MAMORU OSHII book review [nonfiction] Part 40, 1968

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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: 創造元年 1968

(1968: The Roots)

release: 10/02/2016

publisher: Sakuhinsha

[contents]

Let's Talk About "1968" Now: We Could Have Been Executed

Parents: Rebelling Against The Old Generation and Passing On The Memories

Chronology of "Revolution of 1968"

Impulse: An Earnest Motive For Expression

Physicality: Don't Forget The Sense Of Danger

God, Angels and Vampires: The Meaning Of The Images For The "Not-Independent, Not-Transcendent People

Auteurism And Texts: Apocalypse And A Summary of 2000 Texts

Japan's National Identity: Postwar Democracy, Institutions, and Narratives

Marginal Life: What It Means To Be Creators In This Country

der Einzelne and Undtagelsen

[review]

This is an interview with Mamoru Oshii and Kiyoshi Kasai.

Both of them experienced the New Left movement in the late 60s and early 70s. Oshii participated in the protests as a non-sect radical activist. Kasai was a member of a sect called the Communist Workers Party. Both quit the protests in the early 70s and began working in the field of fiction. Oshii became an animation creator and Kasai became a mystery and science fiction writer/ critic.

In 1984, Kasai wrote a book on the internal violence of the 70s leftist activists. The title of the book was "Phenomenology of Terror". Oshii was greatly influenced by that book.

The first encounter between Oshii and Kasai was in an interview book titled "Thus Spoke Tachiguishi". There was not enough time at that time, but in this book, they talk about deeper themes.

There is a common thread in their thought. The themes of the interview are too diverse to summarize here, so I've picked out some interesting parts at random below.

*Oshii always portrays main characters as authority figures such as a police officers. However, Oshii himself is very anti-authoritarian and leftist. Oshii explains that contradiction as follows:

When I try to portray my resentment like a non-fiction, I end up sounding like a nostalgist. It's like those old men who brag about having fought with the riot police. I am very reluctant to do so. Nevertheless, I wanted to express the "sublimity" of my own actual experience.

I always portray police officers. Terrorists are usually the villains. People say that such portrayals are against my ideology, but anime's main characters should be soldiers and police officers. As Godard said, detectives are very useful for filmmakers. They can go to any place, and it is very easy to write stories about them. Compared to detectives, it is very difficult to write stories about terrorists.

For me, terrorists are a kind of absolute. That's why Tsuge and Hoba in Patlabor shouldn't appear as ordinary anime characters. They died or didn't appear until the end. I think it's impossible to portray their human side. Therefore, I cannot write stories about terrorists.

Oshii connects the theme of terrorists with angels.

I have often used the angel symbols since the time of "Angel's Egg". For me, angels are frightening entities. In a way, angels are terrorists. Motoko originally fought against terrorists, but after jumping into the network world, she became a "terrorist". Batou called her a guardian angel in "Innocence". To me, that concept is consistent with terrorists.

Angels are monsters. In Japan, we imagine them like Cupid, but in the Old Testament, they are very inhuman. They are very frightening. They bring misfortune to people at God's command. That's why they are terrorists. They are more demonic than the devil.

Angels look like birds, and that's why birds are scary too. Look at their claws. They are not pretty at all. They are covered with beautiful feathers, but they are actually more like reptiles. I don't get why people get afraid of snakes more than birds. Birds are beautiful and frightening creatures at the same time. Four-legged animals are much friendlier. Even ferocious animals like lions and tigers can be understood. No matter how dangerous they are, we live with them in the same environment. But reptiles are outside our realm of understanding. That is very frightening. The image of a bird is not a metaphor for an angel. Quite the opposite. The angelic image has to do with the way we look at birds. It is similar to the case of fish. They live in a different environment than we do. We don't know what they are thinking.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 20, GARM WARS

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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: ガルム・ウォーズ 白銀の審問艦

(GARM WARS: The Interrogation Ship of Silvery White)

release: 04/16/2015

publisher: Enterbrain

[contents]

Advent

Vocation

Inquisition: Khara

Inquisition: Skellig

Inquisition: Scathach

Inquisition: Wydo

Malak's Nest

terminology

[review]

This is a novelized version of Garm Wars. The plot is basically the same as the film, but some details are different. Oshii made several versions of the plot in G.R.M. project due to the budget problem. This novel is based on one of those variations.

In the film, Khara, Wydo, Skelling, Nascien, and a Gula traveled by tank. In the novel, they travel by an "interrogation ship" called Immrama. A captain of that ship is called Schathach. She plays an important role in the novel, so that's pretty different from the film version.

