Whether intentionally or deliberately Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in Shell complicates the philosophical definition of life; what differentiates the animated and the lifeless? Essentially life forms are created by the same materials found in a hamburger for instance. If you think about it the only input our body receives is the food we eat and the air we breathe yet life is created out of these raw ingredients. Ghost in shell suggests there must be another criteria aside from composition that differentiates what should be considered life and what is not. In the film, we see the puppet master argue “man is an individual only because of his intangible memory”. In other words, what separates us from the lifeless is our ability to preserve ourselves even after death. Although our bodily entities may fade away thorough time, DNA has allowed us to overcome the undermining effects of death; the existence of human continues because DNA — life is passed through generations.
Lastly, I must say after never seeing a Japanese anime I now understand why they are so popular. I genuinely enjoyed watching a new genre of animation I never had exposure to.
Ghost in the Shell was originally written and voiced in Japanese, consequently even the English dubbed version has a very different written dialogue and voice acting than its American counterparts.
Like many of its anime peers, there is a difference in pacing of the dialogue, some places extremely fast paced and in other places there is a general feeling of difficult translation. The parts where the dialogue is particularly fast and long-winded, seems to correlate with concepts that would be require non-direct translation. The voice acting feels like Studio Ghibli movies American voice acting from the same time. There is a formal, rigidity of the voices and there words that makes the dialogue different from the casual nature of American animated features. The lines that did feel natural were the muttered curse words, the easy translation able to translate emotionally as well.
Though the process for making a complete animated work varies across studios, in the translation process, the translators, voice director, and voice actors have the chance to see the complexities in the completed work before providing their version. While on the boat, Kusanagi is speaking to Batou and there is a sudden shift in her expression, which was accompanied by a change in the tone of her voice. In this moment, it seems clear that the American voice actors were directed with those exact images in mind. The translation of anime, results in the obvious de-synchronization of the mouths of the characters and the words they say. The translation and tone of the American voice actor can change to attempt to remove some of the awkwardness of the visual and auditory difference.
While it is not unusual for animated features to have characters with silly voices, this gritty dystopian sci-fi had a few out of place goofy voices. The character Nakamura had a voice that seemed more comedic than the atmosphere of the movie. This unnatural voice could be result, whether conscious or not, of the American voice actor attempting to imitate the tone and feel of the Japanese voice actor.
“Ghost in the Shell” was a great introduction to the anime theme, providing a plot story that was not reliant on the animation, but rather enhanced by it. The movie finds support in its animation style, with the animation giving the story life and plausibility. The anime style gives legitimacy to “Ghost I the Shell” by presenting a stylistic format that is not expected to be lifelike, but is still reflective of live-action cinema.
Watching the movie, I appreciated that it felt timeless in a sense. The movie is old, but has aged well and still presents difficult questions that have to be considered with the rise of technology. The philosophical considerations in the movie were compelling, and I was challenged with what was discussed. Overall, I enjoyed this movie more than I was anticipating, and am glad I watched it.
The soundtrack of Ghost in the Shell did an amazing job at setting the somber, melancholic mood of the film. The music in the opening sequence that shows the creation of the main character particularly stood out to me. It was quite unexpected because it sounded very tribal and ancient rather than technological and futuristic to match the setting. The slow pace of the drums and haunting vocals served to produce this sense of foreboding. Even after the somber music had come to an end, I was set on edge for the remainder of film. Why use such an antiquated, pensive opening theme to set the scene? The music relates to the overall message of the film in that it represents how people have been pondering the nature of humanity and what it truly means to be alive since the beginning of time. Such philosophical questions are sobering and dispiriting because there are no clear answers to perfectly explain our existence and its meaning. The music pairs well with the futuristic animation to express the melancholy surrounding the infinite perpetuation of these profound, metaphysical inquiries.
Considering Mamoru Oshii’s “Ghost in the Shell” as an illustration of Otsuka’s three conceptions of realism, the creation of reality not referentially bound to the perceptually real or filmic reality can be observed.
“Ghost in the Shell” largely features characters engulfed in an occupation filled with blood and danger with death always looming as a presence. As a departure from the realm of semiotic bodies (symbolic manifestations of living beings), the characters bleed, inflict pain, can “merge” with other beings, and die, extending previous abilities of animated characters who usually drew emotional parallels to reality. It is within these characters that Otsuka’s biological realism is realized. Although these theme have roots in reality, this kind of realistic expression is not explicitly dependent on realistic illustrations. The ability to die (as mentioned by the Puppet Master) certainly defines living beings, but the prevalence of that possibility and occurrence in “Ghost in the Shell” exists and is independent from our reality.
Along with the Gundam series and other pioneers in the mecha/sci-fi genre of Japanese animation, Ghost in the Shell provides ample depictions of familiar guns that parallel to our own world and incredible machinations that parallel to Hollywood’s science fiction scene. Their employment serves to exhibit Otsuka’s second conception of realism: the realism of mechanical objects. Whereas the biological realist subjects are marked by their adherence to mortality (non-pictorial realism), the mechanical realist objects are marked for their drawing style that strictly lines up with the visual resemblance to world objects. And while the astounding volume of the world that is shown is in no way possible by today’s standards, the use of familiar concepts such as guns, wires, nuts, bolts, and code impart a sense of familiarity to contemporary society. In other words, we could imagine that these androids, trackers, and large laboratories can realistically exist.
Finally, the bread and butter of “Ghost in the Shell” lies in its fusion of biology and machines. The mortality that defined non-semiotic characters comes into contention. However, Otsuka’s final conception of realism, anime-manga realism, rectifies this tension. This idea attests that anime and manga serve as their own referent. In other words, their prevalence, consistency and self containment produce its own reality, its own world. In the Ghost in the Shell environment, androids, humans, and other sentient beings are a reality. The consistency of their application to the environment substantiates it own reality. Thus, the artificial environment produces its own realism as an autonomous body apart from we commonly refer to as “real”.
