Yeah, I have a couple of his live action films, Avalon and Tachiguishi Retsuden (Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters). I like Avalon, although I think with better actors and a little more budget it could have been something really special. In truth though, I find a lot of Oshii's stuff from the last 15 years a little too heavy on the philosophical ruminations. Which is why I like the first two Patlabor films (I prefer the second one overall - I just found the premise more interesting than the first), the third Patlabor film is more of a police procedural/monster movie (and a major influence of the Korean movie 'The Host') and only marginally connected to the other two.Flabyo wrote:Appleseed is another where there's about 4 or 5 different animated adaptations and none of them are the same continuity...
The first Patlabor is a genuine classic, I'm not *as* keen on the others though.
You even seen Avalon Jay? If you can get to see it, try to avoid the US release because they did a Blade Runner and added a narrator to explain whats going on and it kinda ruins it. One of those where figuring out what's actually going on is the point of the movie.
As for Appleseed, I was thinking more for it being a better example of Shirow's manga work than the films. Although with the films, of which there are four, I've often found them quite enjoyable. The first, which was released in 1988, was made using traditional cell animation and is definitely looking it's age nowadays. For me though, the Second (which was the first one done in CG) was my favourite as it stayed faithful to the manga and was followed closely by the third film. The fourth film is still connected to the other two but is more of a prequel, going back to the characters time before the found the city of Olympus. Whilst all three films are meant to be in the same continuity, the problem is that the animation style changes quite considerably across the three films with some of the characters (particularly Deunan Knute) changing quite radically between the three films.