Tachiguishi-Retsuden (立喰師列伝, lit. Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters) is a 2006 Japanese animated comedy film directed by Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Oshii, who also wrote the eponymous novel on which the film was based. Both works are part of the Kerberos Saga. Live-action film and manga adaptations were produced few months later in Japan.
The Tachiguishi-Retsuden logo bears the mention Tachiguishi-Retsuden 1945-2006 A Mamoru Oshii Animation Film.
Superlivemation
Tachiguishi-Retsuden is a documentary-style animation film created with an innovative technique named "Superlivemation". Oshii first experimented this flat 3D technique in his 2001 live-action feature Avalon as a visual effect for explosions in Ash's game, then he developed it, the following years, in both the MiniPato short films and PlayStation Portable game. Characters have a tiny body and an oversized head which makes them look funny. They are animated like paper dolls (ペープサート人形, papsart ningyou) and are evolving in a pictures based environment in the likes of the JibJab Brothers' (Gregg and Evan Spiridellis) musical comedy cartoons, e.g. 2・0・5 Year In Review, although Mamoru Oshii stated his own work was a "serious comedy".
The Superlivemation consists of digitally processing then animating, paper puppet theater-style characters and locations based on real photographs. In Tachiguishi-Retsuden more than 30,000 photographs were processed 20 times, to produce the final composite to be animated.
The director describes his new animation film as set between "a simple animation with extremely intense information" and "a live-action movie with extremely limited information".
The theatrical release poster, which was later used on the OST and the videos, features several symbols of the Japanese popular culture and modern history. Clockwise, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress passing over, in reference to the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities in 1945, the Tokyo Tower which was completed in 1958, the high-speed train Shinkansen 0 Series, launched in 1964, at last, the standing character eating a gyudong bowl is Foxy Croquette O-Gin, in reference to the popular tachigui practice.
Foxy Croquette O-Gin (ケツネコロッケのお銀) and the Fast Food Grifters first appeared in Mamoru Oshii's Urusei Yatsura anime television series episode #99 (必殺！立ち食いウォーズ！！) which is based on an original story by Rumiko Takahashi. The characters were known as "pro of tachigui" (立喰いのプロ) instead of "tachiguishi". The English dub version titles Certain Death! Stand-Up Eating Contest (episode #99).
Mamoru Oshi directed a spin-off episode Female Fast Food Grifter: Foxy Croquette O-Gin ~Struggle to Death in Palestine~. This short video was available as a bonus DVD bundled with Monthly Comic Ryu Vol.1 magazine which was published on September 19, 2006. A retail edition with extra material and a regular DVD package was reissued in late December of the same year.
The manga series named Kerberos & Tachiguishi: Young Lady's Abdomen Biological Clock (tentative title for ケルベロスＸ立喰師 腹腹時計の少女, Keruberosu ekusu tachiguishi hara haradokei no shōjo) is ongoing since Monthly Comic Ryu (#2) which was issued in Japan on late November 2006. It involves Foxy Croquette O-Gin within the Kerberos universe.
Story
Prologue
Starting from a Proustian approach of food, Oshii tries to recreate 60-years of Japanese dietary history in his "Documentary of Shōwa underground". This work is actually a false documentary style animation movie, which borrows and develops some key elements from his 1987 debut live-action feature, The Red Spectacles, e.g. the stand-and-eat (tachigui), the post-World War II retro background, the avant-garde visuals and screenplay, and even the tachiguishi theme with returning characters like Moongaze Ginji.
In Akai Megane (The Red Spectacles), the new totalitarianist government has forbidden the tachigui in Tokyo in 1998. Stand-and-eat bars, among popular services like convenience stores, were seen as a threat to public order by the liberty killer political authority, therefore they were banned or restricted. However, some illegal tachigui bars still exists in the underground of the capital. One of the reason these bars have been definitely prohibited is, they were open at night and both owners and customers were suspected to take part to subversive talks and meetings.
Plot
A fictional documentary about changing Japanese eating habits and the colorful thieves that swindle the restaurants which serve them. The film begins with the origins of Japanese food stalls following the countries defeat in World War II. The first grifter introduced is Moongaze Ginji. He requests soba noodle soup with a raw egg (also known as "Moongaze Soba"). He declares the dish to be an imitation of a landscape.
The main body of the film follows a predictable pattern. A grifter is introduced, his food preference demonstrating the continued decline of traditional food in Japan, and his grift comically illustrated. Intercut at random are popular news event stories that always emphasise Japan losing its way and America and its allies' cultural and military despotism. Vignettes include Japanese children exploding from hula hoop use, drunk businessmen imitating Neil Armstrong, as anomalies of natural disasters coinciding with the ongoing cultural transformation underline nature itself disproving changes in Japan. Yukio Mishima's suicide is also referred to as an effect. Mishima committed suicide by seppuku to illustrate his support for Imperial Japan and the Emperor as a god.
One of the last grifters is Frankfuter Tatsu whose monologue is censored in each sentence because it refers to Disney Land. "I could only think of "beeeep-Land" he declares over and over. He is obsessed with American culture while simultaneously being censored by American Legal system despots. When asked why he is so interested in Disney Land he says he knows it is empty and fake, but full of everything, and nothing.
Kenji Kawai: Famous composer of Mamoru Oshii feature films (StrayDog, Patlabor the movie 2, GITS, Avalon) and WARP/Sega video games (Enemy Zero, Deep Fear), etc.
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