The worlds in anime and manga form the basis for an alternate venue of expression, altering the use and application of the term realism. The realm of “Ghost in the Shell” is real. It has a reality of its own with causality and laws at its crux.
While Ghost in The Shell did a good job of raising questions that seem unanswerable and bringing up good ideas to consider, it went about trying to describe those ideas in the wrong way. The movie plays with an animation style that mimics reality with anatomically correct proportions (for the most part) for the humans and surroundings that were reminiscent of what you might see in an animated photograph. This serves to make the world and the ideas being voiced by the human like (like in more ways than one) characters more relatable to viewers. This only furthers the ability of the movie to make the viewer question the nature of humanity in ways that aren’t valid. However, rather than making this post about philosophy, I’d like to talk about the use of sound for identities. In a different class, I learned about how much weight the world gives to sound in terms of identity and life. Think about it, even the Big Bang, an event that was actually completely silent, is equated to an explosion of sound. Death is compared to a quiet wave, and the equalization of killing characters to taking their voices away is also used in media. Ghosts in The Shell takes this same identity assignment idea by equating voices to souls in the movie. Biblical ideas are referenced throughout the movie as well, which also makes me wonder if the film was intended for an American audience that would potentially be more familiar with the text at the time, or a Japanese society that would hear the references as more inconspicuous. One idea that was utilized predominantly is that the body is just a host, or shell, for one’s ghost or soul. The ability for one’s spirit to be free and not tied to a physical body is made evident by the fact that robots are able to house the consciousness of a person. Thoughts flow freely between intended listeners, and the Major is able to shift her ghost from one host to another. It is her voice that makes her presence known, not the body that she is in. This is further illustrated in the way that we first meet the A.I. 2501. Although the ghost inhabits a body that appears to be biologically female, the voice that leaves its mouth sounds male. This makes it so that the “woman” is a man regardless of the host it is in. 2501 is also referred to as a “he” by those in pursuit of him. This makes me wonder why he decided to inhabit a female host in the first place, whether it was for shock value or to prove that it is the soul of the body that matters and not what is housing it. In the end, we know that Major, or something like her, continues to live on in the body of the little girl that Batou found. This is because she speaks, making her presence known even though she is someone completely different now.
Overall, I was happy to see a movie that further explored this idea, and would like to hear what others think about the idea that who we are is not tied to our biological structures.
Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell asks many questions about the true nature of life, but answers little. The ending scene where the Puppet Master wants to merge with Major Motoko Kusanagi brings up one of the most difficult questions from the entire film. Major Kusanagi doesn’t want to merge with the Puppet Master because she would no longer be herself. Already, this is a difficult point to validate. The only part of Major Kusanagi that is original is her brain and memories. As we see earlier in the movie, memories can be manufactured through “ghost-hacking.” The Puppet Master brings up this point himself during the interrogation with Section 9. He has manufactured memory and memories. Similarly, the Puppet Master has a “brain” and has achieved self-awareness. If Major Kusanagi believed that the Puppet Master wasn’t living, then she wouldn’t be worried about being changed, since her consciousness would take over, similar to how her conscious already controls the shell her body is. Since Major Kusanagi truly thinks that she will no longer be the same after merging with the Puppet Master, then either the Puppet Master is more alive than society would like to admit, or Major Kusanagi is more inanimate than she would like to believe.
Upon watching this movie, I at first thought it was going to be more like Spirited Away, since they were all in the same category for watching tonight. However, I was very wrong. There were elements in this movie that were also in Spirited Away like a sort of otherworldly happening, but altogether this is a far inferior movie.
One of the main reasons that I think this is because of the sound quality of the movie. Now, this has nothing to do with the quality of the DVD itself, but the actual sound mixing that went on in the movie overall. I often found that, unlike Fantasia, the sounds in this movie often did not match what was going on with the action in the movie. Explosions would happen, but the sound wouldn’t quite go along with it exactly. That was my main qualm with the movie. Since I was so impressed by this aspect in Fantasia, I have found myself looking and listening closer in movies, for those that do it well, and those that do it poorly.
Ghost in the Shell questions the nature of humanness as the concept of the body is complicated and reduced to the purely mechanistic. Shots focus and linger on the body, probing its nature and the nature of self through an animated reality. The hyperrealism of the painted sky through water droplets on a mask, the dark staining of the wood on a dock as that water streams from a characters body, seem to impart a physical life into the film often relegated to the live action and photographic; life itself, even sentience, is posited as something which can be imparted. The body, in all of its animated maneuvers, its symbolic nudity, its dissection and evisceration on screen, is but a shell. To be human, it is argued, is to be a sum of all the intangible memory and experience which is beyond the body, beyond, it seems, the multiplying cells or their abiotic augmentations, even beyond the synapses that would propagate those experiences. To be human, and really alive, is something more. The question, then, is not so much what defines life, but what defines the soul. The reality of the film, rendered by its style and strict containment, seeks to explore this concept so frequently encountered in animated film.
(A note on the nudity: the nakedness present in the film furthers its investigation of the body, even acting, as I mentioned above, as a symbol. It is presented within the argument as though it is not sexualized, but there is only female nudity present; no cyborg so much as removes his shirt, despite the apparent necessity of doing so in conjunction with thermoptic technology. Sure, our two main bodies in this philosophical inquiry are female, and their bodies are symbolically important. But what about the exaggerated back arches, the focus on the sexualized form of the breasts, often seen in the nude shots? The body is ever-important in this film, and by no means is it pornographic, but there is certainly a sexualizing male gaze at work here).
