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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: 他力本願 仕事で負けない７つの力
(Rely on Others: Seven Skills to Achieve a Victory in Your Job)
release: 07/30/2008
publisher: Gentosha
[contents]
prologue: Why I Make The Sky Crawlers NOW
Communication: Build Your World in Brain Storming Sessions
Imagination: Internalize the Environments in Location Hunting, Set the Tone of the Film
Development: The Body Details and Props Show The Characters' Personality and Life Stories
Awareness: Coincidence Never Happens in Anime, Plan Everything
Presentation: Sound Is the Core of the Film
Community: When Music Is Combined with Visual, The Film Shines Most
Choice: It Was Destined. After The Struggle, I Heard Her Voice
epilogue: My Life Was Full of Pain
[review]
This is a making-of book of The Sky Crawlers written by Oshii himself. He writes about his experience in the brainstorming sessions and staffing.
To be honest, the tips about The Sky Crawlers are not important. You can just find some new staff and new themes in those chapters.
However, the epilogue is very, very interesting. In that chapter, Oshii talks about his life, especially the details about the divorce and a daughter.
As far as I know, Oshii never talked about his daughter until The Sky Crawlers, which is totally understandable. (*He apparently talked about it in a magazine's interview before. I didn't know that when I posted this review.) Oshii met his daughter during the production of INNOCENCE, and it changed his attitude towards anime. (At least, he advertised The Sky Crawlers in that way.)
This might be a bit too long, but I'd like to summarize the epilogue:
*Mamoru's mother was a manager of a small clothing maker/store. She hired several needleworkers, so there were always other people than his family in the house. She earned most of the Oshii family's income.
*Mamoru's father was a private detective, but practically, he was just a jobless alcoholic. He argued that he was once a navy lieutenant, but that was a total lie. After he dropped out of college, he worked as a manual worker. He got married to Mamoru's mother when he was doing a carpenter job.
*In elementary school, Mamoru was a typical honor student because his father became a home teacher. He was taught by his father after school. He even went to a cram school on weekends. His father stopped caring about him when he failed a junior high school entrance exam. After that, he focused on reading sci-fi novels.
*In high school, Mamoru's grade dropped. He even fell to the bottom of the class. He suffered from an identity crisis and refused school. That's why he joined the new-left movement. It was the first exciting event for him. However, that activity brought him into a severe conflict with his parents. "We will die in the civil war, so we don't need to study." That logic saved him from suffering, but his parents didn't accept that. He quickly realized that the revolution never comes, but he couldn't return to his old self as an honor student. After some police detectives came to the house, his father took him to a mountain called Mt. Daibosatsu. He was given some textbooks and left in a mountain lodge. He spent time drinking with the lodge's master. The highschool's political activity continued after that, but he already lost interest in it.
*In college, he decided to become a film director. He joined a film club and made some films with his friend called Arakawa. He was in the department of education, so he experienced teaching practice as well. He says that teaching experience helped him after he entered the anime industry.
*About two years before graduation, he met a beautiful girl in a choir team. She was a kindergarten teacher. They quickly started dating and decided to marry in a few weeks.
*He failed several times in job-hunting, but his acquaintance introduced him to a manager of a radio show production company. He became an assistant director. However, that company was a total sweatshop. They seldom paid his salary.
*After he quit the radio production company, he joined a commercial monitoring company. His job was just to check papers. He had almost nothing to do other than that. He enjoyed the free time he got, but his wife didn't like that.
*When he decided to become a school teacher, his wife got in a bad mood. He didn't get why in those days, but he guesses that she might have wanted him to show her a new world. She was a kindergarten teacher, so the teaching job was too familiar to her. Anyway, he asked his friend to post an application for the teaching job, but that friend forgot to post it. Oshii himself curiously got relieved by the friend's mistake.
*One day, he saw Tatsunoko Production's want ad stuck on an electric pole. Tatsunoko wanted a production staff, but he joined an editing team. Production staff needs a driver's license, but he didn't have one in those days. On the first day in Tatsunoko, he said "I want to become a director." Then, the chief editor introduced him to a chief director called Hiroshi Sasagawa.
