(L) The Sky Crawlers

[7Th]

It is also directed by Oshii if you care about that.

Production I.G has announced that Mamoru Oshii, best known internationally for the two Ghost in the Shell movies, will direct The Sky Crawlers, an animated feature scheduled for Japanese release in 2008.

The Sky Crawlers is based on series of novels by Hiroshi Mori concerning an alternate present day where young "Kildren" fight a war as entertainment for adults. After reading the novel, Director Oshii praised it as "a work that should be made into a movie for young people now....It is time to face this new perception to our existence through the Kildren, who live indefinitely in eternal adolescence, and this theme should be dealt with now."

Oshii's previous project was Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters, a mockumentary looking at the history of dine-and-dash con artists since World War II. Tachigui was filmed through the "Superlivemation" process of animating photographs.

MAIN STAFF
Based on the novel by Hiroshi Mori (published in Japan by Chuokoron-Shinsha)
Screenplay: Chihiro Ito
Music: Kenji Kawai
Executive Producers: Seiji Okuda, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
Producer: Tomohiko Ishii
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Sequence Director: Toshihiko Nishikubo
Character Designer/Key Animation Director: Tetsuya Nishio
Mechanical Designer: Atsushi Takeuchi
Art Director: Kazuo Nagai
Art Settings: Takashi Watabe
Color Designer: Kumiko Yusa
Visual Effects: Hisashi Ezura
CGI Supervisor: Hiroyuki Hayashi
Line Producer: Toru Kawaguchi
Animation Production: Production I.G
Distribution in Japan: Warner Entertainment Japan

Well, Nishio did wonders in Jin Roh and Oshii is a good director even if he has been a little bit, yeah right, too pretentious lately. Who am I kidding? I would watch it for Nishio alone.

[orion]

Website is up with a trailer, courtesy of ANN.

http://wwws.warnerbros.co.jp/skycrawlers/

[MrProphet]

I had a hearty laugh at the title of this thread. Actually, I preparing to laugh at 7Th, but then realized the sarcasm.

Anyway, sounds like "Last Exile, Oshii-style". Lots of quotes, lots of character exposition.

[Asai]

Hmm, Production I.G animation, Oshii directing and Kawai Kenji on music? I'm won over. Though the story genuinely does sound interesting. Will have to keep an eye out for this.

[Kaioshin Sama]

I'm probably the only one who thinks this, but I find Production I.G's character/mecha designs to be very bland with a runny look to it, and their overall frame to frame consistency to be very dodgy and somewhat ugly(Going off Reideen, Ghost In The Shell [which is unique enough to not qualify for this category overall and only get a mention], The Kill Bill Segment, Kai Do Maru, King of Fighters Another Day, IGPX and some of the sequences in the Tri-Ace games that they worked on). This is my type of series, but I don't usually like Production I.G's overall style (When I first saw Gigantic Formula announced I thought it was Production I.G). I'm going to wait for a trailer, but right now based on the website it's likely to slip through my viewership crack.

[orion]

I'm just hoping that it's not being turned into a sappy love story given that the screenplay is by Chiriho Ito.

Originally Posted by ANN, press release

However, Oshii declares that he is sealing off his method of direction so far. While distancing himself from the original novel “to create a more entertaining work”, he has promoted an up-and-coming scriptwriter, Chihiro Ito, who depicted youngsters' sensitive feelings beautifully in two acclaimed movies, Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (Sekai no Chushin de Ai wo Sakebu, 2004) and Spring Snow (Haru no Yuki, 2005). The music score will be written by Oshii's most trusted composer, Kenji Kawai. The animation production is by the top animation studio in Japan, Production I.G, which has been underpinning the quality of Oshii films. The Sky Crawlers is going to be a “completely new Oshii film”.

You can read the rest of the press release which gives some info on the source material here.

[wao]

I'm more interested in this involving Tetsuya Nishio than Oshii myself, but I sure hope he is going in a "new direction" with this. Well, we can only wait and see - the trailer has absolutely no animation (only 2 quotes or something right now), and this could be good.

The impression I get is that Production I.G. tends to lean towards projects that get presented in a way such that... that the animation is trying to emulate live-action stuff. Possibly because that seems to automatically make their works look more refined and "mature" and "well-done" on first glance = more interest (especially overseas, I think I.G.'s one of the first studios that got widespread recognition overseas in the last decade).

Downside to this is - at least from how I see it - it doesn't always work, and sometimes the product can end up very stuffy, boring or even bland in terms of presentation/direction. Refined and conventionally "gorgeous", but nothing that feels quite captivating.

So let's hope this doesn't go that way. Although it's not fair to burden it with so much doubting when we haven't even seen a shred of the actual animation or designs yet anyway, it's not like these are godawful staff members by any stretch.
....but hey, I do it all the time

[MrProphet]

Another small description from Oshii, courtesy of ANN.

"There are battleships and planes in the story, so I'm sure some will say 'Oh, it's another war film.' Actually, war serves only as the background of the story. The story focuses on a 16 or 17 year old boy and girl in a fictional country who are aboard a battleship and fighting in a war. It's a story of love, life and death" said Oshii, who then joked that "no one believes me when I say that it's a romantic film."

