Talk:Kerberos Saga/Archive 1

==Themes==

Dog-Master relationship

“ "BM: -A dog is supposed to obey his master...
KT: -A dog is supposed to know who his master is!"
(Bunmei Muroto and Koichi Todome in Akai megane) ”

File:Hachiko1233.jpg

The true story of Hachikō is referred by Hayashi in StrayDog.

Dogs, typically basset hounds, appear in most of Oshii's work and are modeled after his own hound named Gabriel.

The fanatic obedience of the Kerberos to their master which was originally their unit leader, could be compared with the fanaticism of the Schutzstaffel troops toward their leading officer and by extension to the führer. The ideological indocrination was part of the SS training program.

In a non-Europeocentrist historic view, it could be compared to the Imperial troops fanaticism toward the Emperor, or it even could be regarded as a reminiscence of the samurai warriors -the Japanese word for "servant"- unconditional loyalty toward their warlord or fief lord. A such relationship is still in use in the modern yakuza societies and available in its general hierarchy from the aniki to the chinpira.

“ "They are stray dogs, someone might have dumped them or they get lost. There are so many of them around here."
(Hayashi in StrayDog) ”

In this cultural perspective, the "stray dog" (nora inu), the masterless dog (or Kerberos), can be regarded as a ronin, a masterless samurai (servant).

“ "Dogs can overcome any kind of difficulties to go back to their masters. It's an unfortunate fatal habit for them. [...] They hold a strong grudge against the humans who dumped them, but they also miss the smell of theirs masters so much."
(Hayashi in StrayDog) ”

From a psychological view, the Kerberos behavior through obedience and dependence, and more loosely the Dog-Master relationship, illustrated by Inui in StrayDog and by Fuse in Jin-Roh, could be patholigized as a mutual "affective addiction". The reciprocal dependence of the Master toward his Dog is one of the central theme of StrayDog, an illustration is Hayashi unveiling his desperation to get abandoned by Inui (his "Dog"/Kerberos), and saying to him in a half-desperate/half-frustated tune: "who is your master?!"

“ "[Stray dogs] are eternally ambivalent."
(Hayashi in StrayDog) ”

The story and characters creator himself, Oshii, asserted in a video interview that the Kerberos behavior was meant to illustrate the Duality of men, and the philosophical concept that "each encounter induce a severance" (Source: "Making of Jin-Roh", DVD published by CTV Int'l, 2000).