Intl. Saiyuki Week - Nataku and Robots in Anime and Manga

[oyceter]

So I am crazy and decided I wanted to post something Saiyuki every day. I also finally caved and created a separate Memories category just for Saiyuki, since it looks like there will be much content on it.

I will also be posting non-Saiyuki content, I swear, for those of you completely bored by the manga talk and wondering what crack I'm now on.

Who's linking to all the Intl. Saiyuki Week posts? I know telophase and rachelmanija are (here and here)... anyone else? Links in comments incredibly welcome!

Spoilers for Gaiden up till vol. 2!

Anyhow, I remembered there was nifty comment thread in which I realized that I am quite probably the only person who saw Nataku in Gaiden and immediately thought, "Robot!"

Of course, instead of constructing a thorough and well-thought-out argument, I will instead do bullet points because I am tired.

1. Obvious Nataku is not a robot in the traditional sense, since he is flesh and blood, as was so gorily illustrated when he turned his own blade on himself. He's also the cross between god and youkai (I think...?), so again, flesh and blood. There's also the born in a vat of blood and being a squalling baby growing up imagery. So on one hand, he's very tied to blood and assorted other biological things related largely to death and... more blood.

2. On the other hand, in a Minekura drawing of Nataku with some of his robes off (get your mind out of the gutter!), the joints in his shoulder and elbow and wrist look extreme doll-like or robotic; they're not human, not flesh on bone. They look like mechanical joints. Also, when Minekura first mentions youkai-human cross-breeding in Saiyuki, there's an image of a flesh-and-blood human hand grasping a youkai hand dissolving into machinery. Um. Or it may be the opposite. I don't remember, but I'll check when I get home. Other youkai = machine imagery includes Kougaiji's mother bound up in some ginormous doomsday cryogenic thing with loads and loads of wires coming out (or in) her, a la CLAMP. So I figure it's a stretch, but you could probably connect this with Nataku being the forbidden union of god and youkai.

3. There's also the vast sci-fi anime tradition of robots and cyborgs and the definitions of self, identity and humanity. And by "vast," I mean the few somewhat seminal apocalyptic sci-fi anime that I've seen, and by "seminal," I mean seminal as defined by American scholarship on anime and my own personal experiences with the anime club. Namely (listed from oldest to most recent):

• Atom Boy/Tetsuwan Atomu (Osamu Tezuka), in which there is a robot boy created by someone, I think in memory of his dead son, and I would say more about this except I haven't seen it. So, in conclusion: robot! Possibly identity and human nature and people controlling robot boy as well?


• Ghost in the Shell, in which the cyborg heroine questions if she is real or not, given that someone created her, along with a Puppet Master overtaking all the cyborg minds (I think. It's been a while)


• Neon Genesis Evangelion, in which a character Rei is robotic and questions who she is, given that she is a clone. In keeping with tradition, Rei is a clone of her creator's dead wife. She is also a very efficient mecha pilot and thus, a killer


• X (manga by CLAMP), in which there is a robot/cyborg named Nataku, who was made to resemble his creator's dead son. Also a killer and rather emotionless at first, only to find human connection later on (this may be chronologically before Evangelion, but I think they're around the same time period


• Metropolis (written by Osamu Tezuka, directed by Rin Taro and screenplay by Otomo Katsuhiro), in which there is a robot girl created by someone to resemble his dead daughter. I think she ends up being a killing machine as well

There's probably more, but I don't watch much sci-fi anime. I could probably also throw in the Terminator movies and Blade Runner and the new Battlestar Galactica, except they aren't anime and I don't know how much it maps onto the genre of sci-fi robot anime questioning what it means to be human. Hrm, although I think the imagery is very similar, with the deceptive layer of human-looking flesh over robot parts or a robot brain.

