Episode Notes

Connor and Niamh break the Shinigami curse that killed their first attempt at recording this episode and successfully scribe a podcast episode using the new Record Press technology.

We start off by talking about how really we’re just talking about Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team in order to let Connor rant about the first Mobile Suit Gundam and then get into what is probably the most we are probably ever going to do synopses on this podcast. Connor gives a lot of context from older Gundam and like... kinda spoilers I guess?

We do get very out of scope quickly as we talk about Gundam broadly but eventually, Connor does rein us in to talk about how The 08th MS Team is specifically pulling on and immediately developing existing tropes in the franchise, our initial impressions on Shiro and Aina’s relationship and how it relates to Newtypes as a concept, Niamh’s rewrite where Shiro is replaced as the main character by Karen who is explicitly trans and dating Aina, the sexualization of Kiki (and young girls in general in anime and beyond), how combat is handled and depicted in The 08th MS Team and how it points to thematic readings of the instrumentalization of human bodies and lives, different types of mecha, if the series is actually doing anything meaningful with sexuality, the canon ages of different characters, the gender happening, and more!

Niamh also had to try very hard to not just spoil things throughout this conversation.

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

@ghostdiverspod
@FoxmomNia
@rabbleais
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Works Cited in this Discussion

We didn’t really cite any works for this series!

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Discussion around the sexualization of young girls Brief discussion of sexual assault and abuse

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Niamh decided to have on friend of the pod Em Marko to talk a little about the NANA manga, since we both recently read through all of it!

I'm also considering the first of what might be an ongoing series of bonus episodes where we talk a little about a manga series related to a show we've either done on the podcast or plan to do in the future!

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Em: @em_being
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile

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Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Abnormal Mapping Network: abnormalmapping.com
Your Uncle's Beach House: www.abnormalmapping.com/beachhouse

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Abusive relationships
Compulsory heterosexuality

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

0:04:32 Synopses
0:15:32 Chapter 50 discussion
0:59:01 Chapter 51 discussion
1:41:06 Chapter 52 discussion
2:28:39 Chapter 53 discussion
3:00:05 Plugs and outro
3:13:12 Post-ED chat

OP: "Eyes for the Moon" by Mika Nakashima
ED: "get out from the shell -asian version" by L'Arc~en~Ciel

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod (twitter) or @ghostdivers (cohost)
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Connor: @rabbleais (twitter) or @rabbleais (cohost)

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Around the Long Fire: abnormalmapping.com/longfire

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Content Warnings for the Discussion

Sex, sexuality, and sex work
Groupes and sex with fans
Abusive relationships, manipulation
Self-harm, suicide, and death
Dissociative trauma attack/panic attack
Drowning as a metaphor
Cheating and infidelity

Episode Notes

"It is a time when, even if nets were to guide all consciousness that had been converted to photons and electrons toward coalescing, standalone individuals have not yet been converted into data to the extent that they can form unique components of a larger complex."

Dive into Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex!

Write into our Question Bucket at ghostdiverspod[at]gmail and follow us on Twitter!

@ghostdiverspod
@foxmomnia
@rabbleais

Release Schedule

[S1E1] Intro: November 27, 2020
[S1E2] Eps. 1–6: December 11, 2020
[S1E3] Eps. 7–13: December 25, 2020
[S1E4] Eps. 14–19: January 8, 2021
[S1E5] Eps. 20-26: January 22, 2021
[S1E6] Question Bucket: February 5, 2021

Works Cited

“Ghost in the Shell: the Major’s Body (3)” by Claire Napier (full series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

“The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” by Walter Benjamin

“Beyond the Image in Benjamin and Bazin: The Aura of the Event” by Monica Dall’Asta, published in Opening Bazin: Postwar Film Theory and Its Afterlife

“Entomology of the Pinup Girl” from What is Cinema?, vol. 2 by André Bazin

“The Ontology of the Photographic Image” from What is Cinema?, vol. 1 by André Bazin

The Ghost in the Machine by Arthur Koestler

Kino-Eye by Dziga Vertov

The Political Unconscious by Fredric Jameson

Content Warnings for the Anime

Gore / Head Trauma
Violence / State Violence
Suicide (esp. Eps. 3 & 22)
Torture / Violence Against Women / Snuff Films / Terrorism (esp. Ep. 10)
Sexual Harassment / Abuse / Rape in a Medical Context (esp. Ep. 22)
Dyadism / Sexism
Sexuality / Partial Nudity
Cloning
Ableism (esp. Ep. 11)
Rapid Flashing / Loud Noises / Rapid Gunfire

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

Episode Notes

We decide that this is just going to be podcast with some long ass episodes and really dig into episodes 14 through 19 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Before we even get into the episodes, we already have a lot to say about the series and how it relates to the current political reality of when we recorded this episode—which was the day news outlets declared Biden the winner of the 2020 American Presidential election.

Okay, look, I cut out a lot of our election discussion, so just like... know it could’ve been worse, okay?

Anyway, after front-loading this conversation with some political talk, we used it to jump into Major Kusanagi’s need for Section 9 to maintain her body, the capitalist view of the economy as a game you can win, Section 9’s complicity in upholding the injustice of capitalism, the Tachikomas awakening to class consciousness, Batou’s relationship to gender (Gender: It’s Not Just For The Major) and toxic masculinity, the patriarchal hegemony on the gendered expression of emotions, Aramaki’s relationship with the Major, Japanese nationalism and nationalist violence, cycles of revenge and the inscription of revenge narratives into a national identity, the potential value and danger of the merging of consciousnesses and creation of new identities, and the tension between efficacy and righteousness in Section 9’s fulfilling of their role as government agents.

Also, apologies for some of the weird audio on this one. It turns out Discord was really laggy (and variably so) for us and Niamh’s mic volume got fucked up at one point. Fae had a hell of time trying to get things sounding okay. ‧o·( ̊ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧o· ̊

Write into our Question Bucket at ghostdiverspod[at]gmail and follow us on Twitter!

@ghostdiverspod
@foxmomnia
@rabbleais

Works Cited in this Discussion

“Ghost in the Shell: the Major’s Body (3)” by Claire Napier (full series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

“The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” by Walter Benjamin

“Beyond the Image in Benjamin and Bazin: The Aura of the Event” by Monica Dall’Asta, published in Opening Bazin: Postwar Film Theory and Its Afterlife

“Entomology of the Pinup Girl” from What is Cinema?, vol. 2 by André Bazin

“The Ontology of the Photographic Image” from What is Cinema?, vol. 1 by André Bazin

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Racism
Classism
Deformation and Weaponization of the Body
Alcohol
Ableism
War Crimes
Nationalist Violence
Kidnapping & Organ Harvesting

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co