Thursday, November 8, 2007

Your Thoughts on Gankutsuou (Count of Monte Cristo) and Casshern



Next week, we're seeing two pretty short films, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss the anime we saw on Tuesday, Gankutsuou (The Count of Monte Cristo) and Casshern. Just as last week, at least 20 of you have to download the 3 articles from OASIS ("Cyberpunk Anime", "Frankenstein and the Cyborg Metropolis," and "The First Time as Farce: Digital Animation and the Repetition of Cinema") for anyone to get points for blogging. But since that was no problem last week, it definitely won't be a problem this week!

Here are your questions for this week, and be sure to post by Monday, 12 November by 5 pm:

1. In the article "Stylistic Crossings: Cyberpunk Impulses in Anime," Jane Chi Hyun Park points out how Western cyberpunk novels and films often depict the future as Asian, but Asian cyberpunk films are often set in an Occidentalist rather than an Orientalist future. We saw this trend in Memorizu: Canon Fodder a few weeks ago, and more recently we saw in Gankutsuou and Casshern Japanese visions of the future that are saturated with European iconography. Where did you notice Techno-Europeanism in Gankutsuou and Casshern, and why do you think Japanese anime (and anime-style) sci-fi filmmakers have chosen late-19th/early-2oth century Europe as their visual template for the future?

2. In the article "Frankenstein and the Cyborg Metropolis," Sharalyn Orbaugh traces a shift in sci-fi: from the beginning of film through the 1980s, sci-fi novels and films were modernist and highlighted a strict division between "life" (humans) and "non-life" (machines, robots), whereas beginning in the 1980s and continuing today, sci-fi films (especially anime) are postmodern and depict a future in which there is a range of "life forms," posthuman cyborgs (part-human part-machine). Orbaugh uses Blade Runner as an example of a modernist "life vs. non-life" sci fi film. How might we regard Casshern as an example of a postmodern "range of life forms" sci-fi film? Are there other ways you can compare or contrast Blade Runner and Casshern?

3. This is a question about formalism in film. In the article "The First Time as Farce: Digital Animation and the Repetition of Cinema," Thomas Lamarre relates that digital cinema (including recent and contemporary anime) attempts to make cinema "from scratch," or "cinema without cinema"; in other words, the goal of these films is "replicating or simulating cinema within digital animation." Do you think Gankatsuou or Casshern are aiming for this goal - "cinema without cinema"? If so, do you think they succeed? Or, if you think they are aiming at something else - some form of filmmaking that is not trying to replicate or simulate cinema, what do you think they are trying to accomplish with digital animation?

20 comments:

Mason Thorne said...

(1) The whole idea of the Europeanist Orientalist switch in future themes is just like a cultural yin yang. The future is mysterious just like an unfamiliar culture. In Gankusuou especially, this adaptation of the European culture was evident. The costumes, architecture, and so on all were very remeniscent of an older European city. For each side, West and East, the other culture is an escape from the regular cultural characteristics that they are used to. The time zones that are used always seem to be a blend. It seems that the auteurs of both sides choose the most interesting or culturally memorable parts of each culture and use them to visually stimulate an audience.

(2) Casshern ebodies most contraversial ideas of the "range of lifeforms." It includes complete robot armies, normal humans at war and at peace, humans inside mechanical suits, and humans that were created by machines. This extremely wide range of beings contrasts starkly with the human machine battles pre 1980. Bladerunner simplifies the idea of man and machine into a political black and white. You are machine or you are not, but the opposite could also be argued. Bladerunner goes more in depth about the line between human and machine. The stereotyped lines of previous years are crossed when robots kiss, love, stress, and step outside their comfort zones. Bladerunner, through its simplicity, made a stronger argument towards the contraversial issues present in Casshern.

(3) My belief is that the main reason for any mocking of cinema and its manerisms in animation is to comfort the audience into becoming involved in the story. If the idea that a film was drawn on a piece of paper or on a computer is constantly evident to the viewer they will become distant and lose track of character depth. Casshern, on the other hand, is a new form of media that has been arising in hollywood and around the world. It exists as the inverse to the common "animation mocking cinema" style. Casshern is cinema that mocks animation. The endless possibilities of computer graphics have made it possible to mock animation in a 3 demensional and realistic world. Gankatsuou uses odd coloring techniques that are beautiful, but a bit distracting. Casshern is a bit of a blend of both animation and live action. It is almost impossible to mock animation on cinema without this blending of film styles because of animation's pure freedom.

