The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra (Pilot)

In 1981 - before Ghost in the Shell, before Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai!, even before Dallos - Oshii Mamoru proposed a sci-fi anime series called The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra. He wrote, storyboarded, and directed a pilot film,with character designs by Takeda Akemi, but the show was not picked up. The pilot film is the only remaining trace. It was included as an extra in the Gosenzo-sama box set. Orphan is pleased to bring you a new version, based on the DVD source.

The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra combines sci-fi ideas with Hindu mythology, creating an interesting hybrid about a group of adventurers led by Shudra, a descendant of the military goddess Indra. 

 They journey to the "Moon Gate" in order to purify their home world of Purusha. The pilot shows a battle with a hydra,

 

plus various conflicts and interactions; but with no dialog and a very short run time, it's impossible to know what the series would have been about. When Oshii tried again in 1983 with Dallos, at least he got four episodes completed out of the proposed series.

Because the show is based on Hindu mythology, it requires extensive notes even though it has less than 30 lines of dialog:

• "The planet Purusha is a wasteland walking the path to destruction."
• "... a long forgotten spherical city called Shurti." Perhaps a mispelling of Śruti, revealed truth.
• "...a curious and fearless boy named Shudra..." Shudra was a social caste.
• "...a brilliant learned priest, Brahmana..."
• "...an unparalleled shaman healer, Rajani..." Most likely Laskshmi.
• "...a petty villain, Vaishya..."
• "...and a girl as fair as winter snow, Soma..." Probably the ritual drink soma.
• "...by the mysteriously beautiful King Ashura..." Ashura is clearly female, but the Japanese term used is "king" not "queen".
• "...and challenge the guardian deities of the Moon Gate, Varuna and Mitra..." 
• "...with the holy sword given to them by King Ashura." Nandaka, the sword of Vishna.
• "Shudra, a descendant of Indra, the god of military prowess." 

It's interesting to note that Oshii's obsession with the Coca Cola logo is evident here, long before Gonsenzo-sama Banbanzai!

Perevodildo translated and timed this fragment from scratch. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. The encoder wishes to remain anonymous. The provenance of the source is, perhaps, a pointer to future projects.

There's a lot of discussion on social media about "lost" anime, such as the Maze movie,a. The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra falls into a different category, "never made" anime. With "lost" anime, there's always hope, however faint, that something will turn up, as the lost masters for Project A-Ko did. With "never made" anime, there's no hope. Like the second season of Sanada 10, we will never see any more of The Fullmoon Tradition: Indra. So I urge you to take a look at this tantalizing fragment. You can get the release from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.