The novel comes to the same conclusion as the film, but the novel shows many deleted scenes. Those scenes are related to sci-fi gadgets and machines, so Oshii had to delete it due to the budget problem.

Plus, the novel shows that it originally had an interesting revelation scene. After the battle against aliens called "Malak", Khara and Skellig brought back a brain of a certain commander, but their memories were formatted after that. Wydo tries to find out what they found in the battle. That mystery leads them to the truth of demiurge.

I think it is difficult to appreciate the film version without the novel and the pilot film of G.R.M. I don't get why they didn't translate it at the time of the global premiere.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 19, ZOMBIE DIARY 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: ゾンビ日記２ 死の舞踏(ダンス・マカブル)

(ZOMBIE DIARY 2: Dance Macabre)

release: 08/28/2015

publisher: Kadokawa Haruki Corporation

[contents]

Zombie Diary 2

[review]

This is a sequel to Zombie Diary. The protagonist is changed to a woman. The MC of the first volume had a sniper rifle, but this female protagonist uses a hand-gun. She tells that the previous MC taught shooting skills to her, but he's not with her anymore for some reason.

The basic structure is the same as the first volume. The protagonist shoots dead people as funeral rites and thinks about various topics. It is Oshii's sociological/ philosophical essay again.

However, the female protagonist's theme is different from the first protagonist's theme.

The first topic is excrement. As some Oshii fans already know, Oshii has indirectly shown excrement in his films. Excrement is linked to food, which is another important theme of Oshii's works. It is also very important for the "death" theme. Human beings' negative feelings toward them are very similar to corpses' cases. It culturally differentiates human beings from animals. Toilet is probably the most basic element of human culture. Some people might find a psychoanalytic theme in them.

After touching upon excrement, corpse, and food, the protagonist talks about clothing and makeup. It is a very fresh theme to Oshii fans. Since the protagonist is a woman, Oshii put a different process in the funeral rite. She chooses clothes and cosmetics every time before the rites.

That theme is linked to some traditional themes like dance and religion, but it also shows Oshii's change in his late phase. Oshii himself often says that he got interested in women recently. (Before that, women were ununderstandable entities. We should remember that Oshii often says he can't understand Lum at all.)

The most important part of this novel is the ending. The protagonist owns one dog, and that dog brings an unexpected conclusion to the story. It also indirectly explains the reason why Oshii needed to put a dog into Seraphim and Garm Wars. Now, we should remember that this series thematizes zombie/death. Then, we can easily guess what kind of theme he tried to convey by the combination of a woman and a dog. It also explains why Oshii emphasized that "child zombie" doesn't exist in this world.

spoiler
In the conclusion, the dog becomes pregnant. Dogs’ natural reproduction was an important theme in Garm Wars too. That theme was repeated in The Sky Crawlers as well. Technologies, modernity, capitalism, and human intelligence alienate us from authenticity. We’re becoming closer to the corpse or dolls. Oshii once thematized those things in his films, but the theme was inverted in his later phase.

“A dog became pregnant” and “The protagonist is a woman.” Such simple settings are important in that kind of context.

We can't become dogs. Men, including Oshii himself, don't become women (physically). Oshii learns karate, and his sister dances. In the binary structure of sex and species, Oshii's theme got into the next phase.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 18, ZOMBIE DIARY

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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: ゾンビ日記

(ZOMBIE DIARY)

release: 06/01/2012 (reprinted on 07/18/2015)

publisher: Kadokawa Haruki Corporation

[contents]

Zombie Diary

commentary by Kazuko Mogami 

[review]

Zombie Diary is Oshii's zombie apocalypse novel. As Oshii fans already know, Oshii loves apocalyptic images. That taste originates from his delusion. When he was a high school kid, he imagined a post-apocalypse world every day on commuter trains.

In this novel, Oshii added zombies to the delusion. However, it is not just another zombie knock-off. Oshii put his philosophy about corpses and funeral-rites culture into it.

The story is set in post-apocalypse Japan. A weird incurable disease devastated the world, like the angel disease from Seraphim. Most people got infected with "death", so there are only "the dead" except for some rare cases. The "death" disease just randomly infects people, so there's no defense against it.

The protagonist is a nameless sniper. He shoots "the dead" every day as his daily habits. He thinks he's doing something like funeral rites. He "respectfully" shoots dead people.

While shooting the dead, he gives monologues about various topics, like sniping techniques, dance, food, weapon history, anonymousness, etc. The philosophies and sociological arguments in those monologues account for almost 95 % of the pages. It doesn't have any plot nor character development. The protagonist just shoots dead people and thinks about something.