I find it interesting that when this movie was translated into English, they decided to use the word “Ghost” instead of “soul” or “spirit” to describe the intangible aspect of being alive. Although the words ghost and soul are used to describe essentially the same thing – the non-physical essence of a person – the connotations are quite different. The former is generally thought of as spooky and left behind after death, while the latter is thought of as benevolent and passing on after death. I think that this difference was key for the film to approach the question of what it means to be alive. In the film, the Puppet Master suggests that the difference between life and non-life is awareness, death, and reproduction. In short, the Puppet Master argues that in order for something to be alive it needs to leave a piece of itself behind after it’s gone. Essentially, the “ghost” in all of us is our progeny, the piece that gets left behind.
Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell responds to the question of “What is a human?” in looking towards human tendencies towards advancement, control and mastery of the human body, a journey of enlightenment from humanity into superhumanity.
There are a few places in the film that immediately stand out to me in relation to this thesis. It’s a recurring motif in the film, this commentary on the human tendency towards perfection, towards absolute power through whatever means necessary. The facilitator in this case is cybernetic technology, allowing humans to be amplified in strength, intelligence, speed, etc. Major Kusanagi comments on this, stating that if the capabilities exist, people will use them to advance cyborg technology. The fact that this pursuit leads not only into moral gray areas but also to militarization and violence also reveals an aspect of humanness, a possible warning against this pursuit.
The two most revealing moments in the film for me where when the major speaks in an alternate voice on the boat and at the conclusion, when she acknowledges that moment and concludes her thought. On the boat, she says: “What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face.” At the end, she says: “When I was a child my speech feelings and thinking were all those of a child. Now that I’m a man I have no more use for childish ways.” These are consecutive verse in the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:11-12) that relate to a future when God will be fully revealed, a future in which people will mature and see fully, rather than through the distortion of a mirror. This film reveals the tendencies of man through this dialogue. To be human is to want ultimate vision and knowledge. Major Kusanagi is a production of that desire, an in-between stepping stone. Whether this desire is wise or even attainable does not stop humans from trying to ascend into a kind of superhumanity.
Ghost in the Shell was different than the bulk of the animation we have been focusing on recently, which has been more cartoon type work. This movie didn’t follow cartoon physics, or the comedy that comes with cartoons. It was geared towards an older audience than the animated cartoons being produced around the same time. I haven’t seen much anime or magna before, besides Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service, both of which are geared towards children. So, this was the first piece I’ve seen that was made for an older audience, which I found interesting. Because I’ve never seen this type of animation before, the term “animation” has been associated in my mind with “made for children, but can be enjoyed by anyone,” and Ghost in the Shell challenges that association. This is a necessary challenge, as that association is, of course, wrong and should be broken. On the topic of the older audience, it is worth noting that it is not just about the language, violence, and nudity, but also about the complex themes and questions the film poses to the viewer.
Another point I wanted to bring up, is that throughout this film I kept taking note of moments of complete silence, with no movement happening on screen. In the other types of anime I have seen, and other animated pieces in general, I’ve never taken note of so many instances of elongated silence and absence of movement. At multiple times throughout the screening, we were just staring at a drawing. I thought this was worth mentioning as it happened enough times for it to stand out to me and I hadn’t noticed it in anything else we have screened in this class, or, for that matter, anything else I have personally seen outside of class.
A joke: “Dude that was sooo cool man, that was awesome. They should make a live action version of that and use animation for certain details!” *Hollywood studio buys rights* “NOOOOOOO!!!” Okay now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I what I witnessed watching this film. I really need to watch it again for many reasons. First of all, the animation was very familiar but at the same time, the live action esque elements were totally trippy. It always mixed it up. For me, a film, especially animated ones, need to really mix it up between visual effects. When the character is floating in the water and looking up at the clouds and the clouds were mostly photo-realistically—i dont know—I kind of melted inside it was totally beautiful. And then, there was the story and the dialogue of the characters. The dialogue had the propensity to be so profound even though it was occasionally so banal that I instantly forgot what they were talking about. I really need to watch this again. The english dub version is probably very different and I really want to see both, the subtitles and the dub version and see if there are any differences. I’m really happy that I was able to sit down and finally watch this film. Nonetheless, I feel like I did hear a lot about the human condition, and you know, I really didn’t expect that.
Second try:
As for your response, I’d like you to apply the skills you learned in today’s workshop [on thesis statements] by generating an original thesis or claim based on Ghost in the Shell. You should **support this claim** by examining an aspect of the film closely; you should do this through **analysis of a scene or a frame, or by investigating a film technique (such as the film’s editing choices or animation style) in specific detail.**
(I watched it again) With vibrant colors, jaw dropping cityscapes and countless explosions, Ghost in the Shell is a film dedicated to the realism of its futuristic world, and through that has become one of the most influential films ever made. Despite visuals thrills, the film never stops being thought provoking either, which is a rare combination. It is also true that many films are indebted to Ghost in the Shell, like The Matrix, whose chase scene is almost a scene by scene remake of the one from Ghost in the Shell. In GITS, the chase scene is incredibly well choreographed and established via incredible cinematography. The cinematography is at such a level because each shot leads to the next beautifully, and makes terrific use of three dimensional space, which always heightens realism. The film also pushed it source material in a very important and influential way. Mokoto, the protagonist, is much more reserved and androgynous, despite being much more colorful in the source material. This actually works much better with her character, flows well with her stark maturity and actually makes her much more grounded. If the chase scene did not seem familiar enough to The Matrix, try examining the Wachowski’s brothers decision to cast Carrie Anne Moss as a short haired black suit wearing vixen and see if you find a parallel there. Also, the cords coming out of Mokoto’s neck are clearly yet another element borrow when looked through that lens. It’s frustrating to write about because I really want to go on and on about the films visuals, even though its story is also incredible. To me, GITS represents one of those rare films where every member of the production tried to push the limits of their craft. The music was incredibly hard to make, a mixture of two different cultures: Japanese and Bulgarian. The animation is a mixture of cell animation and live action, pushing the limits of both mediums in an awesome, and made sure each shot was captured with about as much depth that a 2d image can contain. The story itself was already written, but as I said earlier they improved that too. Overall, this film really has sparked my interested in anime filmmakers. The amount of dedication to the craft is so much higher than the, well, the often lazy and trite studio films made in the US.
