{"id":514,"date":"2015-10-26T13:56:44","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T18:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/?p=514"},"modified":"2015-10-26T13:56:44","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T18:56:44","slug":"ghost-in-the-shell-analysis-tank-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/2015\/10\/ghost-in-the-shell-analysis-tank-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghost in the Shell Analysis: Tank Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uK8V9jG7Wjg\">Tank Fight Scene<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uK8V9jG7Wjg\"><\/a>I picked the above scene from <em>Ghost in the Shell<\/em> to analyze, because I thought it was one of the most interesting in the entire movie. This scene takes place towards the end of the movie (I am not sure of the official time stamp relative to the entire movie; however I would particularly like to focus on 5:10-end in the clip above). I think that this portion of the movie does an excellent job of demonstrating the duality of the \u201cghost\u201d and \u201cshell\u201d aspects of Major Kusanagi\u2019s existence. As Kusanagi attempts to rip the latch off of the tank, we see the uncaniness of her own existence. Her fit and elegant body contorts into a monstrous ball of muscles and tendons; and we see theses muscles and tendons tear underneath her skin as she strains with the tank. Quickly, Kusanagi\u2019s body explodes under this great pressure into a mess of blood, muscle, skin, and cybernetic materials. She flops to the ground having lost one of her arms\u2014an excruciating experience, which would have most definitely rendered a normal human unconscious. However, Kusanagi\u2019s body\u2014her shell\u2014is only part of her existence. In fact I would argue that her ghost, and her shell are two mutually exclusive entities, because Kusanagi\u2019s shell can be replaced, thanks to the technological advances of the movie\u2019s futuristic society. Kusanagi is able to survive, even though her body is ripped to pieces. Throughout the whole movie, Kusanagi questions her own existence and being, and we get the sense both from her own musings and the cybernetic connection in the back of her neck, that she is not <em>entirely <\/em>\u201chuman.\u201d However, this scene is the first time when we truly understand the make\u2013up of Kusanagi\u2019s being. Her body is not \u201chuman,\u201d but a combination of \u201chuman\u201d biological parts, technology, and a human \u201cessence\u201d or ghost. Thus I believe this scene is critical to Masamune Shirow\u2019s commentary on technological development, as well as what it means to be \u201chuman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tank Fight Scene I picked the above scene from Ghost in the Shell to analyze, because I thought it was one of the most interesting in the entire movie. This scene takes place towards the end of the movie (I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/2015\/10\/ghost-in-the-shell-analysis-tank-scene\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ghost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":515,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/robot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}