Geraci--Ghost in the Shell

Taken from meuploads.com 

     Ghost in the Shell is about blurring the lines between humans and machines. The lines that divided us were quite clear until people started to enhance their bodies by using robotics. For some people, like the major, there is significant robotics done to the body. The question of  when we stop being human, and start being an A.I. is important. Are we human because our bodies are made of living flesh? Or is it because we can infer and reason? Perhaps it is because we have a soul that helps us to interact and better understand each other. I think it is a combination of all of these. However, I think the soul part is the most important, so if someone loses his or her body parts and needs prosthetic limbs, they are still human. There are many issues concerning identity in Akira, Perfect Blue, and of course Ghost in the Shell, but I do not feel as though my identity was threatened or affected. I know who I am, and only something traumatic would affect my sense of identity. The characters in Akira and Perfect Blue went through something terrifying and riddled with the unknown.  Their sense of self was challenged by their environment and a series of circumstances that blurred the lines of reality and fantasy. In Ghost in the Shell, the major’s conflict is whether or not she was fully human. This is not something I can relate to because all of me is still original. The conflict the major faces is through the fact that she was mostly made not born. The human soul is something that cannot be fully made. The “souls” A. I.s have is called a ghost, it is a substitute soul that is nowhere near as complex as a human soul because it is a computer program. Real human souls cannot be duplicated. Cyborg bodies also go by the term “shell,” which is how we get the title Ghost in the Shell.

Geraci: Perfect Blue

Taken from ew.com

Perfect Blue is a movie that can be hard to follow and confusing on what is real, and what is a dream. Perfect Blue is a movie inside a movie, and the plotline of both movies are very similar, which aides in the confusion of reality and the fiction of the TV-movie, Double Bind. Mima is from a small town, but she moved to Tokyo to peruse her lifelong dream of becoming a pop idol. She was happy in the beginning, but the group she was in, Cham, never made it in the Top 100 billboard. Mima wanted to be more well known, and make more money, so she switched to acting. Her desire to be seen by a wider audience caused her to be desperate for any role, which brought her to perform a rape scene in Double Bind. The scene, even though it was fake, was still very traumatic for her to do. I believe that scene was the breaking point for her. After that scene, her personality changes from the innocent pop idol into a desperate actress trying to please everyone, the men, by willingly taking off her clothes, and posing for pornographic pictures. She loses her image of herself because of a website that seems to know all her thoughts and feelings, and daily habits. She buys a computer, which exposes her to the fact that her life is not as private as she thought it was. Her assistant, Rumi, is unintentionally helping the breakdown of her mind. Rumi has multiple personality disorder, which developed when Mima did the rape scene in the movie. Rumi’s other personality is the pop idol version of Mima. Mima sees the pop idol version of Rumi and thinks it is herself. She freaks out every time she sees Rumi and believes she is losing her mind. Rumi kills the men who are responsible for Mima’s tarnished image, and the murders very closely mirror the murders in Double Bind, so Mima thinks she is the one committing the murders. When she finds out Rumi is the one committing the murders, she realizes she is not losing her mind and is able to move on.

Geraci: The Real Folk Blues

Taken from Quackpot.com

In both the television series and the movie, Cowboy Bebop centers on Spike Spiegel as the main character. Even though people constantly surround him, he always seems to be alone. He always distances himself from people probably so he would not be hurt or betrayed again. Spike has a caring nature that he has to suppress in order to survive in a world that wants him dead. Even in the syndicate, Spike took care of the young recruits in a way that shows he is both a badass and a good person. In the movie, Spike shoots a convenience store robber who had an old woman at gunpoint. Spike said he did not care about the woman, but he shot him before the guy had the chance to kill her. Spike was confident in his ability to shoot with more accuracy and quickness than the robber was. Another scene in the movie that highlights Spike’s conflicting actions and words is his pursuit of Vincent. Jet tells Spike there is no need to go after the bounty on Vincent; there are bigger bounties out there. However, Spike is not concerned about the bounty on Vincent anymore; he is worried about all the people on Mars. He also wants to stop Vincent to help Elektra in her goal to help Vincent remember. Elektra used to be Vincent’s lover and comrade, and it pains her that he has lost all memory of her. She feels like she needs to be the one to defeat Vincent, and in the end she does. She shot the man she loved, and put him back in his right state of mind. Spike was able to save the world with the help of the Bebop crew, a few old men, and Rashid. Without his knowledge, Spike would never have known of the nano-bots. Spike is a lone ranger who relies on the aid of those around him, even when he downplays their help.