“Ghost in the Shell” tackles some pretty intense subject matter. The definition of what exactly life is and where humanity is really situated within it will probably not be discussed by Daffy Duck any time soon. Despite an answer never really being given, the film would inspire a generation of imitators that also teased at the same theme of transcendence through technology. In fact, the most famous of these,” The Matrix” was pitched by its makers, Lana and Andy Wachowski, to the producer as a live action version of “Ghost in the Shell”.
It is fitting then, that both films also answered some existential questions about film making in consideration to the rise of computer generated animation. The result of the success of its integration into both “The Matrix” and “Ghost in the Shell” was a major contribution to the explosion of CGI based films in the 2000’s.
Quick note, I don’t believe Ghost in the Shell is made with any CGI. In fact, I think it is all traditional cell drawn animation. Interestingly, the first full-length CGI film made was Toy Story which coincidentally came out the same year.
Ghost in the Shell was rereleased in 2005 by the same director with some of the scenes redone in CGI. Ghost in the Shell’s sequel, Innocence, was also made with both CGI and traditional animation. Highly recommended.
Ghost in the Shell is certainly a good work; the animation is very well done, and the script tackles some important themes. I personally, however, did not think it conveyed its message in the best way it could. This may be in part due to the fact that the version we watched was a dub, and some of the dialog seemed to drag with the level, or lack thereof, of emotional investment of the english vioce actors. But I believe that the nature of the film itself was problematic. I thought that the way the dialog dragged on at parts made the film seem preachy, and at times not as effective at capturing the attention of the audience. While the questions raised about technology and what it means to be human/alive are real issues that are approaching humanity in the near future, the confusing and somewhat contrived way the film raised the points was not, to me, very effective. That being said, I still think the film was well made from a technical standpoint and I did enjoy parts of it.
Edit*
Claim: The plot of Ghost in the Shell, while relevant and important to society, is bogged down by tedious dialog and lackluster voice acting. This serves to show that, regardless of technical sophistication, an animations effectiveness still is like live-action film in that the script and plot are still needed for some works to succeed.
Ghost in the Shell was originally written and voiced in Japanese, consequently even the English dubbed version has a very different written dialogue and voice acting than its American counterparts.
Like many of its anime peers, there is a difference in pacing of the dialogue, some places extremely fast paced and in other places there is a general feeling of difficult translation. The parts where the dialogue is particularly fast and long-winded, seems to correlate with concepts that would be require non-direct translation. The voice acting feels like Studio Ghibli movies American voice acting from the same time. There is a formal, rigidity of the voices and there words that makes the dialogue different from the casual nature of American animated features. The lines that did feel natural were the muttered curse words, the easy translation able to translate emotionally as well.
Though the process for making a complete animated work varies across studios, in the translation process, the translators, voice director, and voice actors have the chance to see the complexities in the completed work before providing their version. While on the boat, Kusanagi is speaking to Batou and there is a sudden shift in her expression, which was accompanied by a change in the tone of her voice. In this moment, it seems clear that the American voice actors were directed with those exact images in mind. The translation of anime, results in the obvious de-synchronization of the mouths of the characters and the words they say. The translation and tone of the American voice actor can change to attempt to remove some of the awkwardness of the visual and auditory difference.
While it is not unusual for animated features to have characters with silly voices, this gritty dystopian sci-fi had a few out of place goofy voices. The character Nakamura had a voice that seemed more comedic than the atmosphere of the movie. This unnatural voice could be result, whether conscious or not, of the American voice actor attempting to imitate the tone and feel of the Japanese voice actor.
The scene I would like to visit is the one after Major goes diving. As she slowly floats onto the surface, we are treated to her view of a vibrantly colored red sky. And then we see that Batou is waiting for her with a lecture on her not being able to float. Major strips– with Batou looking away in embarrassment(anger?)– and into the night we go with some back story on Major and herself, physically and spiritually. She can’t get drunk yet she still drinks, she can’t float yet she still dives. She is female in form yet she can’t reproduce.
***
It would seem likely that after we have transcended our physical bodies, we are free to do with our minds which know no bounds; however, Ghost in the Shell shows us that even our brains are suspect to boundaries. Ghost in the Shell is set in a world where almost everyone in some shape or form is reinforced with some sort of non-organic material. Physicality is transcended. But the perfections of the body only serves to bring attention to the mind. The mind is not as impermeable from outside forces as we think. And even more frightening, our souls(or Ghosts) are subject to hacking too. There is no guarantee that the memories the characters have are “real.” Thoughts and memories can be destroyed and replicated for different agendas.
In transcending the physical body, we see how constrained the body is. Getting drunk and reproducing, a pleasure many on this campus indulge in, can be indulged on by Major but she can never take pleasure in it; what a paradox. And regarding Major, she is at the same time sexualized yet not sexualized. Her physical form belies the fact that she is not sexualized by her colleagues. They never use a “male gaze” to look at her but when it is obvious they still cringe, hence Batou looking away when she is stripping. These paradoxes confuse me, as if I too am seeing a “dim image in the mirror.”
