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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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(Kerberos Panzer Cops: Tokyo War)
release: 03/31/2009
publisher: Gakken
[contents]
special essay by Yoshihito Ushijima
Aspects of the Post-War Veimar System: summary of the post-war history
The Remnant of the "Panzer Jäger": the root of Capital Police, history and ORBAT of 101st Panzer Jäger
special interview with Mamoru Oshii
The Eve: Another Story of Kerberos Incident
[review]
Kerberos Saga is Oshii's lifework. It's a military simulation series set in an alternate universe where Germany defeated Japan in WW2. It started with a live-action film called "The Red Spectacles". I suppose many people remember the series for Okiura's JIN-ROH.
This book features the whole Kerberos Saga, including the live-action films and manga series. It was released from Gakken's book brand called "Rekishi Gunzo". Rekishi Gunzo was originally a magazine brand about military history, especially about the Pacific War and Sengoku period. Later, they came to feature fictional worlds. Before the Kerberos Saga issue, it featured Patlabor and Gundam.
Because of the brand's origin, the book format is very similar to history magazines. It contains chronological tables, fictional historian's essays, fake newspaper clippings, etc.
It also contains an installation instruction on protect-gear, military uniform catalog, weapon catalog, and explanation about Capital Police's combat tactics. It is not written by the original creators themselves, so it's kinda like "official fanfiction".
It contains a long interview with Mamoru Oshii as well:
*Megane's protect gear in Urusei Yatsura was designed by Yuji Moriyama. Oshii wanted to do something like "Super-Sentai version of Megane", so he asked Moriyama to draw it. When Shigeru Chiba's promotional video project started, Oshii immediately remembered that armor.
*The first draft of The Red Spectacles was not a serious noir, but a parody of the Super Sentai series. A retired Sentai hero comes back to his hometown. Oshii imagined old Japanese wanderer films like "The Rambler Return Home". In other words, it was also a parody of "Nikkatsu Action".
*The character names are based on colors because it was a Super-Sentai parody. Koichi/Aka is red. Midori is green. Soichiro/Ao is blue.
*When Oshii held a briefing with Yutaka Izubuchi, he requested a Nazi SS style. He also put MG-34, Mauser C96, and the shield into it. Izubuchi quickly drew a sketch.
*Yosuke Mamiya, the camera op, decided to shoot The Red Spectacles with a 35mm film camera. It became a real feature film because of that.
*Oshii planned to make a noir-film like Seijun Suzuki's "Branded to Kill". However, the protect gear prop made him a little nervous. He thought "This is bad... this armor will turn the film into a total genre-movie. I can't become a decent film director." Yet, he couldn't deny that the protect gear is so cool.
*When Panzer Cop was being developed, the editor planned to hire Kaiji Kawaguchi or Kamui Fujiwara. He chose Kamui Fujiwara in the end.
*Oshii knew Kamui Fujiwara before Panzer Cop, but Kamui's style was pretty different from what he expected. That's the reason why he wrote Panzer Cop in a very dry style. He thinks that JIN-ROH is closer to his original concept of Panzer Cop.
*When Oshii caught a cold, an editor of Tokuma Shoten sent him a lot of "kaku-senki"/military simulation novels. He became a fan of Daisuke Sato at that time. (Sato is an author of "Red Sun Black Cross". These days he is known for Imperial Guards series and HotD series.) Those military simulation novels partly inspired the Panzer Cop series.
*An editor called Hisashi Yasui introduced a sculptor to Oshii. Another editor called Kazuya Shioiri organized the premises of Kerberos universe. Oshii says that Kerberos Saga wouldn't exist without those two editors.
*Oshii wanted to liberate German military fans from "the curse of Nazi" by making Panzer Jäger. He says "Go back from Wehrmacht to Reichswehr".
This book also contains a spinoff manga by Mamoru Oshii/ Kamui Fujiwara. The story focuses on Midori after the Kerberos Incident. It is a very vague and anticlimatic manga, but Kamui's art is gorgeous as always.