4. I do realize that in general while anime talks about robots, it seems to be equivalent to "cyborg." Unfortunately, it's been so long since I've seen any of these that I don't know about the precise language used. The reviews for Metropolis all seem very adamant that the robot girl is indeed a robot though. Rei is also a clone and not a robot, but I just tossed her in because the image of her floating in a vat of liquid is very similar to that of the two Natakus and the opening sequence of Ghost in the Shell. The cloning thing in Evangelion is also very connected to machinery and the combination of machinery and flesh -- the Eva mechas are clones of angels (or Adam), only with mechanical armor slapped on top to control them. Rei's body parts are interchangeable, like a machine's, and she is similarly replacable. All the non-mecha robots that really question their identity that I know of look just like humans, and that seems to be the key differentiator. Otherwise, they're just mecha and there's no discussion of humanity or identity or memory or all that fun stuff. This all throws me back to the flesh/machine imagery of a human/youkai relationship and the flesh/machine imagery of Nataku being born out of a giant vat of liquid with wires everywhere (seemingly common imagery, see Ghost and X and Evangelion).

5. All these examples grow to be more human (I think) via human connections, particularly the ones who start out as killing machines (Rei, X-Nataku, Ghost-girl I think). Ergo, Nataku's friendship with Goku. While Goku is learning about friendship as well, I think the key part to theirs is that Goku is very human and very warm, while Nataku is somewhat confused about someone caring about him. And, of course, there's the whole killing machine aspect in being Toushin Taishi, along with emotional deadness and a creator that ends up using him instead of parenting him.

6. Holes in the argument include: why robot? Obviously doll imagery or even cyborg imagery (if one argues cyborgs aren't robots) works as well, as does the imagery of golems and puppets. This is particularly true when there isn't anything overtly mechanical in nature about Nataku. I have no idea why I associate the particular theme of questioning what makes people human and how people become more human and learn to feel with robots, but I do. Also, there seems to be something with the whole wire and vats of liquid that just scream "robot" to me. Odd.

Also: what of Goku? He's itan like Nataku, but he's Nataku's opposite in that he's sunny and bright and welcoming with a killer hidden inside. And it's quite clear that his killer side isn't mechanical; despite the youkai-human interbreeding being pictures as machine/flesh, I'd argue that Hakkai, Gojyo and Goku are very much of the flesh and there's none of that wire imagery and giant vat of liquid imagery that there is elsewhere.

In conclusion, I should watch more robot anime.

Except I don't really want to.

Comments

[seajules]

Really, I think the best term for Nataku is construct. He's Frankenstein's monster, in a way, and what is Frankenstein's monster? Not a robot, not a clone, not a golem in the traditional sense. Not really a doll, with the implication of lifelessness, and not really a puppet, though that's the term Nataku himself uses, if I remember right.

Goku's also arguably a construct, but not one born of science. Goku is the child of the earth, and that seems to be literal. He sprang up on the mountain and from the mountain (maybe even in reaction to Nataku's creation? He's a character of balance, in a lot of ways), and was captured and brought to Heaven. And I just diverted myself once again with the question of why, when he didn't seem to be any threat to Heaven where he was, except of course that I have theories as to why and they're not germane to this discussion. *G* Anyway, I think Goku and Nataku are meant to serve as opposites in terms of imagery, right down to their guardian figures, and that could be another reason you connect Nataku with robot, because Goku is so darn organic.

I need a Gaiden icon for this LJ. Oh, well.

::uses what she has::

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I think Goku's not a construct because Goku *isn't* constructed--he's not less natural than other creatures, like Nataku, he's *more* natural, seemingly the automatic child of Earth and lightning. And this is related to the way in which his murderous self seems more bestial and less coldly controlled than Nataku's, too.

[seajules]

The materials may be natural, and the creator Nature, but Goku was apparently no more born than Nataku was, which is what I meant by calling him a construct. I agree it's not quite the right term, but I can't currently think of one more suitable.

[oyceter]

I think I tend to see Goku more as a force of nature. I can't quite remember what Gaiden says, but I'm pretty sure it does use the term "born," so while it's out of rock, it's still situated on the natural side of things.

Or I'm remembering wrong and that's Monkey from Journey to the West.

Anyhoo, it feels like while there's this great emphasis on Nataku being created by someone else, Goku sort of springs into life full-formed.

[seajules]

Gaiden says he was born from a rock, but I tend to interpret it as much like Nataku being born from a vat. I'm not saying Goku's unnatural in any way, just that he seems to be set up as the natural equivalent of Nataku, including an...odd mode of creation.