Some people might remember Oshii's film called ".50 Woman". This novel is pretty similar to it. It is also similar to INNOCENCE because most of INNOCENCE's script is quoted from other people's books. For example, the protagonist talks about a certain dancer's philosophy about bodies and death. That's quoted from a book written by Kazuko Mogami, Oshii's elder sister.

The similarity with INNOCENCE can be seen in the argument itself as well. This novel thematizes the culture of corpses, "our view on death" in other words. Oshii put that theme into doll and dog symbols when he made INNOCENCE. In this novel, he shows it by "corpse". (We should remember that Oshii intentionally avoided showing corpses in INNOCENCE. He thinks it is generally difficult to portray corpses in anime.)

If you like Oshii's long and plotless dialogue scenes so much, I recommend this book to you. To be honest, I think it is one of Oshii's best novels. Come to think of it, this novel includes most of the "Oshii” elements we love, like the apocalypse, food, weapons, philosophies, and violence. It just lacks action and plot. In that kind of sense, it is one of the "purest" Oshii's works.

In recent film-essay books, Oshii often uses the term "criticism on civilization". I think it is safe to say this book is "a criticism-on-civilization in the novel form".

[edit]
The format of this book is probably inspired by Haruhiko Oyabu’s novel. Some people might know Oyabu for “The Beast To Die”. Oyabu is a famous hard-boiled novel author. Oshii loves Oyabu’s novels from his youth. In an interview, Oshii says that he was influenced by the details in Oyabu’s novels, especially by the details of food. Zombie Diary series and .50 Woman have a lot of detailed food scenes probably because they were homages to Oyabu’s novels.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 17, GIANT KILLING

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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: 番狂わせ 警視庁警備部特殊車両二課

(Giant Killing: Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Section 2)

release: 01/31/2011

publisher: Kadokawa Haruki Corporation

[contents]

prologue

Kick-off

Catenaccio

Pressing Football

Giant Killing

epilogue

[review]

Oshii loves football.

You might be curious why I told it. This novel contains almost nothing but Oshii's thoughts on soccer and strategy. I usually appreciate everything Oshii gives to us, but I have to say that this novel is Oshii's worst fiction I've ever seen.

The story is told from the viewpoint of SV2 third generation. Maybe some people know that third-gen SV2 members appear in the TNG Patlabor series. TNG characters are based on the characters from this novel, so you can call it a beta version of TNG.

Unlike TNG, the protagonist called Akira Izumino is a man.

The story is set in an international football match. An England football team called Manchester F.C. is going to play a game with a Japanese team. No, I didn't write it wrong. It is a fictional football team called "Manchester F.C.", not Manchester United. A manager called "Sir" controls "Manchester F.C." but he is not Fergie. It's super confusing, right? Manchester United does exist in this world, but they're different from Manchester F.C.

Before the game, a bomb threat against Manchester F.C. is uploaded on the Internet. SV2 members are going to guard the team on match day. The SV2 leader called Gotoda secretly sends Akira Izumino to the Japanese opponent team. Akira practices football with other professional players and tries to find out the bomber's trick.

The plot sounds like good crime-suspense, but most of the contents are Oshii's thoughts on football and football strategy. Oshii was thinking "How-to-win" philosophy and football in those days, so he put those materials into the novel.

If you're a super hardcore Patlabor fan, or if you want to dig in Oshii's How-to-win thing, it is recommendable to you. If you're not, you should skip it.

*Oshii put a reference to his Karate master's novel series. Characters from Bin Konno's "Azumi Team" appear in this novel.

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 16, BOW-WOW MEIJI RESTORATION

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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: ワンワン明治維新

(Bow-wow Meiji Restoration)

release: 01/01/2012

publisher: Tokuma Shoten

[contents]

Matthew Calbraith Perry

Hanpeita Takeichi

Ryoma Sakamoto

Kaishu Katsu

Kaishu Katsu part2

Takamori Saigo

Hirobumi Ito

Toshizo Hijikata

interview with Mamoru Oshii and Tetsuya Nishio

 [review]

This is a manga written by Oshii and drawn by Tetsuya Nishio. It started with Nishio's proposal for a TV series. He wanted to mix a traditional anthropomorphic animal anime style with historical stories. Oshii read the proposal and decided to make it into a manga.

The series format is very similar to Minipato. Oshii tells the trivia and his thoughts on historical figures from the Edo-Meiji era. It is not written nor supervised by a historian, so you should take his words with a grain of salt. It's just a fun history-nerd talk.

I honestly don't recommend this manga, but it has some good things.

