The acclaimed director of science fiction anime classics never watched anime in his youth! How does one go from newbie to revered director in such a competitive field? Our journey with Director Oshii begins here.

Professional directors are skilled at diagnosing problems in their work. So it’s no surprise that problematic films can sharpen our diagnostic skills. How does watching the bad help us get good?

The Director talks through his favorite challenges in creating the cyberpunk classic that launched him to global fame in the 1990s. Hear about creating the pan-Asian version of futuristic Hong Kong, and choreographing the animation in the “thermoptic camouflage” scenes where one fighter fades in and out of visibility.

Filmmaking is based on intentional “delusion” (as Oshii later discusses in Lecture 01). This means lying can be a great creative driver – as long as you learn how to turn your lies into the right kind of reality.

What do people take away from a film? Turns out it’s pretty random, and never the whole thing. Director Oshii talks about his approach to filmmaking as creating a katamari (cluster, or accumulation) of rich, memorable details – the fun is seeing what bits stick in people’s memories.

Animation may be a medium where anything is theoretically possible, but knowing the limits of the mechanics and physics involved is crucial. Director Oshii shares some of the challenges he faced in the concluding scenes of the original Ghost in the Shell.

The processes of anime and filmmaking overlap, but require different expertise, literacies, and skills from their directors. What they have in common: reaching the finish line is a battle.

To some, Director Oshii has the reputation of being a sloth, showing up to work for 3 hours a day max – yet to others he’s known as the hardest-working person in the studio.… Hear what’s behind this duality and get the truth about how to create a sustainable path through the sometimes grueling creative world.

The sequel to Ghost in the Shell, titled simply “Innocence” in Japanese, features classic SF tropes (such as the time loop reminiscent of La Jetée) that emphasize artificiality and the mechanization of reality and further complicate one of Oshii’s team’s biggest challenges: animating human and dolls while blurring the distinction between the two.

Collaboration between great minds often yields amazing innovation, but in the realm of film and anime directing, two is a crowd. Hear why a director’s voice is so crucial and why high-level collaboration can be a death trap.

Oshii’s anime is known for its intellectual depth, but in this session he highlights its physical nature, with the world and characters coming from the physical labor of artists, out through their hands, and eventually to the screen.

Dogs, birds, people, and everything living within the anime world can be said to be a form of animism – Oshii discusses how they put life and emotions into animated characters, human, non-human, or post-human.

Directing is a marathon – racing past obstacles and imitators – and anime directing means there are many parts you must run alone. Why endure all this to become a director? The question is only half rhetorical….

Categorizing knowledge and memories is the first step toward imagination – but to succeed, a director has to go beyond categorization and into the realm of complete delusion (mōsō).

Director Oshii, also a prolific screenwriter and author of narrative fiction, explains the balance and ordering of how to conceptualize world, character, and story.

Explanation of the 8 essential aspects for creating a roster of characters for a film or anime – including the all-important “absent character.”

The classical technique of spending more time on character and world development has yielded to rapid plot development and action. Oshii discusses reserving action and being judicious about motion, even as technologies and viewing cultures evolve.

Oshii explains his approach to world-building through the distinction between Japanese terms fūkei and jōkei, the former signifying background scenery, and the latter signifying the scene, which includes background, character, and the emotional balance created by adding and subtracting elements.

Oshii covers the complex processes at play in considering how to actualize jōkei through effective location hunting and strategic use of layout, a process resembling architecture as much as filmmaking.

Film and anime require different ways of working with different specialists – from costume designers to cinematographers. All these workings require the director to navigate the path of creating art while wrestling with the everyday and sometimes even the uninspired. Every director must find their scene.