The Original Creator

Mamoru Oshii, the creative force behind The Sky Crawlers, and Jin-Roh: Wolf Brigade and the original Ghost in the Sky. His most iconic work is the 1995 feature film Ghost in the Shell, which centered in a stone-cold heroine who is a cyborg. The movie has been adapted into a Hollywood film in 2017. It was directed by Rupert Sanders and starred Scarlet Johansson, who stirred headlines because of whitewashing.

Some of Oshii’s most notable live-action creations are Nowhere Girl, Avalon, The Last Druid: Garm Wars, and Sand Whale and Me. He is also currently directing Chimera, based on a novel by Baku Yumemakura. This series follows a student who dreams of a beast consuming him.

Vlad Love

Now, the director has a new original series launched by Ichigo Animation. Ichigo’s President and Representative Director Yutaka Nakanishi is guided by “Ichigo 30,” an initiative to invest in fresh ventures to promote the Akiba Cultures Zone in Akihabara, Tokyo.

According to Ichigo Ltd, the company’s mission is to utilize the subcultures to improve and boost Japan’s global image. This is why getting the director onboard their first project is considered a bold move.

The director developed the concept for the new series for a decade. He is credited for scripting and story. The series is titled Vlad Love, a slapstick comedy set in a vampire school.

Oshii and Nishimura

To help make Vlad Love come to life, Oshii sought the help of Junji Nishimura, who also worked with him for Urusei Yatsura, his directorial debut. Nishimura will be the director, under Oshii overseeing chief direction. Oshii and Nishimura want to do a girl meets girl story set in a high school.

“The main characters are five schoolgirls. There won’t be any hot guys,” he said, clarifying that the stars of the show will be real women, and a vampire called Mai.

Oshii even admitted that he had to ask younger people advice because he did not know anything about high school girls. Together with Nishimura, he showed character sketches during a press conference in an Akihabara mall which sells a myriad of anime merchandise.

Die-hard fans of Oshii might figure out that she show’s feel is quite familiar. This is because Oshii wanted to harness the same comedic genre that got his career to catapult.

After doing Urusei Yatsura, Oshii initially decided not to delve on doing series anymore, and simply focus on movies. However, he had a change of heart around 2 years ago and wanted to try his luck at directing a series once more.

Aside from enlisting Nishimura, Oshii also got Kei Yamamura. This time, to write the script with him. Yamamura used to work with the director for The Next Generation: Patlabor series before.

Another trusted colleague, Araraki Issei, who used to work for Studio SHAFT on March Comes In Like A Lion and Monogatari, will handle the character design for the new TV anime.

Back in the Game

Vlad Love is set to get female idol group BlooDye for its theme song. They will also have an ambassador role. The 12-episode series will be the legendary director’s first foray in the world of animation after a decade. His last anime project was a short film Je T’aime which was released in 2010.

This series may be one of the last projects of the great animators of Japan who are now becoming seniors. Oshii is now 67, and Nishimura is 63. Soon, they might be putting down their pencils for good.