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At this point I am at a point of developing arguments and thoughts that are directed from and towards the influence that "Ghost in the Shell" has had on me. I didn't get to see it on its official release in October 1995, 29 years ago, but I did get to see how important its influence is on a number of aspects of anime, film, literature and animation that I love. In addition, it is totally impossible not to highlight the philosophy behind this film. Beyond the apparent and the expected, the transcendence of concepts as advanced as robotics and biology give shape to endless debates and critical reasoning that I intend to expand on here.
This beautiful visual work of Japanese anime goes beyond what is supposed to be entertaining and amusing, even by Japanese standards. It is more akin to being a disciple of 1982's Blade Runner, with Harrison Ford and Ridley Scoot. It is an extremely deep study of who we are behind the shell (the ghost we inhabit). It is not only achieving the ability to transcend our humanness, and therefore our mortality, seamlessly. A symbiotic fusion, but sadly not without ethics or problems.
Ghost in the Shell is the study of what we fear today but perhaps no one has been able to warn us enough about: ‘What would happen, once transhumanism is achieved, to our humanity? And this is what Motoko. Its protagonist is facing. She is not entirely an android following orders. She is conscious, she has overcome the singularity, together with other transhumans who employ technology to enhance their physical bodies, but she still retains her original brain, intact. For this reason, it's almost impossible not to end up making no sense at all... .... To be absolutely perfect, for what? Just for the sake of being perfect? Work on UNIT 9, and then what?
That's part of the Ghost in the Shell subplot.... You see if everything we are is tied to our connection to our physical bodies, then by freeing ourselves from a flimsy and exposed bondage, such as the human body, we could virtually be said to have found immortality. All that we are could be downloaded and located in whatever we pleased. Being free of any disease, any ailment, but opening Pandora's box to something we haven't the slightest idea of: immortality through transhumanism.
Why is Ghost in the Shell so celebrated as an anime? Because it has glorified like no other the existentialist, yet critical sense of any mind that calls itself that. Initially, and as is always the case in Japan, it was born as a simple manga but then took on a relevance after the release of this film, which simply transformed everything. We could not understand the Cyberpunk genre or dystopian utopia without Ghost in the Shell. Moreover, within the universe of this film there are countless sequels, series, TV movies and films but none of them contain the intellectual and existential depth of this majestic work of art.
I don't think there is anyone who hasn't seen it in this wonderful niche.... But I also don't think that to see it you have to be or understand certain things that may seem niche or ‘specialised’, nothing like that... I think it's time to give it the value that this beauty deserves and simply admire it for what it brings us; a visual section (handmade, it should be noted) where the colours and the classic sci-fi palette quickly introduce us into the feeling of the narrative and with a lot of audio pieces that, for having been 1995, make up one of the most transcendental soundtracks in the history of anime. To make this post, I watched it again, just as I did when I was a kid, and I won't lie to you I still love it and it still impacts me Ghost in the Shell. And so does the art of truth.... Over and out.
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