Hey all, I know you all might be a little confused here seeing something called Ghost Divers in your feed when you were expecting another episode of hit Pokémon podcast Glyph Catchers, but, well… I’ll let you just listen to the episode to see why we decided to change the podcast. I hope you all will join us on this new adventure.

Anyway, we watched Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and talked about such topics as how to pronounce Unown; the Seel and Spheal evolutionary lines; Ghost-type Pokémon; the animation style of Innocence and how it relates to thematic elements of the narrative; PS2 graphics and Digital Devil Saga; the intentional imperfections and ugliness of the character designs; the influence of Noh theater on Ghost in the Shell; the location of the ghost and modes of embodiment; the mind/body duality and the alienation of the self from the self; the dichotomy of dolls and gods as the only perfect means of existence, and how the movie complicates this idea; beauty and ugliness and the aesthetics of wabi-sabi; the interrelation between dolls, pets, and children; the role of the Major in this film; and more!

Next time, we will be back to discuss Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd Gig with episodes 1–6!

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!

Works Cited in this Discussion

Fūshikaden (A Mirror of the Flower / The Transmission of the Flower Through the Forms) by Zeami Motokiyo

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Sex trafficking
Child sexual abuse
Dolls and corpses
Cannibalism
Body horror
Trapped in bodies

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

Glyph Catchers are back with a brand new podcast, Dumpster Divers! We’re watching bad movies and just really razzing on them, you know? Just really kickin the snot out of them. Just totally sticking our tongues out all like “Pllrrbbbttttt!” as we really take the piss out of these real stinker movies. These real garbage can, dumbo, no good movies. We love to devote hours and hours of our lives watching movies we hate and making fun of them for you to laugh at, because you also hate the movies too. We are bonded in our shared desire to just dislike everything.

This is justice. This is what we were built for. Criticism doesn't define us. What we hate defines us. We know who we are and what we're here to do. And that's to really pants Ghost in the Shell (2017) and give it a swirly for April Fool's Day.

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Alcohol
Racism & orientalism
Sexism & brief discussion of sexualized violence

Sorry to people who really hate April Fool's Day. The actual episode will be out at the regularly scheduled time, we just decided to try doing an episode on the 2017 movie, but wanted to mostly keep it secret in case we did it and ended up hating the result. 2nd Gig starting on April 1st ended up just being a perfect excuse to do this.

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

It’s here! It’s time! We’re watching through Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd Gig. We know that Niamh doesn’t like is as much as the first season, but will Connor agree? Only time well tell…

In this episode, we discuss topics such as how 2nd Gig differs structurally from the first season of Stand Alone Complex; the explicit inclusion of politics into the story; discontinuity and homage in 2nd Gig; the handling of sexuality and sexism; the significance of names; Noh theatre; the historicity of 2nd Gig’s Japan; and more!

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Violence
Cyberbrain hacking / possession
Depictions of sex work
Sexism, misogyny, and sexual harassment
Disability and disformity
Anti-immigrant and anti-refugee politics

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

Hey all. Just as a general note, it is very hard for Niamh to talk about episode 11 without spoiling some minor and vague details about how this relates to later episodes, so if you are especially spoiler shy, just be aware of that going in.

We talk through a wide variety of topics, including some of the political maneuverings in 2nd Gig; the importance of names and faces in the show; the monstrous body and anti-cyberization; Gōda’s ideology, psychology, and political goals as we understand it so far; anti-cyberization as an oppression metaphor; notions of justice in Stand Alone Complex; Niamh’s objections to the episode “Grass Labyrinth — AFFECTION” and how it illustrates what fae feels is a fundamental misunderstanding and disjointing of the Major as a character in the series more broadly; questions about how individuals relate to collectives, how individuals relate to individuals, and how collectives relate to collectives; and a little more about Noh theater.

You can see the Tarot spread from the post-ED section here: https://twitter.com/ghostdiverspod/status/1477663533164896258

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!

Works Cited in this Discussion

The Ghost in the Machine by Arthur Koestler

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Dental trauma and removal
Bomb implanted in body
Racism, xenophobia, and other forms of discrimination
Suicide
Identity theft including a doppelgänger
Autogynephilia & transphobia
Alcohol talk at the very very end of the post-ED section

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

This week on the podcast, 2nd Gig has started to try to bring in more of the case-of-the-week format, but some of the skill and magic of the first season is gone.

We dig into the incongruence of the few case-of-the-week episodes; 2nd Gig’s growing fascination with creating backstories for characters; the geopolitical allegory of 2nd Gig and specifically Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and its connection to Japanese nationalism and fascism; the show finally developing the Tachikoma some more; podcasting is synchronizing your consciousnesses; the quality of the animation in 2nd Gig; more backstory on Kuze and how it relates to Noh theater and themes around death; Koestler’s theories in The Ghost in the Machine; the difficulties and problems of even the good-faith reading of what happens between the Major and the boy Chai; Niamh’s apparently inexplicable love of 2nd Gig’s Wings of Desire episode; themes around the failures of heroism and leadership, and the beginning of the end…

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile
(Oh I did kill GarfReadAloud shortly after this, sowwy)

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!

