Do you know about the anime directed by Masamune Shirow himself?

Lately, I've been into watching old OVAs.
While digging through a few, I found an anime titled “Directed by Masamune Shirow”.
That would be “Black Magic M-66”.
It's quite old, being a 1987 production, but it's also said to be Shirow-sensei's debut work as a manga artist.
I watched it without much expectation, and I was shocked at how surprisingly interesting it was!

Wait, did Shirow-sensei also have talent as an anime director?
I thought that, but it seems he drew storyboards for the first time by trial and error.
The production staff included
・Hiroyuki Kitakubo ⇒ Director of “BLOOD”, “Roujin Z”, etc. ・Hiroyuki Okiura ⇒ Director of “Jin-Roh” ・Kazuchika Kise ⇒ Chief Director of “Ghost in the Shell: ARISE” ・Keiichi Sato ⇒ Director of “TIGER & BUNNY”, “Karas”, “Inuyashiki”, etc.

and Shirow-sensei has said, “Kitakubo-san did almost all of the directing.”
Still, that's a luxurious lineup.For some reason, there are many members of the “Oshii Group,” but they shouldn't have met Mamoru Oshii yet at this time.
Even Shirow-sensei probably couldn't have imagined that Kise-san and Okiura-san would go on to be animation directors for “Ghost in the Shell”.

This “Black Magic” doesn't have as much of a cyberpunk feel as “Ghost in the Shell”.
It's more purely military, and the story is simply about stopping a runaway android.
However, this android is incredibly strong, and the animation of its action is truly wonderful.
That part is reminiscent of the later “Ghost in the Shell”, “BLOOD”, and “Jin-Roh”.
Since it's a minor work, I think many people haven't seen it, but please give it a watch.
I think you can easily find it if you search for “BLACKMAGIC OVA” online.

Also, besides that, there is another OVA by Shirow-sensei called “Dominion,” which I think is more famous than “Black Magic,” but I hadn't seen it until now, so I watched it.

The heroine is a tank driver, a spirited girl who cherishes her beloved vehicle like her own child.
The way she cherishes her vehicle reminds me of the “Patlabor” heroine Noa, and I even wondered if “Dominion” was the source material for “Patlabor”.
This “Dominion” has an '88 version and a '93 version, which is a bit confusing, or perhaps these two aren't connected.
In the '93 version, Dai Nippon Giken, the parent company of “Poseidon” familiar from “Ghost in the Shell” and “Appleseed,” appears as the antagonist.
This might be the missing link connecting this world line, or “Ghost in the Shell” and “Appleseed”.
In the work, the year “2016” was specified, so it seems to be a story before “Ghost in the Shell”.
And in the '88 version, the atmosphere is polluted, and the public is in an environment where they cannot go out without wearing masks(this is not the case in the '93 version).
That's amazing.
Isn't it a terrifying work that perfectly predicted the worrisome future where everyone in the country would have to wear masks during the modern COVID-19 pandemic?As expected of Shirow-sensei.
Including the worldview of “Ghost in the Shell,” which predicted the arrival of a highly networked society and the chaos caused by cyber-terrorism, Shirow-sensei, who predicted all of this back in the 80s, is truly a god.

Now, assuming Shirow-sensei is a genius of future prediction, let's unravel the near-future simulation he predicted with “Appleseed,” the final destination of the Shirow series.

<The near future predicted by Masamune Shirow>

・With the arrival of a highly networked society, the cyberbrainization of humanity spreads, but at the same time, social chaos caused by hackers occurs, and ultimately, because this could not be overcome, cyberbrainization declines somewhat.

・World War III and IV break out, the world is devastated by the use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and most of humanity dies. ・Nanotechnology and biotechnology evolve rapidly to decontaminate the world after the war, and as a result, the cyborgization of humanity progresses, simultaneously leading to the birth of artificial life forms, the Bioroids.

