MAMORU OSHII book review [nonfiction] Part 43, AVALON MAKING BOOK

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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: アヴァロン メイキングブック ムービーコンストラクション クラスSA

(Movie Construction Class-SA: Avalon Making Book)

release: 01/31/2001

publisher: Media Factory

[contents]

introduction

story of Avalon

analysis of Oshii's direction

preproduction

shooting

postproduction

shot list

[review]

This is a guidebook about Avalon's production process.

There are some other books about Avalon, but I suppose this has the richest content.

The main content is divided into four parts: direction, preproduction, shooting, and postproduction.

The direction part is too long. A famous writer called Toru Nozaki wrote this part, but his commentary is too vague and verbose. You can analyze the film by yourself, so you don't need this part.

The preproduction part explains the background of the film, scriptwriting process, storyboarding, location hunting, audition, concept art design, mechanical design, and prop design.

In the late 90s, Oshii joined Digital Engine Project and developed G.R.M. That project was canceled, so Oshii brought the ideas into a smaller project. That's Avalon.

The starting point of the story idea was Oshii's game experience. He played Wizardry so much, and one day, he thought "Why can't I buy anything with these golds in the real world?" He also saw fighting gamers in arcades. Those two things gave him an idea of "game players who earn living from a game."

Oshii and Kazunori Ito co-wrote the script. The idea of "Nine Sisters" was made by Ito. Oshii said, "That idea made it much easier to understand the world of Avalon." They developed the story to show the punchline of the film, "Don't let appearance confuse you. This is the world where you belong."

In the audition, Oshii ordered the staff to find someone who looks like Motoko Kusanagi. The staff said that's impossible, but Małgorzata Foremniak was a perfect actor for that role.

In the concept art phase, Oshii introduced René Magritte's "Empire of Lights" as an inspiration source. In that painting, the difference of the sky and the ground makes a surreal atmosphere. Oshii wanted to achieve that kind of effect in Avalon.

In the mechanical design process, Atsushi Takeuchi made realistic weapons, but Oshii rejected them. Takeuchi didn't get what was the right direction, but one day, he tried unrealistic, absurd weapon design. That was what Oshii wanted. Takeuchi realized, anime weapons need to be realistic, but Avalon's world needs more fictional design.

Small props like the headgear, ID card, and keyboards were made in Japan. Other environmental production designs were done by Polish staff. Oshii's request to the design staff was "Vostok". After finishing the film, Japanese designers were surprised by the quality of the Polish staff's design, especially the design of the Avalon terminal room.

The shooting process is explained in another book, so you don't need to get this book for the shooting diary. However, only this book includes interviews with Polish staff.

The production designer called Barbara Novak imagined something like "1984". The writer of this book says that her dog mediated between Japanese staff and Polish staff at first.

In the interview page of Gregorz Kedzierski, the writer explains how the Polish shooting system inspired Oshii. Oshii says "Polish system with directors of photography is a perfect system. I realized that in the shooting process. In that system, the staff has only two bosses: a director and a DP. Those two people decide everything."

Kedzierski says, he realized in the meeting that contrast, focus, and aperture don't matter at all in Avalon. That's why he chose Kodak's new film. He used wide-angle lenses a lot in Avalon to break the sense of reality.

Małgorzata Foremniak tells that Oshii's direction was always to the point and simple. Generally speaking, Oshii earned respect from Polish staff, apparently.

The main part of this book is the explanation about post-production.

The writer put short explanations and summaries of special effects’ history, visual effects, digital composition, motion-tracking technology, 3D-CGI, film's color, digital color, etc.

From the beginning, Oshii intended to change colors, textures, and backgrounds by Quantel's Domino system. If they can control all the materials by computer, any kind of material including live-action footage, anime, and tokusatsu can be used in the same film. That's the core concept of G.R.M., and that idea was partly brought to Avalon. It is not a unique idea by today's standards, but the process is much more complicated and interesting than people think.

For example, to make the 2D fire effects in the introduction, the staff needed to synchronize the camera movement and the composited 2D effects. The visual effect supervisor called Koga made special motion tracking markers for that kind of shot. (It was a dolly-and-pan shot, so Koga needed to shoot the 3D rotation movement of markers.)

