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Love is arguably central to consciousness and the human experience, and therefore to this film. In what ways is Ghost in the Shell about love? How is is a “love story”?
Love is kinda a concept that’s really really hard to nail down because a) everyone feels it and b) no one really fully understands it. For some reason, we all have this bond we feel with certain people that we link with being human, that we can’t imagine a non-living-being having. In Ghost in the Shell love comes up in a few places; between Batou and Kusanagi, and between Kusanagi
and the Puppet Master. The former is much much easier to process for us as it seems to make more sense. Batou, being Kusanagi’s partner, feels a sense of camaraderie with her and obligation to protect her. We see this when he comes with her on the diving trip, saves her from the tank, brings her to his safe house, etc. Batou is mostly human and thus still has these sort of feelings. Kusanagi on the other hand doesn’t seem to clearly reciprocate such feelings, at least not in a human way (through affection, and voicing it). The Puppet Master however, seems to have a vested interest in Kusanagi and wants to use her to “procreate” in a sense.
Again, Kusanagi doesn’t completely understand this (when she asks why he chose her), but she still somewhat gets it. Ghost in the Shell gives us a glimpse of what love could be like for sentient artificial intelligence or extremely computerized cyborgs. Love is a feeling that’s hard to describe, yet has clear indicators. A computer that could replicate humanism completely should thus somewhat be able to understand it. Kusanagi, being mostly cyborg, and a little human, partially can understand human love (for the sake of care and affection) and “cybernetic” love (for the sake of procreation or expansion), and how the two can intertwine.
this system hates me
Ghost in the Shell proposes love as a dual layered concept, firstly, that love is being truly and fully connected with another, and secondly, that love is what makes us human. In this sense, the movie is a love story showing that the Puppet Master and Kusanagi combine to create this love, by being 100% connected, both technologically but also by becoming one another. Secondly, this is all done in an effort by the Puppet Master to become/to understand what it is like to be human. So by proposing this definition of a subjective concept, the film itself becomes a love story.
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