MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 13, THE GIRL OF HARAHARA TOKEI

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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: ケルベロスX立喰師 腹腹時計の少女

(Kerberos X Tachiguishi: The Girl of Harahara Tokei)

release: 12/01/2007

publisher: Tokuma Shoten

[contents]

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

Act 6

afterword by Hiroshi Mori

afterword by Mamoru Oshii

[review]

The Girl of Harahara Tokei is a manga written by Mamoru Oshii and drawn by Mamoru Sugiura. It is pretty difficult to explain this series. Oshii nerd level probably reaches the max in this manga, so let me explain step by step.

The story is set in alternate Japan. After Germany's occupation, armed police called "Special Unit" got into a political conflict with Public Security Unit.

The main character is a girl called Ogin. She appears as one of the far-left bomb mules called "Little Red Riding Hood". One day, she is captured by Special Unit soldiers. She undergoes interrogations, but she speaks nothing.

Public Security Unit takes her from Special Unit and makes her into a spy against the far-left group.

After so many missions against the left activists, she is ordered to become intimate with a Special Unit member called Ichiro. A big battle between Special Unit and Public Security Unit begins.

According to Oshii's afterword, his initial motivation was to portray Ogin again. Ogin is his original character from a very old anime. She first appears in Gyakuten Ippatsuman (1982). She was featured again in Urusei Yatsura (1984).

Her character was finally established in Tachiguishi Retsuden (2006). Oshii put a new-left propagandist image into her at that time. After Tachiguishi Retsuden, he got interested in her origin. He thought she was once in "Zengakuren", a far-left college students' organization.

He decided to connect that origin story with JIN-ROH. Nanami and Kei from JIN-ROH are far-left activists, so he merged those two girls and Ogin. In other words, he made a sort of reboot with Kerberos Universe and Tachiguishi Universe. I said "reboot" because Oshii himself says that this manga is a retrial of JIN-ROH. Okiura changed the script into his own story, so Oshii wanted to make another JIN-ROH.

The title, Harahara Tokei, shows Oshii's stance in the manga. Harahara Tokei is a title of a real book written by a far-left group called Okami/ "Wolf Cell". Wolf Cell is one of the so-called "non-sect radical" groups. The members bombed several buildings in the 1970s and got arrested. Before they got arrested, they released some ideological books. Those books include instructions like how to make black powder bombs. It's similar to The Anarchist Cookbook, but the political context is pretty different. There is an English Wikipedia page for the book.

Anime fans remember that the wolf symbol was important in JIN-ROH. That symbol came after the dog symbol in Kerberos Saga. Okiura requested a main heroine in JIN-ROH, so Oshii had to think of a story about a dog and a girl. The combination of a dog and a girl reminded Oshii of the little red riding hood. That’s why he changed the dog symbol to the wolf.

On the other hand, The Girl of Harahara Tokei deals with Wolf Cell/ terrorists. The wolf symbol is given to the anti-authority side, so the thesis/ antithesis are inverted. In the manga, Ogin/ the little red riding hood sometimes looks like a wolf. In the last chapter, Ogin and Ichiro are symbolized by a pair of wolves.

To me, it looks like Oshii put a symbolic game around the wolves and dogs into this manga. That's why I said it is very difficult to talk about it. Plus, it is not a straight entertainment manga. It's difficult to enjoy this manga without background knowledge. I recommend reading it after marathoning all the Kerberos saga and Tachiguishi saga.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 12, PAX JAPONICA

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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: 雷轟 rolling thunder PAX JAPONICA

release: 04/12/2006

publisher: Enterbrain

[contents]

novel part

Antietam, 1862

YAMATO station, 1969

afterword

essay part

TOKYO Fortification Project

PAX JAPONICA, Melancholy of the Hegemonic Power

The World of PAX JAPONICA: interview with Mamoru Oshii

commentary by Isaku Okabe

[review]

PAX JAPONICA is Oshii's new novel series, and Rolling Thunder is supposedly the first volume of that series.

