Kerberos Panzer Jäger

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Main article: Kerberos saga
Kerberos Panzer Jäger"MG42 Barrel Change" (theatrical poster).
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Kerberos Panzer Jäger
"MG42 Barrel Change" (theatrical poster).

Kerberos Panzer Jäger (ケルベロス 鋼鉄の猟犬, Keruberosu kōtetsu no ryōken) is a 2006 radio drama series based on a story written by Japanese filmmaker and novelist Mamoru Oshii. It is monthly broadcasted since April on Bunka Houso Kabushiki Gaisha's JOQR Radio station.

Contents

[edit] Title

Kerberos Panzer Jäger, the official international title, can be translated to English as "Hellhound Armored Hunter", with "jäger" being the German word for "hunter". ケルベロス 鋼鉄の猟犬 is Japanese for "Kerberos Steel Hunting Dog".

[edit] Key elements

[edit] Kerberos

For more details on this topic, see Kerberos saga#Kerberos.

Primarily, the term kerberos is a reference to Hades' three-headed watchdog of hell in the Greek mythology. It is also used to designate the Panzer Cops.

[edit] Protect-Gears

For more details on this topic, see Protect-Gear.

The Protect-Gear is the full body armour used by both the Kerberos Panzer Cop and Kerberos Panzer Jäger assault units. Various types are used within the saga.

[edit] Jäger

For more details on this topic, see Kerberos saga characters.

Jäger is a German military term for light infantry. Prussian élite troops were named Potsdam Jäger. In Kerberos saga, the Panzer Jäger unit is part of the Ground Self-Defense Force (陸上自衛隊).

[edit] Prequel

For more details on this topic, see Kerberos Panzer Cop.

The Kerberos Panzer Jäger characters made their first appearance in 1999, in Kerberos Panzer Cop: Conclusion's Act 5 "War Dogs".

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Chronicles

For more details on this topic, see Kerberos saga chronicles.

Kerberos saga historical background and significant dates in both the real and fictitious History.

[edit] Prologue

English map of Cpt. Maki's route from Warsaw to Stalingrad (courtesy of Hobby Japan)
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English map of Cpt. Maki's route from Warsaw to Stalingrad (courtesy of Hobby Japan)

The plot of Kerberos Panzer Jäger is based on the popular Kerberos saga which started in 1987 as the black and white live-action feature film The Red Spectacles.

This 2006 extension explores the European, military, origins of the Kerberos Panzer Cops, the German troopers known as Kerberos Panzer Jäger. The story is mainly set on the "Eastern Front", in East Europe, during the 1940s, with the German fighting the Soviet and eventually winning against them at the 1942 Battle of Stalingrad, creating a paradox and a major change in the course of History leading to the parallel world portrayed in the Kerberos saga.

[edit] Plot

September 1942, German Captain Maki Stauffenberg in command of the 808th Propagandakompanie (Ärmelstreifen des Heeres) leaves the Warsaw station to start his long journey into the Sovietic mainland.

His duty in the Propagandakompanie sends him from a front to another one, conveying up-to-date informations to both militarymen and civilians. But his real mission is to secretly store and transport Protect-Gears parts for the 101st Panzer Company fighting in the fierce battle of Stalingrad.

Captain Maki must join Warsaw to Stalingrad in an armoured train who does not have a mere window for maximum security. If successful, his secret mission, and long travel into the Far East, might change both the tide of the battle and the course of History.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Characters

Character design inspiration for the Panzer Jäger (comics version): German infantry in Poland 1939
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Character design inspiration for the Panzer Jäger (comics version): German infantry in Poland 1939
  • Captain Maki Stauffenberg
Claus von Stauffenberg was the German colonel who failed to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944 delivering him a bomb.
  • Sergeant Major Hollerbach
  • Corporal Lauth
  • Captain Deisler
  • Major Klose
  • Sergeant Beinlich
  • Sergeant Kahn

[edit] Chapters

[edit] Interview program

The '06 renewed Jäger Protect-Gear (Barque Inc. 2006).
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The '06 renewed Jäger Protect-Gear (Barque Inc. 2006).
Panzer Jäger unit in Kerberos Panzer Cop: Conclusion (2000)
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Panzer Jäger unit in Kerberos Panzer Cop: Conclusion (2000)
  • 2006.04.26: Interview Part.1: Radio drama's appeal
(ラジオドラマの魅力を探る)
  • 2006.04.26: Interview Part.2: Listeners questions about Kerberos Panzer Jäger
(ケルベロス鋼鉄の猟犬)を語る
  • 2006.04.26: Kenji Kawai & Mamoru Oshii
(川井憲次×押井守)