The explanation about CGI makes us consider the machine powers. You probably remember the GitS-like staff roll. Even that kind of simple image was pretty difficult to render because they needed to render the afterimages like nixie-tube. It was difficult with the late 90s machine powers.

This book includes much more interesting content about effects, but they're too much and too complicated to summarize here. Please check it by yourself.

Overall, it is a very good book for Avalon fans and Oshii fans. It makes it easier to understand the changes in Oshii's later works like INNOCENCE.

MAMORU OSHII book review [nonfiction] Part 42, THE ANALYSIS OF GHOST IN THE SHELL

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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: THE ANALYSIS OF 攻殻機動隊

(THE ANALYSIS OF GHOST IN THE SHELL)

release: 11/22/1995

publisher: Kodansha

[contents]

introduction

summary of the film

comment about guns by Mamoru Oshii

design sheets of guns and layouts of gunfight scenes

comment by Kikuo Notomi

design sheets and layouts of Section 9's lab

comment by Takashi Watabe

comment about environments by Mamoru Oshii

comment by Atsuhi Takeuchi

design sheets and layouts of cities and market

design of machines

comment by Yasuhiro Ogura

digital effects (Seiichi Tanaka, Kaoru Matsumoto, Kenji Nagao)

color design (Kumiko Yusa)

photography (Hisao Shirai)

design sheets and layouts of the museum

design sheets and layouts of tank

comment by Hiroyuki Okiura

editor's afterword

staff & cast list

[review]

This is a database of Ghost in the Shell.

I think only this book covers the layouts of the film. Unlike the Methods series, it doesn't include Oshii's comment on each layout. Instead, a main-writer called Toru Nozaki gives comments. Those comments are pretty helpful to analyze the film's visuals. The design sheets are printed in large sizes. If you want to check the weapon designs, you should read this book.

The gunfights of GitS were supervised by a very famous effect designer called Kikuo Notomi. (He has joined Oshii's films from the time of The Red Spectacles. Some people might remember him for Takeshi Kitano's films.) This book shows how Notomi influenced the gunfights of GitS.

Plus, it includes detailed explanations about the digital effects. People say that GitS staff utilized some digital tools, but the details and the process are mentioned only in this book, as far as I know. For example, Motoko's camouflage was made by digital compositing, but the terrorist's camouflage was made by superimposing effect. That difference implies the technological gap between Motoko and the terrorist. I've never seen that kind of explanation in other books.

There are many books about INNOCENCE thanks to Studio Ghibli's (or Toshio Suzuki's) advertisement. However, there're not many books about GitS. In that sense, it is one of the must-buy books for Oshii fans.

MAMORU OSHII analysis: WHAT ARE THE LYRICS OF UTAI ABOUT?

I think that the lyrics of this iconic anime song tend to be misunderstood. Here are my thoughts on the lyrics.

The original lyrics

吾が舞へば
麗し女 酔ひにけり

吾が舞へば
照る月 響むなり

結婚に 神天降りて
夜は明け 鵺鳥鳴く

Since I danced

the beautiful lady was enchanted

Since I danced

the shining moon echoed

Proposing marriage, the god shall descend

The night clears away and the night bird will sing

*"To-kami-emi-tame" from Utai III is a very symbolic part, but I skip it in this article. First of all, its origin is very different from the other parts. Plus, it is a bit difficult to analyze that part.

Background

*from the liner notes of the soundtrack CD

• When they started recording the soundtrack, Kawai didn't have any good ideas. The only thing he had decided on was to use traditional drums. As Kawai played the drums incessantly on the first day, he wondered, "Is this okay?"
• When Oshii first heard the vocals, he felt confident about the soundtracks.
• The lyrics were written by Kawai. Oshii was impressed with how well Kawai summarized the story of the movie in the lyrics.
• Kawai thought that modern Japanese language would not fit the song, so he looked up ancient words in the library." Manyoshu was one of the books he read at that time.
• The idea of "To-kami-emi-tame" came from Kazunori Ito.
• Kawai says, "I reinterpreted the harmonies and voices of Bulgarian polyphony in a Japanese way."
• Oshii was inspired by the sound of the bells from the soundtracks. GitS is based on the Bible, but the bell sounds reinforce the Shinto feel. Although Oshii did not intend this from the beginning, he thought that the bell added the omnipresence of Yaoyorozu's gods to the film.

