I thought I’d post this as a competent review because so many people have been commenting on the torrent pages that “tihs muvee sux!”, “tis not nuff akshon”, and “Aye was deeceevee’d!”. I am posting this on all The Sky Crawlers torrents pages as well as the forum discussion page. If the mods have a problem with this and want to delete them because of spam, please at least leave the link to "
http://reito.3xr-ani.me/2009/06/28/in-defence-of-the-sky-crawlers/".
The Sky Crawlers is not an action movie. It was never intended to be an action movie. If one expects it to be an action movie, one will be disappointed. Oshii is not known of his action sequences. Look at Ghost in the Shell (which is his greatest). The only real action that movie has is the final battle with the tank at the end. Everything else was an in depth look into the way that computers were taking over a human’s life and “oh look, shiny animation”. In addition, yes, there were too many philosophical quotes in both Ghost in the Shell films, but they helped make the point he was trying to convey. The Sky Crawlers is no different from Ghost in the Shell. In fact, I would even say that The Sky Crawlers has more real “action” scenes than Ghost in the Shell ever had. I am going to assume that the reader has seen The Sky Crawlers at least once because I am not going to use spoiler tags.
Ghost in the Shell is to cyberization as The Sky Crawlers is to cloning. Every one of those pilots in Rostok’s air force is a clone. In fact, they may have never had a genetic base to begin with and were instead manufactured from scratch. The pilots’ genes have been modified to resist once they reach maturity. This does not make them immortal like the audience is led to believe, but instead just a bit more human. The pilots also lose their sense of identification or individuality. Rostok remanufactured the person the audience knew as Yuuichi three times by the end of the movie. Jinroh is the first, followed by Yuuichi, and then finally, the pilot at the end of the film, Isamu Hiiragi. Each time a pilot is remanufactured, no one can recognize the original pilot. Kusanagi is most likely the only surviving first generation Kildren and therefore can see the similarities and differences in each pilot. Many times does she see Jinroh within Yuuichi and longs to be with him.
It seems that Rostok is the only company doing this with their pilots. The Teacher, who is not a Kildren but an actual human, switches sides after he sees what Rostok had done. Now this movie places the audience in a moral dilemma; is cloning wrong, or should we be actively financing it. The major views held in today’s society are “Cloning is like playing God. We are taking the miracle of life and removing the miracle.” and “There are many scientific possibilities that genetic research hold. This could be the key to eliminating disease and organ donors.” No matter which view you hold of genetic research, it is clear that what Rostok is doing is wrong. Now there is a surprise! Oshii shows the audience a film from the evil side’s point of view. This forces the audience to sympathize with the “protagonists”. This ethical quandary confuses the audience and it does not allow the average viewer to look beyond the visuals and dialogues to the real underlying story. Yuuichi wants out. He does not want to be a Kildren anymore. That is why he is willing to throw his life away to battle the Teacher in the sky; “I’ll kill my father!” While the use of “father” may not actually be blood related, but it could mean father as in the Teacher fathered the idea of genetically modified Kildren.
Another undertone to the film is the use of war as a form of peacetime entertainment. For a while, even I did not pick up this undertone until I watched it a second time. Humans have a fetish for violence; “It seems today, that all you see, is violence in movies, and sex on T.V.”. This book and movie were written and adapted during the “War on Terror” in Iraq. At that time, the only thing on the prime time news was “Death toll in Iraq reaching new heights today as…” やれやれ. Front line reporters glued Americans to their TV sets as they witnessed scenes of the actual battle. This was not the first televised war and it will not be the last. This is clearly evidenced in the film when the group of tourists visit Rostok’s base and see the pilot be shot down. One woman cried “God help him. Poor boy” and Kusanagi cuts her off shouting “Enough is enough… Don’t pity him!” Kusanagi knows the true reason they are fighting, but the regular Kildren do not even have a clue. When reporters asked American soldiers in Iraq “What are you fighting for?” the responses ranged from “Peace and Freedom”, “To kill Saddam Hussein”, to “I have no idea, sir”. Oshii saw this and cleverly hid this in the film. I bet if you ask a Kildren “What are you fighting for?” the responses would be the same (switch Saddam Hussein to The Teacher). The only reason both these wars existed was to unite the peaceful population.
