in the shell

Good morning all, Hope all is well with everyone. I was studying Zen, and the ideas of reincarnation; and since the Major and all are Japanese, how would this the idea of Karma and reincarnation effect the story line.

Would their ghosts be considered soul's? And with the extended life, how would this encompas the idea of reincarnation?

I've not seen them participate in any form or ancestor worship or other superstitious rites. I had always sort of thought of the characters as being more concrete and less abstract in their thinking. So I was cataloging them as whatever passed for an atheist in Japan

But then I've not studied Zen in any depth and so there might be all sorts of overt things that I'm just missing. For instance in My Neighbor Totero, I have learned that the appearance of the roadside shrines is evidence that the missing child will be found safely. That is a cultural cue that I just missed - to me they were just more scenery. So just because I didn't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.

That's it! When I watch the episodes and the movies, and read the books; I see that there is that question. Just how far can one go before they are no longer human?

Damnd of Hell wrote:That's it! When I watch the episodes and the movies, and read the books; I see that there is that question. Just how far can one go before they are no longer human?

But even if they are rejecting Zen, that's going to look different than rejecting some western religion. And from the point of view of a person that participates in a different faith, seeing the characters reject some false religion won't look strange at all.

Not rejecting religion, just that I wonder if they remember any at all. Being almost eternal, like forgetting what the human parts felt like; or human itself. At what point, would they have forgotten?

I think there there's a definitely an element of zen though out the first film. The scene where panning shots of the city and music is played kind of very minimalist and zen like way. But zen buddhism doesn't have the re incarnation dogma that other sects of buddhism have.