSDF. We should consider why we have armed forces. The discussion about food budget was probably inspired by Masaki Yamada’s novel called “Kyoei no Toshi”.

There're two versions of this book. The first edition is a two-volume set of bunko format books. The new edition is a one-volume collected book. The later version doesn't include the illustration by Jun Sumie.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 05, DRAGON RETRIEVER

-----

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.

-----

title: 西武新宿戦線異状なし

(Dragon Retriever)

release: 02/01/1994 (Complete Edition: 05/01/2002)

publisher: Nihon Shuppansha (Complete Edition: Kadokawa Shoten)

[contents]

*Complete Edition

ACT 1

ACT 2

ACT 3

ACT 4

ACT 5

ACT 6

ACT 7

ACT 8

ACT 9

ACT 10

ACT 11

ACT 1 1/2

tips about ACT 1 1/2 by Yasuyuki Ohno

analysis of M32B1 Kai

character design sheets by Yasuyuki Ohno

character sketch by Mamoru Oshii

afterword by Yasuyuki Ohno

[review]

This is a manga series written by Oshii and drawn by Yasutomo Ohno.

The story takes place in alternate Japan where a civil war and a schism occurred. It doesn't explain much about the background. The protagonist says that JSDF launched a coup like the Patlabor OVA’s episodes. The war fell into a deadlock, and people got used to the endless suspension.

The protagonist is a high school boy who loves tanks. He joined a voluntary army to become a tank soldier. However, he was assigned to a weird ARV/ Armoured Recovery Vehicle unit. The members are undisciplined, almost rogue soldiers. They steal food and luxury items from abandoned buildings and sell them to illegal markets. The protagonist didn't like their behaviors, but he gradually got used to them.

One day, a beautiful female political-commissar gives them a secret order. Their new mission is to retrieve "something" that the US army left in Japan. The protagonist and the ARV unit go on a journey to find the US army's secret item.

It was written by Oshii, so naturally, it has a dog metaphor. This manga focuses on a "tank retriever", and Oshii put the "fetch and retrieve" metaphor into it. In the final chapter, Oshii put a short text about dogs' autonomy. Dogs sometimes think that their owners might take away the toys. That kind of dogs' autonomy is compared to the protagonist's decision at the end. (That part was quoted from Vicki Harne’s book called “Adam’s Task”. Oshii likes this book so much. He even tried to quote it in JIN-ROH.)

Oshii is not an animator nor manga artist, so he needs to team up with other artists. Like Kazuchika Kise or Mizuho Nishikubo, he always employs the same group of people in anime projects. Oshii himself says it is easier to make anime with the same team.

In manga, however, Oshii teams up with a different artist every time. That style has its own merits and flaws. Oshii's manga is unpredictable in terms of art style and quality.

Oshii and Ohno are probably the best pair in his career. Ohno is good at military manga, so he fully understands Oshii's military tastes and turns them into realistic visuals. Plus, his characters' facial expression is very lively, comical, and charming. (Kamui's art is sophisticated and gorgeous, but it's too dry as Oshii said.)

Dragon Retriever is probably one of Oshii's best works. The action, drama, political suspense, and Oshii's metaphorical philosophy are well-balanced. It's recommendable even to non-Oshii fans.

There are two versions of this manga. The complete edition includes a side story written in 2002.

*This manga was originally drawn by Kazuhisa Kondo. Kondo’s Dragon Retriever was serialized in a magazine called B-CLUB, but it was canceled for some reason. It was never collected into a book, so it’s a bit difficult to read Kondo’s version today.