Mamoru Oshii

Mamoru Oshii (押井 守) is a Japanese filmmaker, television director and writer.

In 1976, he graduated from Tokyo Gakugei University.

The following year, he entered Tatsunoko Productions and worked on his first anime as a storyboard artist on Ippatsu Kanta-kun.

During this period at Tatsunoko, Oshii worked on many anime as a storyboard artist, most of which were part of the Time Bokan television series.

In 1980, he moved to Studio Pierrot under the supervision of his mentor, Hisayuki Toriumi.

Mamoru Oshii's work as director and storyboard artist of the animated Urusei Yatsura TV series brought him into the spotlight.

In the late 1980s, Oshii was solicited by his friend Kazunori Itō to join Headgear as a director.

The group was composed of Kazunori Itō (screenwriter), Masami Yuki (manga artist), Yutaka Izubuchi (mechanical designer), Akemi Takada (character designer) and Mamoru Oshii (director).

Together they were responsible for the Patlabor TV series, OVA, and films.

He also holds the distinction of having created the first ever OVA, Dallos (1983).

As a writer, Oshii has worked as a screenwriter, and occasionally as a manga writer and novelist.

Following its success, he directed two Urusei Yatsura films: Urusei Yatsura: Only You (1983) and Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984).

The first film, though an original story, continued much in the spirit of the series.

Beautiful Dreamer was also written by Oshii with no consultation from Takahashi and was a significant departure and an early example of his now contemporary style.

Beautiful Dreamer is also notable for experimenting with concepts such as a time loop, where a high-school class relives the same day over and over again, as well as dreams and reality manipulation.

In the midst of his work with Studio Pierrot, Oshii took on independent work and directed the first OVA, Dallos, in 1983.

Famous for his philosophy-oriented storytelling, Oshii has directed a number of acclaimed anime films, including Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984), Angel's Egg (1985), Patlabor 2: The Movie (1993), and Ghost in the Shell (1995).

In 1984, Oshii left Studio Pierrot.

Around this time, Oshii was hired to direct a movie for Lupin the Third for summer 1985, for which he started writing a column in Animage magazine in December 1984.

However, his proposal for it was very eccentric, with the producers from Yomiuri TV and Toho opposed his vision of the film, saying that it "made no sense".

The film had been widely advertised with Oshii's name attached to it, and with the project based around him, they could not make the film without his proposal getting approved, and it was cancelled.

He would later go on to reuse themes and concepts he had come up with for the movie in later works such as Angel's Egg, Ghost in the Shell, and multiple Patlabor movies.

009 RE:CYBORG, which was directed by Kenji Kamiyama, a student of Oshii, was also heavily influenced by the themes of Oshii's Lupin, reusing some of its plot.

Moving to Studio Deen, Oshii wrote and directed Angel's Egg (1985), a surreal film rich with Biblical symbolism, featuring the character designs of Yoshitaka Amano.

A producer of the film, Toshio Suzuki, later founded the renowned Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.

Following the release of the film, Miyazaki and Takahata began collaborating with Mamoru Oshii on his next film, Anchor.

The film was canceled early in the initial planning stages when the trio had artistic disagreements.

Between production of the Patlabor movies/series, Oshii delved into live-action for the first time, releasing his first non-animated film, The Red Spectacles (1987).

His most notable works as a writer include the manga Kerberos Panzer Cop (1988–2000) and its feature film adaptation Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999).

For his work, Oshii has received and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or and Leone d'Oro (Golden Lion).

He has also attracted praise from many directors, including James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and The Wachowskis, especially for his work on Ghost in the Shell.

As a student, Mamoru Oshii was fascinated by the film La Jetée by Chris Marker.

He also repeatedly watched European cinema, such as films by Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Jean-Pierre Melville.

These filmmakers, together with Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky and Jerzy Kawalerowicz, would later serve as influences for Oshii's own cinematic career.

He was also influenced by his father, who was a cinephile.

This led to another live-action work titled Stray Dog: Kerberos Panzer Cops (1991); both films are part of Oshii's ongoing Kerberos Saga.

Following Stray Dog Oshii made yet another live-action film, Talking Head (1992), which is a surreal look at his view on film.

Despite their differences, Toshio Suzuki and Studio Ghibli would later help Oshii with his production of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004).

To this day, Oshii maintains skeptical, but respectful, views of each of Takahata and Miyazaki's films.

Though he has been critical of Miyazaki's attitude towards his workers, he also claims that he would feel "strangely empty" and "it would be boring" if both Miyazaki and Takahata stopped making films.