*Sasagawa told him to write a storyboard of Ippatsu Kanta-kun in one week. He thought "This is the turning point. I cannot miss this opportunity no matter what." He struggled and finished it. Sasagawa apparently liked Oshii's storyboard. He was told to write a real storyboard of Yatterman. At that moment, he became a direction staff. In those days, Sasagawa recruited four inexperienced people including Oshii. They were called "elite four" later. Sasagawa educated them from scratch, but that was not a common way in the anime industry. Other staff in Tatsunoko didn't necessarily like Sasagawa's method. Oshii enjoyed the busy life in Tatsunoko, but he gradually drifted away from his wife.
*When Yuji Nunokawa launched Studio Pierrot, Nunokawa recruited Oshii. He accepted it because a director called Hisayuki Toriumi also moved to Pierrot. Toriumi was known as a harsh person, but he was also a great director. Oshii wanted to be taught by Toriumi. Oshii's first job in Pierrot was The Wonderful Adventure of Nils. He learned Toriumi's directing philosophy in that series.
*In Pierrot, Oshii met Urusei Yatsura, a series that changed his career. He was chosen as a series director for the first time. He was already pretty busy before that, but he became crazy busy for the series director job.
*Oshii's wife was pregnant in those days. They even bought a new house. Oshii skipped the details, so we can just guess that she got pregnant at some point before Only You. Anyway, Oshii often quarreled with her in those days. She couldn't forgive his bad attitude towards his family, but he had to focus on his job. He was so exhausted that he ran away from home in the end. He says, "I knew it was the worst thing to do, but I couldn't stop myself." Their daughter was born after that. He came to see her, but he already knew that he had no right to come back home. They divorced before Only You was finished.
*Toriumi said to Oshii, "You failed as a husband, you failed as a father. You're the worst guy for now, but there's only one thing left for you. That's the film. You have to do your best in the film." Oshii did his best and finished Urusei Yatsura Only You. He was so depressed by the result. When he lost everything but anime, he even failed in the anime film. (At least, Oshii himself believes he failed. The original manga author liked it so much, but Oshii thought it was just a long version of the TV show.)
*After Only You, Oshii struggled and made Beautiful Dreamer. He achieved a big success in that film. Even a popular film magazine featured him. It changed him into a star film director. That success saved him from suffering, but it also changed him into an overconfident cult film director. Later, he was sidelined for two years due to some commercial failures.
*BTW, Oshii simply wrote, "I got confidence in my film-making skills, so I quit Pierrot and got married." He avoids talking about his second wife in that part. Maybe he feels bad for his ex-wife, but I'm not sure about that.
The Q&A page of Complete Works (enlarged version) mentions a little bit about her. According to Masami Anno:
"Over ten years ago, probably in the early 1980s, I was watching outside from Studio Pierrot's building. I saw Oshii-chan walking there, but he suddenly started running. He looked really happy. Then, he tapped a girl on the shoulder and jumped. He never behaved like that in the studio. It made me smile. Soon after that, I heard that he was going to get married to her."
*After looking back on Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell, and Innocence, he talks about the reunion with his daughter:
"I held her in my arms just a few times. She was an elementary school kid when I saw her last time. She was a little girl in my memory. I never saw her after that. I relinquished custody, so I was not allowed to meet her until she became an adult. In the visitation day, she would be accompanied by her mother; that was the rule. I just gave her a birthday gift every year.
She faxed me gift requests. She wanted dolls in her childhood. One day, she requested a certain perfume. I visited several department stores and finally found it. Her request became more and more mature year by year. Only that fax told me that she was growing. I decided that I'd never ask her to meet me. I thought I deserve that punishment.
One day, she came to see me. It was during the post-process of INNOCENCE. She was job-hunting at that time. She wanted to become a writer, so she came to ask for my advice. She came of her own will. It made me so happy. Finally, I could do something for her as her father. I utilized my connections and helped her. After some twists and turns, she became a freelance writer, but I respect her decision."
Btw, his daughter's name is Tomoe. She played a leading role in Otsuichi's film called Tokyo Shosetsu - Otsuzakura Gakuensai. Otsuichi is her husband.
Both Otsuichi and Tomoe played roles in Tachiguishi Retsuden. Tomoe played a hamburger shop worker.
A girl called Tomoe appears in 009 Re: CYBORG. Obviously, that name stems from her.
He went to the Cannes Film Festival with her when he made Innocence. He wanted to walk on the red carpet with her. Due to Wong Kar-wai's production delay, he missed the opportunity. He writes "Fuck you, Wong Kar-wai. I"ll kill you someday. I secretly thought so."