Steve Madonna...Yeah! said...

[1!]Everything in Gankutsuou was European-based. The whole setting seemed as if it took place in Europe. The dresswear was upscale and elegant much like that of early Europe. Public executions were fairly common to witness and giant luxurious dinners that three guests could not even come close to finishing were reminiscent of earlier upper class Europeans. Also, in Casshern, the neo-humans set up their base in an abandoned castle, filled with armor and a throne in which the skeleton of a king sits. After they clean the place up, they are dressed very elaborately, much like that of old Europe. As for the reason the East uses a European influence, there’s the obvious reason that we discussed in class about it being a response to how our media envisions the future as Asian. That has been talked about, however, and is now old news; time for a new theory. I believe that maybe the East doesn’t want to envision their future as something they are used to seeing all the time. If I am going to make a futuristic movie, I would think it is boring and depressing to see only my culture after all this time. It could be tourist gaze, but instead of just seeing another culture, you’re seeing another culture…IN THE FUTURE! It could be called Tourist Time Gaze (patent pending).
[2!]Casshern shows many different possibilities of posthuman cyborgs. Casshern himself is a cyborg. He is fused with that white super armor and is so linked with it that he can activate the faceplate with nothing more than a thought. There is also the neo-humans which were grown from neo-cells. Even neo-cells demonstrate posthuman cyborgs. The base of the human body is made up of cells, and to take the building blocks for life and modify them creates a cyborg. So would we all technically be cyborgs if they started to genetically modify our DNA to fix problems? Much like Blade Runner, Casshern shows that technologically modifying or creating humans results in uprising and disorder. The cyborgs or artificial intelligence end up causing more problems than they have fixed.
[3!]Digital animation solves problems and situations that could not be accomplished on real film. Another reason could be financing. A lot of scenes in Casshern would be impossible to make in real life. Take for example the scene in which an enormous robot army is marching down the street. Nobody has the fund to actually make a robot arm to march down the street. Digital animation solves this problem. Digital animation also made it possible to make the film into a live action anime.

Christina S. said...

1. I think in Casshern the over all industrial feel of the movie was a hint to Europeanism due to the constant need for the US and the Europe to be strong industrially. In Gankutsuou European connected image was the use of the gallows during the execution scene. Use of the gallows was the most popular way to execute those sentenced to death. I think Japanese anime uses Europe as their visual template is for the same reasons the West uses the East as their template for the future; the concept of the Other. We are the other in the eyes of the Japanese, so using European or Western themes is a mixture of fear and curiosity. I also feel that in the case of story telling it is sometimes easier to place the story in a location which is familiar yet very foreign. Using Japan for a setting in European/US for story telling and Japan using Europe/US for their story telling may actually be easier from a creative stand point than it would have been to place the story in their homeland.


2. Casshern is an example of postmodern range of life forms because of the creation of the other humans from cells of humans. They were brought to life through science and technology and not through natural means. I feel the Casshern may actually be closer to being real humans than the cyborg humans in Blade Runner because of the way they were brought to life. In Casshern the scientists used actual human parts to create (by accident) the beings, where as in Blade Runner the cyborg humans were brought to life to as a machine. They were created to be working machines which looked human, and were installed with a destructive chip which controlled the life line of the cyborgs. The two movies are similar in the fear the humans have to accept these Other humans. Because they were thought of as being inferior, the cyborg humans were used to work and serve humans and when they wanted equality and answers they were immediately discriminated against which caused a violent outburst by the cyborgs. This parallels with Casshern because when the created humans came to life the real humans instantly feared them and were killing them off. All that was wanted were answers of why. Instead these other humans had become bitter and angry and started to retaliate against the real humans by means of violence. They both have stories about other “range of life forms” that have become angry and violent because of their being discriminated against when they had no choice but to be “born.”


3. I think the over all concern of both Gankatsuou and Casshern was to deliver their stories with the best possible visual they could develop. Because of the futuristic atmosphere I think to mix the various visual styles was a part of a way to convey the story to the viewer; to get across the point they are in a completely different time with other advances in their life style. With the constant advancements in cinematic technology story telling becomes more complex visually allowing for story tellers to push their vision perhaps more clearly onto their audience. Since the beginning of film making, those who made the movies used their creativity to the best of their ability. As technology advanced so has the creativity of the visuals seen in movie making. If telling a story means to do so through animation, then so be it. There are other artists who can tell a story with paintings, drawings and photographs. I feel the same can be said for the use and developments of animation in movie making.

claire said...