There are two more cases where it is evidenced that Rostok is fighting a never-ending war. The next case is where Kusanagi confronts the manager of Rostok “to see the man who almost killed us”. She finds out that they withheld information from her about the impending air raid. They do not allow Yuuichi down into the bunker with her as she talked to the manager. The final evidence is during the briefing for the epic air battle between Rostok and Lautern. The commanding officers state, “This mission is classified”. However, as the battle is taking place, the patrons in the bar are watching a tactical map of how the battle will be progressing. No real military officer would leak that kind of sensitive information to the public. Not only are they leaking information, but also they are blatantly lying to their subordinates and thereby putting their lives in danger.
The last items that are down played in The Sky Crawlers are Kusanagi’s relationship with men and other adults and the sexual relationships amongst the other characters. Though many would classify Kusanagi as つんでれ, it is more likely that she is indifferent to men and only really considers them as tools. Her connection with Jinroh, ergo Yuuichi, is different. She now has a man in her life that she feels a stronger connection to than before. It is unlikely that her daughter’s father is Jinroh. In the story timeline, Jinroh died only a few days before Yuuichi arrived. I suspect that the father is in fact the Teacher. This would also explain her extreme hate for him. She does retain some respect for him, but this could be out of habit or that she still feels something for him. If Kusanagi were a first generation Kildren, it would be safe to assume that Rostok further modified all subsequent Kildren to prevent further procreation. If we assume that the Teacher is the “father” of the Kildren, then Kusanagi’s sexual involvement with him could have been one developed by a complex. He could also have left Rostok after feeling guilty about getting her pregnant. After he emotionally scars her, Kusanagi could have developed a slight distaste for all humans. This is why she finds comfort from Yuuichi, one of her own kind. As a first generation Kildren, she is the “oldest” and most mature of the pilots. She realizes Yuuichi’s infatuation with Fuko is one born of adolescence and not of love. Because of her involvement with Jinroh, she is immediately attracted to Yuuichi. She even goes to curl up on and smell his bed while he is out on his first training exercise with Tokino. Some consider it a literary theme when characters kill the ones they love because it sets them free. Romeo and Juliet is a classical example. Here are two characters whose families forbade them to love each other, yet they fall in an everlasting love and thus commit mutual suicide. Another more recent example is the TV movie Tragedy. Two teens who both felt oppressed by their own parents realize that the only way to escape the world is to lock themselves in the garage with the car running and die together from carbon monoxide poisoning. The mutual suicide in The Sky Crawlers is incomplete. Kusanagi asks Yuuichi “Do you want me to kill you?” to which he does not reply. Later, Kusanagi asks Yuuichi to kill her. He refuses stating, “You have to live. Until you can find a way to change things”. It is even sadder than a mutual suicide because now we have a character, Kusanagi, who is burdened by the truth and her unending desire for Yuuichi—Jinroh.
I can see why people constantly post quickie reviews like the ones I mentioned at the beginning; people are unwilling to look beyond the obvious plot into the deeper meaning. Now it does not take much to please someone like me. I will watch a film or series based on its entertainment value or its message. I will use a recent example. The new Transformers movie came out recently and my boss kept telling me “Oh my God; you have to go see this movie. I have to talk about it and I don’t wanna spoil it for you!” I had to beg my sister to take me down to see it that day. Overall, the movie was very entertaining, but it really lacked substance. Sure, there was an obvious plot and many literary devices that I liked, and the humor was…well…humorous, but the only discernable underlying message I could find in it was “Oh fuck! GM needs a bailout! Quick, let’s make them a two and a half hour commercial”. Therefore, I was a little miffed that the sub-subtitle of the film was not Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – The Longest and Most Expensive GM Commercial Ever Made. I guess TheFluff is right; anime does make you stupid.
