For my term paper for this class I chose the prompt on Perfect Blue. For those of you who chose one of the other films: Perfect Blue's prompt asked for an analysis of Mima's descent into madness and loss of identity. In order to highlight characteristics and qualities of Mima that contributed to her breakdown I offered a highly contrasting example of someone who I believe she would benefit to take some pointers from. This glorious man:

Charlie is entirely and without a doubt, mad, but there is an underlying quality behind his madness that no one seems to appreciate: he is confident. Charlie's identity is remarkable, not only for its amusing outlandishness, but for its authenticity. He makes decisions the public consider dangerous or wild, and he makes them without any concern for his reputation. He exists, arguably, in defiance of the media, disregardful of what others have to say about him as long as he does what he wants to do.
What I'm getting at with all this is essentially: more people should be like Charlie Sheen. I'm not saying you should do lots of cocaine and live with two pornstars, -unless, of course, you want to- but that  people should be more confident in their own identity and decision making ability.

Pictured: confidence. 

So, how does all of this relate to Akira, Perfect Blue, and Ghost in the Shell? Well, these films all deal heavily in the incredibly postmodern concepts of identity loss, development, and uncertainty, and while I agree that these messages are indeed relevant I argue that in some ways, well, they shouldn't be.

I start with Akira as I feel like it contains the most relevantly dangerous message of the three films: the altering and loss of identity through drug use. Although Akira presents us with a very extreme sci-fi interpretation, this is a very unfortunately real occurrence in our society. The use of prescription medications to control things like ADD, ADHD, or depression often do more harm than good. These drugs use strong mind-altering substances to literally change the way your body naturally feels and interprets stimuli, and while they certainly have benefits and are in many ways a miracle of modern science, we either abuse or develop dependencies for these sorts of drugs. We're quick to chalk inadequacies up to being the product of some unseen mental condition, and even quicker to prescribe drugs to 'fix' them. People have little faith in their own willpower, and while I don't think things could ever reach the level of the superpower giving meds in Akira, this trend can only get worse if not acknowledged and remedied holistically.

If you read my introductory blog you would know that you can find me on Facebook under the name Matt Ford. I am not Matt Ford. If you decided to look into this, found the version of Matt Ford that is me, and proceeded to read some of my statuses you would find that about 80% of them are either about my affinity for butts or that I smell quite bad. If you are by any means a logical person you would also realize that I didn't post these statuses, and if you are a friend of mine you will know that I'm really not all that crazy about butts and typically smell like a delightfully aromatic blend of Spanish leather, ice, wind, and freedom. NOW, what do these facts about me have to do with Perfect Blue? Well, I think the concept of a hyper-identity is a bunch of bullhockey, and I'm sure my good friend Charlie Sheen would be more than willing to back me up on this. In Perfect Blue we see Mima's public and personal identities distorted and broken down to a point of total collapse. The message we're supposed to get from all of this is about dangerous misrepresentation in the media, a valid point, but one not so fundamentally important as that of confidence in a self-developed identity. Mima is an awful, spineless, puppet of a character. She never once uses her voice to express any kind of personal desires, she is constantly being manipulated by her managers and directors and never presents any sort of concrete self to any of them. No one knows who Mima really is, not even her. Several people know who I am, I might even be so bold as to say many, and these people really know who I am. I'm not concerned with being lambasted by reporters, having my identity stolen by a stalker, or what people see when they look at my Facebook page. Not only because human identity transcends these things, but because people, for the most part, have sense.

Ghost in the Shell is similar to Akira in its extremization of a relevant concept, this concept being the loss of humanity through reliance on technology. Now, I love me some technology. I'm quite the fan of videogaming, web surfing, digital music listening, and television and movie watching just to name a few. However, I do all of these things in moderation and balance them out with climbing trees, playing with my Mackdog, and exploring abandoned structures. I certainly don't feel that my humanity is threatened by my appreciation for technology. I could live without it. Though, that's not to say there are people who couldn't. Just as is the case with over-medication, some people develop an unnatural dependency on technology, and it's these kind of people who will really be kicking themselves when their cyber-brains get hacked. 

I couldn't fit every point I really wanted to in this brief analyses, but I think you get the gist of my interpretations.

"I am on a drug, it's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it you will die. 

Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body."

 -Carlos Irwin Estevez