1.) I noticed techno Europeanism in the costumes, facial features and mannerisms, I saw it also in the architecture of the buildings and platforms, also in the inventions and for example in the execution scene and they used a European method of death. I think that the film makers used Europe as their visual template for the future for it seems the perfect blend of the East and the West to make the scenery the West inspired but to have an Eastern central theme.

2.) Well I don’t really know how to answer this question except by stating the obvious by saying Casshern was a cyborg in the sense that heIf was a crossbreed between living creatures that possesses machine parts. Blade Runner and Casshern had things in common such as the obvious things such as both have a very dark underlying tone in the cinematography. They also are set in the 21st century. In Casshern, mankind has tolerated a war lasting 50 years. Also, diseases from biological weapons (and in turn resulting in terrible genetic mutations) threaten the human race. So I suppose similarly, in both films there is a division between the human race and robots of some sort and one group of beings need to be exterminated.

3.) To me, I think that anime was created to be soaked in by the American market, the bigger the better. Like Son of Sinbad, it reminds me that in our discussions we talked about how people went to go see this movie to escape from their lives and become a “tourist” and view other countries without having to leave the comfort of their own lives, a quick in and out really. Similarly, I think that anime is like that for it acts as an “escape” into fantasy land. As a child, I loved Atom Boy and I remember sitting there as a child and wondering when anime would look more realistic and eventually stopped watching it because it was too cartoonish for my taste. All of a sudden we were sitting in class and whilst watching Casshern I realize that it in a sense ridiculed animation and so did Gankatsuou. It was lovely because both ridiculed a real world and at times I had to remind myself that this was all created through animation. I think that the filmmakers are trying to emulate the real world through animation and provide a more realistic interpretation of this fantasy land. I also think that the filmmakers are trying to tell a story and show their own personal views on matters and find anime a good outlet to do it through.

S.A Beach said...

1) I think it’s evident that a lot of the architecture in Casshern was ancient European. The same can be said with Gankutsuou, but also with the show there was the use of the guillotine and a public execution; I’m not sure if the guillotine was the choice of execution in Asian culture, but that scene struck me to one similar in the novel “Tale of Two Cities.” As to why, there can be many reasons for it, I’m not saying one is right and was their intentions I’m just throwing out some possibilities. Although I think it’s unlikely the filmmakers could be doing it for the same reason why many Americans add oriental images to their work; it could be a form of the exotic or paralleling their fears of the west, but I don’t think that’s the case. My other thought is that they could be doing it as an example for us to see how it is turned around and aimed at the west and not use any white actors to go further into the depth of the exotic. On another note the leader of neo humans seemed very Hitler-esque.


2) It never occurred to me that the neo humans were cyborgs (part machine), they were dismembered body parts that were brought back together and to life by the magical electrical current from the “bolt of Zeus” that landed in the blood pit. They are very much neo-humans, but not completely not human. They do tend to seem robotic at time and they do control an army of murdering robots, but if you cut them they bleed; only they can heal from minor things and take more of a beating than humans can. The main character from Casshern is strikingly similar to Roy in Blade Runner. They both sport the shinny white hair, both are strong and dangerous, they strive for the same goal of freedom and equality. They have gone beyond humanity hunted down by the normal man thus the rage against humanity is born. And at the end, they both show compassion towards a human character, although Deckard is a Replicant, Roy still shows him compassion and allows him to live. Both the replicants and the neo-humans are both very humanlike and seem more human than humanity itself.

3) I never thought of animation like that before, as a new cinema, I’ve always seen it as an alternative not an entire new form of cinema, but a repetition. However I can see their view of starting from scratch and soon we will be to that point and actors will become obsolete. I don’t think Casshern was striving for that goal at all or they would have done away with the entire human cast. It seems they were experimenting with another way to tell a story that isn’t primarily linear, just another way of telling a story. Also I thought the article was talking about real life depictions of humans that are digital and instead of actors, though it closely resembles it. Like it was mentioned Final Fantasy was one of the closest movies to make them look more human than cg, though that film will soon be outdated.

Briana Callanan said...

