Text/Future Affairs Authority
Reprinted from WeChat public account: non-exist-faa, please contact [email protected] for reprinting
Editor's note: When I first learned that "Widow Sister" Scarlett Johansson was going to play "Ghost in the Shell", I was a little worried, after all, a Western face, even if I dye my hair black, is probably not the grass grass vegetarian I remembered.
From the original manga, to the theatrical version and the TV version, due to the needs of the plot, Suzi's image has undergone repeated evolutions, which has also made this originally happy and bright work gradually become the representative of the cold cyberpunk in the public's heart. But in fact, whether it is a delicate and cold little sister, or a "mother orangutan" who is resolute and paralyzed, even if she has changed countless prosthetic bodies, even if her skin color has changed, Suzi will always be Suzi. Let's review the various versions of Shōsa first.
Shōsa, "Mother Orangutan", Captain of Class 9. Known as the "cold hardcore science fiction masterpiece", "Ghost in the Shell" is actually a dazzling cyberpunk kaleidoscope. From happy and bright to the sexual cold wind in the public impression, behind it is the fickle face of Kusanagi Suzi for thirty years.
Although shaozo under all shells is (should) be the same soul. However, a transfiguration body is faster than changing the bag, the personality is changeable, the sexual orientation is uncertain, and the Cyber person who changes the "isotope" in different stories naturally has different faces in different stories.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the popular atmosphere of cyberpunk works was cold and decadent, while comic book author Masamune Shiro believed that "for science that is moving forward silently, science fiction cannot always describe the world of burnout at the end of the century." The future is still bright and good."
Although it is a cyberpunk genre, the original "Attack on the Shell" comic book is different from many works of the same era, and generally takes a cheerful, bright, and noisy route. As the story progresses, Suzi constantly switches between reality and the online world, and the girl in the shell is also exploring the meaning of "soul" little by little.
▲ Miss Suzi's sister's yan art
The heroine, Suiko Kusanagi, nicknamed "Mother Orangutan", participated in four battles and obtained the rank of "Shaosa", other information is unknown, although she uses a full-body prosthesis, but claims to have a menstrual period. She has a lively and greedy personality and is alert and meticulous, saying that she does not go to work without receiving a budget, and chooses mass-produced prosthetics to avoid theft, while secretly rubbing and adding a bunch of high-grade parts. There are (at least) two girlfriends, in the third episode of the manga, they are indescribable, while using Suzi's high-level prosthetic recording pleasure experience to sell money on the black market; boyfriends have changed one term after another, and the longest time of dating is only seven months...
Ghost in the Shell's original comics began serialization in 1989, with the first single book, Ghost in the Shell, published in 1991, and a second, Ghost in the Shell 2: man-machine interface, in 2001, and the third, no, not Ghost in the Shell 3, but Ghost in the Shell 1.5: human-error processor》。
The first story takes place in Japan in 2030, where the war not only changed the world landscape, but also gave birth to electronic brain technology and prosthetic technology. Humans can not only directly use the brain network, but also replace the flesh outside the brain with artificial prosthesis, and new types of cases naturally emerge in an endless stream. To this end, the Japanese government has set up a non-public organization directly under the prime minister, the 9th Public Security Division , also known as the "Ghost in the Shell" – to deal with the most intractable of them.
▲ Public Security 9 Lesson Family Portrait
It is worth mentioning that "Shell Attack" originally meant "attack type armor outer bone shell", and "Shell Mobile Team", as the name suggests, is a mobile team that uses this machine, that is, the Uchik horse in the comic, the Tachik horse in the anime, and also translated as the Bandar or the Shell Car. The production cost of each shell tapping vehicle is hundreds of millions of yen, and the maintenance cost is also very high, except for the 9 lessons of public security, the general department cannot afford it. (Now, you know how to pronounce the word "shell," right?) ）
The facts of the case in the story are not complicated, but they put forward science fiction concepts such as electronic brains, remote control prosthetics, optical camouflage, virtual memory implantation, ghost reproduction, and so on, which seem to be very trendy today. In the climactic part of the main line, Suzi decides to "marry" a humanoid being born from an information network. Life is no longer the patent of organic matter, and the near-immortal but constantly reproducing the human form of self makes it possible to obtain offspring and death, that is, to obtain diversity and instability, thus minimizing the possibility of complete destruction, and Suzi also sees a broader and infinite network and faces a new future.
Therefore, the original "grass grass" does not exist.
In Ghost in the Shell 2, the plot becomes even more imaginative.
Kusanagi's No. 11 isotope, "Aramaki Suko", became the head of the expedition of the multinational company Poseidon Industries. She has fused with the souls of four people and is equipped with her own armed remote control prosthesis all over the world. She was able to switch freely between the real and the online world, going all the way from submarines to video games, from slums to religious groups, and finally encountering suzi's other isotopes.
All of the above are the prosthetic or online images of Aramaki Suko. Face blindness indicates that I am a little tired, and the reading experience is basically "as long as it is a woman, it is basically a vegetarian".
