Tsao- Ghost in the Shell

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“Ghost in the Shell” was a film that proposed questions on self-identity, like in Perfect Blue. Unlike it though, it also touched on government corruption and the element of “mecha” in Japanese anime.

The story revolves around Major Motoko Kusanagi and the Puppet Master. Kusanagi is the leader of a government branch called Section 9, and her objective is to find and capture a chain hacker- the Puppet Master. They first track him down to a garbage man, but then they realize that this garbage man has been hacked by the Puppet Master so that he thinks he is looking for his daughter, and that his wife is cheating on him. While conducting further investigation, they find a female robot that has no cells (she is full robot), but for some reason, seems to still have a ghost. Kusanagi then chooses to go inside and talk to the ghost.

The Puppet Master raises a question about what being a human is. He is aware that he is intelligent and is an individual soul, but he wants to be able to reproduce to pass on a part of him to the next generation, and be able to die; he thinks this is what makes him human. Kusanagi decides to join souls with him to make a new life form, for I think she also wants to know how it feels to reproduce and die. However, I do not agree that being able to reproduce and die makes one a human. Being able to reproduce and die indicates sign of life, but not necessarily in human form. What makes humans distinguishable from other animals is our ability to reason and function based on our creativity and ideas. Kusanagi has always wondered who she was and whether she is considered human or not; she would go deep sea diving as a machine just to feel scared, lonely, etc. – feelings that she considers to be humanlike.

The government plays a role throughout the film through the two branches- section 9 and section 6. The Puppet Master was created by Section 6, but because it became so aware and was not able to be controlled by it anymore, they wanted to get rid of it. Section 9 did not know they were investigating something of Section 6 until they come together later on.

Finally, being machine in Japanese Anime helps the females within anime to gain more power. When in their mecha-suits, they have powers that are equal to men; there is little gender roles being played because they are machines. As robots, they have powers that take away the undermining of females, but are still able to maintain a feminine feel through the style of the suits (they are mostly body suits that show off their bodies). Overall, this was a good film with a good ending that is open for interpretations.

Tsao- Perfect Blue

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Perfect Blue was a film that many could agree with me- was a crazy, mind f*cking film. The film had touched upon many subjects, such as the male gaze in anime mangas and dramas, what reality really is, and the roles gender play in films.

Mima is the main character in the film, and it is very apparent when she starts to have fragments in her memory and her sense of identity.  As a former pop idol, she had a small yet large enough fan base in which she felt great attention from. Then she became an actress, because her manager and her producer decided that Cham would be better as a duo and without Mima, and that she would be better off as an actress.

Mima then started to star in a film within the film Perfect Blue, called Double Bind. In this film, one of her first big scenes was a rape scene. This rape scene brought back memories similar to those she got from being on stage as Mima the pop idol. Falling that scene, I noticed that Mima started to have some trouble distinguishing between real life and her illusions. Pop idol Mima starts to appear more and more, and taunting actress-Mima every time she appears.

I think an important message that should be mentioned is the impact of the computer and the Internet on people as technology flourished throughout time. When Mima first bought her computer, she had no idea how or what to even do with it not to mention not knowing anything about how websites work at all. An important point is that there are no limitations to how far the Internet can push someone’s sense of reality. Since anyone can have access to the Internet, someone else’s reality may very easily become pushed upon our own. When Mimania, Mima’s fangirl account that speaks as Mima, starts to post blogs and daily updates, Mima starts to get lost and confused between what really happened and what didn’t. The more she is playing this role as a psychotic girl in Double Bind, the more she cannot differentiate between what happens in her reality and what happens in the movie.

The most surprising factor, I believe, to most people is that Rumi is actually crazy as well. We all are lead to believe that Mima is the one who is delusional and has a loss of identity, and while she is, what really pushes the movie to the next level is that Rumi is also delusional and has lost her sense of identity. Rumi takes the identity of pop-idol Mima, and while she, herself, was part of what changed Mima into the new, sell-out actress-Mima, she wants to kill her because she does not like what the new Mima has become. I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t that big of a surprise for people. But as for me, I still have some questions about what exactly happened throughout the movie, who is truly crazy and who is not, since at the end, Mima portrays herself as someone who knew who she was the whole time. But overall, I enjoyed the level of thinking this film required from the audience.

Tsao- Cowboy Bebop

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Cowboy Bebop was certainly an anime film that is worth noting. From just looks, it does seem like a simple hero-villain movie, but if closely looked at, some important worldly issues can be seen to be brushed upon this film.

For example, the idea of one’s purpose in life; like a post-modernism and existentialism philosophy of life, is brought up when Vincent, our antagonist in the film, questions who and what he really is. He does not remember his past, and does not know what he is doing; he is simply just existing and hoping to find the butterflies again. These butterflies are seen once someone is affected by the bio nano-machines that infiltrate one’s blood cells, used as a terrorist weapon to mass kill everybody on Mars. Vincent was one of the government’s test subjects for this deadly virus, and he was the only one left alive. Because of this, he feels as if he has died already and questions his existence, claiming that earth is a place called “purgatory”- in between heaven and hell. Maybe he thinks that by killing everyone, that he could feel like he is alive again, or that it would bring back the butterfly-euphoria feeling that he had once felt.

At the same time, Spike Spiegal, protagonist and fellow bounty hunter, also questions his own meaning of life as he fights to capture Vincent for him and his team so that they could get the prize of 300 million woolongs. His bounty hunter teammates include Faye, Jet Black, Edward, and their dog Ein. Spike is a carefree, tempered character who used to be a gangster. Throughout the whole film, the idea of loneliness is also brought up. Nobody wants to be alone; Jet Black got upset and really anxious when Faye and Spike went missing for a couple days, thinking that they left him behind and didn’t even “bother to call” when they were really captured and in their own troubles; Vincent wants to leave purgatory because he feels so lonely here, with no past and no assurance of who he is…

My last comment would be that this film portrays a cold, heartless government that is willing to show no mercy to protect their secret. With secret underground laboratories, etc, the government wants to kill off everyone who has knowledge of the virus. Electra, the government’s own people, and Spike are both put in jail and ready to be executed because they simply know too much. Such a cold brutal government is definitely portrayed through Cowboy Bebop.