tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80737708695973133092011-12-14T00:02:36.088-08:00Motoko Kusanagi in the Ghost in the Shell Anime Films, Manga and TV SeriesHermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-72178238141038826212010-08-23T08:22:00.000-07:002010-08-23T09:16:43.390-07:00

Batou is always around. For Major Motoko Kusanagi he is a kind of angel guardian, even though this perfect Amazon does not seem to need any angels or guardians. Still, whenever Motoko is naked, Batou covers her shoulders with his jacket. Masamune Shirow admitted that Batou is visually based on Steven Seagal. He is so plain, so straightforward. However, as for the feelings and views, Batou is a

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-36692390257732240472010-08-12T15:38:00.000-07:002010-08-13T00:39:46.757-07:00

It was a plane crash. Those who survived died one after another, so that eventually only a boy and a girl, both aged 6, remained the only two who were still alive. The girl would later be known as Major Motoko Kusanagi, squad leader of Section 9, and the boy as Hideo Kuze, the only survivor among the Individual Eleven, full cyborg with motionless face, leader of a revolution. How they first met

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-69863542338221006362010-08-10T11:53:00.000-07:002010-08-11T16:26:46.691-07:00

How does life feel when you’re full cyborg? The shell you inhabit is amazingly similar to a human body, but it is not a body. It analyzes pressure, temperature, color and so on. It analyzes reality and it sends data to your brain, which is a cyberbrain but still has some gray matter, which is your own. You can’t drink alcohol and get drunk the same way you would if you were human. When you touch

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-18317472042429581302010-08-09T11:04:00.000-07:002010-08-10T15:05:23.834-07:00

The Catcher in the Rye is quoted profusely in the central Laughing Man storyline of the Stand Alone Complex. The Laughing Man logo designed by Paul Nicholson features the following words: “I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes”. In the original the phrase goes on to say: “That way I wouldn’t have to have any goddamn stupid useless conversations with anybody”. In

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-82706403062794656352010-08-08T16:17:00.000-07:002011-06-19T09:16:07.561-07:00

Full cyborg, thoroughly hot, mildly psychotic, bisexual: meet Major Motoko Kusanagi. Yes, she could look like Jameson, an ugly box-like outdated shell inhabited by Iwasaki who seems to have sold his organs out of greed, but she doesn’t look like that. Motoko is an altogether different type of cyborg. Sensual. Deathly. Lonely. Full of enhanced parts illegal for sale to ordinary people who do not

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-46467546585590652452010-08-07T13:53:00.000-07:002010-08-08T23:46:46.494-07:00

Now it’s time to talk about the first season of the TV series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Each of the 26 episodes is marked as C or SA, which means that it is either Complex or Stand Alone episode. The SA episodes develop various storylines that are not connected to the main plot, while C episodes center on the Laughing Man story.Like the Individual Eleven affair of the second

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-92112080188769621212010-08-05T12:44:00.000-07:002010-08-09T10:16:56.605-07:00

I look through my Moleskine, where I have been taking notes on S. A. C. 2nd GIG and feel like I have to write another post about it. The point is that the series has a lot of trivia, which constitute important background for the storyline but seem meaningless or unimportant for us westerners. In episode 19 (Chain Reaction of Symmetry) the refugees move away from Japan to Dejima. They want to

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-83202934384893536482010-08-05T05:13:00.000-07:002010-08-09T10:17:12.889-07:00

Quite obviously, S. A. C. stands for the Stand Alone Complex. As for 2nd GIG (Sekando Gigu in Japanese), there are two interpretations: it may be the American word gig meaning job, or else may stand for Global Information Grid, communications network in the United States Department of Defense.I’ve just seen the whole series and have made quite a lot of observations in the process. First of all, I

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-30113734506456552582010-08-04T06:26:00.000-07:002010-08-06T01:37:23.279-07:00

Events associated with Motoko Kusanagi confronting the terrorist group Individual or Particularist Eleven are central in Ghost in the Shell: S. A. C. 2nd GIG. In December 2007 Manga Video released in the United States and Canada a 160 minutes OVA. This feature-length recut of the second season summarizes the main plot of the original episodes. A good choice if one would like to see the 2nd GIG

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-60295508644472520342010-08-01T08:46:00.000-07:002010-08-03T01:16:05.836-07:00

In April 2008 Variety reported that DreamWorks secured the rights to develop a 3D live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. Steven Spielberg’s involvement helped DreamWorks to win, while both Sony and Universal were eager to acquire the rights for a live adaptation. Spielberg commented: “ ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is one of my favorite stories. It's a genre that has arrived, and we

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-80194870647186084432009-02-13T06:49:00.000-08:002010-08-03T01:44:42.591-07:00

The key scene in the harbor of the New Port City of the original Ghost in the Shell anime film continues with the quotation from St Paul. Batou asks Motoko Kusanagi: “What is it you see in the water’s darkness?” As an answer suddenly the voice is heard, which is not Motoko’s: “For now we see through a glass, darkly.” It is a quotation from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verse

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-86169979176359643142009-02-12T02:23:00.000-08:002010-08-03T01:40:07.667-07:00

The scene in which Motoko Kusanagi talks with Batou in the harbor of the New Port City on her boat is rightfully considered as central for the original Ghost in the Shell anime film by Mamoru Oshii. Here the audience gets keys for understanding the whole movie concept. The scene is rich in symbolical meanings that can be perceived in a wide cultural context only. In the beginning of the scene

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-45094688714933237622009-02-10T01:24:00.000-08:002010-08-03T01:31:36.417-07:00

Motoko Kusanagi takes her last name from Kusanagi sword, which, along with a mirror and a jewel, form the three Go-Shin Tai (three sacred treasures), the imperial regalia of Japan. Masamune Shirow makes reference to them at the end of the second manga. Kusanagi sword is as important for the Japanese culture as Excalibur is to that of Britain. It represents the virtue of valor. According to the

Hermann Heidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16084672105458789064noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8073770869597313309.post-35729740266549765442009-02-06T05:41:00.001-08:002010-08-10T14:43:28.183-07:00

Ghost in the Shell (Koukaku Kidoutai, which translates into English as Mobile Armoured Riot Police) is a Japanese futuristic cyberpunk thriller. Its main character is Motoko Kusanagi, often referred to as Major (Motoko's past rank in the Japanese Self-Defense Forces), a member of Section 9, a covert operations division of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission. The body of Motoko

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