Ghost in the Shell 1995, dir. Oshii Mamoru

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Ghost in the Shell 1995, dir. Oshii Mamoru
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The Ghost in the Shell Franchise

• Shirow Masamune's Ghost in the Shell manga
  (mahn-gah), first published 1989.
• Two anime films, Ghost in the Shell (1995) and
  Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence (2004)
• Also, re-mastered Ghost in the Shell 2.0 in
  Blu-Ray (2009)
• Manga sequels, Ghost in the Shell 2 Man-Machine
  Interface (2002) Ghost in the Shell 1.5
  Human-Error Processor (2003).

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The Ghost in the Shell Franchise

• Two anime tv series, Ghost in the Shell Stand
  Alone Complex Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. 2nd
  GIG, film based on the tv series Ghost in the
  Shell S.A.C. Solid State Society w/ 3D version
  out soon.
• Video games for PlayStation, PS2, and PS
  Portable. Action figures, etc.
• Dreamworks is working on a 3-D live action
  version of the original manga.
• The Wachowski brothers have noted on the
  influence of the first Ghost in the Shell film on
  The Matrix.

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Ghost in the Shell

• Different from big Hollywood sci-fi films.
  Different how?

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Ghost in the Shell Gender?

• Compare to gender portrayals in Hwd Sci-Fi
• Male cyborg bodies of RoboCop, T2, Iron Man, etc.
• or even Neo in The Matrix.
• But lets compare

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Hollywood Hard Male Bodies
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Ghost in the Shell Gender?

• Hollywood Male Action Figures
• Ego Ideal Identification w/ idealized, powerful
  male figures (superheroes).
• In Hwd, Body/Self boundaries reinforced, or
  literally armored.
• In Ghost, powerful female body (before Lara
  Croft) of Major Kusanagi Motoko, but also a
  certain vulnerability.

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Ghost in the Shell Bodies Ghosts

• Kusanagis female body is shown to us again and
  again), but also a cyborg
• Her body is technological, manufactured, not the
  product of human reproduction.
• (What are we to make, then, of her reference to
  that time of the month? Sexuality,
  reproduction?).
• Bodies treated in Ghost as puppets or dolls,
  to be manipulated, used.
• Yet, Ghosts (souls?) do not seem immune to
  manipulation either. Ghost hacking, memories
  rewritten . . .

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Ghost in the Shell Sympathetic Cyborgs

• Kusanagi ( Puppet Master) Simulated,
  technological life but more than simply agent
  or tool of humans.
• Not under control of human "creators." But no
  longer seen as monstrous, a threat to humanity.
• Suggestion of technological evolution

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Ghost in the Shell Evolution

• Evolutionary "tree" on wall during tank battle.
• Cf. evolution of humans in Akira, other anime
  films.
• This evolution is cast as moving beyond (human?),
  transcending present world/reality (the Net as
  new world).
• Similar sense of evolution/ transcendence in The
  Matrix. But different result?

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Becoming One . . . With the Net

• Both Kusanagi Neo become something more than
  what they were. Limitless possibilities
  suggested.
• At end of Ghost, "And where shall I go now? The
  net is vast and limitless."
• (Similarly Neo speaks of a "world without
  borders.)
• Kusanagi merges with other technological being
  male/female (sexual?) union (wedding chant),
  death (of body?), and rebirth.
• "Reborn" in child's body.
• Rebirth transcending human?

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The human self and its borders

• In Ghost, though, rebirth or transcendence seems
  different than in Hollywood films, including
  Matrix.
• It is the self that is seen as "limiting"
  desire to move out of individual body, merge with
  other.

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Beyond the Human Self?

• Kusanagi's merger with Puppet-Master is described
  as overcoming the limitations of "me," of the
  self.
• Of the human?

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Diversity and the Self

• Merger, rather than mere copying, adds
  "diversity.
• Kusanagi discussed importance of "diversity" of
  her team earlier.
• "diversity" term applied to biological
  populations, not individuals.
• Becoming more than an individual (but retaining
  me?)
• A multiple/diverse identity? A connected or
  networked identity?
• A very different sense of connection/network,
  than with the Borg.
• In contrast, Neo's rebirth/transcendence of the
  limits of the individual self seems to result in
  an even more powerful Self (the One). Superhuman?

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Seeing Beyond "Reality"

• I Corinthians, 11-12 When I was a child, I
  spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
  thought as a child but when I became a man, I
  put away childish things. For now we see through
  a glass, darkly but then face to face now I
  know in part but then shall I know even as also
  I am known.
• Cf. Plato's Allegory of the Cave (an obvious
  source for The Matrix), where prisoners see only
  shadows which they take for reality. Plato calls
  these shadow-images "simulacra" or simulations.
• In each, the appearance (simulation?) of reality
  is deceptive or partial. A greater knowledge or
  truth is presumed to exist beyond what we
  perceive.