Premises

• Kawai wrote the lyrics. He was inspired by some ancient texts.
• Kawai picked some words from Manyoshu. He also used some words from other ancient text.
• It is a summary of GitS' story.

Preparatory research

I researched keywords on Makoto Yoshimura's Manyoshu database. 

The keywords are

まへば, くはしめ, ゑひにけり, てるつき, とよむなり, よばひ, あまくだり, よはあけ, ぬえどり

Some words are conjugated.

あが まへば/ since I dance

"Dance" appears in some poems from Manyoshu, but the exact phrase doesn't. As I explain later, I think it was inspired by Nihon Shoki.

くはしめ/ beautiful lady

くはし/ beautiful often appears in Manyoshu, but "くはしめ"/beautiful lady appears only once. It's a long poem.

...くはし妹に 鮎を惜しみ...

...since I didn't give the sweetfish to my lovely wife...

It is a fisherman's poem of mourning over his wife's death. "妹"(me) means woman in general, so it doesn't necessarily mean wife in other cases.

The poem's theme is not related to GitS's theme.

ゑひにけり/ was enchanted

酔/"drunk" appears in Manyoshu, but 酔ひにけり/ "was drunk" appears only once:

焼太刀の かど打ち放ち 大夫の 寿く豊御酒に 我れ酔ひにけり

When we drew a sword in the ritual party, I found myself drunk by good sake.

In this poem, 酔ふ simply means to get drunk. Kawai interpreted it as "enchanted by the dance". I think that's Kawai's original rhetoric. It doesn't appear in ancient texts as far as I know.

The auxiliary "に" (a conjugated form of ぬ) means perfect tense or "ended up". The auxiliary verb "けり" means hearsay past and discovery/admiration. And thus, 酔いにけり means "I found myself drunk".

てる つき/ shining moon

That phrase appears so often because the moon is a very common material in the traditional poem. Manyoshu contains more than 100 poems about the moon. It has more than 20 poems even for "てるつき"/ shining moon.

The shining moon can symbolize various things, like a bow, party night, eternity, ephemerality, guidance, etc. It symbolizes lovers in many poems. In the ancient era, men used to visit their girlfriends'/ wives' houses at night. (It is called 妻問婚 or 通い婚.) And thus, the moon symbolized their romantic time (or distant lovers.) On the other hand, cloud and morning sunshine symbolized temporary separation and sorrow.

Plus, it is sometimes compared with mirrors, which is another important theme of GitS.

朝日影 にほへる山に 照る月の 飽かざる君を 山越しに置きて

Like the remaining moon behind the morning mountain, I have to leave you behind.

まそ鏡 照るべき月を 白栲の 雲か隠せる 天つ霧かも

The moon should shine like a mirror, but it is now hidden by a cloud or a fog.

とよむ/ echo

It often appears because it is related to birds. Birds' chirps or mountain echoes are used in many poems. As far as I researched, it is not related to the moon in Manyoshu. I suppose "the shining moon echoed" is Kawai's rhetoric.

"響むなり" appears only once in Manyoshu:

巨椋の 入江響むなり 射目人の 伏見が田居に 雁渡るらし

A sound echoes over Lake Ogura. Geese fly to Fushimi rice field, where hunters lie down on.

よばひ/ marriage, calling

It often appears in Manyoshu.

As I already explained, ancient Japanese people used to visit their girlfriends' houses at night. That is a common process of marriage. The same word also means to call someone. I found 8 poems in Manyoshu, and 4 of them mean just to call someone.

In GitS's context, it means marriage and spiritual fusion.

他国に よばひに行きて 大刀が緒も いまだ解かねば さ夜ぞ明けにける

I visited a lover in a foreign country, but the dawn broke even before I wore off the sword cord.