The first point is a chapter about Ryoma Sakamoto. In that chapter, Oshii says that he is not interested in Ryoma at all. Ryoma is probably the most iconic person in the Meiji era, but Ryoma didn't have a big impact on the political situation. Oshii says that Ryoma was just a charming and communicative person. Ryoma gained benefits from other people's achievements. Plus, Oshii says that Ryoma had zero originality about the political policy. He just introduced some other person's idea to another person.

After showing Oshii's arguments, Tetsuya Nishio realizes an interesting thing.

Ryoma was

1. communicative person

2. who just ripped off some other person's idea

3. and gained benefits from other people's work.

That's Oshii himself. Nishio concludes that Oshii hates Ryoma just because Ryoma is very similar to Oshii himself. According to Nisho's afterword, Nishio's conclusion was well-received by fans.

The second point is the "how-to-win" logic in the final chapter. Oshii has constantly argued that we shouldn't rely on the losers' ethics because only winners can prove their validity. Shinsengumi was wrong because they pursued self-fulfillment without considering how to win practically. That argument partly comes from Oshii's own experience in the new-left movement.

"The theme of revolutionists is to survive and change the history."

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 15, KERBEROS PANZER JÄGER

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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 鋼鉄の猟犬

(Kerberos Panzer Jäger)

release: 02/25/2010 (reprinted on 10/10/2012)

publisher: Gentosha

[contents]

introduction

prologue: Warsaw

Berlin

Kursk

Kharkiv

Stalingrad

Memel

commentary by Masaki Yamada

[review]

Panzer Jäger is an origin story of Kerberos Saga. In the Panzer Cop series, Oshii set the alternate universe where Germany won in WW2, but he didn't mention how and why it happened. In this novel, Oshii shows how Germany won against the USSR in German-Soviet War.

It was originally a radio play, so there was only a not-for-sale script. In 2010, Oshii rewrote it into a novel. Unfortunately, it became the worst-selling book that Oshii ever wrote. To be completely honest, that is understandable because Oshii already threw away the decent novel format at this phase. The text is filled with non-plot-related knowledge and pedanticism. It is not recommendable as a straight entertainment novel. Plus, Oshii's motivation is to portray German-Soviet War. In other words, Kerberos Saga and protect gears are surprisingly not so relevant in this novel.

The protagonist is a Japanese-German propaganda-film director called Maki. Her uncle is Claus von Stauffenberg, who managed to assassinate Hitler in this universe. Maki decides to go to the German-Soviet war front and make a film about Hitler's ceremonial soldiers called Panzer Jäger (armored ranger)

In other words, Panzer Jäger and protect gears are Hitler's legacy in the post-Hitler era. They're just an annoying burden to the new German army, but it is difficult to just get rid of them. Due to the charismatic design of the armor, Panzer Jäger was pretty popular among German people. In German-Soviet War, the German army decides to grind them to death on the front line.

In the early part, Oshii shows how illogical and nonsensical the protect-gear is:

They knew that armored units would be the main focus in the next world war, but the preparation was too slow. In the first place, Nazi Germany was just a compromise choice of the konzern and the popularists. The connection between the Nazi and the traditional Prussia army was so weak, so they needed some instant ways of demonstrating their military power domestically and globally.

Armored units usually consist of soldiers and armored vehicles. In other words, "armored soldiers" obviously means soldiers equipped with tanks and armored vehicles. Due to the reason mentioned above, Nazi Garmany had to rely on literally 'armored' soldiers.

Even though it is a ridiculous idea, it looked useful for their purpose. It is not so surprising that nobody disagreed with the idea. Even though it is just a symbolic entity, the German people themselves needed it.

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It is impossible to make bullet-proof steel into a human-size armor. Even if it was possible, soldiers couldn't bear the weight of it. Considering the mobility problem and bullet-proof capability, the modern armored soldier is just a fantasy. However, that fantasy gave a big impact on the German people.

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The soft-iron shell can resist bayonet stab and splinters, but bolt-action rifle bullets or even handgun bullets can easily penetrate it. Considering the structural and weight problems, we have to say, it just weakens soldiers.

The point is that the protagonist is a film director. In the early part, Maki admits that the protect-gear is a very photogenic item. In the later part, she even confesses her love for the leader of Panzer Jäger. That part probably suggests Oshii's ambivalent attitude towards Kerberos Saga and protect gears. It is a kinda meta-fictional gimmick. (The same kind of attitude can be seen in TNG Patlabor as well. In episode 0 of TNG, Shige explains how ridiculous labors are, but he also says that he loves them.)