All of the above are isotopes of the grasshopper. "Isotope" roughly means "born" children of grasshoppers and humanoids, and at least 20 isotopes are known to have been known.
Even Aramaki Suko's support ai sometimes plays with a prosthetic body.
Sometimes they also hide their prosthetic body in the body of the big man, and changing the prosthetic body is even faster than changing the bag.
Shiro Masamune not only believed that machines could also produce souls, but also believed that souls also had their own physics, so from the Shell Manga 1 to 2, there has always been the "Miyauchi Agency Psychic Bureau", but it has been deleted in the adaptation of the theatrical version and the TV version.
The main plot of the last single book is that the masters of the 9 lessons solve the case, and Suzi appears in a prosthetic form in other forms. Since the time point of the story is between manga 1 and 2, although it is the third manga in the shell series, it is called "1.5". In this manga, we can see that bart and Suzi reunite, not at all like the animated version of the little daughter-in-law who has been in the cold kiln for eighteen years after being dumped by the negative hearted man.
The reason why the original manga is in this style is also related to the talent of the original author, Masamune Shiro. Many comic works have both erotic killing and profound connotations, but the authors' pursuit is generally to sell meat as a gimmick, once the connotation of the work itself is recognized by the market, it will no longer sell meat.
But Shiro's authentic giant is really a strange man!! Tomorrow morning, he can eat purely on science fiction talent, but he has never given up the pursuit of depicting the beautiful female flesh, and is keen on the application and research of the latest technology, and in recent years, he has made outstanding achievements in expressing the skin texture. If you have a chance, you can also look for his recent works to observe Oh ~
Shell Attack began to form the impression of "philosophical cold hard science fiction" in the public mind, which was after the release of the theatrical version of the "Ghost in the Shell" animation directed by the famous original Shredder Oshii Mori in 1995 - Oshii Mori is not the first time to do so, and I will not expand on it here.
Philosophical discussions in the work became more profound and serious, from confirming the existence of the individual to distinguishing between dreams and reality, and thus influenced a series of other science fiction films such as The Matrix. In the theatrical version, Suzi's smile is less and less, from the sometimes delicate and sometimes cold little sister in the manga to the captain of the "Philosophical Mobile Team" who is paralyzed and does not smile.
Oshii set Suko's actual age at 47 to 48 years old, a few years older than when he was making the theatrical version. The first one began with "Suzi Jump", which became a famous scene that will be repeated in every anime version after that. The main story is the romance of Suzi and the humanoid envoy in the manga, completely deleting the selling cute little angel attacking the shell car, and changing the male prosthesis that Bart got for Suzi at the end of the manga to a girl - in the comic, Bart does not know that it is a male prosthesis, he is probably really stupid.
▲ Suzi is ready to "jump off the building" again.
The second "innocence" of the 2004 theatrical version completely left suko (the image), and the script author also became Oshii Mori himself, so there are many lines used in many dictionaries, such as the Bible, the Analects, and Paradise Lost, etc., ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, but it is inevitable that people will complain - "Do you remember that your characters are all strips, veterans and even criminals?" ”
The protagonist of the first part of the theatrical version is Suzi, and the protagonist of the second part is undoubtedly Bart. In the theater version 1, Bart's feelings for Suzi are raised from the friendship of colleagues in the original work to the subtle care that suzi will intimately send a coat whenever she "runs naked". It is also from the theatrical version, usually shouting "Shaosa", shouting "Suzi!! "It became a tradition for Bart.
By the second part, Suzi is no longer the former Suzi, integrated into the huge network, facing unlimited possibilities, but Bart stubbornly adheres to some unaltered living habits: the current dog is a clone of the deceased pet dog, and he has to go to the supermarket every day to buy fresh dog food for him, and the car password is still the code "2501" agreed with Suzi. Although Suzi says to Bart before leaving, "As long as you connect to the Internet, I will be by your side", when the ending song "follow me" sounds, Bart, who is holding the dog, still seems very lonely.
Compared with the cheerful and noisy original, the overall atmosphere of the two theatrical versions is very serious and heavy. The first part of the theatrical version mainly discusses the truth and falsity of memory, how the individual confirms his own existence, and whether the idea of "maintaining the present self" limits the self and the new possibilities of life; while the second part asks about the truth and illusion of the infinite cycle of dreams, the realization of the ancient dream of "artificial man" in the high-tech era, and the similarities and differences between people and puppets in this case, and the plot development is the same as the recurring "life and death to the puppet when the line is broken" (from "Moon Monk French")," the same as the large characters of "Moon Monk French". Haunts the audience.
The TV version and the comic version and the theater version are three parallel worlds, the atmosphere is not as heavy as the theater version, but it is not as lively and funny as the comic version, and it is generally a more serious criminal investigation series. The theme of concern also shifted from how the individual exists in a philosophical sense to more pressing questions of social reality.
