The Sky Crawlers represents the cause and effect relationship between intimacy/harm and then the isolation that results. Kildren that engage in intimacy expose themselves to the potential for harm. When harm is done, the kildren withdraw from one another, creating a sense of isolation within their community. By showing the inextricable relationship between these two entities, Oshii creates a direct understanding of the flaws of human intimacy, and how these flaws affect the way that the kildren react to one another. Overall, he reflects the idea that the kildren are not very unlike human beings of our world, therefore showing us the flaws of intimacy in not only The Sky Crawlers, but in society in general. By creating complex scenes and relationships in The Sky Crawlers, Mamoru Oshii represents the constant relation between intimacy and harm, and the withdrawal/isolation that occurs as an effect of it in order to show the problem of human intimacy in today’s society, as well as provoke the emotion towards change.
In the relationship between Suito Kusunagi and her daughter, Mizuki Kusunagi, Suito opens herself to the potential for harm by allowing her daughter a constant contact relationship. Mizuki, a normal human girl, can grow old and mature past her own mother. This difference reflects a constant strain and barrier between the two characters. Despite this barrier, Suito allows her daughter to come into contact with her and the kildren world, which Mizuki doesn’t fully understand yet. The constant variables in the two’s relationship represents the
potential for harm. For example, by allowing Mizuki free reign over the kildren’s world, Suito provides for herself a relentless reminder of the difference between kildren and normal humans, as in the still image of her talking to Yuichi. Suito’s self-loath stems from her relationship with her daughter, as well as the fears of what will happen in the future. Directly after the still, Suito says, “Because that kid will catch up to me fast. What will happen after that?” (The Sky Crawlers). The direct correlation between Suito’s self-loath and her concern for the future with her daughter represents the constant relation between intimacy and harm. As a member of the kildren, Suito has stopped aging past a certain point of childhood, which ultimately means that Mizuki will “catch up” to her own mother. Suito asks, “What will happen after that?” not because she seeks an answer, but rather, to emphasize the hopelessness of the situation. In her intimate relationship with Mizuki, harm, although only potentially seen in this scene, is inevitable. As in the still image of Mizuki and Suito holding
hands, Suito allows her daughter the physical touch that creates a bond between the two characters. Suito offers Mizuki her hand, an act that symbolizes Suito’s intimacy with her daughter. The scene represents the first time in the anime film that Suito not only offers her hand, but also allows a physical connection between her and someone else. She holds Mizuki’s hand as a way of protecting and guiding her, which shows Suito’s motherly instinct. The conflict that Suito feels between wanting to protect her daughter and her life as the commanding officer exposes her to the potential of harm because she can’t have both worlds. At some point, Mizuki will grow to be an adult, and begin to understand the peculiarity of her origins. Suito will not always be able to hide behind the label of “big sister,” and will suffer the consequences. By examining their relationship, Oshii suggests at the inextricable nature between intimacy and potential harm.
Oshii uses Suito’s drunken confusion in the scene of her in the car with Yuichi after they discuss the purpose of the kildren in order to show the constant relation between intimacy and potential harm. Sitting in the car with Yuichi, Suito clutches onto him in the belief that she could reenact the intimacy she had with Jinroh with his
reincarnation. This recreation of intimacy illustrates Suito’s vulnerability and potential towards harm. The still image captures two contrasting messages. As she holds Yuichi, she asks the question, “Or are you willing to kill me?” (The Sky Crawlers). Here, intimacy mixes with the idea of death, ultimately representing the constant relation between intimacy and potential harm. Suito clutches onto Yuichi because he embodies the intimacy that makes Suito’s life as a member of the kildren impossible to live. Life as one of the kildren means a life saturated by rules of constant fighting and war. Engaging in an intimate relationship with Yuichi means straying from the purpose of the kildren, and endangers Suito to the potential of harm. Suito’s question to Yuichi represents her desire to end the cycle of her life. Death means erasing the intimacy, and starting over again as a member of the kildren. Death, for Suito, represents a blank slate. As she struggles with Yuichi for the gun in the still image, Suito and Yuichi struggle over the idea of intimacy and potential harm. Staying alive means living with the consequences of their intimacy rather than dying and erasing her complicated life. Suito’s hand
interlaced with Yuichi’s represents the very thin line between intimacy and life/death. Through their struggle, Oshii suggests not only that intimacy is impossible without the potential of harm, but also perhaps that the cycle needs to undergo change in order to break the tie between intimacy and potential harm. He does not offer a clear-cut solution, but rather, offers thee idea of the constant relation between intimacy and potential harm in order to provoke the desire for change in the audience.
