Manga/Anime Memorandum

random thoughts on manga and anime

MAMORU OSHII book review [fiction] Part 04, PANZER COP

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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: 犬狼伝説

(Kerberos Panzer Cop)

release: 12/20/1990 (revised and reprinted on 11/20/1993, 06/01/1999, 09/01/2000, 02/16/2010)

publisher: Nihon Shuppannsha (revised and reprinted by Nihon Shuppansha, Kadokawa Shoten, Gakken Plus)

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[contents]

*the original 1990 version

Introduction

ACT 1

ACT 2

ACT 3

ACT 4

database and design sheets of Kerberos universe

essay by Ei Takatori

script of ACT 3

analysis by Junichi Tomonari

afterword by Mamoru Oshii

afterword by Kamui Fujiwara

reference list

staff list

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[review]

A publisher called Dark Horse already released an English version of Panzer Cop, so I don't have much to explain to hardcore Oshii fans.

Let me talk about the background of Kerberos Saga for beginners.

Kerberos Saga started from a live-action film called The Red Spectacles. Oshii didn't intend to make a series at that time. After the film release, an editor called Kazuya Shioiri asked for a manga series about armor from the film. The armor called “protect gear” was so cool that the editor was interested in it. Panzer Cop started from that proposal. It is a prequel to The Red Spectacles.

Oshii was influenced by Daisuke Sato and military-simulation novels in those days, so he wrote Panzer Cop in the political/ military fiction style. Weapons and equipment are German-style just because Oshii loves them. (Yutaka Izubuchi, the original designer of the protect-gear was a fan of German weapons, so Oshii intentionally asked him to design German-style armor.) The alternate history was used as an excuse for German-style. Later, Oshii criticized himself saying that sci-fi shouldn't reflect creators' personal tastes. Anyway, he decided to make a realistic military-manga with Kamui Fujiwara.

Act1 and Act2 were released in a very obscure, elitist manga magazine called "Amazing Comics", but the magazine was canceled soon. Later, Acts 1 to 4 were released in Nihon Shuppansha's legendary military-manga magazine called "Combat Comic". However, the story was not finished in Act4. Oshii started shooting Stray Dog around that time, so Panzer Cop was suspended for a while. The series was completed in Panzer Cop Part2.

 

The story is set in an alternate Japan that was once occupied by Germany. Germany plays the role of the U.S.A. in this series. Like GHQ tried in real history, Germany founded a new police organization in Japan. They needed to fight against the armed communists called "sect", so they also established another armed police force called Special Unit. It was supposed to be a deterrent force against other police organizations as well. In this era, many Japanese police officers wanted to bring back the old centralized police-system, so the German government needed to restrain them. And thus, the head members of the Special Unit are former members of the Imperial Japanese Army, not from the police. The Special Unit is, in a sense, a descendant of the Imperial Japanese Army.

On the other hand, a public security officer called Bunmei Muroto was formerly in Home Ministry. The Imperial Japanese army and Home Ministry traditionally didn't like each other. (The same theme can be seen in Patlabor films as well.) The latter half of Panzer Cop focuses on their political conflicts.

In other words, Panzer Cop is a story of a battle between the specter of the old army and the old bureaucrats. In Panzer Cop Part 2, Special Unit launches a coup and gets destroyed. It becomes the dogs’ tragedy.

Oshii metaphorically called them Shinsengumi or Yoshitsune. He means that Panzer Cop is a story of losers. He knows that Japanese people love the losers' stories.

Oshii also put an ideological metaphor of the new-left movement (and probably the Mishima incident) into the story. The mixture of leftist ideology and militarism is not so uncommon. For example, Kaiji Kawaguchi mixed 2.26 Incident and anti-emperor ideology in a manga called 血染めの紋章. The same can be said to Panzer Cop. The specter of the Imperial Japanese Army is, paradoxically, a metaphor of left activists at the same time. The Special Unit and the Sect: the two conflicting groups are metaphors of the same thing.

There're five versions of this manga. The original version is an ISO-B5-size book. As far as I know, only that version includes Tomonari Junichi's analytical essay.

The second one is a smaller ISO-A5 version. It doesn't include the database and the design sheets.

The third one is from the Kamui Fujiwara Manga Collection series. The format is ISO-B6, so it's even smaller than the second version.

The fourth one is a collected book of Panzer Cop and Panzer Cop Part2. It includes a CD of a voice-play as well. It is pretty difficult to get that version today.

The fifth version is a two-volume set of Panzer Cop/ Panzer Cop Part 2. That version is digitally remastered and revised by Kamui Fujiwara himself, so it is the most recommendable version. It also includes some extra interviews.