In this episode, Janine talks about the changes made in the 2017 Ghost in the Shell movie, starring Scarlett Johannson. Janine talks about The Major’s revised physical representation, and her new narrative.
What’s in Episode 15, “The Rebirth of The Major”?
Welcome back
Janine welcomes everyone back and thanks listeners for the support. She also introduces the topic of this episode’s discussion.
Recap
Janine briefly recaps the discussion from the previous episode and explains how it links with this episode. She then gives a brief introduction to the 2017 Ghost in the Shell film.
Sexualization
Janine starts off the discussion by first briefly talking about the sexualization of cyborgs. She gives examples of how The Major is sexualized in the 1995 anime.
Janine then moves on to explain how The Major is not sexualized in the 2017 film. Like Janine explains, de-sexualization is a trend in contemporary movies and TV series.
Narrative changes
Janine explains what she thinks is the difference between a reboot and a remake. She then introduces the changes in narrative in the 2017 Ghost in the Shell remake.
Posthumanism to humanity
Janine briefly explains how the shift in narrative shows the embrace of an embodied existence. She also links this debate to feminism.
First narrative change
Janine gives some background on The Major. She explains the first narrative change in terms of The Major’s backstory. This also links to how The Major treats her cybernetic body, as Janine mentions.
Janine then talks about The Major’s quest to try to embody her cybernetic body. She explains how this makes her different from the 1995 version of The Major.
Second narrative change
Janine explains the significance of the changes made to the Puppet Master’s narrative. She considers how these changes contribute to the revised philosophy of the 2017 remake.
Third narrative change
Another interesting change, Janine explains, is the fact that The Major denies the offer to merge with the Puppet Master. Janine then explains the significance of this decision in terms of embodiment.
Human evolution
Janine briefly considers how the 2017 film shows us what we deem the next stage of human evolution. She then quotes the epilogues of the 1995 anime and the 2017 film.
Janine explains how the epilogues reveal contemporary society’s views of what it means to be human. As The Major also mentions in 2017, “humanity is our virtue”.
Wrap up
Janine wraps up by recounting the story of where she first watched the 2017 Ghost in the Shell movie. She also gives a sneak peek of upcoming episodes.
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The theme music is "Dashboard Light" by One Two Feet, and is licenced by Holosuite Media through Epidemic Sound.
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