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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 紅い足痕
(Kerberos Saga Rainy Dogs/ Red Footsteps)
release: 10/26/2005
publisher: Kadokawa Shoten
[contents]
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
afterword by Mamoru Sugiura
afterword by Mamoru Oshii
afterword by Kamui Fujiwara
[review]
This is a manga written by Mamoru Oshii. It is a sequel to Panzer Cop Part 2/ prequel to The Red Spectacles.
The artist was switched from Kamui Fujiwara to Mamoru Sugiura. Sugiura is an ex-assistant of Kamui Fujiwara. Rainy Dogs is Sugiura's first collected manga book. To be honest, Sugiura's art style and skill didn't get a good reputation compared to Kamui Fujiwara. Sugiura's art is more emotional than Fujiwara in a good way, but it's not as sophisticated as Fujiwara. His panel composition technique is sometimes pretty awful. Plus, the design of protect-gear was changed as well. The mask looks more like a dog than other designs. Oshii probably likes it, but it is not loved by Kerberos Saga fans that much.
The story is almost the same as Stray Dog.
As I explained in the review of PERSONA, Oshii intended to focus on Shigeru Chiba's Koichi at first. The title was "Kerberos's Island" at that time. Later, the protagonist was changed to Inui. The title was changed to Stray Dog.
Rainy Dogs is based on the original plot, so the protagonist is Koichi. On the day of the Kerberos Incident, Koichi was abandoned by a fellow member called Kurosaki. After the incident, Koichi went to China to find Kuro.
Kuro plays the role of Koichi and Koichi plays the role of Inui. Tang Mie doesn't appear.
Since it is a road-trip type of story, it doesn't have plot development. Like an episodic series, Koichi meets various people and sees various events in China.
It is not as boring as Stray Dog, but it doesn't have thrilling action like Panzer Cop. The dull atmosphere of Stray Dog can be seen in Rainy Dogs as well. Oshii tried a different type of metaphorical storytelling, but it didn't work well, unlike Stray Dog.
Stray Dog's metaphorical transition trick is awesome. It is a very simple match-cut, but it shows meta-fictional and multi-layered themes. The traditional alley of Taiwanese slam suddenly transforms into the '60s Japanese dark memory. That transition works because it is a real environment in Taiwan. The simple magic shows both the theme of the film and the modern Japanese problem at the same time. The real scenery of Taiwan was a very convincing device.
On the other hand, anime and manga creators have to create the environment from scratch. That can't make the magic like Stray Dog.
In that kind of sense, I recommend Stray Dog rather than this manga. At least, you should watch Stray Dog beforehand.
