@ itsubun: It’s odd – especially given how I’m not really keen on pets – but the business with the discarded dogs seemed somehow more affecting than a lot of the other cruelties of Kaiba’s societies. Maybe it’s the dogs’ lack of agency, or something. It’s odd how illuminating the fat-cat/thin-cat line is in real life, too – it’s a division which quite accurately marks out southern Europe from northern Europe.

And I have a suitably /m/echanistic post lined up to compensate for this one, I’m glad to say. Though Kaiba does have starships, so it’s not a complete loss.

On a less analytical/formal note: LOLOLOL YOU FINALLY BLOGGED ABOUT KAIBA, /M/ECHA MAN! <3

Also, a pox on thee for introducing me to the Blue Banana. Seeing a giant blue phallus stretch across the European continent like that is deeply unsettling.

@ Shiri: Well, you said yourself that we’ve been thinking dualistically since – well, a long time, anyway (Plato?) – I remember there were several gnostic religions which went in for the rejection of the body in a big way. So I don’t know if I’d say the way we think about the mind and body has radically changed or is about to slide down a slippery slope.

It’s a good point, though, that for many people plastic surgery is now something on the same spectrum as the pimping-out of mobiles and cars. I guess the people in Kaiba 05 and a lot of first-world people nowadays actually change their bodies because in some ways bodies have become more important (glamour, fashion, weight issues &c).

Actually, looking back at my use of the USB stick image I’m reminded of reading that philosophers tend to use the technology around them as a metaphor for the mind – currently we talk of software and hardware and programs, but Spinoza, if I recall correctly, spoke of the mind as something like the workings of a grain mill and I’m fairly certain I remember Plato talking about chariots at some point. But that’s probably tangential.

@ Owen S: Welcome to the ‘Must Click On Kaiba Club’, then. I didn’t have any trouble with the subtitles, but I don’t ask for much from fansubs in the first place, so I might not have noticed if there were any errors.

Does Kaiba sometimes remind anyone else of one of those old point-and-click adventure games? It’s probably the use of items (’use MEMORY GUN on COMATOSE PATCH’), but whatever the cause I actually wanted to grab my mouse and start clicking in this particular shot.

Haha, yes. It wasn’t obvious till you mentioned it, but now that you have I can’t unsee it.

I hope the subtitle quality of episode 5 wasn’t too terrible, since I literally edited it in an hour or so (long story), and it looks like a lot of my script is intact, if your screenshots are anything to go by.

And while I’m doubleposting (doh) I should clarify myself. I’m basically talking about identity. Body modification for a lot of people is like a more emotional, more long-term pimping out of mobile phones. Body is a part of identity in a similar way to our styles of clothing, though with the differences you’d expect due to its comparative permanence, but it’s not the centre of it anymore.

I’m not nearly so sure. Certainly they’re not USB sticks but they’re not “us” anymore either, so much as part of us.

I don’t know if it’s even worth trying to project Kaiba as a society since it’s full of holes – which isn’t necessarily a flaw, since filling it out would be impossible – but as for some of its ideas, I think we really are heading that way. People have always thought dualistically and funnily enough recent scientific developments like AI, prosthetics and cosmetics have exacerbated this mode of thought rather than dispelled it.

It seems to me like Kaiba is a particularly absurd and cartoony version of the premise of ghost in the shell. People have plenty of attachment to their bodies (not sure if you’ve seen Kaiba ep 6 yet so I won’t say anything else) but they’re getting to where that’s because they’re extremely useful and tailor-made tools rather than because they are us.

The pictures are so adorable~~

It’s an exaggeration (and thank you for reminding me that there’s only one ‘r’ in that) to say that our society is approaching/nearing the state of Kaiba’s, certainly. I simply can’t see a situation where we start treating our minds like software on USB sticks arising in my lifetime, though I’d be the first to admit I’m no futurologist. It may be that we are on a Kaibesque vector, true. But I think (hope) we’re a long way off yet.

I haven’t seen The Sixth Day, though I noticed (as I think Owen did) that Kaiba has one or two similarities to another Schwarzeneggar vehicle, Total Recall – which takes us to Dick, and you could say this show’s like quite a lot of Dick, as drawn by Disney.

@ berkles: To be honest I sometimes have to make a bit of an effort to start an episode of Kaiba. But once I start I always enjoy it, and it is rather good – so yeah, time to pick it up again.

@ Michael, lelangir, Michael, berkles: Sheesh, get a room &c.

@ otou-san: That time-lapse camera scene was gently very affecting, though I think I found the third episode to be the most powerful of those I’ve seen so far. For some reason I didn’t feel so engaged by the fifth, but that may be why I felt able to write about it. And I’m glad to hear that the main plot (if there is one) could be about to kick in.

@ coburn: Good point. The transience of the bodies in this episode made the memories seem much more like the fixed point that they are. This one did remind me more of our society today, while the previous ones felt more personal, reminding me of people I know. Maybe the fifth episode was meant to be a more society-wide view, especially given the ‘utopia’ of the title.

I rather liked how this episode looked, but I found the disjointedness of the scenes a little off-putting. It reminded me of Yukikaze, in which nearly every scene feels like it’s ending in the wrong place, or is a little out of sequence – and this became quite an effective tool for unsettling me. I’m not sure it worked as well in Kaiba, but it didn’t ruin the show, or anything, and I think it’s probably a progression from the way the previous episodes worked rather than a break.