In addition to the relationship between intimacy and potential harm, Oshii emphasize the effect that intimacy/harm has through the withdrawal of the kildren from one another. By showing Suito’s withdrawal from Yuichi in the scene that they meet, Oshii illustrates the rules of withdrawal that the kildren live by in order to protect themselves from the potential harm of intimacy. As the commanding officer, Suito secludes herself from other kildren through staying in office. Often seen looking through a window, or hiding behind the sunlight of her big office chair, Suito embodies the symptoms of withdrawal. Behind the glass window of her office, Suito watches as Yuichi first arrives (still image). She traces the path that leads to Yuichi. Behind the glass window,
Suito separates herself from Yuichi. This separation represents the isolation that Suito subjects herself to in order to avoid the potential harm of intimacy. As she puts her finger on the glass, she shows her desire to be near him, yet the isolation that she faces by showing the gap between window and human touch. By acknowledging his presence, Oshii hints at the idea of recognition. Suito recognizes Yuichi as Jinroh, a former pilot that she had an intimate relationship with, but does not show this recognition to Yuichi when she meets him. As she beckons Yuichi to “come in,” Suito sits at her desk, looking small and aloof in her big chair. Without much eye
contact, Suito greets Yuichi, tells him where he’ll stay and when he’ll fly, and curtly says, “You are dismissed” (The Sky Crawlers). Suito withdraws herself from Yuichi because of the potentiality of harm. As a reincarnation of Jinroh, Suito has already suffered the painful consequences of intimacy between kildren, and withdraws herself from him in this scene. Her facial expression, sitting position, and office all represent the withdrawal of Suito from not only Yuichi, but also options of life outside of the rules of the kildren world. The sunlight of Suito’s office does not act to lighten up the room, but rather, acts to blind those who come into her office. Light cannot reach Suito behind her chair, which represents the loss of intimacy in her life. Intimacy can’t reach her because of her own withdrawal. Her lips create a straight line, without the possibility of emotion or room for possibility. Through her isolation, Oshii comments on the effect of intimacy and harm. He shows the constant relation between intimacy/harm and then isolation in order to represent the flaws of human relationships in the hopes of showing the audience the need for change through his anime film.
By relating Suito’s intimacy with the Teacher, the harm that she undergoes, and then the withdrawal from Yuichi upon learning about the spotting of the Teacher, Oshii shows the cause and effect relationship between intimacy/harm and isolation. Using Suito as a connecting point between the normal human world and the world of the kildren through the relationships that she has maintained, Oshii shows the withdrawal that occurs from the harm of intimacy. Although Suito decides to create an intimate relationship with Yuichi, when he tells her about spotting the teacher, Suito withdraws from him again. The still image represents Suito’s withdrawal by showing her ability to turn away from him, before the conversation can naturally end. Her withdrawal stems from the harm she felt in her intimacy with the Teacher. Suito’s hierarchal relationship with the teacher parallels the relationship between her and Yuichi. Through this parallel, Oshii shows how harm done from a prior intimacy can cause withdrawal in another. Using her authority as commanding officer, she says, “You can go” to Yuichi (The Sky Crawlers). Suito chooses to take her relationship to Yuichi as commanding officer over her intimate relationship because it gives her the power to isolate herself. By giving herself permission to withdraw herself from intimacy, Suito flies for the first time in the film in order to take down the Teacher. By choosing to fly, she disregards not only her intimate relationship with Yuichi, but the relationship she has with herself. Knowing
that shooting down the Teacher is an impossibility, Suito sets herself up for death, which represents the ultimate withdrawal from the world of the kildren. Oshii shows Suito’s disregard for her own life in order to parallel it with the pain of intimacy, which the sighting of the Teacher brings to the forefront of her mind. Suito, through her actions, show how she would give anything, even her life, in order to erase the harm done through intimacy. In her crash, Suito’s face shows the loss of hope in her situation. The still shows her hanging by her seatbelt, eyes closed, and head down. Alone in her crashed plane, Suito looks so small, and completely withdrawn from the world of the kildren. By showing Suito’s complete withdrawal, Oshii represents the cause and effect relationship between intimacy/harm, and the withdrawal that follows. By showing this relationship, he hints at the flaws of human intimacy in order to show how society has crept into a cyclical pattern of self-harm and isolation.
In Sigmund Freud’s “Civilization and Its Discontents,” the neurologist/theorist explains that man’s purpose towards life is to achieve happiness. He claims that humans “strive after happiness; they want to become happy and to remain so. This endeavour has two sides, a positive and a negative aim. It aims, on the one hand, at an absence of pain and unpleasure, and, on the other, at the experiencing of strong feelings of pleasure” (Freud 76). By limiting happiness to the “absence of pain and pleasure,” human beings are “restricted by our constitution” (Freud 77). By framing man’s purpose into a singular notion of happiness, Freud makes human possibility very narrow and more than likely unsuccessful. Of the pain that men may feel, Freud believes that the worst suffering comes from the relationships with fellow man. In order to avoid this, Freud suggests that, “the readiest safeguard is voluntary isolation, keeping oneself aloof from other people. The happiness which can be achieved along this path is, as we see, the happiness of quietness.” Although this represents one option, he also emphasizes that the “better path: that of becoming a member of the human community, and, with the help of a technique guided by science, going over to the attack against nature and subjecting her to the human will. Then one is working with all for the good of all” (Freud 77).
