Interview with Kenji Kamiyama, Director of the Movie “009 Re:Cyborg” [3/4]

Kamiyama: To revive a big title of the past without making it high tech, that is the trail Ghost in the Shell followed, so I thought I shouldn’t do that. If something from that age survived until the present time, why did it survive? Those nine might be imperfect and ineffective as they are, but what is the importance of that? While I think I could dig deeper into this work, there were numerous parts I wasn’t able to draw out in this one movie. I tried to finish it, but it feels as if it’s even more incomplete... They all should be sharing the same sense of justice. They alone faced the Black Ghost Organization, an enemy of the whole world, they fought to bring justice to the world and triumphed... However, it was the human world that created Black Ghost after there was no one else to fight. And as long as there are humans, there would be a second, a third Black Ghost Organization; there is no end to it. “Facing that fact, you still want to fight?” - after cross-examining this question, Cyborg 009 ended once. And then, author Shotaro Ishinomori kept digging deep down into humanity while trying to draw the next, even larger battle. I think that he arrived at the conclusion that their unstoppable urge to fight makes humanity the biggest evil on this world. But then God comes in to deny that and start over...that’s the unfinished part Ishinomori couldn’t draw.

In that era, Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, and Go Nagai added to the world of manga with their own individual authorship. Actually, in “that part,” they challenged themselves to draw the same subject...

Kamiyama: Yes, but with different interpretations. I think that when Ishinomori threw his heroes into this situation of “fighting God,” he couldn’t really give an answer to the question of whether they should still protect humanity. And while he was pondering, he unfortunately got knocked down by an illness and probably died thinking that he couldn’t finish drawing the story. On the other hand, in Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix, every episode repeated the same pattern, that is, after trying to hate humans, it concluded that “still, humans are wonderful!” That was Tezuka’s outlook. Nagai had the exact opposite outlook, saying, “That’s not true, humanity is hopeless and should be destroyed.” But since he hasn’t drawn what happens after the last scene of Devilman, we can’t know if he still thinks the same way. At that time, in regard to his mentor Ishinomori, he probably thought, “Sensei, why are you so troubled?”

009 Re:Cyborg brings back the same hypothesis Ishinomori never finished drawing. It is uncertain whether it’s a universal “solution” and it is also possible that there is no absolute answer. However, Kamiyama strongly felt that there was a need to revive the hypothesis with a reinterpretation different from rationalization and realism. In comparison to Ghost in the Shell’s Section 9 which fights as part of the administration as cyberization advances in a regulated society, the nine cyborg warriors in 009 Re:Cyborg are troubled by the gap between their moral values and sense of justice, and they are constantly unstable to the point of wanting to run away from their own identities.

Kamiyama: When the remaking of Cyborg 009 first came up, I had my worries. I was trying to make something that has shaken free from the once called realism of Ghost in the Shell. I was afraid that it might turn into the exact opposite, that I would simply return to my roots. Won’t Cyborg 009, which at the time was considered a high-end sci-fi, become a retro sci-fi if I did a remake now...? I thought that perhaps keeping Ishinomori’s original style and making it into a manga sci-fi without changing the 60’s atmosphere was also a possibility, and there was a probably that fans would have wanted that. Now I can say I have dealt with both extremities.

The movie was screened in Japan for an exceptionally long period of four months, ending in early March. At the same time, in addition to its release in Asian countries such as Singapore, in April, Kamiyama flew to Europe for a premiere screening event prior to its release in Scotland and England. On May 22, the long-awaited Blu-ray and DVD package will go on sale. 009 Re:Cyborg has rediscovered a former masterpiece, and its motto - If you don’t end it, it won’t start - is a body blow that slowly takes its effect after watching the movie.

Kamiyama: The nine protagonists are not the flawless American type of heroes, and they don’t have a powerful organization in the background, either. The story is about how the nine of them - scattered and back in their own countries, having their own identities - unite once again to face the wall that is blocking them, the “battle against God.” I think that in order to understand the drama, it is essential to understand Ishinomori’s context, otherwise, you might not be able to fully enjoy it. This time, I created a work in the concept of restarting, to reset a title everyone has started to forget, so I didn’t make it in a way that it could be plainly and simply enjoyed. In that sense, I prepared the most hard-to-swallow dish. That’s why I would like for overseas people who don’t share the late Ishinomori’s world to watch the movie at least three times!

To Part 4

© 2012 009 Re:Cyborg Production Committee

This is a TokyoOtakuMode original article.