Animation: A History Flux 
Whether intentionally or deliberately Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in Shell complicates the philosophical definition of life; what differentiates the animated and the lifeless? Essentially life forms are created by the same materials found in a hamburger for instance. If you think about it the only input our body receives is the food we eat and the air we breathe yet life is created out of these raw ingredients. Ghost in shell suggests there must be another criteria aside from composition that differentiates what should be considered life and what is not. In the film, we see the puppet master argue “man is an individual only because of his intangible memory”. In other words, what separates us from the lifeless is our ability to preserve ourselves even after death. Although our bodily entities may fade away thorough time, DNA has allowed us to overcome the undermining effects of death; the existence of human continues because DNA — life is passed through generations.
Lastly, I must say after never seeing a Japanese anime I now understand why they are so popular. I genuinely enjoyed watching a new genre of animation I never had exposure to.
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Ghost in the Shell was originally written and voiced in Japanese, consequently even the English dubbed version has a very different written dialogue and voice acting than its American counterparts.
Like many of its anime peers, there is a difference in pacing of the dialogue, some places extremely fast paced and in other places there is a general feeling of difficult translation. The parts where the dialogue is particularly fast and long-winded, seems to correlate with concepts that would be require non-direct translation. The voice acting feels like Studio Ghibli movies American voice acting from the same time. There is a formal, rigidity of the voices and there words that makes the dialogue different from the casual nature of American animated features. The lines that did feel natural were the muttered curse words, the easy translation able to translate emotionally as well.
Though the process for making a complete animated work varies across studios, in the translation process, the translators, voice director, and voice actors have the chance to see the complexities in the completed work before providing their version. While on the boat, Kusanagi is speaking to Batou and there is a sudden shift in her expression, which was accompanied by a change in the tone of her voice. In this moment, it seems clear that the American voice actors were directed with those exact images in mind. The translation of anime, results in the obvious de-synchronization of the mouths of the characters and the words they say. The translation and tone of the American voice actor can change to attempt to remove some of the awkwardness of the visual and auditory difference.
While it is not unusual for animated features to have characters with silly voices, this gritty dystopian sci-fi had a few out of place goofy voices. The character Nakamura had a voice that seemed more comedic than the atmosphere of the movie. This unnatural voice could be result, whether conscious or not, of the American voice actor attempting to imitate the tone and feel of the Japanese voice actor.
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“Ghost in the Shell” was a great introduction to the anime theme, providing a plot story that was not reliant on the animation, but rather enhanced by it. The movie finds support in its animation style, with the animation giving the story life and plausibility. The anime style gives legitimacy to “Ghost I the Shell” by presenting a stylistic format that is not expected to be lifelike, but is still reflective of live-action cinema.
Watching the movie, I appreciated that it felt timeless in a sense. The movie is old, but has aged well and still presents difficult questions that have to be considered with the rise of technology. The philosophical considerations in the movie were compelling, and I was challenged with what was discussed. Overall, I enjoyed this movie more than I was anticipating, and am glad I watched it.
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The soundtrack of Ghost in the Shell did an amazing job at setting the somber, melancholic mood of the film. The music in the opening sequence that shows the creation of the main character particularly stood out to me. It was quite unexpected because it sounded very tribal and ancient rather than technological and futuristic to match the setting. The slow pace of the drums and haunting vocals served to produce this sense of foreboding. Even after the somber music had come to an end, I was set on edge for the remainder of film. Why use such an antiquated, pensive opening theme to set the scene? The music relates to the overall message of the film in that it represents how people have been pondering the nature of humanity and what it truly means to be alive since the beginning of time. Such philosophical questions are sobering and dispiriting because there are no clear answers to perfectly explain our existence and its meaning. The music pairs well with the futuristic animation to express the melancholy surrounding the infinite perpetuation of these profound, metaphysical inquiries.
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The Reality of Artificial Environments
Considering Mamoru Oshii’s “Ghost in the Shell” as an illustration of Otsuka’s three conceptions of realism, the creation of reality not referentially bound to the perceptually real or filmic reality can be observed.
“Ghost in the Shell” largely features characters engulfed in an occupation filled with blood and danger with death always looming as a presence. As a departure from the realm of semiotic bodies (symbolic manifestations of living beings), the characters bleed, inflict pain, can “merge” with other beings, and die, extending previous abilities of animated characters who usually drew emotional parallels to reality. It is within these characters that Otsuka’s biological realism is realized. Although these theme have roots in reality, this kind of realistic expression is not explicitly dependent on realistic illustrations. The ability to die (as mentioned by the Puppet Master) certainly defines living beings, but the prevalence of that possibility and occurrence in “Ghost in the Shell” exists and is independent from our reality.
Along with the Gundam series and other pioneers in the mecha/sci-fi genre of Japanese animation, Ghost in the Shell provides ample depictions of familiar guns that parallel to our own world and incredible machinations that parallel to Hollywood’s science fiction scene. Their employment serves to exhibit Otsuka’s second conception of realism: the realism of mechanical objects. Whereas the biological realist subjects are marked by their adherence to mortality (non-pictorial realism), the mechanical realist objects are marked for their drawing style that strictly lines up with the visual resemblance to world objects. And while the astounding volume of the world that is shown is in no way possible by today’s standards, the use of familiar concepts such as guns, wires, nuts, bolts, and code impart a sense of familiarity to contemporary society. In other words, we could imagine that these androids, trackers, and large laboratories can realistically exist.
Finally, the bread and butter of “Ghost in the Shell” lies in its fusion of biology and machines. The mortality that defined non-semiotic characters comes into contention. However, Otsuka’s final conception of realism, anime-manga realism, rectifies this tension. This idea attests that anime and manga serve as their own referent. In other words, their prevalence, consistency and self containment produce its own reality, its own world. In the Ghost in the Shell environment, androids, humans, and other sentient beings are a reality. The consistency of their application to the environment substantiates it own reality. Thus, the artificial environment produces its own realism as an autonomous body apart from we commonly refer to as “real”.
