A word on a 'Oshii Studies (押井論)' doujinshi in publication since 1984

As a fan of Oshii Mamoru, I have always been on the lookout for the authoritative text on his works. The other day, I stumbled upon WWF, a regularly published Japanese doujinshi since 1984 that is billed as (among other things) philosophical criticism of the works of Oshii:

ttp://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~h_okuda/wwf/dojinidx.htm

I had a quick look at some of their critical essays. As well-meaning the writers may be, I could not help but come away with the feeling that while big words appear often, they add up to very little. There are often long descriptive passages of a certain broad-sweeping philosophical idea, but there is not enough critical effort in making it relevant in the context of Oshii's works by relating the idea to the plot development, individual scenes and lines from the script etc.*

Perhaps that is why the Chinese believe that the ultimate authoritative text (天书) is without words (无字) - if something is worth the mystery it embodies, then (i) it can probably not be explain in words or (ii) it can only be explained in your own words.  

That is fair enough, as part of fun of being an Oshii fan is that a lot of materials are too current to have been canonized. Instead of standing on the shoulders of giants who have laid down the ground theories - you have to lay your own.

Still, it just bewilders me that such a doujinshi in Japan is published and continued for so long.

* You may agree or disagree with me but I have always thought that the bottom-up approach is more suited to criticism of anime/manga - you start with discussion of a scene or a line and expands to how it is relevant to the work as a whole. That is because anime/manga is drawn and shows a fictional world that is entirely constructed out of thin air (as opposed to live action filming of props, actors and scenery), and the fictional world is all in the details because everything you see is controlled and nothing is there by accident. If you understand the minute details, you will understand the whole.

Comments

[gaguri]

Have you by any chance watched Angel's Egg by Oshii? It's one of my favourite films because of its sheer beauty, but some of the references it makes is so obscure for an average viewer like me who has very little biblical or philosophical knowledge.
*note:BIG spoilers for those who haven't watched the film.
From what I gathered (brief web surfing), Oshii apparently strived to become a priest before he lost faith and decided to become something else. I think that part is reflected strongly if you see the girl as Oshii's innocent past self, and the man as his present cynical self. And how the fishermen chase shadows of fish and end up destroying physical objects, or the bird that never returned to Noah's Ark...absolutely beautiful imagery. But I still have no clue what to make of the girl kissing herself as she falls down the cliff at the end, and how she gives birth to those eggs as she drowns...and of course, how she is now 'together' with what I suppose is symbolic representation of god and all those faithful believers who are with him. I suppose it's a mixture of my lack of knowledge, inability to connect and engage stronger with the material. It's a very wonderfully strange film and I suppose as my perspectives and values mature, I will get to see something different from those images in the future. I'd be very interested in your personal interpretation of this film, if you have watched it.

[Wabi Sabi]

I have not seen Angel's Egg yet but it is definitely in the pipeline. I will be sure to make noises about it in this space once I have seen it.

Apparently Oshii is not only would-be-priest and animator but also an author now. I just learned from Production I.G.'s website that he has written some sort of follow-up story to his film 'Avalon' (2001) and the book is called 'Avalon - The Lady in Grey (アヴァロン　灰色の貴婦人)'. It went on sale on 2 May 2008:

ttp://www.enterbrain.co.jp/jp/p_catalog/book/2008/978-4-7577-4068-6.html