in the shell

A thread for all the smaller references to history and other works in the GitS universes that don't justify a thread of their own individualy. I know I've picked up on a lot of them and I'm assuming you lot have picked up more especially marto considering the amount of times he's watched it...

Firstly kicking us off. The mask worn by the guy batou interogates to get kims location in 'innocence' is an old venetian plague mask. I haven't got a clue if he was trying to suggest anything in particular by it's use though...

Some guy in the old IG forums said this about that festival:
Japanese believe that a soul(ghost?) dwells into a doll.
Therefore, without throwing away a doll, it is burned and a memorial service is held for the soul of a doll. After Japanese die, we are burned.

Everybody wore masks on the city in that scene. It's a part of that festival for sure.
I guess that guy might be Venetian? or just robbed a Venetian guy to get that mask?

The foreboding figure of the Plague Doctor of Venice was comparable to ancient witchcraft rituals that mirrored the ugliness of the evil they wished to expel.

yeah, the dolls having souls idea is something that stems from the shinto concept of the 1000 gods; basically there is a god in everything and everything in the gods so if you treat something as human then in part it becomes human.

Everybody wore masks on the city in that scene. It's a part of that festival for sure.
I guess that guy might be Venetian? or just robbed a Venetian guy to get that mask?

I can't say that I am 100% sure about it, but I think, that those masks are these days commonly worn in Venetian carnivales. Thus, he's taking some Western carnivale-tradition into Asian celebrations.

Interesting little tidbit, here, also: in Stand Alone Complex, the 2nd Gig the most important refugee residental sector is on the artifical island of Dejima.
Historically, when Japan went into isolation in the 17th century, they only allowed Dutch tradesmen to come and go once a year and they were only allowed to dwell in a small island called Dejima. Moreover, in the old drawings the island is exactly the same shape, as the one in GitS, although clearly smaller.