あまくだり/ (the god shall) descend

天降り can be read as both "あまくだり" and "あもり". It should be read as "あもり"(amori) in Manyoshu, but both of them mean the same thing.

In most cases, it means Tenson Korin: a myth of the emperor/ tenno's lineage.

Ninigi, a grandson of the sun god, descended to the human land. Amaterasu gave him the three treasures at that time. The imperial family is descendants of Ninigi. The myth tells the noble lineage of the emperors. 

The three treasures include Yata-no-Kagami, the mirror that reflected Amaterasu's face in Amano-Iwato. The mirror and descendence. Two important elements appear in this part. Angel's descent was reinterpreted into Ninigi's descent, and by doing that, the descent theme and the mirror theme are linked together.

天降りつく 天の香具山 霞立つ...

When the spring comes and Ame-no-Kaguyama, the mountain of the god's descent, is veiled in the mist...

よは あけ/ the night clears away

Manyoshu includes so many poems about nights. I found dawn (night clears away) in 10 poems, and 7 of them are poems about sorrows of separation. As I explained in the shining moon part, dawn used to symbolize separation from lovers.

It also implies Ama-no-Iwato myth in the lyrics.

暁と 鶏は鳴くなり よしゑやし ひとり寝る夜は 明けば明けぬとも

The first cockcrow says it's morning, but I don't care. It was a lonely night, anyway.

ぬえとり/ night birds or scaly thrush

It is read as ぬえどり(Nuedori) in Manyoshu.

Some websites translate it as "chimera bird", but that is very misleading.

ぬえ (Nue) originally meant birds that sing sorrowfully at night. Ancient people regarded the song as a bad omen. They assumed that Nue is scaly thrush.

Nue came to mean a chimera-like monster in the 14th to 15th centuries. In The Tale of Heike, a famous samurai slew a chimeric monster. That monster had a Nue-like voice, but it didn't have a name. That's why it was called Nue later.

In the lyrics of Utai, it obviously means night birds, not the chimeric monster.

Manyoshu covers six poems about nue. In most of those poems, Nue/ night birds/ scaly thrush symbolize sorrows of separation or unrequited love. Since their sorrowful songs were heard at night, people linked it to sad separations.

久方の 天の川原に ぬえ鳥の うら歎げましつ すべなきまでに

Zhinü cries like a scaly thrush beside the milky way since she can't do anything else after the rendezvous.

Development 

Oshii said that the lyrics of Utai are a summary of GitS's story. We need to consider that aspect.

In "Mechaphilia", Oshii explained the design of TO8A2 (the spider-like tank). In this essay, he mentioned the mythical aspects of GitS movie.

Spiders are divine entities even in foreign myths. In Nihon Shoki, Sotoori-no-Iratsuhime composes a poem:

"My lover must come to see me tonight. The spider at the foot of bamboo tells that to me."

Motoko is Ame-no-Uzume, a shaman who dances on the tank (the tub) to bring back Puppet Master (Amaterasu). She can't open the hatch (Ama-no-Iwato), but Batou (Ame-no-Tajikarao) comes there. It is a very Japanese story. However, the background environment is the Christian church-like museum. Even the angel appears, and the sound of the AP bullets (the metaphorical sound of the church bell) comes into the fusion (marriage) moment. Since the story is set in a chaotic world with little nationality, the mythical background is chaotic as well.

Oshii brought up two inspiration sources. The first one is Nihon Shoki, and the second one is the Ama-no-Iwato myth. Ama-no-Iwato is included in both Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.

Plus, I suppose "I dance" and "the night clears away" parts are based on Ama-no-Iwato. That's probably what Oshii means by "summary of the film".

*btw, I said I'd skip toh-kami-emi-tame in this article, but I should touch upon it in this part. Before Ame-no-Uzume's dance, Ame-no-Koyane chants "布刀詔戸言"(futonoritogoto, great chant). I suppose, toh-kami-emi-tame stems from that part.

Kojiki analysis

In this chapter, I use Aozora Bunko's data annotated by Yukichi Takeda. 

