After my first viewing of ‘The Ghost in the Shell’, I was left with interesting and provoking trains of thought —a.k.a epiphanies—in relation to the development of gender and sexual identity in a high-tech world. This inspired me to delve further into these issues.

Considering Anime is a traditionally Japanese art form and genre, I personally found it interesting how the text represented Motoko as the lead and hero of the film — something which I believe is heavily under-represented in film industries — because I have always thought the Japanese society is more conservative. I naturally assumed men would be portrayed as the heroes and females as the damsels in distress. Yet the film appears to subvert the power dynamics inherent in dominant structures of gender and sexual difference. Motoko is represented as a fragmented female subject embodied with stereoptyical  male characteristics of strength and bravery, which allows…