[edit] Drama program

[edit] Act I: Armoured Train

(装甲列車編, Ōkō ressha hen)

  • 2006.04.31: Vol.1: Propagandakompanie (Propaganda Company)
(宣伝中隊, Senden chūtai)
  • 2006.06.28: Vol.2: Kursk
(クルスク, Kurusuku)
  • 2006.07.26: Vol.3: Kriegspferd (Charger)
(軍馬, Gunba)

[edit] Act II: Panzer Jäger

(装甲猟兵, Ōkō ryoū tsuwamono)

  • 2006.08.30: Vol.1: Die GigantSoldaten Potsdam (Potsdam Giant Guards)
(ポツダムの巨人兵, Potsudamu no kyojin tsuwamono)
  • 2006.09.27: Vol.2: Das Dritte Armee (The Third Army)
(第三の軍隊, Daisan no -)

[edit] Act III: Electric Shock Battle

(電撃戦, Dengeki ikusa)

  • 2006.11.10: Vol.1: Blumenkrieg (Flowery War)
(花の戦争, -)
  • 2006.11.24: Vol.2: StudiumWesten (Study of the West)
(西方研究, -)

[edit] Anime feature adaptation project

On late May 2006, Mamoru Oshi has officially unveiled his plan to direct an anime feature of the German Kerberos Blitzkrieg narrated in Kerberos Panzer Jäger.

Since recreating a such battle is extremely ambitious, the Japanese director doesn't plan to produce his project until 2009. In order to help the dramatization of the epic battle, the movie will heavily use 3DCG.

A 2005 young freelance director's short film, also based on 3DCG and really similar to the Kerberos Panzer Jäger story, was showcased at the Kerberos saga radio drama series launch party as a trailer. This independent concept work could be the motivation for both Oshii's 2006 drama and 2009 Kerberos Blitzkrieg projects. source: WatchImpress.

[edit] Images of the Last Battalion

The title's style is similar to WWII based games such as Medal of Honor.

Samurai-Panzer troopers.

The last SS Panzer battalion.

Mauser MG42 machine gun in use.

[edit] Overview

Images of the Last Battalion is a 2"29, black and white, Retro-fiction 3DCG/Animation short film directed by Koichi Kishita (岸田 幸士) in 2005, then he was student at the Digital Hollywood graduate school of Tokyo (デジタルハリウッド株式会社). This bootleg work was officially released at the Raiden theater in May 2006, as a trailer for Kerberos Panzer Jäger.

[edit] Awards

The concept work's original title and length were altered when entering different festivals, hence different designations, including Image of the LastBattalion appearing in the 3" title screen added by DFGP officials.

Kishita's self-production impressed Mamoru Oshii as it demonstrates a striking visual influence by one of his own production, Avalon. Since then, Kishita became member of the IG Production studio. He debuted in the 3D team of xxxHOLiC, the anime adaptation of a manga by CLAMP.

19th Digital Contents Grand Prix: Digital Creators Competition 2004 (DCAJ): 2nd, "Best Prize"
Digital Frontier Grand Prix '05 (DFGP): 1st, "Best VFX Award"

[edit] A Kerberos Panzer Cop tribute

Images of the Last Battalion is a student concept work, it is designed like a trailer and is centered on a Schutzstaffel battalion equipped with Protect-Gears-like armors and fighting during World War II, and eventually been defeated, hence the title.

The photography and editing are obviously inspired by IG. Production directors works, such as Oshii's Avalon feature film released in 2001, whom it borrows various visual effects such as motion blur among other After Effects filters, and Hiroyuki Okiura's Jin-Roh, particularly the stills used in the 1999 feature anime's prologue.

Another strong inspiration could be Killzones CG cutscenes directed by Graham McKenna from the Glasgow based, Axis Animation studio. Some sequences from Images of the Last Battalion are restaging of Killzone's promo teaser and video custscenes based on WWII key themes, e.g. the Nuremberg rally or the Trench warfare. The 2004 Dutch game inspired by the Kerberos saga was lastly published in Japan, in 2005, by Sega. Killzone was finally released in Asia after the Killzone 3 E3 trailer shock.