In regards to The Sky Crawlers, Oshii shows the pain of relationships between kildren (or man), but does not necessarily agree that the purpose of life to be happiness. By showing the complexity of the intimacies between Suito, her daughter, and Yuichi, happiness cannot change the world that they live in. The source of harm in intimacy for Suito comes from outside forces. For example, the potential harm of the intimacy between Suito and her daughter come from the fact that they live in two different societies. Mizuki will grow to be old, she can have a husband, produce memories that will stay with her for a lifetime, and then one day she will die. However, Suito can create memories, have a partner in her life, and yet lose all of that when he or she dies, only to be reminded of that pain yet again through the kildren’s reincarnation. Oshii does not believe that mere happiness is enough for the kildren. Their world forces them into isolation because of the never-ending process of intimacy and potential harm. Happiness is only fleeting for the kildren. For the cycle of intimacy, harm, and withdrawal to end, their world must change.
Oshii also does not agree that happiness can occur in the “quiet life” or through subjecting nature to science and “human will.” By withdrawing to the “quiet life,” kildren accept the rules of their world, rather than try to find a method towards change. However, subjecting nature to “human will” cannot be a solution either. The kildren’s world represents a world where nature is forced into human will, thus creating a society of people that must fight wars in order to sustain “peace.” Rather, Oshii believes that change, and human purpose, must come from a change within. Although he does not offer a solution, Oshii represents the problems of intimacy through the Suito Kusunagi’s relationships in order to show the pattern of intimacy, potential harm, and withdrawal. Thus, provoking some thought towards change.
In Lauren Berlant’s “Intimacy: A Special Issue,” the author represents intimacy as a way that humans perceive life. As society has changed through time, the expectations between “public and domestic” have changed (Berlant 284). She believes that, “intimacy seen in this spreading way does generate an aesthetic, an aesthetic of attachment, but no inevitable forms or are attached to it” (Berlant 285). Berlant believes that intimacy becomes a societal thing, no longer just belonging to an individual, but to the state. As people begin to feel different emotions and things towards intimacy, contrasting views forms, but people still seek for one aesthetic to express intimacy. She says, “These polar energies get played out in the intimate zones of every day life and can be recognized in psychoanalysis, yet mainly they are seen not as intimacy but as a danger to it” (Berlant 285). By representing intimacy as something that can vary, Berlant addresses the problem of intimacy by showing a different manner of looking at it. As a manner of living, “to rethink intimacy is to appraise how we have been and how we live and how we might imagine lives that make more sense than the ones so many are living” (Berlant 286). By addressing intimacy as a way of life, Berlant gives humans the opportunity to change their perspectives on intimacy. She says, “Intimacy was supposed to be about optimism remember? But it was also formed around the threats to the image of the world it seeks to sustain (Berlant 288).
In accordance with Berlant’s ideas on intimacy, Oshii would agree that intimacy represents a way of life, and that it is our duty to change it as the world continues to evolve. In The Sky Crawlers, Suito and the other kildren treat intimacy as something to fear rather than to embrace because intimacy also involves the potential of harm. By showing the cycle of intimacy, harm, and then withdrawal, Oshii shows the problematic way of how society runs itself. Berlant’s idea that intimacy represents optimism parallels with Oshii’s optimism that the kildren can change their lives for the better. Oshii believes that intimacy can change. Intimacy does not necessarily need to have just one face. Intimacy is an ever-changing entity that requires constant work and improvement by human beings. For example, Yuichi says, “You can choose which side of the road you walk on every single day. Even if the road is the same, you still see new things. Isn’t that enough to live for?” (The Sky Crawlers). By showing the cause and effect relationship between intimacy/potential harm with withdrawal/isolation, Oshii points out the problem with the system. However, he does not show this problem as an eternal one without the chance for change. “You can choose.”
In Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers, he creates the complex Suito Kusunagi and dwells in her intimate relationships, potential harm, and withdrawal in order to represent the problems of human intimacy in today’s society. By contrasting the differences between Suito, a member of the kildren, and her daughter, Mizuki, as a “real human,” Oshii shows how in the world of the kildren, intimacy cannot occur without the potential of harm. He reflects this by showing how Suito can never have the satisfaction of calling Mizuki her daughter formally because of the complexities of intimacy, and how their use of intimacy is somehow wrong. Oshii shows Suito’s intimacy with Yuichi, the harm she undergoes, and her withdrawal in order to emphasize the recurring cycle. Yuichi becomes the catalyst, representing Oshii’s hope towards change. By understanding Freud and Berlant’s stances on human intimacy, Oshii’s message can further be understood in contrast or in addition to their beliefs. Both Freud and Berlant help to illuminate the problem of intimacy. Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers illustrates the constant relation between intimacy and potential harm, and then withdrawal/isolation as an effect of the relation in order to demonstrate the problem of human intimacy with the potentiality of progress.
WORKS CITED
The Sky Crawlers. Dir. Mamoru Oshii. Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV), 2008. DVD.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. New York: J. Cape & H. Smith, 1930. Print.
Berlant, Lauren. "Intimacy: A Special Issue." Critical Inquiry 24 (1998): 281-88. JSTOR. Web. 1 June 2011.
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