1.) I noticed Techno-Europeanism in the clothing worn by the characters. Not only did this inspire the clothing but the buildings shown were inspired too. The way the execution was portrayed was also influenced by late century Europe. I think they chose this time period because it helped paint a picture of what the future would look like. It is the “fear of the unknown.” Not being a part of Europe and seeing it portrayed in a “futuristic way” makes you think a little more.

2. The two films were shot in a very gloomy/dark intrusive way. They were also both set in the same time periods. Casshern was similar because humans were not pro-creating naturally. They were forming through technology and other ways that the “future” may hold. In Blade Runner humans were being formed in a technical way too (machines). They both show how far technology really could take you.

3.) I think animation is a way for both the director and audience to escape somewhere else. Anime now is so realistic looking that you actually feel like you are watching actors on the screen. I definitely feel as though they succeeded with this. I don’t think that Anime will be taking over the big screen anytime soon. It is definitely a style that we will be seeing more of, and as technology prevails it will be interesting to see what they do next.

Shane Collins said...

1. There are many readily evident aspects of Techno-Europeanism within both Gankutsuou and Casshern. First and foremost is the architecture, in both of these works the buildings and the general visual stylization of the entire setting appears to hail back to 19th century Europe. Large Victorian cityscapes saturated with futuristic elements dominate these worlds and immediately set the tone of what’s to come. The clothing does the same thing, more so in Gankutsuou; these characters are moving around in this futuristic landscape with heavy early European influences, dressed in the fashions of that era. Just as we have borrowed elements from various Asian cultures to incorporate into our works, they have borrowed European elements to work into their own. They to have “eaten the other” to add visual and thematic spice to their works, they have stepped out of their own time and society to incorporate elements that they could not find where they were.

2. The “Range of life forms” in Casshern is the main driving force behind the conflict. There are humans, machines, human hybrids, human’s dependent of machines to survive, cyborgs, and ghosts all struggling to be the dominate life form in the world. The normal humans create the machines and the hybrid humans, the hybrids in turn create the robots and the cyborg, the ghost is only in the mix for a short while before evolving into the cyborg. The point is the creators are attacked by their creations. In the case of the humans and the hybrids, the humans create the hybrids and in turn the hybrids revolt and attack the humans because they are protecting their right to survive as a part of the world. This, of course, calls to mind Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Where the humans create the cyborgs and then in turn the cyborgs revolt and attack the humans in order to protect their (the cyborgs) right to live. It all seems to boil down to the need for acceptance between the creator and the creation, and the subsequent violence that ensues as a result of not getting said acceptance.

3. There are differences here between Gankutsuou and Casshern in relation to digital cinema. Gankutsuou, I believe, was trying to incorporate both cinema and regular animation aspects into a style that melds the two together perfectly. This evolution between the two styles of visual storytelling is very interesting, for within it you have the freedom of the animation world mixed with the powerful and grounding effects of regular cinematic film making. This creates a story and a world where anything can happen but it still seems as if it would be possible in the real world, bringing a never before seen level of grounded realism to animation. Casshern was doing just the opposite, it was using cinematic film making as its base for reality rather than animation, as seen in Gankutsuou. From this more realistic base for its story it adds, with digital animation, effects that could not be achievable in the real world. So it uses digital animation as a means of breaking the reality limitations placed on them by conventional cinema. Both of these works are using this combination of processes to enhance both animation and conventional cinema. I don’t believe they are trying to replace or start from scratch but rather make one process more effective by adding elements from another process that would otherwise be impossible.

natalie said...

1. I think that there’s always a level of fascination with the other culture. A lot of Americans see the future as Asian in this twisted romanticized, tourist way but I think that Asians may see European culture in the same way. It’s different, it’s romantic and it’s brutal. What more does a fantasy need?
2. Well, I really wish I could have followed Casshern little more, but I think that the setting in both Blade Runner and Casshern were really modern/Asian techno. I did notice that the super neohuman in both movies was powerful and blonde. There was also the humanity behind the neohumans, where they have been misunderstood and mistreated and they are ready for revenge and acceptance.

3. I think that digital cinema is a way of tapping into deeper levels of the imagination that could not have been found before. It’s also a lot cheaper in most cases to simulate an explosion in digital cinema than to actually blow up buildings. 


Anonymous said...

