Thoughts on Sky Crawlers as Social Critique

Readers that have watched the Sky Crawlers movie may be mildly curious about my response to the film’s thematic significance. Readers that haven’t watched the film are advised to stop here.

Coinciding with the official domestic home video release of the film, there’s been some recent pointed discussion of Mamoru Oshii’s Sky Crawlers as a critique of Japanese youth culture. Anime News Network’s review approaches the film as a criticism of the present day anime production industry. Ain’t It Cool News addresses the film as a criticism of the Japanese hikikomori phenomena. I’m not going to refute the validity of either interpretation. However, I do want to propose that if Mamoru Oshii wanted to make a political statement with his film, his effort isn’t especially successful.

It’s not difficult at all to perceive the killdren as representatives of Japanese youth ennui, but their position as stand-ins is also rather tenuous. The kildren aren’t naturally human; they’re artificially grown humans created for one exclusive purpose. Midori’s lengthy monologue clearly explains that the kildren’s psychology is different from that of typical human beings. Unlike contemporary Japanese NEETs, who have the ability to exert and become socially responsible, the kildren literally cannot function as “normal” humans. Any attempts to break out of their routine are doomed to failure.

“Teacher” doesn’t encourage the kildren to step outside of their insulated, routine lives. The only thing “Teacher” teaches is that attempts to challenge the established order result in death. And in the universe of Sky Crawlers, death only results in a forced return to the insular, unchanging routine. If Sky Crawlers is intended to be Oshii’s criticism of Japanese NEET culture, he offers no alternative. The picture proposes that those stuck in the NEET cycle cannot escape it. There’s no solution, just observation.

If the film is supposed to be a criticism of the redundancy and unoriginality of the contemporary anime industry, it also fails to make its point as effectively as it could. Much has been made of tourists visiting the air base, but the film offers no evidence that the endless war is perceived as entertainment. The gawking tourists are portrayed as frivolous yet still patriotic supporters rather than cultish fans. The status of the never-ending war is constantly in the media, but there’s no sports style tactical commentary nor any corporate advertiser exploitation. The battles within the movie aren’t depicted as an entertainment put on for the consumption of the civilian masses, therefore their symbolism as example of commercial anime isn’t convincing. Furthermore, the battles in the film never vary. One of them is bigger than usual, yet it ends in failure. So if this is Oshii’s perspective of the contemporary anime industry, again, he suggests no solution; no alternative.

I don’t dislike The Sky Crawlers. Its animation is superb, and many of its scenes are striking and memorable. But it doesn’t seem to be as effective a film as some of Oshii’s past works. Ghost in the Shell was a film about progression. The Puppetmaster evolved from servant to independent master. Kusanagi liberated her “ghost” from the confines of a physical body into a more expansive home. For a film that was initially described as Oshii’s attempt at creating a conventional love story, Innocence fares better at depicting a mutually supportive and understanding relationship than Sky Crawlers does. As a social criticism, Sky Crawlers points out problems, but doesn’t use its opportunities to encourage progress or solutions. On the contrary, Sky Crawlers proposes that Japan’s social introversion is irrepressible and irreversible. Even attempts at challenging the established routine are futile. Sky Crawlers doesn’t encourage change; it proposes that individually Japanese youth have no recognition of continuity and no hope of evolution. By extension, the anime industry evolves by a slow, painful process of building upon experience and not by sudden, inspired innovation.