The similarities between Images of the Last Battalion's characters and geographical background and the events portrayed in Kerberos Panzer Jäger could be interpreted as a direct motivation or inspiration to the drama series. Actually the Panzer Jäger characters were introduced within the saga back in 1999, in the Kerberos Panzer Cop part 2 (Act 5) as well as German-built tanks. According to an interview published in the Japanese notorious news website, WatchImpress, Kishita's original short film was modified to become a "trailer" for Panzer Kerberos Jäger which was showcased at the drama series' launch party. Cosmetic changes included alteration of the SS imagery, replaced by Jäger emblems, in order to fit the Kerberos saga's thematical universe.

[edit] Similarities with Kerberos Panzer Jäger

Panzer SS firing in front of the Café de Normandie.
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Panzer SS firing in front of the Café de Normandie.
SS Panzer Battalion (Normandy) / 101st Panzer Company (see "101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion")
Stahlhelm Helmet
Protect-Gears
MG42 machine guns
Stuka diving bombers
Tiger I Panzer tanks
Europe (reference to the Battle of Normandy)

[edit] European controversy

Kishita's work quickly became famous outside Japan through online popular media such as personnal blogs and anime/films forums. However a such art work remains controversial in Western countries because of its ambiguous and taboo theme: glorification tribute to the fall of a Schutzstaffel battalion. The massive use of Nazi imagery, from "SS" insignias, to Iron Cross, to Swastika and Hitler salutes could be interpreted as a Nazi propaganda film outside its Kerberos saga -unofficial- underlying reference, and apart its filmmaking and technical appreciation context.

In European countries such as Germany and France, the criminal or civil codes makes the public showing of the Swastika and other Nazi symbols illegal and punishable, except for scholarly reasons. The situation is different in Japan where the Nazi imagery is not a cultural nor historical taboo.

[edit] Historical similarities

Kerberos Panzer Jäger Images of the LastBattalion History
101st Panzer Company SS Panzer Battalion (Normandy) 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion
Army Group North/Center/South - Barbarossa Army Group North/Center/South
Cpt. Maki Stauffenberg - Col. Claus von Stauffenberg

[edit] Production

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production staff

  • Original story / Scenario / Director: Mamoru Oshii
  • Music: Kenji Kawai
  • Sound director: Kazuhiro Wakabayashi
  • Recording: 宮澤二郎
  • Effects: 伊藤道広 (Soundring)
  • 音楽制作: 安田玲子 /　仲野智子　/ 奥澤麻由美 /　大久保絵美 (Aube Inc.)
  • 音響制作担当: 好永伸恵
  • 音響制作: フォニシア
  • 録音Studio: Tokyo TV Center
  • Supervisor: 小泉聰

[edit] Recording staff

  • Recording Engineer: Kitagawa Teruaki /　Kyouhei Fukushiro
  • Strings: 内田輝 Group　
  • A.Piano: Tohru Shigemi
  • Keyboards: Kenji Kawai
  • Recording studio: 一口坂 Studio /　Aube Studio /　i@ Recording Studio
  • Assistant Engineer: 山本篤士 /　中田武士 /　菊地和孝 (一口坂 Studio) / 長谷部智子 (Aube Studio) / 見留由紀 (i@ Recording Studio)

[edit] Musical theme

  • Die Antwort ("the answer"):
Composer:　Paolo Bozzola
Arrangement:　Kenji Kawai
Vocal:　Akane Kawabe

[edit] See also

[edit] Media links

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

Kerberos saga by Mamoru Oshii ケルベロス
KERBEROS ARC
| While Waiting For The Red Spectacles (1987) | The Red Spectacles (1987) | Kerberos Panzer Cop (1988)
| StrayDog: Kerberos Panzer Cops (1991) | Jin-Roh (1999) | Kerberos Saga: Rainy Dogs (2003)
| Kerberos Panzer Jäger (2006) | Kerberos & Tachiguishi (2006)
TACHIGUISHI ARC
| Tachiguishi-Retsuden (2004) | Tachiguishi-Retsuden (2006) | Otoko Tachiguishi-Retsuden (2006)
OFFICIAL BOOTLEG
| Images Of The Last Battalion (2005)
KERBEROS FILES
| Saga | Chronicles | Characters | Protect-Gear | Weapons | Vehicles
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