Suzi's personality is between the theatrical version and the manga version, often expressionless when working, usually telling jokes, and her unique dressing style is very conspicuous among a group of uncle colleagues.
In October 2002, Kenji Kamiyama's Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone complex (sac) was launched with 26 episodes. In January 2004, the sequel "Ghost in the Shell: S.a.c was released. 2nd gig (gig), also a 26-word episode, was released in 2006 with the last game of the series, the 105-minute ova Ghost in the Shell: S.A.c. solid state society》（sss）。 In 2011, SSS was released in the form of a 3D animated film – of course, a 2D mash-up of 3D, and the 3D effect was mainly reflected in the three-dimensional sense of mechanical objects such as Tatchikma, as well as the depth of the brain intranet UI.
This work uses the brain intranet UI, electronic warfare and other screens in the manga, and at the same time crushes the plot of the manga and reorganizes it. The subtitle of the first part is "stand alone complex", which can also be regarded as a collective name for the three works in this series, which refers to the phenomenon of people who were originally unrelated to each other and independent of each other acting uniformly for a certain purpose in a conscious or unconscious situation, and the opportunity for this phenomenon is inseparable from the highly informatized society.
For us in reality, 2030 is getting closer and closer. Even if human beings have not yet realized the networking of the brain, it is an indisputable fact that the degree of social informatization is getting higher and higher. The mobile phones that are more and more inseparable in daily life can be used to locate, eavesdrop and even monitor users at any time, is not it just like the electronic brain that is difficult to live without it, but may be poisoned or hacked at any time?
The main story of the TV version involves a lot of social issues and political issues. For example, the main issue of the first part is medical safety, and the plot refers to four real events in modern Japanese history. At the heart of the second part is the refugee crisis and Japan's difficult survival path in the gap between China and the United States, and the prototype of the important role of Kuse is still Che Guevara. Ova, on the other hand, points to the problem of aging and children's education, which is closely related to the real dilemmas of contemporary Japan, and the entire series is often new and not outdated - you see, the plot of "black-hearted companies tricking refugees into working in nuclear-contaminated areas" is really playing out in Fukushima today.
Although the plot structure of the TV version is to break up and reorganize the original manga and add the original main line, there is still a subtle connection with the main line of the manga version. In the process of such an adaptation, there will inevitably be some contradictions with the original, such as Suzi's life in the two years after leaving 9 lessons, somewhat similar to the manga 1.5 Kusanagi Suko and 2 Aramaki Suzi - how much money to have how much money to have how many identities, support ai (changed to Tachikma in the anime) a large group, a lot of remote control prosthetics, real, virtual infinite Mercedes, and finally she actually went back to work.
▲ Tired...
But such a contradiction can also be said to leave the audience with a thought, a possibility. In addition to the original manga, different versions of the various suzi, whether they have changed their body or changed their personality, may also be another "isotope" of Kusanagi Suzi, telling you the story that happened in this cyberpunk future world -
The theatrical version of Suzi who is silent and contemplative, the TV version of Origami Tsuru's Suko, who is poisoned or blackened in every episode of the new series ("Ghost in the Shell" suzi), and the live-action version of "They made me, but they can't control me"... Their bodies jump down again and again, their souls whispering in your ear, and if one day, all the "Suko" merge into one, she will probably still just smile and say like Aramaki Suko:
"They have been reconciled into 'several experiences'".
Even if the world becomes a cyberpunk dystopia, and the human body is replaced by a mechanical prosthesis, there are still souls like Kusanagi Suzi, in the ancient dream of "artificial man", constantly searching for the meaning of their own existence, and eventually moving towards a vast world with infinite possibilities.
Want to know more about Suzi? Read on:
Born around 2001, Kusanagi, whose real name is unknown and ethnicity unknown, underwent full-body prosthetic surgery after an aircraft accident at the age of 6.
The last time she changed the prosthetic size, in order to be able to wear a special watch, Suzi insisted on using a female prosthesis that was not strong enough but had a slender wrist.
In 2020, she participated in the Fourth World War as a soldier of the United Nations Army, by which time she was already known as Shaosa and "Mother Orangutan".
In 2029, he became the captain of the 9th Public Security Class.
In 2030, while investigating a major medical safety accident, Suzi was attacked by the Special Forces of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the 9th Class was disbanded for a time, but the conspiracy was finally successfully uncovered, and the Japanese cabinet resigned.
In 2031, 9 lessons re-emerged. Suko discovers that the terrorist group member Hisai Isei is another survivor of the air crash and her first love. Kusei wanted to help the three million refugees gathered on Dejima to gain nuclear independence, but was exploited. He was eventually captured by 9 lessons and later assassinated by the CIA.
In the spring of 2032, Suzi left 9 lessons.
In 2034, Suzi returned to Lesson 9 to investigate the "puppet" and found that the "culprit behind the scenes" was actually her own "common consciousness" with other people.
Due to space constraints, this article is a condensed version.