Stray Dog of Anime

The Films of Mamoru Oshii

B. Ruh

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781137355676
• eBook ISBN: 9781137437907
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Art General
• Index: Social Sciences

Upon its US release in the mid 1990s, Ghost in the Shell, directed by Mamoru Oshii, quickly became one of the most popular Japanese animated films in the country. Despite this, Oshii is known as a maverick within anime: a self-proclaimed 'stray dog'. This is the first book to take an in-depth look at his major films, from Urusei Yatsura to Avalon.

Chapter One

An Introduction to Oshii

Mamoru Oshii is a filmmaker who exemplifies the breadth and complexities of modern Japanese cinema like none other. As a director, Oshii has made the majority of his complex and intelligent films in anime (Japanese animation). The term “anime” does not denote any particular style or content; it simply means animation from Japan. While anime has been gaining a broader audience in recent years, some critics still dismiss the medium as frivolous or lacking in depth based on a limited understanding of anime’s breadth. For example, Donald Richie, noted critic of Japanese film, has said that “the reason anime are so fast, and so violent, [is that] they have to make themselves apprehendable through splash alone.”1 Although Richie’s statement may be true of some popular anime programs (keeping in mind Theodore Sturgeon’s maxim that “ninety percent of everything is crud”), Oshii’s deeply complex films directly contradict such a generalization. Despite conceding that many animated Japanese films serve merely as lightweight entertainment, in his book Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan, Alex Kerr writes that anime is the “one bright spot in [the] otherwise gloomy picture” of modern Japanese cinema.2 Animation as a medium possesses much more artistic and creative potential than many critics and casual viewers appreciate; Oshii tries to make his films fulfill this grand potential of anime cinema, with a certain amount of success. Along with Academy Award–winning director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke), Mamoru Oshii is at the forefront of this cinematic movement. As a director, Oshii refuses to be pigeonholed in medium or genre. He has worked in both live action and anime, directing everything from absurdist comedy to technological thrillers to meditations on the nature of dreams and reality.

As of this writing, Oshii has directed sixteen movies in addition to his production and screenplay work on various other films and television series. One of his full-length directorial works, Avalon, has received high praise from Academy Award–winning director James Cameron, who called it “the most artistic, beautiful and stylish [film] in Science Fiction history.”3 Directorial duo Andy and Lana Wachowski have cited Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell as an influence on their groundbreaking science fiction hit The Matrix.4
Oshii’s films have been screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, and a retrospective of his work was shown at the 2000 International Film Festival Rotterdam. As a director, Oshii is both a popular and critical favorite; upon the 1996 release of Ghost in the Shell on video in the United States, the film went straight to number one on Billboard’s sales charts. Of course, Oshii is also well regarded in his own country; he is one of the best-known anime directors and has been praised by Japanese critics for his “efforts to make Japanese animation the best in the world, not only in terms of techniques and execution but also in terms of popularity.”5 In addition to working in film, Oshii has written for manga (Japanese comics), video games, and even novels. He is one of the true renaissance auteurs of modern Japanese film. However, unlike his contemporaries, such as Hayao Miyazaki, Oshii is a loner, an outsider who has been known to refer to himself as a “stray dog.”

In spite of the accolades he has received, Oshii remains remarkably contrarian, eschewing the limelight in favor of his own personal cinematic vision. Although his films have been well received in America, Oshii does not generally care for Hollywood fare. He has been said to prefer European and Russian films, especially the filmmaking of Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, to which Oshii’s moody and atmospheric cinematic style is often compared. Said Jan Scott-Frazier, an American animator who has worked with Oshii, in viewing Tarkovsky’s films, “you can see where Oshii’s sense of timing and his atmosphere come from. . . . [Oshii] loves independent films, he doesn’t like blockbusters.”6 The influence of live-action cinema is noticeable in Oshii’s works, allowing him to create a believable universe filled at times with violence, contemplation, and absurdity. While a significant portion of anime in Japan is directed toward young children, Oshii takes the medium one step further by creating film and animation well suited for a thoughtful, sophisticated audience; James Cameron has called Ghost in the Shell “the first truly adult animation film to reach a level of literary and visual excellence.”7 Oshii’s films are simply a joy to watch, each one a visual feast not soon forgotten.

