"Past Sunday, the Asahi Shimbun paper released a summary of the two-hour lecture Mamoru Oshii, director and script writer for Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers, and Patlabor, gave at the Tokyo University of the Arts on November 12th.
An interesting point of his lecture was Oshii stated that current anime is mostly otaku-centric and made to be turned into merchandising. He went on to say that anime today is a “copy of a copy of a copy that is no longer a form of ‘expression.’” Specifically pointing out how the Unicorn Gundam from the Mobile Suit Gundam UC anime wasn’t even meaningful by saying the “idea of a [unicorn] horn is interesting, but so what?”

Oshii expressed his belief that anime allows the freedom for it’s creator to control the world from it’s basic details to it’s foundation. With this he believes an anime director who uses this power can develop any theme or subject matter from across the world or throughout history, and indulge in obsessions to the ultimate extreme.
Osshi discussed how the nature of the “ghost” in Ghost in the Shell was much more easily grasped by the Japanese than the international fans. He also develed into the topic about the reception to his sequel film Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, the plot of The Sky Crawlers, and the recent nuclear accident in Fukushima. However he did not mention anything about his new works during the lecture.

Oshii is busy working currently on a manga/anime hybrid called Chimamire My Love (My Blood-Stained Love). The project is aimed at mobile devices - starting witht he iPad, and then expanding onto the iPhone and Android mobile devices.
For those interested in the project that Oshii created and planned himself and will debut in France in Feburary here’s a quick summary of the plot:

The story revolves around a timid second-year high school student who finds a kindred spirit in a girl he meets via a blood donation site. The girl is actually a vampire, and the comedy follows the boy’s madcap efforts to get blood donations for her."

DISCUSSION.... NOW!

I was sternly nodding my head in agreement for basically the whole post, and then I read the plot to his newest anime, and facepalmed so hard that I shattered my glasses. XD
We'll see how he pulls it out, though. It could be much more original than it sounds.

Mamoru Oshii's works are all about direction and style. The plot hardly matters.

He probably meant that most anime today use a similar direction and style, giving them the same otaku-centric merchandising feel. Similar to how Call of Duty, Metal of Honor, and Battlefield have become indistinguishable and are marketed to the same mainstream audience.

Yeah, I'm not seriously doubting him since I love Ghost in the Shell, but the way the interview was worded struck me as pretty hilarious.

Mamoru Oshii's works are all about direction and style. The plot hardly matters.

He probably meant that most anime today use a similar direction and style, giving them the same otaku-centric merchandising feel. Similar to how Call of Duty, Metal of Honor, and Battlefield have become indistinguishable and are marketed to the same mainstream audience.

Agree agree agree. And I wouldn't doubt his next project based off a synopsis that consists of a dozen words, his stories are usually a lot more complex and deliberate in their allusions/allegories/judgement then most anything in media these days.

This really speaks similar to all those sentiments on art I ranted about over the past year. Things can be pretty, people may like it and have fun with it, but so what? Who cares? If you want it to last after a fad, it has to mean something beyond function.

I meant the overall feel, like when you're feeling into someone. Nothing has to mean anything, but you can feel something. That feel is what I get from Oshii's stuff. Sky Crawlers was supposed to be a satire on anime while pointing out the nature of human existence, but nobody really cared. It was a good military love story.

I actually hate allusions/allegories/judgement and meaning. I'd rather sit back and eat it up instead of going "What did the author mean by this?" Like alot of historical art pieces that can only be understood/appreciated if they know the author's story - I prefer a meaningless bowling scene.

That bowling scene was awesome...

i dont think that bowling scene wasn't that meaningless. It was obviously drawn to show people how one "can" perceive bowling. It's drawn because they wanted to "draw" it and draw it very beautifully. The bowling scene could have easily been "half-assed", or maybe it was, but I found it to be very beautiful and I think if that's what that scene meant... well.. then I say it's done it's job.

I think people tend to separate meaning and technique... but is it really too much to ask for both? If I had to answer that question... I would say "yes". It IS too much to ask for both, but that's what makes it sooooo desirable, no? ^^

Technique can definitely be meaningful, look at Miyazaki, Monet, or Picasso.