The worlds in anime and manga form the basis for an alternate venue of expression, altering the use and application of the term realism. The realm of “Ghost in the Shell” is real. It has a reality of its own with causality and laws at its crux.
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While Ghost in The Shell did a good job of raising questions that seem unanswerable and bringing up good ideas to consider, it went about trying to describe those ideas in the wrong way. The movie plays with an animation style that mimics reality with anatomically correct proportions (for the most part) for the humans and surroundings that were reminiscent of what you might see in an animated photograph. This serves to make the world and the ideas being voiced by the human like (like in more ways than one) characters more relatable to viewers. This only furthers the ability of the movie to make the viewer question the nature of humanity in ways that aren’t valid. However, rather than making this post about philosophy, I’d like to talk about the use of sound for identities. In a different class, I learned about how much weight the world gives to sound in terms of identity and life. Think about it, even the Big Bang, an event that was actually completely silent, is equated to an explosion of sound. Death is compared to a quiet wave, and the equalization of killing characters to taking their voices away is also used in media. Ghosts in The Shell takes this same identity assignment idea by equating voices to souls in the movie. Biblical ideas are referenced throughout the movie as well, which also makes me wonder if the film was intended for an American audience that would potentially be more familiar with the text at the time, or a Japanese society that would hear the references as more inconspicuous. One idea that was utilized predominantly is that the body is just a host, or shell, for one’s ghost or soul. The ability for one’s spirit to be free and not tied to a physical body is made evident by the fact that robots are able to house the consciousness of a person. Thoughts flow freely between intended listeners, and the Major is able to shift her ghost from one host to another. It is her voice that makes her presence known, not the body that she is in. This is further illustrated in the way that we first meet the A.I. 2501. Although the ghost inhabits a body that appears to be biologically female, the voice that leaves its mouth sounds male. This makes it so that the “woman” is a man regardless of the host it is in. 2501 is also referred to as a “he” by those in pursuit of him. This makes me wonder why he decided to inhabit a female host in the first place, whether it was for shock value or to prove that it is the soul of the body that matters and not what is housing it. In the end, we know that Major, or something like her, continues to live on in the body of the little girl that Batou found. This is because she speaks, making her presence known even though she is someone completely different now.
Overall, I was happy to see a movie that further explored this idea, and would like to hear what others think about the idea that who we are is not tied to our biological structures.
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Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell asks many questions about the true nature of life, but answers little. The ending scene where the Puppet Master wants to merge with Major Motoko Kusanagi brings up one of the most difficult questions from the entire film. Major Kusanagi doesn’t want to merge with the Puppet Master because she would no longer be herself. Already, this is a difficult point to validate. The only part of Major Kusanagi that is original is her brain and memories. As we see earlier in the movie, memories can be manufactured through “ghost-hacking.” The Puppet Master brings up this point himself during the interrogation with Section 9. He has manufactured memory and memories. Similarly, the Puppet Master has a “brain” and has achieved self-awareness. If Major Kusanagi believed that the Puppet Master wasn’t living, then she wouldn’t be worried about being changed, since her consciousness would take over, similar to how her conscious already controls the shell her body is. Since Major Kusanagi truly thinks that she will no longer be the same after merging with the Puppet Master, then either the Puppet Master is more alive than society would like to admit, or Major Kusanagi is more inanimate than she would like to believe.
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Upon watching this movie, I at first thought it was going to be more like Spirited Away, since they were all in the same category for watching tonight. However, I was very wrong. There were elements in this movie that were also in Spirited Away like a sort of otherworldly happening, but altogether this is a far inferior movie.
One of the main reasons that I think this is because of the sound quality of the movie. Now, this has nothing to do with the quality of the DVD itself, but the actual sound mixing that went on in the movie overall. I often found that, unlike Fantasia, the sounds in this movie often did not match what was going on with the action in the movie. Explosions would happen, but the sound wouldn’t quite go along with it exactly. That was my main qualm with the movie. Since I was so impressed by this aspect in Fantasia, I have found myself looking and listening closer in movies, for those that do it well, and those that do it poorly.
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Ghost in the Shell questions the nature of humanness as the concept of the body is complicated and reduced to the purely mechanistic. Shots focus and linger on the body, probing its nature and the nature of self through an animated reality. The hyperrealism of the painted sky through water droplets on a mask, the dark staining of the wood on a dock as that water streams from a characters body, seem to impart a physical life into the film often relegated to the live action and photographic; life itself, even sentience, is posited as something which can be imparted. The body, in all of its animated maneuvers, its symbolic nudity, its dissection and evisceration on screen, is but a shell. To be human, it is argued, is to be a sum of all the intangible memory and experience which is beyond the body, beyond, it seems, the multiplying cells or their abiotic augmentations, even beyond the synapses that would propagate those experiences. To be human, and really alive, is something more. The question, then, is not so much what defines life, but what defines the soul. The reality of the film, rendered by its style and strict containment, seeks to explore this concept so frequently encountered in animated film.
(A note on the nudity: the nakedness present in the film furthers its investigation of the body, even acting, as I mentioned above, as a symbol. It is presented within the argument as though it is not sexualized, but there is only female nudity present; no cyborg so much as removes his shirt, despite the apparent necessity of doing so in conjunction with thermoptic technology. Sure, our two main bodies in this philosophical inquiry are female, and their bodies are symbolically important. But what about the exaggerated back arches, the focus on the sexualized form of the breasts, often seen in the nude shots? The body is ever-important in this film, and by no means is it pornographic, but there is certainly a sexualizing male gaze at work here).