Additionally, Oshii’s works are an example of how a person can successfully balance both commercial and artistic concerns in the anime industry. Oshii has been able to remain loyal to his personal filmic vision while still garnering a remarkable fan base. Part of his success lies in the emphasis placed on the role of the director in the Japanese anime industry. Said Scott-Frazier, “The Japanese anime director is similar to the American film director in that [he has] power over everything.”8 However, in practice, many Japanese and American directors are forced to waive their rights to the producers or sponsors of a television series or film; Japanese animation, like many other film industries worldwide, is both a commercial medium and a collaborative effort among many individuals. In spite of such restrictions, Oshii has demonstrated himself to be a talented and skilled director, capable of turning any story into one of his own. Each of his films bears his unmistakable imprint.

This book is intended to serve as a primer for the films of Mamoru Oshii. It does not cover every film he has directed, but focuses instead on the major films in which he has been creatively involved. Most of the films discussed in this book are commercially available in English, either on videotape or DVD. Of the films that are not commercially available outside of Japan, many are forthcoming, can be obtained within the anime fan community, or can be ordered from overseas without much difficulty.

Biography

Mamoru Oshii was born in Tokyo on August 8, 1951, the youngest of three children. Oshii was exposed to film from a young age—he has said that he remembers watching films like This Island Earth (1955) even before he was old enough to go to kindergarten.9 When Oshii was young, his family went to the movie theater every weekend, and his father, an often-unemployed private detective, sometimes sneaked the boy out to the movies during the week as well. This began Oshii’s conceptualization of the movies as something dangerous, although almost gleefully so. “I used to feel thrilled stealing change from my mom’s purse in order to go to the movies,” said Oshii. “In other words, movies are something evil: You wouldn’t become somebody if you loved movies; you’d skip school, steal your parents’ money, you wouldn’t get a decent job, get married, or ever save money—your life would be a disaster. In my case, if I weren’t a movie director, I’d be homeless or a professional eater at one of those stand-and-eat noodle places.”10

Through junior high and high school, Oshii’s interest in science fiction began to deepen, and he even contemplated becoming a science fiction writer. He began to correspond with the well-known Japanese science fiction writer Ry: Mitsuse, one of the founders of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of Japan in the early 1960s. However, many of the books Oshii read were from English-language writers in translation—he has cited Robert Heinlein, J. G. Ballard, and Theodore Sturgeon as some of his formative influences.

In high school, inspired by the student protest movement (see chapter 5 for more details), Oshii began to become more politically active, participating in antiestablishment rallies and demonstrations. This interest in politics, and its intersection with Oshii’s devotion to science fiction, is reflected in many of his later films, most notably Patlabor 2 (1993) and Jin-Roh (2000). After graduating from high school, Oshii attended Tokyo Gakugei University, where he studied arts education and graduated in 1976.

In 1977 Oshii, out of work, saw a sign advertising a job at Tatsunoko Productions, an animation company. He got the job and soon began drawing storyboards and doing production work for the company. Prior to this job Oshii had little experience in the entertainment industry, although he had been the director of a radio music show for about a year. An episode of the animated series One-Hit Kanta (Ippatsu Kanta-kun), for which Oshii wrote the storyboards, aired in December 1977. It was the first of his many credits in the field of anime. Some future anime directors began their careers by writing scripts for television episodes. Oshii, however, had little interest in the scriptwriting process, preferring to draw the storyboards. Said Oshii, “In the animation industry the writer’s power is much weaker than the director’s. . . . I always felt that scripts were written primarily to give the financier something to read.”11 Oshii did not begin writing scripts until he began to become established as a director and his ideas would be taken more seriously.

At Tatsunoko, Oshii continued to work on a number of different anime series through the late 1970s, mostly drawing storyboards and doing direction work. He left in 1980 to work for Studio Pierrot, where he continued his study of directing under Hisayuki Toriumi. Both men worked on the animated series Nils’s Mysterious Journey (Nirusu no Fushigi-na Tabi), Studio Pierrot’s first production, for which Oshii again did some directing and drew storyboards. They would collaborate again on the Dallos (1983–84) series of OVAs. The term “OVA” stands for “Original Video Animation,” meaning anime films released straight to video, and Dallos was the first title to take advantage of the new format.

While at Studio Pierrot, Oshii began to work on the first major project of his career, becoming chief director of the Urusei Yatsura television series, which was based on the popular manga by Rumiko Takahashi. Oshii’s lengthy involv...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• CIP
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Art
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Filmography
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index