CHANGES IN THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF BODY AND MIND IN JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE, 1950 - 2015 by Yuki Ohsawa A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2016 © Yuki Ohsawa, 2016 Abstract This dissertation investigates changes in the conceptualizations of technologically-enhanced beings and bodies in contemporary Japanese science fiction anime, manga, and literature. These stories/images and real-life transitions make us consider such issues as what constitutes the body, how the body is now changing, and what the relationship between the body and the self/mind might be. In order to understand ourselves and contemporary conditions and issues, which occur in specific relation to differences inherent in each body—sex, race, disability, disease, and so on—it is essential to analyze these changes in body notions as contemporary visual media themselves critique and discuss them. Emerging from a close reading of texts from the 1950s to the 2010s, and utilizing theories from Donna Haraway, Yōrō Takeshi, and others, this project argues that, since the 1950s, Japanese popular culture has created a wide range of imagined technological bodies, the depiction of which engages with important philosophical and ethical questions. In addition, although some works from the 2000s and 2010s present sentient beings that are essentially bodiless, we see a generally steady trend toward an emphasis on the importance of the material body, as well as increasing monism as opposed to Cartesian dualism. Another trend exposed ii through this study is the surprising persistence of the categories of sex, gender, and sexuality, even in depictions that are otherwise radically posthuman. iii Preface This dissertation is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Yuki Ohsawa. iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ............................................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Structure of the Dissertation ...................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 2: Theory .......................................................................................................................... 20 The Transhuman and the Posthuman ........................................................................................ 20 Definitions of Significant Terms ............................................................................................... 25 The Image of the Modern Body ................................................................................................ 26 Donna Haraway’s Posthumanism ............................................................................................. 29 Yōrō Takeshi’s Yuinōron .......................................................................................................... 34 Methodology and Materials ...................................................................................................... 37 Chapter 3: Metal Bodies from the 1950s to 1980s ........................................................................ 42 The Birth of Robot Anime from WWII .................................................................................... 42 The Exo-enhanced Body and the Endo-enhanced Body ........................................................... 50 Astro Boy ................................................................................................................................... 52 Gigantor .................................................................................................................................... 61 Mazinger Z ................................................................................................................................ 67 Gundam ..................................................................................................................................... 75 The Endo-enhanced Body ......................................................................................................... 81 Cyborg 009 ................................................................................................................................ 82 Doraemon .................................................................................................................................. 89 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 92 Chapter 4: Hybrid Bodies in the 1990s ......................................................................................... 95 Hybrid Bodies ........................................................................................................................... 95 Hybrid Child .............................................................................................................................. 98 Ghost in the Shell .................................................................................................................... 114 Neon Genesis Evangelion ........................................................................................................ 123 v Conclusion: Selfhood in the Hybrid Body .............................................................................. 138 Chapter 5: Digitized Bodies in the 2000s and 2010s .................................................................. 146 Bodiless Characters ................................................................................................................. 146 Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence ............................................................................................... 148 Kaiba ....................................................................................................................................... 154 Expelled from Paradise ........................................................................................................... 169 Knights of Sidonia ................................................................................................................... 179 Conclusion: Selfhood in the Bodiless Body ............................................................................ 193 Chapter 6: Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 201 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................. 226 vi Acknowledgements I am sincerely grateful that I could meet all of you who have supported me and given me great joy during my PhD journey! Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Sharalyn Orbaugh for having me as her PhD student and her continuous support during my PhD study. Because of her inspiration, I was able to find a fascinating topic, the posthuman in Japanese popular culture. Her guidance helped me throughout my research and writing of this dissertation. In addition to my supervisor, I would like to thank my dissertation committee, Prof. Hyung-Gu Lynn and Prof. Christina Laffin, for their insightful comments and for the critical questions that permitted me to have various perspectives on my research. With their kind support from my comprehensive examinations, I was able to exceed my main field, modern Japanese visual culture, and develop ideas related to cultural circulation in East Asia as well as pre-modern Japanese literature. Widening my research space and time has continuously helped me to consider about the conceptualizations around human beings. I also would like to thank to my dissertation examiners, Dr. Joshua S. Mostow, Dr. David Edgington, and Dr. Rebecca Copeland for their time and for the questions that expanded my future research possibilities. My sincere thanks also go to my MA supervisor, Dr. Timothy Iles, for his continuing mentorship. Without his encouragement and huge support, I could not have arrived at this stage. Also, thanks to my first MA supervisor, Prof. Masaru Ishizumi, for giving me the opportunity to study abroad in Canada. Because of his suggestion, my life was able drastically to change and to go beyond Japan. To my wonderful friends, Nathen Clerici, Si Nae Park, Nick Hall, Wu Meng, Ben Whaley, Douglas Ober, Eunseon Kim, Casey Collins, and all the graduate students in Asian Studies at UBC who could come along with me, thank you so much for being with me and supporting me. I have enjoyed sharing our researches as well as going to the ocean and mountains refresh my body and soul. Without all of you, I could neither survive nor enjoy this PhD journey! vii To my special friend, Jerry Hevesi, thank you for everything you have done for me from the beginning of my Canadian life, since 2007.