Ghost In The Shelll

Do robots have souls? Do you?

"In the year 2029, Niihama City has become a technologically advanced metropolis. Due to great improvements in cybernetics, its citizens are able to replace their limbs with robotic parts. The world is now more interconnected than ever before, and the city's Public Security Section 9 is responsible for combating corruption, terrorism, and other dangerous threats following this shift toward globalization.

The strong-willed Major Motoko Kusanagi of Section 9 spearheads a case involving a mysterious hacker known only as the "Puppet Master," who leaves a trail of victims stripped of their memories. Like many in this futuristic world, the Puppet Master's body is almost entirely robotic, giving them incredible power.

As Motoko and her subordinates follow the enigmatic criminal's trail, other parties—including Section 6—start to get involved, forcing her to confront the extremely complicated nature of the case. Pondering about various philosophical questions, such as her own life's meaning, Motoko soon realizes that the one who will provide these answers is none other than the Puppet Master themself."

Motoko Kusanagi ladies & gentlemen.

Impressive visuals.

This blog was opened decades ago, 17 years ago to be exact. Hundreds of films, TV shows and Animation from the most diverse genres have been reviewed. Today, is the day I pay a long overdue debt I had with one of my all time favorites: Ghost In The Shell, by maestro Shirow Masamune. While, this intro may seem useless to the reader, I actually think this review is arriving just in time. Society has evolved enough to have people making friends with AI, and even typing "Please" before every prompt we make. That science fiction distant future, is slowly becoming a reality, and we are now "wired to the network" even as we sleep at night. 

Bare with me, and let's try to answer two larger than life philosophical questions: What makes a person, a person? is there a soul? If so, where is it, and where does it come from? Science fiction interest in using philosophy, religion, and mythology as part of what sets its context and drives its characters, has been explored and exploited since the beginning of time.

Ghost In The Shell, GITS from now on, it's a 1995 1 hour and 22 minute OVA based on the first volume of the eponymous manga. The source material was originally published on the Kaizokuban magazine from 1989 to 1990, in 11 publications. Obviously, you can't expect an hour and a half movie to cover the source material in its entirety, so we won't go through the usual "The Manga is better than the OVA because...". The original source material will always remain the best. Even for the Snow White classic tale. 

"Cybernetic organism with living tissue".

The outside looks very real.

In case you're still reading, the OVA heavily condenses the original storyline, reducing the original material's comic relief and sexual content in favor of a more serious tone and changing the setting from Japan to a city modelled after Hong Kong. The artwork within the animated film was produced using an innovative mix of cel animation and digital effects that had never been seen before in an animated feature from the genre which perhaps helped in making GITS one of the world's most famous Japanese animated films, being the first to reach #1 on Billboard magazine's video best-seller list, and also served as a major inspiration for the Wachowskis in their creation of the Matrix movies. 

Plotwise, Cyborg cops battle an anonymous super-hacker who takes control of people's computerized brains and forces them to do his bidding. It's a wicked sci-fi thriller, yet it's also so much more. Not only is it a refreshingly original take on the standard Coppers vs Robbers plot, but it manages to do it in such an intelligent manner. The philosophical questions above mentioned, are never shoved into our faces every five minutes, yet the producers of the OVA seem to know exactly the type of audience this story is aimed to. Casual sci-fi enthusiasts may feel a bot overwhelmed with the lack of a clear background context for characters and even the city where the story takes place. This isn't a Marvel movie. This is based on a Manga that knows that its niche audience has a brain that works. 

Visuals, as above mentioned already, are one of the elements that make  GITS essential viewing. The action scenes take it to the next level with Kokomo's invisible suit. Moreover, every scene is full of atmosphere, due to detailed backgrounds, and a clever use of CGI technology that was limited at the time, and yet it delivers a seamless visual experience even today. Yet the most astonishing part of the art is not the quality of the animation, or the artwork. It's the level of thought and polish that went into creating the look and feel of this film. I mean, the Manga artwork is already impressive, but here they found a way to make it even more impressive.

 

In for a surprise.

The Matrix has you...

Now, going back a bit to the philosophical questions the original manga asked, and this movie also asks, I'd like to focus on three crucial elements that I think the film manages to pull off nicely for an 82 minute animation. One, the question "what makes us human?" Most humans living in Niihama City have chosen to enhanced their bodies with cybernetics. There is one crucial scene, near the climax of GITS where producers cleverly ask "Does pain make you human?". The answer in this futuristic cyberpunk world comes in the shape of "when you're a cybernetic organism, you no longer feel pain, even if your limbs are taken to the extreme". 

Second question: Does building memories make us human? Well, the super hacker behind the story is certainly a philosopher himself. When people start falling victim of his tricks, they lose their memories. Moreover, this puppet master implants foreign memories into his victims making them believe they actually lived these experiences in the past. Quite clever if you ask me. A lot of people in the real world are discussing the good ol' days, and nostalgia as if they experienced it first hand. Many youtubers and influencers alike, only talk about what they read on the internet. Especially when they want to discuss retro tech, or cartoons from before they were born. This clearly makes them misunderstand some key information and eventually produce content that has a lot of misinformation in it, yet they strongly believe they know what they're talking about. Also, you can go back to adolescence, and think how hard we try to fit in with our group of friends sometimes forcing ourselves into enjoying things others find cool just to be  a part of something. 

 

Yes, big secret mecha.

This man deserved more screen-time.

Third and final question, where does our soul go after we die? Thinking about the OVA title, our "ghost" inhabits a body (shell) for a limited period of time, so can machines host souls in their mechanical skeletons too? Motoko certainly experiences this long before her dying body is rescued and replaced by a newer, younger version of herself. When she encounters the puppet master, a special connection happens between the two, despite having different motivations and responsibilities they ultimately blend.

I'm simply amazed at how philosophical Animé can be. There's so much content underneath the science fiction cover, that I think that's what makes us come back for another watch. Moreover, some of the greatest celluloid franchises come packed with philosophical questions that can only be seen after a few rewatches. Star Trek, Star Wars, Terminator, Matrix, are amongst some of the films that have used science fiction as a facade to push people into the "more than meets the eye" motto a certain transforming robots cartoon preached long ago.

Still here? waste no more time and go watch Ghost in the Shell!