1. Ama-no-Iwato, Ame-no-Uzume, and dance

Ame-no-Uzume's dance part in Kojiki is written as follows:

天の宇受賣の命 天の香山の天の日影を手次に繋けて 天の眞拆を鬘として 天の香山の小竹葉を手草に結ひて 天の石屋戸に覆槽伏せて 蹈みとどろこし 神懸りして 乳を掛き出で 裳の緒を陰に押し垂りき

Ame-no-uzume began a thunderous dance on an overturned tub, and divinely possessed, she exposed her breasts and lowered her skirt string to her genitals.

(Ama no Iwato (Cave of Heaven) - Japanese Wiki Corpus)

Ame-no-Uzume dances, but "儛ふ" or "儛ひ" is not used in the sentence. "儛へば" doesn't appear in other parts. Then, where did Kawai find the phrase "あが まへば"/ since I dance?

That question leads us to another source material. In Nihon Shoki volume 16, Okenosumera reveals his noble lineage and becomes Emperor Kenzo. At a party, he dances and sings his identity. That poem includes this sentence:

...あしひきの 此の傍山に 牡鹿の 角挙げて 吾が儛すれば 旨酒 餌香の市に直以て買はぬ...

...At the foot of this mountain, I dance with the deer horns on. This good sake and delicious food can't be bought even in the famous market...

(跡見群芳譜(文藝譜 ｢日本書紀｣顕宗天皇の名告))

2. Okuninushi, Nunakawahime, and night birds

The first volume of Kojiki includes stories of Okuninushi. A goddess called Nunakawahime appears in one of those chapters. That part is important for understanding the lyrics of Utai.

After getting married with some women, Okuninushi hears that a very beautiful lady called Nunakawahime lives in Koshi. He visits her house and sings a poem in front of the house:

八千矛の 神の命は 八島国 妻娶きかねて 遠々し 高志の国に 賢し女を 有りと聞かして 麗し女を 有りと聞こして さ呼ばひに 有り立たし 呼ばひに 有り通はせ 大刀が緒も 未だ解かずて襲衣をも 未だ解かねば 嬢子の 寝すや板戸を 押そぶらひ 我が立たせれば 青山に 鵺は鳴きぬ さ野つ鳥 雉は響む 庭つ鳥 鶏は鳴く 心痛くも 鳴くなる鳥か 此の鳥も 打ち止めこせね いしたふや 天馳使 事の 語り事も 此をば

I, the god of military arts, can hardly sleep with my wife these days. Then, I heard that a wise, beautiful lady lives in the far land of Koshi. I hereby came to marry you. I don't wear off the sword cord and clothes yet. I'm still trying to break the door open. Night birds chirp in a green mountain. Voice of pheasants echoes in the yard. Even cocks crow. Oh, annoying birds. Stop chirping and crowing. The gods' messengers in the sky, tell the message to the birds.

Many familiar words appear in this poem, like 麗し女/ beautiful lady, よばひ/ marriage, 鵺/ night birds, and 響む/ echo. Kawai didn't say anything about it, but I suppose it is the main inspiration source of the lyrics.

As I already explained, night birds and dawn symbolize sorrowful separation from lovers. Okuninushi suffers from the same symbolism. Now, we understand why Kawai put night birds into the lyrics about dawn and marriage.

However, it also gives another question to us.

 (Ballpoint Pen Kojiki by Fumiyo Kono)

 Why did Kawai choose night birds?

When we look at the lyrics of Utai again, we realize that most parts can be interpreted only by using Ama-no-Iwato.

Since I danced: Ame-no-Uzume's/ Motoko's dance

the beautiful lady was enchanted: Amaterasu/ Puppet Master is enchanted by Ame-no-Uzume/ Motoko's dance.

the shining moon echoed: Amaterasu/ Puppet Master sees her mirror image/ Motoko in Yata-no-Kagami mirror (echo).

Proposing marriage, the god shall descend: The marriage/ fusion of Motoko and Puppet Master. The mirror image and self-recognition.

The night clears away: The dawn symbolizes the revival of the Sun/Amaterasu/ Motoko/ Puppet Master.

