Japon Bilim Kurgu Animelerinde Kent Ve Mimarlık: Ghost In The Shell I&ıı Ve Metropolıs Animeleri Üzerinden Bir İnceleme

Abstract

Japon animeleri de kurguladıkları mekanlarla Japon kültürüne ve Japonya’nın sosyolojik yapısına dair pek çok fikir verirken, mimari ve kent yapısına dair öngörülerde de bulunurlar. Bilim kurgu animeleri yaratıcısına sonsuz genişlikte bir yaratma ve deneysellik alanı sunar ve her animede özgün bir kent ve mimarlık temsili bulunabilir. Bu yüzden animeler sinema ve mimarlık araştırmaları için eşsiz bir kaynaktırlar. Bu tez kapsamında özellikle 1990lar’dan 2000ler’e olan 10 yıllık bir dönemde yapılmış bilim kurgu animelerine bakılmıştır. Bu animelerde geçmişin ve bugünün kentlerinden beslenilirken geleceğin kentleri için öngörülerde bulunulmuştur. Japonya’nın tarihindeki olaylar ve geçirdiği doğal felaketlerle belleğine kazınmış hayatın geçiciliği fikri, teknolojiye duyulan kuşku ve korkuyla birleşince, bilim kurgu animelerinin ana konusu teknolojiinin yol açtığı apokaliptik dünyadır. Böylesi felaket senaryolarında geleceğin kentleri bozulmuş, harap olmuş, suçun ve yoksulluğun hakim olduğu ve aynı zamanda megastürüktürlerle yapılaşmış, ileri teknolojinin kentin her alanına nüfuz ettiği yerler olarak tasvir edilmiştir. Bu yüzden bu kentler, iki ayrı dünyayı barındıran, pek çok zıtlığın yaşandığı, huzursuz ve karanlık yerlerdir. Geleceğin kentlernin bu resmi, Batı’daki bilim kurgu sinemasından da pekçok şey ödünç alır, yersiz ve zamansız bir kent peysajı oluşturulur. Bu tez kapsamında cevabı aranan en önemli soru bilim kurgu animelerinde kentlerin ve mimarlığın nasıl temsil edildiğidir. Tezin amacı, Japon kültürünü temsil etmekteki çok güçlü bir kaynak olan animelerin kent ve mimarlıkla ilişkili olan temalarının belirlenip, bu temaların bilim kurgu sinemasında işleniş biçimlerine bakıldıktan sonra Japon kültürü ile ilişkisinin sorgulanıp, örnek filmler üzerinden incelenmesidir. Bir yandan animelerin köklerini oluşturan Japon geleneksel sanatları ve mangalarında mekanın özelliklerine bakılırken, diğer yandan animelerdeki mekan yaratımını şekillendiren Japon kentleri incelenmiştir. Ayrıca Japon bilim kurgu animelerinde sıkça tekrarlanan, Japon kültürü ve Japonya’nın sosyolojisinde, ayrıca kent ve mimarisinde karşılıkları olan temaların incelenmesi hedeflenmektedir. Bu temalar Japon modernizmi ve postmodernizmi, Japon kültüründe teknoloji ve teknolojinin dönüşüme uğrattığı “beden”, siberkültür ve siberuzay, sibernetik ağlar ve siborg bedenler ve tüm bu temaların kentle ve mimarlıkla olan ilişkileridir. Bu tez çalışmasının dayandığı kaynaklar kentlerin filmlerdeki temsilini gösteren mimari mekanlardır. Bu mekanların analizini yapabilmek için film-mekan ve kent ilişkisini sosyolojik bir bakış açısıyla kavramsal olarak inceleyen, toplumsal olarak ilişkilendiren çalışmalar temel alınmıştır. Bilim kurgu sinemasında ve buna paralel olarak bilim kurgu animelerinde 1990lar’dan sonra ortak kentsel temalar olan postmoderniteye ait olan kavramlar, çokkültürlülük, pastiş, parodi, distopya, filmler üzerinden incelenmiş, analizler bu kavramlar ışığında yapılmıştır. Bir yandan bilim kurgu sinemasında bu kavramların izleri sürülürken, diğer yandan Japon kültürü ve toplumundaki izlerine bakılmış, animeleri oluşturan çoklu etkenler çift yönlü olarak incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Tüm bu teorik bilgiler ışığında tezin sonunda, 1990lar’dan 2000ler’e anime tarihine iz bırakmış üç anime Ghost in the Shell I (1995), Ghost in the Shell II (2004) ve Metropolis (2001) filmleri incelenmiştir. Seçilen animelerin, belirlenen ortak temaları, farklı bir şekilde örnekleyecek kavramsal çeşitliliğe sahip olması amaçlanmıştır.Filmler benzer sorulara cevap arayacak şekilde sistematik olarak analiz edilmiştir. Sorular, bu animelerin tez kapsamında neden incelendikleri, filmin hikayesinin mekanlarla nasıl bir ilişki içerisinde oldukları, bilim kurgu sinemasında tarihsel süreçte kentsel özellikleriyle nerede durdukları, ütopik veya distopik kentsel ve siberpunk mekanları nasıl işledikleri, modernite ve postmodernite kavramlarıyla kurdukları mekansal ilişkiler, gerçekte varolan kentlerden nasıl esinlenildiği sorularıdır.

