Alongside the 4K remaster of classic anime film Angel’s Egg, director Mamoru Oshii talked up his influences and what media he’s been into lately.
In the interview, Oshii was asked which games and creators he’s been paying the most attention to lately.
“I’ve been playing the game Fallout 4 for eight years,” Oshii said. “It’s my ideal game—almost as if it were made specifically for me.”
Oshii’s love for Fallout 4 is appropriately timed as Bethesda recently launched a big Anniversary Edition for the game earlier in November.
As for which game creators Oshii has been following the most, he obviously gave a nod to the director behind Metal Gear Solid and now Death Stranding.
“I also have deep respect for all of Hideo Kojima’s works,” he said.
It’s worth noting Oshii was featuring in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach in a more comical form as “the pizza chef,” an NPC that delivers pizza.
Later in the interview, Oshii reveals that Angel’s Egg, which is finally coming west and in a new 4K remaster, was originally meant to be a Lupin III film.
“It’s quite common for a stalled project to be reworked into something entirely different,” Oshii said. “Most of my works are adaptations or transformations of my original projects, created in response to each producer’s requests at the time.”
He added, “As a director, this film is an extension of my previous work and forms the basis of my own ideas. In a sense, every new film is simply an adaptation of what came before.”
When asked if an iconic movie like Angel’s Egg could be made today, Oshii is sure modern anime production is incompatible.
“I believe it would be impossible today,” Oshii said. “The detailed drawing tasks in this film would be tedious for most modern animators. They prefer engaging in creative, original work rather than refining craftsman-like techniques.”
He elaborated more, “Moreover, the current anime production environment no longer allows for a project like this to be made. The beauty of this film lies in the fact that every detail was created by human hands—something fundamentally different from the precision produced by today’s digital technologies.”
The original Fallout 4 has been available for Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and PS5. Get our review here!