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I find it interesting that when this movie was translated into English, they decided to use the word “Ghost” instead of “soul” or “spirit” to describe the intangible aspect of being alive. Although the words ghost and soul are used to describe essentially the same thing – the non-physical essence of a person – the connotations are quite different. The former is generally thought of as spooky and left behind after death, while the latter is thought of as benevolent and passing on after death. I think that this difference was key for the film to approach the question of what it means to be alive. In the film, the Puppet Master suggests that the difference between life and non-life is awareness, death, and reproduction. In short, the Puppet Master argues that in order for something to be alive it needs to leave a piece of itself behind after it’s gone. Essentially, the “ghost” in all of us is our progeny, the piece that gets left behind.
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What is a human?
Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell responds to the question of “What is a human?” in looking towards human tendencies towards advancement, control and mastery of the human body, a journey of enlightenment from humanity into superhumanity.
There are a few places in the film that immediately stand out to me in relation to this thesis. It’s a recurring motif in the film, this commentary on the human tendency towards perfection, towards absolute power through whatever means necessary. The facilitator in this case is cybernetic technology, allowing humans to be amplified in strength, intelligence, speed, etc. Major Kusanagi comments on this, stating that if the capabilities exist, people will use them to advance cyborg technology. The fact that this pursuit leads not only into moral gray areas but also to militarization and violence also reveals an aspect of humanness, a possible warning against this pursuit.
The two most revealing moments in the film for me where when the major speaks in an alternate voice on the boat and at the conclusion, when she acknowledges that moment and concludes her thought. On the boat, she says: “What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face.” At the end, she says: “When I was a child my speech feelings and thinking were all those of a child. Now that I’m a man I have no more use for childish ways.” These are consecutive verse in the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:11-12) that relate to a future when God will be fully revealed, a future in which people will mature and see fully, rather than through the distortion of a mirror. This film reveals the tendencies of man through this dialogue. To be human is to want ultimate vision and knowledge. Major Kusanagi is a production of that desire, an in-between stepping stone. Whether this desire is wise or even attainable does not stop humans from trying to ascend into a kind of superhumanity.
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Ghost in the Shell was different than the bulk of the animation we have been focusing on recently, which has been more cartoon type work. This movie didn’t follow cartoon physics, or the comedy that comes with cartoons. It was geared towards an older audience than the animated cartoons being produced around the same time. I haven’t seen much anime or magna before, besides Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service, both of which are geared towards children. So, this was the first piece I’ve seen that was made for an older audience, which I found interesting. Because I’ve never seen this type of animation before, the term “animation” has been associated in my mind with “made for children, but can be enjoyed by anyone,” and Ghost in the Shell challenges that association. This is a necessary challenge, as that association is, of course, wrong and should be broken. On the topic of the older audience, it is worth noting that it is not just about the language, violence, and nudity, but also about the complex themes and questions the film poses to the viewer.
Another point I wanted to bring up, is that throughout this film I kept taking note of moments of complete silence, with no movement happening on screen. In the other types of anime I have seen, and other animated pieces in general, I’ve never taken note of so many instances of elongated silence and absence of movement. At multiple times throughout the screening, we were just staring at a drawing. I thought this was worth mentioning as it happened enough times for it to stand out to me and I hadn’t noticed it in anything else we have screened in this class, or, for that matter, anything else I have personally seen outside of class.
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A joke: “Dude that was sooo cool man, that was awesome. They should make a live action version of that and use animation for certain details!” *Hollywood studio buys rights* “NOOOOOOO!!!” Okay now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I what I witnessed watching this film. I really need to watch it again for many reasons. First of all, the animation was very familiar but at the same time, the live action esque elements were totally trippy. It always mixed it up. For me, a film, especially animated ones, need to really mix it up between visual effects. When the character is floating in the water and looking up at the clouds and the clouds were mostly photo-realistically—i dont know—I kind of melted inside it was totally beautiful. And then, there was the story and the dialogue of the characters. The dialogue had the propensity to be so profound even though it was occasionally so banal that I instantly forgot what they were talking about. I really need to watch this again. The english dub version is probably very different and I really want to see both, the subtitles and the dub version and see if there are any differences. I’m really happy that I was able to sit down and finally watch this film. Nonetheless, I feel like I did hear a lot about the human condition, and you know, I really didn’t expect that.
Second try:
As for your response, I’d like you to apply the skills you learned in today’s workshop [on thesis statements] by generating an original thesis or claim based on Ghost in the Shell. You should **support this claim** by examining an aspect of the film closely; you should do this through **analysis of a scene or a frame, or by investigating a film technique (such as the film’s editing choices or animation style) in specific detail.**
(I watched it again) With vibrant colors, jaw dropping cityscapes and countless explosions, Ghost in the Shell is a film dedicated to the realism of its futuristic world, and through that has become one of the most influential films ever made. Despite visuals thrills, the film never stops being thought provoking either, which is a rare combination. It is also true that many films are indebted to Ghost in the Shell, like The Matrix, whose chase scene is almost a scene by scene remake of the one from Ghost in the Shell. In GITS, the chase scene is incredibly well choreographed and established via incredible cinematography. The cinematography is at such a level because each shot leads to the next beautifully, and makes terrific use of three dimensional space, which always heightens realism. The film also pushed it source material in a very important and influential way. Mokoto, the protagonist, is much more reserved and androgynous, despite being much more colorful in the source material. This actually works much better with her character, flows well with her stark maturity and actually makes her much more grounded. If the chase scene did not seem familiar enough to The Matrix, try examining the Wachowski’s brothers decision to cast Carrie Anne Moss as a short haired black suit wearing vixen and see if you find a parallel there. Also, the cords coming out of Mokoto’s neck are clearly yet another element borrow when looked through that lens. It’s frustrating to write about because I really want to go on and on about the films visuals, even though its story is also incredible. To me, GITS represents one of those rare films where every member of the production tried to push the limits of their craft. The music was incredibly hard to make, a mixture of two different cultures: Japanese and Bulgarian. The animation is a mixture of cell animation and live action, pushing the limits of both mediums in an awesome, and made sure each shot was captured with about as much depth that a 2d image can contain. The story itself was already written, but as I said earlier they improved that too. Overall, this film really has sparked my interested in anime filmmakers. The amount of dedication to the craft is so much higher than the, well, the often lazy and trite studio films made in the US.