As a genre, science fiction has always been at the core of interdisciplinary studies of cinema and architecture, with its high potential of imaginary and utopian spaces. In this literature, there have been many works searching the relation between cinema and architecture starting from Fritz Lang’s The Metropolis to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. While science fiction has high potentials for architectural analysis in live action cinema, this potential is much more in animes and animations, which are created with digital media. Because anime and animations are existed in a virtual world, they provide limitless imaginary world to the designer. That is the reason why the spaces which are created in that virtuality, are precious for urban and architectural analysis. The Japanese animes, which are to be analyzed in the scope of this thesis, with their unprecedented spaces, give ideas about the Japanese culture and sociological structure of Japan as well as Japanese urban and architectural environment. It is aimed, in this thesis, to dig into these ideas through films and theoretical readings. Japanese science fiction animes are especially focused on “machine”. The relation between machine and human, questioning human subjectivity and to be human, human becoming robots and “psychology” of robots are the themes at the core of science fiction animes. With the impact of the atomic bomb in WWII and the belief of transient and mortal life which is intrinsic to the culture for hundreds of years, animes are focused on apocalypse as a theme. The apocalyptic critique of technology deals with the catastrophic consequences of technology, disasters which are caused by scientific experiments, corporeal and incorporeal destructions and doomsday scenarios. It is possible to say that all these themes are processed in films and animes which belong to postmodern era. In Haunted Media, Jeffrey Sconce says that narratives, characters and mise en scenes are placed in a distrubing postmodern fantasy and once there were human subjects now they are replaced by fragmented subjectivities, simulation and schizophrenia (Sconce, 2000). We see ghosts and psychotics which wanders in a delusional world where corporeal reality vanishes forever. All these issues are subject to live action films like Blade Runner, The Matrix, Minority Report in Western world whereas they are subject to animes in Japan. One of the reasons is that Japan has a pictorial tradition which is based on picture scrolls and wood printing. This thesis aims to question how architectural and urban spaces are constructed in Japanese minds and how they are represented in imaginary world of animes. In order to do this, the multiple forces which compose animes are scrutinized. First of all the Japanese traditional arts which could be considered as the roots of animes are searched. Then coming to the contemporary, Western comics, photography and manga have impacted animes. All these influences have impact to some extent on the construction of reality and stylistic choices. On the other hand, Japanese culture and sociopsychological condition have determined the themes which are being subject to animes. Also the reality of Japanese architecture and urban environment also shape the Japanese minds which create the animes. So it is another area that has to be examined. Japanese animes are not only composed of Eastern forces but also Western. Especially Western live action science fiction cinema has been very influencial on Japanese animes and the urban spaces which have been created show many similarities. So these films will be analysed comperatively in the change of their urban and architectural respresentations. All these forces will be analysed with common key themes which are Japanese modernity and postmodernity, the idea of technology in Japanese culture and the city which is transformed by technology, utopic and dytopic urban futures. In the scope of this thesis, the cult animes in anime history and cult science fiction movies from 20s to 90s have been watched and their common themes are identified. Those animes, which we can gather under the theme of apocalypse, are Akira (1988), Ranma ½ (1989), CyberCity Oedo 808 (1990), Ghost in the Shell I (1995) and II (2004), Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), Metropolis (2001), NeoTokyo, AstroBoy (1963&2009). On the other hand the cult science fiction films in the period between 1920 and 1990, The Metropolis (1929), Things to Come (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Five (1951), Alphaville (1965), Planet of Apes (1968), Logan’s Run (1978), Superman (1978), Blade Runner (1982), The Terminator (1984), Robocop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Strange Days (1995), ve Twelve Monkeys (1996), Fifth Element (1997), The Matrix (1999) have been watched and analysed in terms of the change of the urban representation over the period and its relation to the animes. After this fundamental and base analysis and readings, it was seen that the common themes of science fiction animes, which have been produced between 1990s and 2000s, are postmodern city which is emerged after the collapse of modernity project, transformation of utopic modern cities to dystopic postmodern