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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: 身体のリアル
(Reality of Bodies)
release: 10/04/2017
publisher: KADOKAWA
[contents]
Mysteries of Oshii Family
Circuits Between Life and Death
Sociality of Human Body
Beyond the New Horizon
[review]
This is the third volume of the "Reality of" series. "Reality of" is an interview series where Oshii talks with some professional writer, coach, or performer. The first volume is "Reality of Wars". The second volume is "Reality of Martial Arts". I picked only the third volume because, to be completely honest, the first two volumes got bad reputations. As Oshii himself says, he just talked about his "imagination" about those themes, so his arguments in those books are not necessarily based on accurate research. Hardcore Oshii fans might like them, but I don't recommend them to other anime fans.
In the third volume, however, he talks about more abstract and fundamental themes. The guest's name is Kazuko Mogami. She is a dancer of a very obscure genre called "butoh". They talk about butoh and the fundamental body theory. They also talk about the difference between butoh and film. According to Mogami and Oshii, butoh is not an "expression". It is more like a way of life. It's not necessarily an external art form. That aspect is very important when we consider the problems of modern human bodies.
However, that theme is too vague for me to summarize in this post. I'd like to focus on another theme. Some people might not know about Kazuko Mogami. She is Mamoru Oshii's elder sister. Their discussion begins from the history of the Oshii family.
*Their father had a son with his first wife. They often saw the biggest brother, but Mamoru thought he was an uncle. Mamoru liked him because he gave Mamoru many books.
*Mamoru's mother has three children, Akira, Kazuko, and Mamoru. The name of the father's first son is Hiroshi. Akira got married to a Filipina and became a Christian. He moved to the Philippines and started a bakery business.
*Akira bullied Mamoru. That story was told in "The Mercenaries with Many Orders" too. He forced Mamoru to play baseball pinball. When Mamoru complained about something, he hit Mamoru. That's why Mamoru hated games before getting addicted to RPGs.
*Their father was a typical patriarchal father born in the Meiji period. Their mother earned most of their living, but he acted as a leader of the family.
This book also explains the changes from INNOCENCE to The Sky Crawlers. Oshii has repeatedly said that he changed his attitudes and lifestyle after INNOCENCE. Kazuko Mogami partly influenced him in those days.
As I wrote in another post, Oshii put all his philosophies and techniques into INNOCENCE. It was a conclusion and an end of Oshii's theme. However, Kazuko Mogami said to Oshii, "It's immature (若書き)"
Oshii didn't get why INNOCENCE is immature at that time, but they share the same conclusion in this book: Oshii tried to portray "physicality" in INNOCENCE, but it ended up a film about physical "theories". Oshii should make a film based on his physicality, not the theories. The physicality itself didn't appear in INNOCENCE. He relied on the words. Mogami criticized that part.
In that kind of sense, I suppose The Sky Crawlers is a film based on Oshii's own physicality without theories. That's why he likes The Sky Crawlers more than INNOCENCE.
In the same chapter, he also talks about his pet-loss experience. When Daniel passed away, he experienced some sort of spiritual shock. When he looked at the sky, he was so shocked by the blue sky and the cloud. He felt like touching the world without any rational filter. Oshii tried to put that feeling into The Sky Crawlers. In other words, he tried to portray the other world without a rational filter.
He compares The Sky Crawlers with Takeshi Kitano's Sonatine, Seijun Suzuki's Zigeunerweisen, and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. It's a film about death.
Oshii also points out the importance of Motoko's original brain in GitS.
"In GitS, Motoko got access and shifted to the higher level. Her body was already a machine even before that event. However, people curiously forgot that her brain is still there. Nobody asked about Motoko's brain when I made INNOCENCE."
"At least, her physical brain does exist in that world. Whether Batou put it into a fridge or Aramaki keeps it, people didn't care about it. Even the audience nor staff didn't question about it."
As for that question, Masamune Shirow answered in a book called "PIECES Gem 01". He says that Motoko's ghost still depends on her original organic brain. Come to think of it, the Puppet Master clearly said that he obtained death by merging with Motoko. It means that he dies when Motoko's brain dies.
So, Spica/Antares's brain is Motoko Kusanagi's brain. I suppose Oshii didn't think in that way when he made INNOCENCE. Many people think that Motoko's ghost became some sort of cloud data, but Shirow doesn't think so.