Oshii intends to make a long saga like Kerberos. He also says that he tried to connect the Kerberos universe with the PAX JAPONICA universe, but it didn't work well. Anyway, it is an alternate history fiction series.

The story begins in the Battle of Antietam. In this universe, the CSA achieved a military victory through Robert Lee's attack on Washington. After that battle, the UK and France approved the CSA. Since the USA was divided into two countries, they didn't obtain hegemony in the 20th century.

After achieving control over Southeast Asia, Japan got into Vietnam War, like the USA did in real history. The protagonist of "Rolling Thunder" is a bomber pilot called Godo. He pilots A8M7 (a dead copy of He219A2) in the Vietnam War.

His mission is to bomb various bridges over and over. The pilots know that there are more critical targets in the enemy's land, but they're not allowed to attack those targets due to some political problems with the Soviet Union. That too is based on the real USA's history.

One day, Godo stops caring about the meaningless missions and decides to commit himself to the war more "seriously". He wants to pursue the "legitimacy of justice", not being controlled by the political games. He gets into a battle against MiG-17.

As I mentioned in the review of Panzer Cops Tokyo War, Oshii has been heavily influenced by Daisuke Sato. The story and the alternate history premises are so similar to one of Sato's novels. When Oshii and Sato talked with each other, Sato jokingly said that Oshii should pay a royalty of PAX JAPONICA to him. Later, Oshii said that Sato was half-serious.

The theme of PAX JAPONICA is Japan and the just wars. Oshii has repeatedly argued that the Japanese government and its people have avoided considering those two themes by using the peace principle as excuses. He believes that we can't think of justice and war without committing ourselves to them. And thus, current Japanese people have no right to speak about justice. We gave up the rights of our own will.

Bombers are symbols of "justice" in that kind of sense.

In the essay part, Oshii says this:

As Douhet said, only the bomber's side can control aerial bombardment, and that's the strategical merit of the bombing. Interception battle is essentially passive. It can stir people's emotions, especially Japanese people's desperate emotions. It can easily evoke catharsis. I have to admit that I too love it as an interceptor fanboy.

Needless to say, we should get over such emotions and empathy.

We need to awaken Japanese people, not intoxicating them.

In this extreme fantasy, we shouldn't become 'victims' anymore. We shouldn't enjoy the distorted images of the apocalypse. That mentality has been the toxic stabilizer of our history.

The desperate emotions and the admiration for experimental aircraft come from our defeatism.

We must kill Space Battleship Yamato's kamikaze attack spirit.

In this extreme fantasy, we should become victimizers and get over the past. I changed my stance on that theme.

I have to say, justice is not on the side of victims.

It is always the bomber's side that has to think of justice, not the victim's side.

History is written by winners. Only winners can pass the legitimacy down the generations.

Losers' history lacks legitimacy because they rely on the resentment advantage.

As you can see, that theme is related to Patlabor 2 the Movie. In the essay part, Oshii himself admits that he put the same theme into P2.

According to Makoto Noda's essay part, PAX JAPONICA started from a video art project. Mori Building Company asked Oshii to make a video art about the Roppongi district. Oshii made a short document called TOKYO Fortification Project and proposed it to Mori Building. Later, it was turned into two conceptual videos art called TOKYO SCANNER and TOKYO VEIN.

The video project was canceled at that time, so Oshii brought the idea into a couple of talk shows with Isaku Okabe. ("How to make TOKYO" and "Howling in the Night") Oshii explained the Fortification Project in the first show. In the second show, however, he said that the fortification doesn't work. He realized that Japan needs to own aerial bombers.

Those events happened during the production of INNOCENCE.

The novel itself is not recommendable to anime fans, to be honest. It is not a fun book to read without the background I explained. If you want to try it, I recommend reading the essay part first.

Anyway, it is an important step of Oshii's filmography/ bibliography.

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

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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 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

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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: 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

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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: 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

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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: 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

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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 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.)