However, night birds don't fit it. Birds appear in Ama-no-Iwato story, but they are 常世長鳴鳥/ cocks. Why did Kawai use night birds instead of cocks? Why did he use the symbolic bird of separation?

In my opinion, that part represents Batou's feelings at the end of the film. When Motoko got married/ merged with Puppet Master and transcended this world, Batou was separated from her. His sadness can lead to the night bird symbol.

There is one piece of evidence for that theory. In the explanation of Batou's scene from "methods: from LAYOUTS of INNOCENCE", Oshii says this:

別れの構図、もしくは別離の予感のする構図というものがあると思います。若かりし頃、僕は師匠にそのことを聞いたことがあるのです。

「オシイ君、別れの構図って、どんなもンだと思う」

「…横位置でしょうか」

「縦位置だ。互いに背を向けた縦位置こそ別れの予感に満ちた構図なんだよ」

お前はまだ若い、修行が足らん…ということなのでした。

で、まぁ修行を重ねて編み出した構図とは、前回の「攻殻」のラストの構図、俯くバトーを背後に毅然とした素子の正面のアングルだったのですが...

 I believe that there is a composition of separation or a composition of premonitory separation.  When I was young, I learned that from my master (Hisayuki Toriumi).

"Oshii-kun. What do you think is the composition of separation?"

"Well, is that a plane composition?"

"No, it is a composition of depth. Two characters turn their back on each other in two different layers. That composition represents premonitory separation."

He told me that I was too young and immature to know that.

I trained myself and made my answer to that question. That's the final scene of GitS: While Batou looks downward in the inner plane, Motoko shows resolute expression to the foreground...

Oshii said the same thing in the audio commentary of INNOCENCE too. It looks like the "composition of separation" is a very important theme to him.

I suppose he might have asked Kawai to add the nuance of "separation" to the lyrics. That might be the reason why night birds appear in the lyrics.

GitS is a story of marriage/ spiritual fusion/ transcendence, but it also looks like Batou's tragic story to us. Kawai successfully or unintentionally expressed the two different story layers.

Conclusion

Utai is a song of encounter and separation, which is based on Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, and Manyoshu. As Oshii said in the liner notes, those materials perfectly fit the film's story. They also emphasize the feel of Shinto and ancient Japanese love stories.

In conclusion, I'd like to quote Oshii's words from the novelized version of Patlabor 2 the Movie:

出会うために別れるものもいれば、別れるために出会いを必要とするものもいる。

Some separate to meet another person, but others need an encounter even only to separate.

