Images of the Last Battalion

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Images of the Last Battalion

Directed by	Koichi Kishita
Produced by	Koichi Kishita
Written by	Koichi Kishita
Starring	n/a
Music by	Koichi Kishita
Cinematography	Koichi Kishita
Editing by	Koichi Kishita
Distributed by	Digital Hollywood
Release date(s)	2005
Running time	2:29 min
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Main article: Kerberos saga

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 Mamoru Oshii's Kerberos Panzer Jäger ^[1].

1 Overview
2 Awards
3 A Kerberos Panzer Cop tribute
4 Similarities with Kerberos Panzer Jäger
5 European controversy
6 Notes
7 Sources
8 See also
9 Media links

[edit] Overview

Stills are used in the montage.

The last SS Panzer battalion.

Mauser MG42 machine gun in use.

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

[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 Production IG studio. He debuted in the 3D team of xxxHolic, the anime adaptation of a manga by Clamp ^[2].

Images of the LastBattalion (2'29, 01.2005)

19th Digital Contents Grand Prix: Digital Creators Competition 2004 (DCAJ): 2nd, "Best Prize"

Image of LastBattalion (2'32, 04.2005)

Digital Frontier Grand Prix '05 (DFGP): 1st, "Best VFX Award"

[edit] A Kerberos Panzer Cop tribute

Main article: Kerberos Panzer Cop

The photography and editing are obviously inspired by IG. Production directors works, such as Oshii's Avalon (アヴァロン) 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

Main article: Kerberos Panzer Jäger

Panzer SS firing in front of the Café de Normandie.

Characters

SS Panzer Battalion (Normandy) / 101st Panzer Company (101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion)

Equipment

Stahlhelm Helmet

Protect-Gears

MG42 machine guns

Stuka diving bombers

Tiger I Panzer tanks

Location

Europe (explicit 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.