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...ess-conference

Didn't know that Oshii had a family. Still, it begins to sounds like a very interesting personal film to look forward to...

[monir]

Yay for synopsis, thanks to Mr. P! I'm now interested.

[orion]

Haven't seen the kid in 20 years huh? Standards must be different in Japan. That would not be something to mention in R1. I won't go there.

With this type of a scenario, "love" would have nothing to do with "it" imo. This guy looked a little twisted from the book exerpt too imo via Google translation.

It looks like this may be "tweaked" to attempt to compete with Miyazaki. The guy should give it up already. Miyazaki always lands on top.

[MrProphet]

Originally Posted by orion

It looks like this may be "tweaked" to attempt to compete with Miyazaki. The guy should give it up already. Miyazaki always lands on top.

Howl versus Innocence? Miyazaki's weakest film against the best thing to come out in this decade? Are you kidding me? It was a no contest in Oshii's favour.

[orion]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

Howl versus Innocence? Miyazaki's weakest film against the best thing to come out in this decade? Are you kidding me? It was a no contest in Oshii's favour.

3 Hayao Miyazaki films took GitS and Gits 2: Innocence to the cleaners, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke.

Hayao Miyazaki is a force of nature imo.

[MrProphet]

That's a very peculiar measurement tool, money. One that neither I, nor anyone I know, would subscribe to. Since, for one thing, it ascribes Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh higher artistic value.

But, in any case, Jedem das Seine.

[orion]

Box office measurements do not measure artistic quality per se. It simply measures what was popular and made money and what didn't.

This is one of the indices that Oshii is looking at when he wants to compete with Miyazaki and what is reported in the media. The other thing being awards received probably. In the end, box office receipts count more imo since Oscar can be elusive.

The bills have to be paid, after all.

[MrProphet]

This is one of the indices that Oshii is looking at when he wants to compete with Miyazaki

Oshii is looking at the box office?

He wants to compete with Miyazaki?

WTF?

Perhaps you should re-read that article, since it appears to me that you misunderstood some parts of it.

[orion]

No misunderstanding. I just read between the lines.

Everybody looks at the box office results nowadays, especially the press. It's a part of a film's prestige and selling power. Theaters won't place films that do poorly at their establishement and it becomes a vicious cycle imo.

Now combining this quote from the press release that I provided earlier....

However, Oshii declares that he is sealing off his method of direction so far. While distancing himself from the original novel “to create a more entertaining work”, he has promoted an up-and-coming scriptwriter, Chihiro Ito, who depicted youngsters' sensitive feelings beautifully in two acclaimed movies, Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (Sekai no Chushin de Ai wo Sakebu, 2004) and Spring Snow (Haru no Yuki, 2005). The music score will be written by Oshii's most trusted composer, Kenji Kawai. The animation production is by the top animation studio in Japan, Production I.G, which has been underpinning the quality of Oshii films. The Sky Crawlers is going to be a “completely new Oshii film”.

with the quote from the press release that you provided...

One big factor that affects the release of The Sky Crawlers is the release of Hayao Miyazaki's new film, which is scheduled to arrive in theaters around the same time. "I'm batting with the Master of Mitaka* quite a lot, aren't I? It isn't as if we are competing," Oshii said with a laugh. "Mr. Miyazaki's next film is definitely going to mark a turning point for him, but I wouldn't think of his film as competition, so I think we'll be fine. In a sense, the two works look similar. Much like Innocence resembled Howl's Moving Castle, I think these two works will look similar as well. We're on the same wavelength. (Laughs.)"

Sure you can say that he is "creating a more entertaining work" to make it a better film but it goes hand in hand with increasing the box office sales. That is why Chihiro Ito was probably bought on board imo and why the source is being "tweaked" into a love story. Try as he might to brush it off to the press, he knows that on some level he is in competition with Miyazaki since those 2 films will be releasing around the same time imo.

If these 2 films were not competing, then The Sky Crawlers would delay or advance its release date to get out of the way of Miyazaki's film imo.

[gianna]

Countdown of The Sky Crawlers count 3 Navigate DVD to be released on March nineteenth http://www.production-ig.co.jp/conte...70_/index.html

Movie is slated for a summer premier So as the title implies they will be releasing two more DVDS for the countdown

[Mgz]

the sound track from the teaser and trailer on youtube is amazing, as expect from Kawai Kenji.

New trailer from the Tokyo Anime Show looks good..... (it is not even on their website yet)

AND DOGFIGHT RASUTO EGUZAIRU-ish YES YES YES , not many people do dog fight nowaday .. it is all about laser guided beam heat seeking infrared weapon

[Westlo]

Yeah looks really good, I saw that the same time the Real Drive trailer was posted.

[MrProphet]

Here be some full-length trailer, courtesy of Manuloz and his great blog.

Looks very good too.

You know, Oshii once said that Spitfire was a third-rate plane and that he was just sick of Messerschmitts, but, apparently, not sick enough. 8)