Coats; Naussicaa

Naussicaa with her pet...squirrel-thing.

Once again, we have a story where the main protagonist is a young, strong minded female. Almost exactly like San in Princess Mononoke, Naussicaa is a fearless leader who, like San, is willing to risk her life for the people she protects. Both girls are also very in tune with nature and the creatures it houses. For instance, San could communicate with the giant, beast-like boars and wolves of the forest, much like how Naussicaa could communicate with the giant Ohmus that attempted to wreak havoc on the Pejites. However, the reason for these hostile actions of the forest creatures is because of the human interference and disruption within the forest. This is where the differences between San and Naussicaa begin to become clearer. San was almost part of the forest herself, her only setback being that she was human. Naussicaa on the otherhand, was not part of the forest, but instead wished to study and gain understanding of it. Another difference between these two is their attitude and approach to helping their respective communities. San lets her emotions fuel her actions, which sometimes leads to reckless action, such as her attack on the Iron City. San just seems overall emotionally unstable, and lets her negative feelings dominate her actions. Naussicaa, however, has a more peace-loving approach towards other people as well as a natural empathy for all creatures. This makes her character very likebale and causes her peers to be drawn towards her. Even though both these heronie's have conflicting overall attitudes and differing approaches towards solving conflict, their goals remain parallel. San and Naussicaa only want what is best for their society and are more than willing to risk everything they have to protect them.

Coats; Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke  is an epic Japanese historical-fantasy written and directed by the great Miyazaki. In this film, many characters struggle with the existence of good and evil within themselves. Let's look at two specific characters from the film:
San

A quick-witted and fierce princess who was raised in the forest by wild wolf-gods (pretty awesome, I know). Her main focus is protecting the forest and keeping the natural world she lives in safe from outsiders. She is seen as a heroine to the forest because of her protection from the iron-city. However, from the perspective of those who inhabit the iron-city, San is seen as evil villian only trying to destroy the city they've worked so hard to create. A fine example of the contrasting existence of good and evil within San. Next, let's take a look at San's main rival:
Lady Eboshi

I immediately got the evil vibe from Lady Eboshi. Just something about her didn't sit well with me. Anyways, Lady Eboshi is the leader of iron town and is responsible for new iron-based technology, as well as for the contamination of the forest. In iron town, she's seen as a savior and a kind-hearted, accepting woman. She takes in those who are seen as undesirable to society, such as lepers and "working girls", and gives them new purpose in life. On the otherhand, she's also responsible for contaminating the forest with hatred and causing these giant beast-like animal gods to become mad. So of course, she can be seen as a villain from San's perspective, as she is destroying everything that is pure about the forest. 


Both of these women demonstrate the existence of both good and evil within themselves that is brought upon by their own personal desires and passions. This story is relavent to every day life, because good and evil exists within all of us and our morals are tired and questioned nearly every day. It's this balance that makes us human, as it is only the gods who are purely good and purely evil. 

Coats; Grave of the Fireflies

Image taken from here.

Truly a sad story, and a story told from a perspective most of us aren't used to. Grave of the Fireflies, by Isao Takahata, tells the story of a young boy named Seita and his younger sister, Setsuko. During this troubling time of war, the children are forced to live with their unwelcoming aunt after both of their parents are killed as a result of the war. She made sure the children knew how hard her family was working for the war effort, and how much of a burden they were on her family. Seita was put off by this and only wanted to keep his little sister happy and occupied. They would play piano to pass the time and keep their minds off of the horriffic reality of what was going on around them. Unfortunately, the children were scolded by their aunt for playing the piano, as it was not constructive or condusive to what was going on. Seita eventually gets fed up with how he and his sister are treated, so they both leave. Seita focuses of keeping his sister's life as normal and carefree a little girl's life should be, but their play time is often interrupted by war sirens. They don't sustain this lifestyle for very long, and both children become malnourished and subsequently starve to death. It's the ugliness of war that can bring out the worst in people, and these children saw the worst in their relatives when they were put out on the street to fend for themselves. We see playful scenes between Seita and Setsuko while Seita is attempting to distract his sister from the war, but these are heavily constrasted by the much more graphic scenes of war-violence and the starving children. Truly an artistic way of depicting the unfortunate ends of innocent people in a time of war.

Coats; Ghost in the Shell

The anime Ghost in the Shell, by Mamori Oshii, elaborates on the issue of sentient artificial intelligence and the blurred lines between biological humans and androids. In today's modern day society, the defining line between humans and machines is very clear as our current technologies have not yet reached those found in this particular anime. While we have developed prosthetic limbs to replace lost or under-developed limbs for human beings, this does not compare to the technological acheviments found in Ghost in the Shell. For instance, Batou's arms look human-like, but are in fact super-strength, mechanical limbs. He also sports bionic eyes, great for tactical advantage in the battle field. Batou's cybernetic qualities are not quite as impressive as Major Motoko Kusanagi's "parts". It is stated in the film that she is almost entirely robotic, besides the few human cells found in her head. Kusanagi is fully aware of her mostly mechanical chassis, which also raises one very major issue in this film: identity. Kusanagi debates whether or not she exists as an artificially made machine or the farthest point away from humanity one can be while still being human. She contains a "ghost" (hence the title) that serves as a substitute for the human soul, but is it the soul that makes us human? Or is it because we are naturally existing sacks of meat with flesh and organs? Or is it simply because we can reproduce and inevitably, die. I believe it is a combination of all these things. You could argue that Kusanagi is human because she is aware of and questions her own existence, thus illustrating self-reflection and free will. On the other hand, one could also argue the opposite. Kusanagi is still succeptable to virtual infection from the Puppet Master's virus, a quality unique to machines. Or the fact that after Kusanagi is nearly permanently destroyed, but has her A.I. transferred to a new cybernetic chassis, thus demonstrating how much of a machine she truly is. Unfortunately, all these points are what make up the gray area between humans and machines. We can only hope that when we do achieve the technology of artificial sentience, it chooses to coexist with us, rather than some unattractive alternative.

"Kill all the humans"