1.) In both films the European imagery really stands out. In Gankutsuou everything from the clothing to the setting is European. The opening scene takes place at a what appears to be a Mardi-Gras parade which has heavy French influences. Another European image that really stuck out to me was the opera house they attended. In Casshern, again the setting and character clothing has a very large European influence. The image that stood out the most to me was the castle that the neo humans take over. I think the filmmakers chose a early European setting because it is something that is unknown to them, a fantasy. Just as Gibson said he originally chose Japan as his setting because it was just a fantasy, something exciting that can be explored in many ways.

2.) In Casshern there are many types of "human". There are the regular humans, the robots that are made by humans, and the neo-humans ,as well as a lot cyborg technology . In both Bladerunner and Casshern I think there is the relating question of, how far is to far when it comes to technology and human life.

3.) There is a lot that can be accomplished with digital cinema that can't be done in live action cinema. The same can be said for live action cinema as well, there is a lot that of aspects in live action that digital/anime cinema cannot do or recreate. I don't think they are trying to recreate or mimic anything with digital animation, they are simply telling a story in a different stylistic way.

Anonymous said...

1.)European architecture and dress was noticeable from the opening theme in Gankutsuou. Even the sub title; Count of Monte Cristo, reminds me of titles given to those upper class, wealthy citizens of Early Europe. In Casshern, it was also the architecture of the towns. Every building was somewhat midevil or European in nature. I feel that some Japanese anime sci-fi film makers choose to make the future so European, is because to them, it's the unknown. They already know what there own culture looks and feels like, so instead of making the future Japanese, they make it predominantly European, without any Europeans.

2.)Casshern is an example of a postmodern range of life forms, because the differences that exist between the beings in the film is so clearly defined;humans, neosapiens, robots, and casshern.
In Blade Runner, the machines were built to resemble humans and help them. In Casshern, the machines were built to aid the leader of the Neosapiens to humankinds destruction. The Neosapiens cannot be considered machines or robots because they have no mechanical parts, they are just enhanced humans. To me, the Neosapiens are like zombies with high intelligence. Casshern on the other hand can't be considered a machine either. The suit he wears is controlled by his mind. He is a cyborg, half man half machine. In Blade Runner the machines were hidden in Casshern we see that only a half human half machine can stop the Neohumans and the machines.

3.)I myself have tried both animation and live action. They each have their pros and cons. With animation everything is cheap and anything is possible, the problem is that it could take years to draw and animate. Live Action can be masterful, but it's expensive as all hell. Mixing both animation and live action is a feat in itself, but in Casshern especially the visuals are beautiful. Gankutsuou is also beautiful, in its own way. I don't feel that Casshern is replicating cinema, I feel that Casshern is fitting with what it truly is; a film. The digital action,settings, and robots in the movie fit with overall style of the movie. Instead of having thousands of extras in bad costumes they used computers. Like other films that use computers for style over budget. Like the film 300.

Dave Rumpl said...

1) European culture is used heavily in Gankusuou. The grand parties and whole aristocratic society presented in the film are in the same style as many high class European cities. Casshern has technology that seems to look quite European. The laboratory where dead bodies are experimented on uses similar technology as in Frankenstein.I think they used European culture as a way to view the future because European culture is something that they are not used to and is different and exotic.

2) Casshern cab be viewed as a "range of life forms" film because it deals with whether the reanimated humans have a right to live. They were given life not by natural means but by technology and human experimentation. The neo-spaiens use a machine army to kill off humans, machines are another form of "non-life". Both Casshern and Blade Runner deal with whether "non life" beings have a right to live.

3) I think the director decided to use CG and other effects in Casshern not as a way to mock cinema but as a way to show the future in a highly technological advanced society. He uses cutting edge technology to create the world of the future as a means to let the audience escape. The fantasy-like world presented allows the audience to escape to a world where almost anything is possible.

Unknown said...

- elliot taesoon kahng

1. where did i notice Techno-Europeanism in Gankutsuou and Casshern..hmm.. well Gankatsuo was all based in Europe. Even the story, taken by the count of monte cristo. the names, the clothes were european style. and even the mysterious wealthy man, "monte cristo" believed to be a vampire. Vampires are european monsters. In cashern, the whole neo-sapien empire...located in a european style castle. and cashern's outfit looked kind of like a suit of armor from the medieval times.

2. blade runner and casshern both have their "super humans/cyborg." Both movies the humans fear them so they go and try killing every last one. Also there is a creator/father who tries to make the world better by creating these things. I believe that the reason the "super humans/cyborgs" became evil, was because humans ignorance, hatred, & fear.

