Animality

Oshii once said that he would not do a movie on dogs because he does not understand the dog in the way that he understands the human. We cannot know what it means to be a dog in the same way that we can understand what it is to be human. Yet Oshii still attempts to portray beings with which he is unfamiliar, such as gynoids and posthumans. Perhaps our ideas about what the posthuman or the android would be like are more accurate than our imaginations of what dog life is like, since cybernetic beings of our make would be modeled after our own kind. We can relate to the cyborgs in Innocence because they retain many qualities that are human. The animal, on the other hand, is wholly inhuman and cannot relate his experience to us. Yet I can’t help but wonder if my understanding of the post-Major being that aids Batou in this film is as flawed as my attempts to anthropomorphize a dog. I relate to the new Major as though she is human, and yet I must admit that she is, in many respects, inhuman. Her consciousness far exceeds my own (as far as I can tell), and it is likely that my understanding of her experience is as limited, if not more so, than my understanding of a dog’s. Yet how can I relate to the Major or my dog if not through anthropomorphism? Batou’s relationships with his dog and with the Major are strong, yet each is a member of a unique species. How different must a species be from us that we no longer seek to relate to it? How advanced must the posthuman become to view the modern man like a dog, or worse, an ant?