・Friction arises between existing humanity and Bioroids, sometimes developing into armed conflicts.

・Artificial intelligence (the ultimate supercomputer) is introduced into politics, and while all phenomena can be calculated by that AI, a wise men's institution on the human side also exists to assist in decision-making.

・Due to the collapse of world order after the war (there were no winners in the war), the unit of the nation became a mere shell, and there are regions where multinational corporations became communities that replaced nations (ex: former Dai Nippon Giken ⇒ Poseidon).

The world line of “Appleseed” is in the 22nd century, and although it's a story about 100 years ahead of “Ghost in the Shell,” the cyberpunk color is actually thinner, and as far as I can see in “EX MACHINA,” cell phones have returned instead of cyberbrain calls.
I guess there were various troubles with cyberbrains over those 100 years...
“Ghost in the Shell” depicts well enough that it's dangerous if your own cyberbrain is hacked, and considering that danger, it's better not to do it, right?

“Real Drive” is set in almost the same era as “Ghost in the Shell” (was it 10-20 years later?), and the protagonist is a natural girl who is the only one in her school class who hasn't been cyberbrainized, and Shirow-sensei depicts this child quite favorably.
“Is it really that important to be convenient?” might be Shirow-sensei's fundamental philosophy.
On the other hand, this work depicts connecting to the net = connecting to the Earth Law (Gaia?), and this part is incredibly deep.
Also, what I think is amazing about the sensei's 22nd-century depiction is that he dares to depict that humanity stubbornly maintains and develops civilization even though the world collapsed after two world wars.
Rather, it's a depiction that nanotechnology and biotechnology evolved precisely because there was a war, and humanity is facing a new paradigm shift.

Now, from here on is completely my own opinion, but as I feel from watching various Shirow works, Shirow-sensei has 【the sophistication of the cyberbrain society = a paradigm shift where the Earth (Gaia) itself becomes a cerebrum】as an underlying idea, doesn't he?
This is a topic that also falls into the realm of brain science, but assuming that we individual humans are synapses and the net is neurons, try to imagine the overall picture of the sphere called Earth.
Those neurons are spread across the entire sphere, and a vast amount of information is constantly circulating at high speed without stopping every day.
Isn't this exactly the function of the cerebrum itself?
I think, if it was Gaia's own will that gave birth to life on the ground (we are like Gaia's cells, right?), what was its purpose? I think the cerebrumization of the Earthwas the final destination.
That is, the establishment of the Earth's (Gaia's) ego.
Come to think of it, a baby with an underdeveloped brain has no ego, but after a certain amount of time, people acquire an ego.
What if Gaia itself actually desires this kind of step up?

In “GHOST IN THE SHELL,” Motoko chose to become a life form fused with the net at the end, and similarly in “Real Drive,” Director Kushima chose to fuse himself with the vast net called “Earth Law,” and the story concluded.
Earth Law, that's probably Gaia, right?
So far so good, but 100 years after “Ghost in the Shell” and “Real Drive,” that Gaia is broken.
Why? Because humanity caused a world war.
Naturally, the net was severed, meaning the neurons of the cerebrum were cut, and it can be said that intelligence has been initialized.
That is the world line of “Appleseed”.
And even now, a dangerous faction that wants to annihilate Bioroids is lurking among humanity.
As long as humans are human, it seems they will inevitably repeat their mistakes.
On the other hand, since Bioroids are life forms with adjusted rationality, they don't seem to have as much destructive impulse as humanity.
In the first “Appleseed” film directed by Aramaki, there is a part where the wise men make the decision, “Humanity is finished. Let's hand over the world to the Bioroids.”(by the way, the wise men are humans, not Bioroids), and I feel that this cannot necessarily be said to be a mistake (although it was depicted as a foolish decision in the work).
By the way, “Appleseed” is still unfinished.
Let's look forward to seeing what kind of ending the genius Shirow-sensei will eventually provide.