Anime: Fear and Anxiety in Texhnolyzed Worlds
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Anime: Fear and Anxiety in Texhnolyzed Worlds Texhnolyze, 2003, Hiroshi Hamasaki, Madhouse, 550mins A Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Waikato by By Alaric Ohlson ____________ University of Waikato 2010 1 Abstract This is a study of primarily post-millennial Japanese Anime texts, drawn from the science-fiction genre of the medium. The key interest of this study is the prevalence of the dystopian attitude toward technology that has prevailed in sci-fi for several decades now, and is a key marker within Anime, notable for its fetish for cathartic destruction and apocalypse. This study addresses a gap in academic literature on Anime which is largely focused on key 1980s and 1990s sci-fi texts. To this end, three key examples of post- millennial sci-fi Anime television series are examined alongside other significant and similarly themed texts for their continuities and innovations to the themes and style of the genre. Of particular concern are nuanced changes in technological attitudes that can be seen occurring in the apocalyptic mode that the key texts make use of (which is a well- established premise within sci-fi Anime), as well as an increase in supernatural and fantasy elements. The key texts are as follows: Wolf’s Rain is a shamanistic and bio- technological fantasy epic. Texhnolyze is the spiritual successor to Serial Experiments Lain with heavy themes of cyberization, evolution and ideological diversity. Ergo Proxy is by far the most complex, being a post-cyberpunk text that embodies concepts of artificial intelligence, genetically engineered societies, psycho-analysis, the technological deity and much more. These texts are reflective of the somewhat limited but convenient dichotomy that divides the many socio-political camps that oppose and promote technology into bioLuddites and Transhumanists. The concept of „hybridity‟ draws these divisions under a unified umbrella, describing humanity‟s destabilizing and redefining amalgamation with the technological „Other‟. It also represents the fusion of science and technology with religion and spiritualism which affects the post-human hybrids of Anime. The hybrids that are portrayed are the cybernetic entity and the genetically engineered life-form. This study intends to reveal how several post-millennial sci-fi Anime, following on from their predecessors, act as a metaphorical, social, and ideological critique of the continued technological encroachment upon the human body and psyche, expressing both revolutionary theories and cautionary tales in its narratives. 2 Table of Contents Introduction p. 6 Chapter 1: Aesthetics and Archetypes: p. 20 - 1.1 Texhnolyze p. 21 - 1.2 Wolf‟s Rain p. 23 - 1.3 Ergo Proxy p. 26 - 1.4 Aesthetics, Motif and Symbolism p. 31 - 1.5 Codes and Conventions, Persistent Themes and Archetypes p. 38 Chapter 2: The Apocalypse and Evolution p. 47 - 2.1 The History of Apocalypse p. 47 - 2.2 Humanity: The War against the Other, War against the Self p. 49 - 2.3 Weapons and Accidents of Mass Destruction p. 59 - 2.4 The Stagnation of Human Evolution and its Inevitable Extinction p. 63 - 2.5 The (Attempted/Unnatural) Rebirth of Humanity p. 69 - 2.6 The Psychological and Social Apocalypse p. 72 Chapter 3: Cyberization and Artificial Intelligence: p. 78 - 3.1 The Cyborg; Mechanization of the Body, Digitization of the Brain p. 83 - 3.2 Duplicity of Identity and the Fragility of Memory in the Digital Age p. 86 - 3.3 The Advent of AI: Human/AI Relations and Robot Rights p. 88 - 3.4 The Existence of the Soul and the Post-Human Entity p. 97 3 Chapter 4: Biotechnology and Beyond p. 103 - 4.1 Genetic Alteration: the Creation of New Life-Forms and Interspecies Technology p. 105 - 4.2 Human Rights, Person Rights p. 110 - 4.3 Genetically Engineered Societies p. 114 - 4.4 Magic and Mythology: Religion, Spiritualism and Playing God p. 119 - 4.5 Techno-Shamanism: Communing With Urban Spirits, Spiritual Journeys p. 122 - 4.6 Gods and Monsters of Technology, Creators and Destroyers p. 127 Conclusion p. 134 Bibliography p. 142 4 5 Introduction: Homeostasis and Transistasis. One is a force for constant change, the other is a force for things to stay the same. – Neon Genesis Evangelion. This little anecdote captures succinctly the human mentality that belies attitudes to technology seen in science-fiction Anime over the last twenty to thirty years and even longer. Within the science-fiction genre, Anime has played a distinct and unique part, exemplifying ambivalent attitudes towards advancements of technology in the last few