3. i just think the japanese are crazy (compliment)...and they just like doing things that aren't normal. they like to think out of the box. create things no other countries have ever thought of. america would have never thought cartoons can be for all ages, until the japanese came along. anime had a big impact in america cartoons. casshern going more for the digital animation worked. and Gankusuou trying to make it more realistic worked.

Fred said...

1. The origins of a European future for Japan have not only the obvious roots of Japan's conquest by a technologically superior West but also of a literary tradition that stretches back into a romance with European Futurists, but Jules Verne in particular. Because of the overwhelming influence of luminaries like Verne, the Japanese had an internal experience of the future through literature that includes a European, and even stream driven future in the same way that the West has experienced the future as Japanese in particular through their experience of robot saturated anime and another Western literary sci-fi tradition that uses Japan as a vehicle for futuristic otherness. Casshern uses European motifs in daily life for the mode of dress and design of gardens but also in the grandiose European Roman military fashions that dominate the costume and architecture of government, even though the city's leaders are aging oligarchs of Asian extraction.

2. Casshern represents the ranges of integrated life because it embraces the forms other diametrically opposed life vs. non-life sci-fi films had used as targets. The post-human elements in Casshern are a salvation for the future while being distinctly other, and somehow also an organism beyond understanding. While watching the 'primitive humans' emerge from the muck pools to reassemble themselves to fulfill another destiny I was reminded of the red-flashing hallucinogenic images from a 60's movie about the transformation of a man into his primal state. I think Blade Runner's real similarity with Casshern is in the adaptation of one cinematic motif into a hybrid form; while Blade Runner represents the collision of a formal and digestible film noir with a very foreign future epic, Casshern pulls all the most appealing elements of anime, taking with the elaborate action scenes motifs like speed-lines, and wraps them around the harder to swallow pill of the post-human evolutionary epic.

3. The goals of Gankatsuou and Casshern seem to be diametrically opposed. Gankatsuou's focus on atmospheric elaboration and layered otherness create a world that is more about the origins of cinema than the experience of narrative making it if anything more about photography and the 'moving picture' than the experience of the plot. Casshern's plot-driven use of two or three MegaWachawskis worth of mindfuck suggest that Casshern's use of anime motifs work backwards to evoke what anime's divergent fate has permitted it best to create: that which is too fantastical or simply impossible to mediate in live action cinema. “Cinema without cinema” is the domain of other modes of creation without plot or action, which use no actors, cyber or human, and instead rely on paint on glass like Oscar Fiscinger's Motion Painting #1. Because the human animal is preoccupied with its form, even without the constraints of human actors we still create the forms which appeal to us most: us. While Marshall MacLuhan said that each new medium imitates the form it supersedes until it comes into its own, I think digital cinema will be a form without identity until we are so far from these roots with Pixar and Disney that we can identify them as the distinct roots and forms of our understanding of this form of cinema. The benefit of this is that we will never have to think of the Final Fantasy film as a classic.

C.Mulhern said...

1.) Casshern and Gankutsuo are both set in completely occidentalist futures. I believe the creators chose the occidentalist theme strictly for aesthetic purposes. The way I see it, science fiction takes the physical and nonphysical attributes that make up our reality and multiplies them as if they had grown for thousands of years and the end result is the would-be future reality of that culture. In the case of Gankutsuo, the reality is that of the late renaissance and post renaissance Europe. The architecture, dress, language and the harkening back to the days of beheadings in public squares made me think of 18th century France. Casshern on the other hand, seems to have drawn more from industrial era Europe. I believe that the occidentalist future was used because a purely european culture allows for a much different future than a purely asian one.

2.) What I found to be very interesting about Casshern was the way that the re-animated or re-awakened life forms seemed to take advantage of using AI and robot soldiers while the human government seemed to use the "old ways" of warfare, regular human soldiers. The range of life-forms was very vast in Casshern, and the levels of power and control over one another was very vast also. The centralized asian government controlled the working people and the industrialized world, the reanimated people had no control in the industrialized world, but had control over robots, AI, and hyper-futuristic technology, and the robots had no control over anything but destruction. Blade runner had more to do with the controversy of what makes someone truly human or machine and the division of power was very clear.

3.) I don't think that Casshern or Gankatsuo were aiming to create "cinema without cinema" at all. I believe that CGI was in those movies because it would have been impossible to show the massiveness of those worlds without the use of computers.

kyleprivette said...

