Ghost in the Shell:Technology and Protest

Fred Bailey: (PowerPoint/Video/Storyline/Characters/

Themes)Dairee Hart: (Animation/Cultural Research)

Haneen Kurd: (Cultural Research)

Introduction to Film and Original Source

Ghost in the Shell is a 1995 Japanese animated film directed by Mamoru Oshii. It is based on the manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow.

Storyline

Ghost in the Shell follows the investigation of the elusive hacker known as the Puppet Master by Section 9’s Major Mokoto Kusanagi and her subordinate, Batou. In this film, technology has gotten so far that cyborgs exist and people’s consciousness, or “ghosts”, can be hacked (their actions, and even memories, can be controlled and manipulated by hackers). After some investigation is made, a robot is found by Section 9 with the Puppet Master’s ghost inside. It is revealed that the Puppet Master was originally created by the Japanese government to affect world politics, but it developed self-awareness and went rogue. The robot escapes from Section 9 and chase through the city ensues. Kusanagi eventually catches up to the Puppet Master and has a very revealing conversation concerning his motivations. The Puppet Master is sentient like humans, but cannot die or reproduce like they can. The Puppet Master wants to amend this by fusing his consciousness with Kusanagi’s, allowing him to die and produce a kind of hybrid offspring. The government officials catch up with them, however, and end up killing both Kusanagi and the Puppet Master before it seems like they’ve fused. In the next scene, however, it is revealed that their fusion was successful and the new entity has been put into a new cybernetic body, The movie ends with the new Puppet Master/Kusanagi hybrid looking over the city and contemplating its new existence.

Characters-Major

Motoko Kusanagi

The protagonist of the movie, Major Kusanagi is a cyborg who works for Public Security Section 9 (a sort of cybernetic police) and is given the task of investigating the Puppet Master. Throughout the film, Kusanagi struggles and broods over the fact that she is mostly made of robot parts and is not sure if anything human is left in her, or if everything about her, even her memories, are synthetic. At the end of the film it is revealed that she did merge her consciousness with the Puppet Master to create a completely new cyber entity.

Characters-Batou

• Batou is Kusanagi’s second-in-command at Section 9. He is very brusque in manner, but ends up being a very loyal subordinate and friend to Kusanagi

Characters-The Puppet Master

• The Puppet Master serves as the main antagonist of the film. Originally known as “Project 2501”, the Puppet Master is the result of the Japanese government trying to create an artificial intelligence that could covertly manipulate politics and the mind’s of its citizens. The Puppet Master becomes sentient, however, and starts perpetrating the crimes seen in the film. As it turns out, the Puppet Master’s ultimate goal is to fuse itself with another’s consciousness to form a new entity much in the same way biological organisms do with their genes. He ends up accomplishing his goal through Major Kusanagi. It is also interesting to note that the Puppet Master has a very masculine voice, but takes over a robot body in female form.

Video Clip

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZX58fDhebc

• In this video clip the Puppet Master makes his first appearance, and makes some of his philosophies and motives known.

Technical Aspects of Animation

• Ghost in the Shell is actually groundbreaking in the fact that it is the first film to ever blend traditional cel animation and computer generated graphics in its production.

• Most of the film uses a dark, subdued color palate. This adds to the film’s dark themes and tone.

Cultural Understanding

• Anime is produced with a Japanese audience solely in mind, and thus, many of the themes and imagery presented in anime are not fully understood by Western Audiences.

• The Japanese have a much less black-and-white view of morality in the universe than the West, and this is reflected in their entertainment. Characters often sit in moral grey areas, and the good cause does not always win. In Ghost in the Shell, for example, it is hard to pick out any purely good or purely evil characters. Also, the main antagonist of the film, the Puppet Master, ends up getting what it wants in the end, meaning that the bad guy won in some way.

Cultural Understanding (cont.)

• Also, unlike Western animation, anime is not usually targeted towards children, but rather to teens and adults: Nudity, extreme violence, and other adult themes are extremely common in Japanese animation; this can be seen in Ghost in the Shell.

• This is just the surface of the cultural imagery and themes explored in Ghost in the Shell and many other anime.

Major Themes

• The major theme addressed by “Ghost in the Shell” is the relationship between a human’s consciousness, or ghost, and their physical form. Within the film’s fiction, a human is different from a robot only if they possess a ghost, this idea is challenged within the film, however. Kusanagi is constantly reflecting on the fact that she is a cyborg and that her identity and all her memories could all just be simulated. Alternatively, the Puppet Master, is an artificial intelligence that has gained consciousness and is trying to practice more processes associated with being human (death and reproduction). The film’s major question and major theme really is: “What defines human consciousness and is something artificial really capable of replicating that?” Interestingly, his question is interesting similar to the philosophical mind-body problem.

Major Themes(cont.)

• The film’s other major theme is how the ever growing role of technology in our day to day lives is affecting our privacy as individuals. In the future this film presents, people’s minds and memories can be hacked and controlled through neural uplinks to the internet. This idea was being exploited by the government in the film (the creation of the Puppet Master), and is a major issue today. As we upload more and more of our daily lives to the internet and become more and more dependent upon technology for accomplishing every day tasks in our world, are we sacrificing our privacy and individualism? If technology ever gets to the point it does in this film, can we trust our government or other corrupt to not alter and manipulate our experience for their own gain?

Conclusion

• Ghost in the Shell is an anime film that explores the ever increasing role of technology in our society and the consequences that could come with it. In a world where almost everything is artificial, how can one ever know what’s truly real? How can one protect their privacy in a world where our lives are increasingly lived out through the internet? Can we trust so much information and power to individuals that may be corrupt? Ghost in the Shell asks a lot questions that we may be finding the answers to in the coming decades.

Sources

• Herbert, Jack. “The anime that spawned ‘The Matrix’”. Wa-Pedia. http://www.wa-pedia.com/entertainment/ghost_in_the_shell.shtml

• “Ghost in the Shell”. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_%28film%29

• “Anime Culture Explained in 10 minutes or Less”. http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~jleek/anime/culture.html

• “Motoko Kusanagi”. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motoko_Kusanagi

• “Puppet Master (Ghost in the Shell)” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppet_Master_(Ghost_in_the_Shell)

• “Mind-Body Problem”. The Information Philosopher. http://www.informationphilosopher.com/problems/mind_body/

• Solove, Daniel. The digital person: Technology and privacy in the information age. Vol. 1. NYU Press, 2004.

Sources (cont.)

• “History”. Anime Saikai. http://www.animesekai.net/history.html.

• Thompson, K. M. 2011. Classical Cel Animation, World War II, and Bambi. The Wiley-Blackwell History of American Film.

• Marks, Jessica. “Introduction into Ghost in the Shell Historical World, as Well as Some Details Concerning the Plot and Characters”. Permanent Socialism. 2011. http://permanentsocialism.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/introduction-into-the-ghost-in-the-shell-historical-world-as-well-as-some-details-concerning-the-plot-and-characters/.