cities, urban fragmentation, multiculturalism, cyborg’s and cyberpunk’s relation to spaces and city, cyberpunk and gothic architecture, uncanny conditions of self and its reflection to spaces, postmodern themes like carnival, extravagance, pastiche and parody. Before analysing the case studies, these themes will be described with over example anime films which have been watched in the scope of this thesis. Those films are the sources which give information about how cyberpunk and postmodern themes are reflected to architectural and urban spaces. In the first chapter animes will be analysed as a part of Japanese culture. As a medium of reflecting the reality and imagination of Japanese world, animes are important sources in order to understand Japanese mind. Its historical development process starting from Emokimono to contemporary manga will be presented briefly in this chapter. Are the forms and colours, that are used in animes, a reflection of Japanese reality or are they the traces of a longing imaginary world? These questions are intended to be answered. The similarities between the real Japanese cities and the cities which are represented in animes will be studied. Also science fiction and cyberpunk as a genre in Japanese animes is another title in this chapter. In the second chapter the relation between postmodernism and Japan will be analysed. Japan has experienced postmodernism in a different way and period than Western world. Some of the values and ideas which are intrinsic to Japanese culture for centuries have been considered to have postmodern qualities. Concepts of asymmetry, pastiche, parody, decentralized self, contextualism, pluralism have been a part of the Japanese culture much before “postmodernism” arrived to scene. It will be studied briefly how these qualities shaped Japanese social organisation and sociological structure and how it is reflected to built environment. Thus the real Japanese cities will be studied as in the understanding of modern and postmodern urban Japan and compared to the cities created in animes. Japanese Metabolist movement also will be examined as a trigger of postmodernist architecture and its use in animes. In third chapter, the relation between science fiction cinema and architecture&cities and its evolution between the years of 1920s and 1990s will be analysed. Understanding this evolutionary path of urban representation in science fiction cinema will be a base to evaluate and analyse science fiction animes. While 1920s’ science fiction films were focusing on modernist utopian city and celebrating technological advances, films of 1990s have been depicting the failures of modernity, destructive potentials of technology and dystopian visions of future world. It is seen that the more we move into the future, the more these films show cities of the past or in decay (Mennel, 2008). Specifically cyberpunk literature during 1980s has been influential over these movies and its interpretation of spaces and urban life shaped the form and the colour of the cities on white screen. Cyberpunks affiliation with gothic concepts brings the images of disorder and monstrosity that embody cultural anxieties about the disintegration of traditional western values and social formations (Cavallaro, 2000). Feelings of excitement and exhilaration, on the one hand, and revulsion and dread, on the other dominating cyberpunk science fiction films. The uncanny effects of cyberpunk and gothic can be visually seen in the design of cities of those films as well as Japanese animes. So studying cyberpunk is vital in order to understand the Japanese science fiction animes of 1990s. On the last chapter, the case study films Ghost in the Shell I (1995), Ghost in the Shell II (2004) and Metropolis (2001) are analysed based on the multiple forces which are digged above. The animes are supposed to be example of the concepts that are discussed, with different interpretations. Even though Ghost in the Shell I and II are based on the same characters and similar themes, the spaces and the cities that were created, are totally different. While Ghost in the Shell I gives more realistic critique of modernity with its urban fragmentation, Ghost in the Shell II push the limits of postmodern architecture with the use of pastiche of past styles. It creates a unique urban landscape with combining gothic details with cyberpunk elements. While Ghost in the Shell series have a dark, uncanny feeling, Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis presents viewers much more colourful and quirky images of a dream world. Even though its amusing narrative, it still has strong criticism of how capitalism shapes the city and how city is segmented according to classes. Again the use of pastiche is dominating the facades with European, American and Eastern architectural details. In order to analyse the films, a set of questions are asked systematically regarding the issues of interpretation of urban modernity and postmodernity, utopian and dystopian cities and cyberpunk spaces. It has been seen that in the vast world of animes, each film has its own way of visualising similar issues based on its creator’s own imagination as well as external forces which comes from the Japanese cultural past and contemporary world.