MAMORU OSHII book review: INDEX

 nonfiction

filmography and career

My Dear, Hayao Miyazaki 1984

Roman Album PERSONA 1996

Complete Works of Mamoru Oshii 1996

My Dear, Mamoru Oshii 1998

INNOCENCE Material Book 2004

Rely on Others 2008

1968: The Roots 2016

layouts

Methods from Patlabor 2 1994

Methods from INNOCENCE 2005

Lupin III

Lupin The Third Files 1996

Angel's Egg

Angel's Egg Guidebook 1985

storyboard 1985

THE ART OF Angel's Egg 1986

Patlabor series

Shonen Sunday Graphic Special: Patlabor 1989

THIS IS ANIMATION: Patlabor 2 The Movie 1993

THIS IS ANIMATION: Patlabor The Movie 1994

Patlabor 30th Anniversary Booklet 2018

Storyboard of Patlabor 2004

Patlabor Movie Archives 2004

Word Map: War 1989

Ghost in the Shell series

Storyboard of Ghost in the Shell 1995

Storyboard of INNOCENCE 2004

THE ANALYSIS OF GHOST IN THE SHELL 1995

INNOCENCE Interview Collection 2004

Roman Album INNOCENCE 2004

Kerberos Saga and Tachiguishi

Thus Spoke Tachiguishi 2006

Strange Tales, Tachiguishi Retsuden 2006

JIN-ROH: Behind the Screen 2000

JIN-ROH MANIAXX 2000

Mamoru Oshii's Field Notes 2003

Panzer Cops TOKYO WAR 2009

The Red Spectacles Soundtracks Liner Notes 2010

Avalon

Avalon Making Book 2001

Mamoru Oshii in Poland 2001

Avalon Preproduction Book 2001

interviews

Nausicaa Guidebook 1984

Ein Brief von den Hunden 2003

All Films Will Become Anime 2004

This is My Answer 2004

Words of Mamoru Oshii 2016

Reality of Bodies 2017

Let's Talk about Ghibli 2017

essays and others

Shonen Sunday Graphic: Urusei Yatsura 2 Beautiful Dreamer 1984

A Fledging Producer's Diary 1987

Storyboard of Talking Head 1990

The Mercenaries with Many Orders 1995

Dogs' Hearts Are Mysterious 2000

Memento Mori 2004

Mechaphilia 2004

Making of The Sky Crawlers 2008

fiction

Kerberos Saga, Tachiguishi, and others

Panzer Cop 1990

Panzer Cop Part 2 2000

Rainy Dogs 2005

The Girl of Harahara Tokei 2007

Panzer Jäger 2010

Tachiguishi Retsuden 2004

PAX JAPONICA: rolling thunder 2006

manga and illustrated books

Urusei Yatsura: The Fathers 1982

In the End... 1985

Angel's Egg 1985

Angel's Egg: Girl Season 1985

Dragon Retriever 1994

Yubae Sakusen 2009

Seraphim 2010

Bow-wow Meiji Restoration 2012

novels

Patlabor: Tokyo War 1994

Blood the Last Vampire: Night of the Beasts 2000

Avalon: Grey Lady 2000

Giant Killing 2011

Zombie Diary 2012

Zombie Diary 2: Dance Macabre 2015

GARM WARS: The Interrogation Ship of Silvery White 2015

unreviewed book list

non-reviews

analysis of Utai lyrics

MAMORU OSHII book review [nonfiction] Part 41, Ein Brief von den Hunden

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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: 犬からの手紙 総集編 第一紀

(Ein Brief von den Hunden: Das Erste Zeitalter)

release: 08/17/2003 (digital release: 12/30/2004)

publisher: Norainu no Negura (Straydog's Roost)

[contents]

Weekly JIN-ROH: Pirated Version by Tetsuya Nishio

(As He Said,) That Dog's Heart Is Mysterious by Tetsuya Nishio

biography of Mamoru Oshii

interview with Hiroyuki Okiura

interview with Tetsuya Nishio

interview with Mamoru Oshii

interview with Kazunori Ito

interview with Kenji Kawai

interview with Shigeru Chiba

interview with Kamui Fujiwara

report: JIN-ROH's premiere release day

report: Tokyo Internationa Film Festival symposium

fan art

analysis of JIN-ROH

Can Germany Really Occupy Japan?

analysis of Matter of Britain for Avalon

review on Urusei Yatsura TV series

Biblical terminology in Oshii's films

my dream Oshii films

Does an Old Oshii Nerd Dream of Kerberos Incident?

analysis of the last scene of JIN-ROH

Why is Mach-ken called so?

Walking for DOG

analysis of Oshii fans

survey about JIN-ROH

survey about Avalon

Urusei Yatsura 2 Beautiful Dreamer: DVD premiere theatrical release

report: Mamoru Oshii's Night Talk Show

report: Kenji Kawai's Night Talk Show

[review]

Ein Brief von den Hunden (A Letter from a Dog) is a dojin series made by Straydog's Roost. Straydog's Roost is the biggest Mamoru Oshii fan-site run by Satoshi Dodome. 

Many Oshii enthusiasts gather information there. They're releasing Oshii-related news even today.

So far, they've released 7 volumes of the series. I own only a digital omnibus version of vol.1 to vol.3. The original paper books were released in 2000, so they mainly deal with JIN-ROH and Avalon.

The most impressive part is the interviews. Fanzines interviewing with creators are not so uncommon, but I've never seen such a deep and interesting interview book made by amateur fans. It even includes Tetsuya Nishio's manga.

As for the details of the contents, please check it out by yourself

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.