I wonder how many Rationalists consider some version of her their idol.
Wait, wise old Chinese dude? Do you mean Beat Takeshi as Section Chief Aramaki? He’s a Japanese comedian and actor speaking Japanese.
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(Ghost in the Shell: ARISE, 2015)
“Why do we have to meet in person? You telling me my cyberlobby is bugged?”
It just occurred to me that, assuming the cyberlobby is hosted locally, this someone their cyberlobby is bugged occupies a strange space in between telling they have the flu, telling them they have a bad apartment messed up by previous guests/habits, and telling them they have an STD.
Which makes it insulting, which is low-key hilarious.
You know, it’s not like science has fucking stopped entirely. So why the hell do none of these sci-fi shows seems to have any vision? It’s like ideas for sci-fi stopped being created in the 80s and they can’t use anything that wasn’t written about before 1990.
Because Eclipse Phase is too unrelatable to general audiences.
We even got a live action Ghost in the Shell movie, and it really missed tons of opportunities in trying to dumb itself down for general audiences. Perhaps the worst part of it is that Standalone Complex was really quite prescient about the power of memeforce!
Though really, I also think that many Hollywood writers are mostly not of the sci-fi visionary caliber to go from “what if some dude became part robot?” to “what if every dude became part robot?”
The latter includes all sorts of cascading changes throughout society, seen in shows like Standalone Complex, with ordinary people becoming vulnerable to cyberbrain crime and reserving organs to be grown in pigs. Psycho-Pass is really the spiritual successor here in that it will probably seem really prescient about the use of big data to analyze people for criminality in about 10-20 years, the way Standalone Complex seems prescient about crimes-as-memes.
But even then, those are what, two shows in a foreign country, where most of the shows are either not of that type, or not of that caliber.
How would American audiences have responded if Standalone Complex were a live-action TV show?
Huh,
You know, I just realized, the Ghost in the Shell: ARISE movie would have been better
as a book.
I feel like probably the language they were speaking was Japanese, since why would you /not/ have them speaking Japanese?
I am clueless and do not speak Japanese.
From what I heard, people were speaking Japanese, but I couldn’t clearly hear the background people in the various scenes. However, I think the movie takes place in something like a Japanese Hong Kong or Japanese Singapore, probably following a world war which shuffled the national boundaries throughout Asia.
Note: “Ghost in the Shell 2017 takes place in Japanese Hong Kong” is speculation on my part. However, some of it was filmed in actual Hong Kong, so it’s not entirely off-base.
It just sounds like the most credible explanation for why “Japan” is suddenly so multiracial, multicultural, and English-speaking that an entire team from its internal security services consists primarily of non-Japanese people who speak English.
I feel like probably the language they were speaking was Japanese, since why would you /not/ have them speaking Japanese?
I am clueless and do not speak Japanese.
From what I heard, people were speaking Japanese, but I couldn’t clearly hear the background people in the various scenes. However, I think the movie takes place in something like a Japanese Hong Kong or Japanese Singapore, probably following a world war which shuffled the national boundaries throughout Asia.
“[Ghost in the Shell] is a perfect overlapping of form and function. They speak directly to the audience and say “the patriarchal corporation made Motoko white because they consider it more marketable.”
The irony of the film is that people [online] have bought entirely into the corporate logic and are now arguing that ‘authentic’ Japanese identity is superior because it’s even more marketable - literally that the movie would have made more money with an authentic Japanese on the posters.
In this view, Cutter was bad not because he was using billions of tax dollars to vicisect people for profit, but because he failed to make enough profit for his shareholders. He was not exploitative enough - he did not ‘Think Different". Cutter’s sneering racism is unfashionable, and so his Caucasian deathbots were left in the dust by the burgeoning Japanese-Looking Fucktoy industry.”
An interesting response, though I believe the arguers actually wanted it for authenticity/racial representation reasons and only made the argument about money because they thought “be more moral (according to our morality)” wouldn’t be convincing.
Anime Girls (& boys, but mostly girls because we’re trying to sell manga here) of Rationalist/ Adjacent Tumblr
Discourse Suit Aries: Fires of Orion
@ranma-official: Argumentative girl thought to be flirting with protagonist in comedy filler episode 17, actually interested in protagonist’s love interest. Side plot is dropped entirely once she becomes member of ship’s crew.