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“Ghost in the Shell” tackles some pretty intense subject matter. The definition of what exactly life is and where humanity is really situated within it will probably not be discussed by Daffy Duck any time soon. Despite an answer never really being given, the film would inspire a generation of imitators that also teased at the same theme of transcendence through technology. In fact, the most famous of these,” The Matrix” was pitched by its makers, Lana and Andy Wachowski, to the producer as a live action version of “Ghost in the Shell”.
It is fitting then, that both films also answered some existential questions about film making in consideration to the rise of computer generated animation. The result of the success of its integration into both “The Matrix” and “Ghost in the Shell” was a major contribution to the explosion of CGI based films in the 2000’s.
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Quick note, I don’t believe Ghost in the Shell is made with any CGI. In fact, I think it is all traditional cell drawn animation. Interestingly, the first full-length CGI film made was Toy Story which coincidentally came out the same year.
Ghost in the Shell was rereleased in 2005 by the same director with some of the scenes redone in CGI. Ghost in the Shell’s sequel, Innocence, was also made with both CGI and traditional animation. Highly recommended.
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Ghost in the Shell is certainly a good work; the animation is very well done, and the script tackles some important themes. I personally, however, did not think it conveyed its message in the best way it could. This may be in part due to the fact that the version we watched was a dub, and some of the dialog seemed to drag with the level, or lack thereof, of emotional investment of the english vioce actors. But I believe that the nature of the film itself was problematic. I thought that the way the dialog dragged on at parts made the film seem preachy, and at times not as effective at capturing the attention of the audience. While the questions raised about technology and what it means to be human/alive are real issues that are approaching humanity in the near future, the confusing and somewhat contrived way the film raised the points was not, to me, very effective. That being said, I still think the film was well made from a technical standpoint and I did enjoy parts of it.
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Edit*
Claim: The plot of Ghost in the Shell, while relevant and important to society, is bogged down by tedious dialog and lackluster voice acting. This serves to show that, regardless of technical sophistication, an animations effectiveness still is like live-action film in that the script and plot are still needed for some works to succeed.
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Ghost in the Shell was originally written and voiced in Japanese, consequently even the English dubbed version has a very different written dialogue and voice acting than its American counterparts.
Like many of its anime peers, there is a difference in pacing of the dialogue, some places extremely fast paced and in other places there is a general feeling of difficult translation. The parts where the dialogue is particularly fast and long-winded, seems to correlate with concepts that would be require non-direct translation. The voice acting feels like Studio Ghibli movies American voice acting from the same time. There is a formal, rigidity of the voices and there words that makes the dialogue different from the casual nature of American animated features. The lines that did feel natural were the muttered curse words, the easy translation able to translate emotionally as well.
Though the process for making a complete animated work varies across studios, in the translation process, the translators, voice director, and voice actors have the chance to see the complexities in the completed work before providing their version. While on the boat, Kusanagi is speaking to Batou and there is a sudden shift in her expression, which was accompanied by a change in the tone of her voice. In this moment, it seems clear that the American voice actors were directed with those exact images in mind. The translation of anime, results in the obvious de-synchronization of the mouths of the characters and the words they say. The translation and tone of the American voice actor can change to attempt to remove some of the awkwardness of the visual and auditory difference.
While it is not unusual for animated features to have characters with silly voices, this gritty dystopian sci-fi had a few out of place goofy voices. The character Nakamura had a voice that seemed more comedic than the atmosphere of the movie. This unnatural voice could be result, whether conscious or not, of the American voice actor attempting to imitate the tone and feel of the Japanese voice actor.
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The scene I would like to visit is the one after Major goes diving. As she slowly floats onto the surface, we are treated to her view of a vibrantly colored red sky. And then we see that Batou is waiting for her with a lecture on her not being able to float. Major strips– with Batou looking away in embarrassment(anger?)– and into the night we go with some back story on Major and herself, physically and spiritually. She can’t get drunk yet she still drinks, she can’t float yet she still dives. She is female in form yet she can’t reproduce.
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It would seem likely that after we have transcended our physical bodies, we are free to do with our minds which know no bounds; however, Ghost in the Shell shows us that even our brains are suspect to boundaries. Ghost in the Shell is set in a world where almost everyone in some shape or form is reinforced with some sort of non-organic material. Physicality is transcended. But the perfections of the body only serves to bring attention to the mind. The mind is not as impermeable from outside forces as we think. And even more frightening, our souls(or Ghosts) are subject to hacking too. There is no guarantee that the memories the characters have are “real.” Thoughts and memories can be destroyed and replicated for different agendas.
In transcending the physical body, we see how constrained the body is. Getting drunk and reproducing, a pleasure many on this campus indulge in, can be indulged on by Major but she can never take pleasure in it; what a paradox. And regarding Major, she is at the same time sexualized yet not sexualized. Her physical form belies the fact that she is not sexualized by her colleagues. They never use a “male gaze” to look at her but when it is obvious they still cringe, hence Batou looking away when she is stripping. These paradoxes confuse me, as if I too am seeing a “dim image in the mirror.”
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