1.) i agree with statements in that reading. i do believe, especially in cashhern that you could see the two different aspects of Asain and european themes. i think it was especaially easy in cashern because it was called euroasia. in cashern the setting where they were making the body parts felt very much like a german or russian factory town. as the "others" left for sector 7 and outwards it started to feel very much like china in the downtown fight scene, and then in the fight scene where they were fighting around rock walls, it was very much like the old country.

2.) yeah, i think you can draw few conclusions between both cashern and blade runner. i do how ever feel more compeled to feel emotion for cashern. the story seemed to have a bigger moral plot that restricted me from not wanting to blow them up right away. in blade runner, they were machines... not much more to lose then a bunch of scrape metal, but in cashern they were humans, or at least of human parts... and not only that, that guy came back to life and it made his fiance so happy... so how can you not be swayed into liking that "post-human" life form more.

3.) i think that in cashern, there diffently a little bit of creativity that was mocking typical animation cinema. i was'nt completly sure about the first film. i really got lost in the patterns on clothes because the whole idea of a charcter moving on top of background. it kind of stole from dialog and film. it kinda made me sick to watch so, i dont know what that direction was. cashern however was a great example of a film maker challenging modern cinema techniques and elevating this film into a very uniquely pleasing, contemporary film.

Chemical Shortage said...

1. All of the anime that we watched were centralized in early 20th century Europe which is very interesting to me because we predict things to look more Asian in the future and here it is the complete opposite. Creating the Count of Monte Cristo into an anime is example enough. This pretty much goes with every other point that I have tried to make is that something that is familiar to you can never look different to you so therefore it would make sense for Asian artists to chose the most foreign culture to them, which would be a European one. Late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe was also the time when it prospered the most, what with being before the first world war and everything was still kind of intact and “perfect”, whatever that means. It was a time in Europe when there was a large hierarchy in class and everything was very extremist. Gankutsuou reminded me a lot of the Animatrix renaissance episode we watched. The way that the prisoners were killed without a just hearing, I don’t know it just rang a bell. Prior to both the world wars, the countries were very focused on the way that they looked, and especially France, with impressive architecture and fancy attire that people wore, it could be just a very interesting topic for an Asian animator and his audience to see if for aesthetic reasons only.


2. Casshern was weird. That’s the best way I can put it. I loved it, but since we were told before seeing it that it was very hard to understand, I tried my best to attentively watch and pay attention and try to decipher the movie the whole time. I think I got a pretty good grasp on it. Some of the reasoning behind the actions of the characters made no sense to me but then again it can be boiled down to raw human reaction. One of these things was, why they shot all the “re-made” humans after they just created them when they had no idea whether they were a threat to them or not. It’s like they put all this effort into figuring out how to reanimate dead cells but then when it actually happened they didn’t want it anymore and just decided to kill them all off. The main difference between Blade Runner and Casshern to me was that in Blade Runner they actually were machines, and in Casshern they were reanimated organic materials, kind of like Frankenstein. It seems that there will always be a hierarchy of people whether one or the other may not be good enough because they are not ENTIRELY human, or part human, or used to be human, or are not human, or a certain race, color, or creed. And there will also always be a rebellion for what is right and the inhibited life form will fight for their rights, which is interesting because that does not always happen in the world that we live in, it should, but it doesn’t.

3. I am very conflicted by this question because to me it doesn’t really make a difference whether the actors are live or whether they are drawn on paper, when one is acting, they are not real anymore, not themselves, unless they are playing themselves of course, and the characters in anything drawn or digitally animated are doing the same, they are not live flesh or blood but they perform the same action as a “real life” actor can, which is to bring a point across and involve the audience. I guess my question is, what does it mean exactly to say “cinema without cinema”, are you supposed to question the reality more because it’s drawn or digitally manipulated or are you just supposed to accept the story for what it is?

Nilamoorecore said...

