I have never really considered Ghost in the Shell a dystopia. To me things like brave new world and 1984 are dystopias. In these you have extreme government control which you do not have in Ghost in the Shell. A very urban environment filled with technology does not immediately mean dystopia (or at least shouldn't) by that logic the republic of the first Jedi films are dystopias. Honestly the future shown in Ghost in the Shell (at least in Japan, not big on the American Empire) doesn't seem that bad to me. An ability to live almost forever, cool technologies for entertainment and advancement of knowledge.
Why is Ghost in the Shell considered a dystopia?
Ghost in the Shell a dystopia? I never got that sense from seeing anything from the franchise. Sure the TV titles focused on elements of political and economic corruption, but not to the extent where they were completely dominant within the futuristic society that Motoko and Section 9 live in.
I will have to try to find the screened article that mentioned it...but they called it a dystopia over their. Akira I would say comes closer to a dystopia but I don't think we know enough about the world as a whole to say (at least from the movie) I have never watched fist of the north star.
To me it is more of an utopia, actually one fairly realistic or somewhat feasible and among the best utopias I can think about, but I guess some people may be afraid of having their cyberbrains hacked, suffering cyber-neuro-sclerosis, and well... bad things still happen (not full utopia here) and they may be very frightening for some people.
Some people may also feel nostalgia which is a feeling I never understood, for instance this is great IMHO: http://anthony.zerosandones.co.uk/files/pencil%20tape.jpg
I've never really heard of it described as a dystopia, but then again, it's far from a perfect society, either. The world of Ghost in the Shell has the same social and criminal issues that plague real life, with the added twists that cybernetics and advanced robotics can provide.
Especially Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex is more "neo noir". The series in general is more about crime but with a future twist where it isn't so much that someone is stealing the money at a casino but stealing the secrets by stored in someone's system.
@doublezeroduck said:
I think it is more of a cyberpunk style future. I guess some people might say cyberpunk is a dystopia (Akira, GitS) but not in my opinion. ...
Absolutely agree. Yes, cyberpunk is gloomy, but real life is also not a paradise;)
@tomar said:
Especially Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex is more "neo noir".
Interesting expression:)
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