@isaacsapphire: The ship’s no-nonsense mechanic.
@mitigatedchaos: Loyal officer of the season 1 main antagonist and mobile suit knightmare frame mech pilot. Actually believes in main antagonist’s plans to bring about World Revolution, and the Hard Choices this requires. Thought to have been defeated and killed by the protagonist ¾ through season 1, returns to investigate/fight the Mysterious Organization behind the World State in season 2.
@slartibartfastibast: Ship’s lab-coated biologist. Secretly working against the Mysterious Organization, as hinted in season 1.
@the-grey-tribe: Ship’s engineer. Keeps the protagonist’s Super Prototype Mech Discourse Suit functioning in between combat engagements.
@collapsedsquid: Journalist investigating the true motives of the season 1 main antagonist, thought to have been killed by the Mysterious Organization near the end of season 1, but revealed to be alive in season 2.
@kontextmaschine: Esoteric ‘hipster’ gets little screen-time, revealed as former member of the Mysterious Organization currently in hiding in season 2, annoying viewers as an underwhelming use of foreshadowing in season 1.
@xhxhxhx: Reasonable Authority Figure of World State District 11, origin point of the protagonist’s ship.
@wrathofgnon: Even more war-hawkish general of the main antagonist.
@silver-and-ivory: Handsome Mech Discourse Suit pilot from other battlegroup rescues protagonist twice in season 1, once in season 2. A fan favorite but doesn’t get much screentime.
@theunitofcaring: Peace activist focused on by plot but brushed aside by ludicrously destructive Discourse Suit war. Finally achieves goal in end of season 2.
@yudkowsky: Thought to be the secret identity of the main antagonist, turns out to be just a philosopher in one of the space colonies.
@bambamramfan: Additional philosopher on Earth. Encountered by the protagonist in season 1 to impart some wisdom with a few other philosophers before departing.
@wirehead-wannabe: Bridge bunny. (Sorry.)
@slatestarscratchpad: Another space colony philosopher. Explains the goals of the Mysterious Organization in season 2 when Yudkowsky is found, but not actually a member of the Mysterious Organization.
@argumate: Generic owl-themed harem protagonist of the spin-off series.
[This article is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.]
@mailadreapta Is a gruff father, and an honorable loyalist colonel of the season 1 main antagonist. He is killed by a shady and corrupt member of the protagonist’s faction during the battle of Space Colony Alpha halfway through season 1, when the protagonist attempts to take him prisoner.
@thathopeyetlives is Col. Dreapta’s lieutenant, and somehow survives until the end of the second season, only to bravely die fighting alien invaders in the follow-up movie.
@brazenautomaton is the ship’s shy, stressed and anxious gynoid AI. The sideplot to fix her permanently burned-in pessimistic Personality Template is sadly dropped during season 2 due to budget cuts. ( :< )
Nobody must break @isaacsapphire‘s innocence by saying the reason why mecha manga/anime might have casts that are mostly women.
Women are lower mass (thus requiring less reactant/fuel) and have lower calorie requirements (less mass in food the ship has to carry), duh.
SAN FRANCISCO—In an effort to reduce the number of unprovoked hostile communications on the social media platform, Twitter announced Monday that it had added a red X-mark feature verifying users who are in fact perfectly okay to harass. “This new verification system offers users a simple, efficient way to determine which accounts belong to total pieces of shit whom you should have no qualms about tormenting to your heart’s desire,” said spokesperson Elizabeth James, adding that the small red symbol signifies that Twitter has officially confirmed the identity of a loathsome person who deserves the worst abuse imaginable and who will deliberately have their Mute, Block, and Report options disabled. “When a user sees this symbol, they know they’re dealing with a real asshole who has richly earned whatever mistreatment they receive, including profanity, body-shaming, leaking of personal information, and relentless goading to commit suicide. It’s really just a helpful way of saying to our users, ‘This fuck has it coming, so do your worst with a clear conscience and without fear of having your account suspended.’” At press time, Twitter reassuredly clarified that the red X was just a suggestion and that all users could still be bullied with as little recourse as they are now.