1. I think the reson for both sides to see the other side as domonate in the futer is because of the mystery of the unknown. Nobody knows what the furture has in store and its the same way that nobody knows what the opposite side knows or is thinking.
2. Blade runner and Casshern do both have a variety of life forms. In blade runner it was like the asians/lower class were aliens who were wise but lower than the humans that are wealthy, then there are the robots and then the people that left Earth. In Casshern, there were humans who tried to just live life, the military/government who wanted to win everything as well as stop the illness, and the neohumans who wanted to distroy the humans. All the sides were fighting against each other which was interesting and different than blade runner where it was just the robots against the living.
3.I think is is aready that way and will keep on evolving. Not only has anime sprung up and took a big chunk out of the cinema world but I think the Cinema world is trying to evolve with anime and combine forces if you will. If you look at most action packed block busters now a days its filled with CGI, graphic animations, and green screen stunts. Movies like Transformers, Spiderman, Harry Potter, and X-men have all turned in major motion picture bucks. If you look at the older versions of the movies (Transformers the cartoons) and watch them now its not hard to tell how much influence the anime and digi-community had on them.

Jon Paprocki said...

1) There is a lot of Techno-Europeanism in Gankutsuou and Casshern, Casshern was great by the way. There is a lot of European architecture through out both of them. I don’t actually remember seeing much of any Asian buildings in the movie at all. The laboratory had a very eerie feel and the village had a very pre-history feel since most of it was made of clay and mud. They didn’t have any of the traditions shone, like sitting on the floor to eat.
2) There are many ranges of life then can be seen in Casshern. There are the normal human life forms. There are the mutant human clones. And then there is the cyborg. Blade Runner and Casshern are alike because in both movies each of the outsiders is fighting for their survival. They are sentient beings that want to be given a chance at life. Who is to judge who can have life and who can’t?
3) I think Casshern was aiming a little bit at making cinema without cinema. A LOT of it seemed to be animated. The backgrounds, the floating vessels, the abstract helicopters, the armies of robots. Also all the fight scenes had a bunch of animation in them. They did a really good job of it too in my opinion. It looked amazing for the most part.

Derek Vineyard said...

1) I believe the main reason you see a Techno-Orientialist future in Gankutsuou is because simply it ideally fits the narrative of the story. One of the other reasons why they probably chose a Techno-Eurpoeanistic setting is because it has to do a lot with the architecture, European architecture is usually majestic and grand. However the only reason I can see why a European setting was used in Casshern was to emulate a Germany and a Europe.

2) The only camparison that can be made is the replicants and the neo-humans. They are both living however they are for more advance to humans in a tangible physical sense. I believe it is just trying to reconcile in thought of how we are going to evolve next and what ways are we going to evolve.

3) It is a niche medium, because any live action film with tons of use in live cg can only go so far in the cinema market and if there is anything to be accomplish it is just to represent the topic in a different perspective. Cinema or film has it's forms and if you were to break down any moving picture it will boil down to that unless they come up with a way for viewers to see any angle of the picture they want, but until then we can only see what they want us to see in the frame, regardless of how it's delivered.

Gunnar Ludwig said...

1. In Gankutsuou, the western influence was obvious, as it was a recreation of The Count of Monte Cristo. The outfits looked very 18th century European, even the way the characters talked. When I was watching Casshern the western influences did not occur to me much, I just thought of it as a sci-fi, futuristic Japan. As mentioned in the article, American and European filmmakers use a lot of orientalism in their films as well. I think the reason for this is sci-fi is all about mysterious undiscovered places. Instead of making what they know into fantasy, they take what is already foreign to them and make it a fantasy.

2. Casshern epitomizes not just what has happened in sci-fi since 1980, but what has happened in just the last few years. Taking what began with Blade Runner; post-apocalyptic, post human cyborgs, etc., Casshern uses the idea that scientific mistakes ruined the modern world. In Casshern, the attempt to improve humans health by using bodies of other humans as… some sort of enegy? (That how I understood it.) Well anyways, it created a subhuman race that planned to destroy all of the humans. Casshern is the perfect subhuman made to stop the destruction of the world. This idea reminded me of Blade (Humans turned into vampires, the half-human, half-vampire is the most unstoppable). Many other recent sci-fi movies use this part-human take over, were a disease, or robotics of some sort alter some people (28 Days Later, The Matrix, Children of Men).

3. I definitely think that is a major reason for why so many anime movies are sci-fi or fantasy. An imagery picture has to be made anyways, so why not just draw it, or make it with CGI? You don’t see a lot of animation about family life in the realistic modern world, because it makes more sense to just film it. With movies like Casshern, with live-action in front of CGI backgrounds full of animation and special effects, this is even more relevant. It reminded me of Sin City, or 300. In all of these films, I think the filmmaker wanted it to feel like an animated fantasy world, rather than real-life. While Sin City looked like a live-action comic book, Casshern looked like a live-action anime, or video game.