Interest

Mamoru Oshii Shares Thoughts on Drones, Friendship, Social Networking

At a publicity event in Tokyo on May 11, celebrated anime director landed one on Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's office. "When that came out, I thought it'd be an effective method of terrorism. I used them for filming, and at the time I even said, 'Couldn't you hang a bomb from this?' Movies are fake, so it's fine, but now it's reality that's moving further."

The event was a book launch for Oshii's new work, Tomodachi wa Iranai ("I Don't Need Friends"). Accordingly, Oshii spent much of the event explaining his thoughts on friendship. "Ever since high school, I haven't thought about friends. Normally I don't think about them, and when I'm asked why, it's because I don't have any," he claims. "Starting from the idea that friends are necessary, the motive of wanting something from them always struck me as suspicious. Well, I'm guessing 90% of people in the world would disagree with me."

As a result, Oshii doesn't understand the modern fascination with social networking. "I don't want to have conversations with people I don't know, and I send almost no mail. There are maybe five people who know my address... I personally don't understand the desire to be connected, but I can imagine it. It's probably because they're anxious."

Oshii says these thoughts are reflected in his latest movie, The Next Generation -Patlabor-, the final installment of which was released this month. Regarding the humanoid police robots and helicopters with optical camouflage, he said, "I had a great deal of interest in the technology. From the military side, too. The [technological] gap with civilians is disappearing."

[Via Eiga.com]