decades. This sense of uncertainty is nothing new to humanity, as every product of human engineering and innovation has created to some degree a sense of unease in the people it affects. “The chemical or physical inventor is always a Prometheus. There is no great invention from fire to flying which has not been hailed as an insult to some god” (Hughes, 2004, p. 75). Thus the post-millennial time period is simply part of a long continuum of technological development accompanied by varying levels of social trepidation. Not without cause, this is an age that is seen as possessing the potential for great enlightenment or great destruction, or possibly both. Many imaginations have attempted to conjure and speculate upon the twenty-first century and much musing is still going on. Science fiction for over a century now, via an array of print, audio, and visual mediums, has driven popular imaginings of the future world we may one day live in. In the context of this study, both America and Japan have produced a myriad of authors and auteur responsible for creating a vast amount of texts on the human obsession and antipathy towards technology, but in very different ways. America, particularly in its films, has maintained a dominant patriotic but two dimensional „us versus them‟ discourse of technology, specifically in regard to the machine, and rarely touched upon the potentials and consequences of technological development alternative to the dystopian or apocalyptic mode. Japan however has consistently been and continues to remain ahead of the imaginative curve, creating technological worlds that are beautiful, abstract, alien, or obscene, or combinations of the four. However, though there are differences in their concerns and portrayals, the perceived threat is the same; the radical affects of technological development on society and everyday life. As Antonio Levi puts 6 it; “Both have nightmares as well as dreams about the future applications of such technologies, and both bring those nightmares and dreams to the screen” (Levi, 1996, p. 95). While the aesthetic and visual qualities of such worlds are not in question, for this study the medium of animation is being considered as a vehicle for expressions of social theory and ideology regarding technological development and the aspirations and anxieties therein. With this philosophical and theoretical frame of mind, science fiction, in this case Anime, is being considered as a social marker of changing trends and attitudes toward accelerating technological development. Much of science fiction became increasingly reactionary to the utopianism of the nineteenth and early twentieth century toward technological development. Examples of this include Fritz Lang‟s Metropolis (1927), Aldous Huxley‟s Brave New World (1932) and particularly George Orwell‟s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) which cemented the popular vision of the dystopian future. However during this same epoch there was still a vein of authors who despite the fact that industrialisation had failed their predecessors, still chose to conjure up idealised worlds, at least for the far future, such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.1 In general there remained a train of thought paralleled between Japan and America that believed technology paired with social change could greatly benefit mankind: “Like the Japanese most Americans in the 1960‟s wanted to believe that human beings could duplicate Mother Nature‟s work, and probably do it better. That dream died in America and it‟s begun to die in Japan too” (Levi, 1996, pp. 87-88). It wasn‟t until the nineteen eighties however that the dream almost entirely dispersed in the West, and greater quantities and levels of pessimism started to proliferate. The appearance of such titles such as Alan Moore‟s V for Vendetta (1982) and Watchmen (1986), Ridley Scott‟s Blade Runner (1982), William Gibson‟s Neuromancer (1984) and the advent of the subgenre cyberpunk within science fiction, created the embodiment of a dystopian future.2 Cyberpunk particularly created a future- scope that was closer to home, as it dealt with the near future and changes that could take 1 Even explorations of totalitarianism persisted, such as Robert Heinlein‟s Starship Troopers which envisioned a future interstellar militaristic human society. 2 Fittingly this occurred during the era envisioned by Orwell as the „surveillance society‟, now a fleshed out concept taking affect in the real world. 7 place in society within a foreseeable amount of time given the now rapid development of technology particularly in regard to communications and globalisation.