Works Cited in this Discussion

The Ghost in the Machine by Arthur Koestler

“The Major’s Body (10): Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig” by Claire Napier (full series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Sexual harassment, abuse, and rape
Pedophilia and child sexual abuse
Sex, sexuality, and sexism
Body hacking & possession
Food & alcohol

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

In order to save this podcast from going for 4 hours, Connor and Niamh had to crash the satellite that our old Audacity files are stored on into a nuke, but it’s okay, we don’t need them anymore anyway.

Before our heroic, fiery death in the sky, we talk about things like Kuze (and not Elon Musk) as a great man of history; the incoherence and failure of the narrative structure of 2nd Gig as demonstrated by its complete disinterest in exploring what a bioroid even is; how 2nd Gig does try to explore some of the themes of the death around the Puppetmaster but as an inversion, and how this draws on the themes of ashura Noh; how 2nd Gig fumbles a lot of these themes, especially around the character of the Major; the concept of virginity as it is clumsily deployed in the show; the conclusion of the political aspects of 2nd Gig; the imagery of the cherry blossoms used in the final scenes; our plans to eventually cover all of Ghost in the Shell; a digression into NANA; and some final thoughts on how political theory and ideology is handled in the show.

By the way, if you are interested in NANA, Niamh will be back next week with a bonus episode featuring Em of Abnormal Mapping where we dig into the manga! You can also check out their guest appearance on Ornate Stairwells mentioned in the post-ED section here: https://ornate-stairwells.pinecast.co/episode/317edfc9/cure

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!

Works Cited in this Discussion

“The Major’s Body (10): Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig” by Claire Napier (full series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Brief discussion of COVID
Death & suicide
Sex, sexuality, virginity, and rape
Misogyny and sexism
Alcohol & food

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

Niamh decided to have on friend of the pod Em Marko to talk a little about the NANA manga, since we both recently read through all of it!

I'm also considering the first of what might be an ongoing series of bonus episodes where we talk a little about a manga series related to a show we've either done on the podcast or plan to do in the future!

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Em: @em_being
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Abnormal Mapping Network: abnormalmapping.com
Your Uncle's Beach House: www.abnormalmapping.com/beachhouse

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Abusive relationships
Compulsory heterosexuality

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

Just as a heads up: Connor’s connection was dropping out a bunch, especially at the beginning, and was a bit laggy as well. Niamh wasn’t trying to just talk over him so much!

We start off with a weird digression into looking into Sci-Fi Channel’s Ani-Mondays block and then getting a rant from Niamh about Chrono Cross Remaster. After that we get into topics like the Japanese political dynamics in the film; whatever the fuck Togusa is doing; parallels being drawn between Kusanagi, Kuze, and the Puppet Master with the final reveal of the Puppeteer; the failure of the neo-liberal imagination and the Major’s eternal cop brain; the failure of imagination in the breaking down of family structures in order to simply rebuild them as a reambulated corpse; reproductions of the state; the surveillance state; placing the movies and show in a chronology simply as a thought experiment.

Also, don't forget that we will be recording the Question Bucket soon. The deadline to write into our Question Bucket for this series is June 4, 2022. You can write into ghostdiverspod@gmail and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Brain hacking / possession
Suicide / forced suicide
Child abuse / forced child surgery
Manipulation of parental feelings
Elder abuse / poor quality elder care
Brainwashing / indoctrination
Racism, including ideas of a nationalist “pureblooded” race
Alcohol talk in the post-ED section

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

We’re here to talk about depressing work lunches and answer all your questions about our own Ghost in the Shell AUs, kissing and tucking, soft drinks, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, art, and NANA.

You can write into future Question Buckets at [email protected] and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Connor: @rabbleais
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells

Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Food, just a lot of food talk

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co

“Let me tell you how important it is to keep your mouth shut. Me, I’ve seen so many damn people going on and on about ‘these are the important themes in this show’ and “take these words with you on your commute”, and then that gives whoever they’re talking to an opening to get bored. Crazy, isn’t it? I see it all the time, in books, in plays, even on podcasts! I don’t even know why, but somehow the more comfortable someone is with podcasting, the more they flap their mouth when it comes time to do the deed, yakking on and on and on. As you might have guessed, I myself happen to be such a person!”

Dive into Baccano!

Also, for those of you watching along, this is a rare one where the dub often comes recommended over the subs, so feel free to try it out even if you're usually a subs person.

The Show: @ghostdiverspod
Niamh: @FoxmomNia
Niamh’s mediamh pile: @mediamh_pile
Connor: @rabbleais
John-Charles: @Sonic9jct

Export Audio Network: exportaud.io
Ghost Divers: exportaud.io/ghostdivers
Ornate Stairwells: exportaud.io/ornatestairwells
Yetee on Twitch: yetee.tv

Check out our official schedule at exportaud.io/divingschedule!

Release Schedule

[S8E1] Intro to Baccano!: June 24, 2022
[S8E2] Baccano!, eps. 1–8: July 8, 2022
[S8E3] Baccano!, eps. 9–16: July 22, 2022
[S8E4] Question Bucket: August 5, 2022

Content Warnings for the Anime

Violence
Blood, gore, and dismemberment
Torture
Violence and torture against a child
Guns, smoking, and alcohol
Horror violence
Demons
Suggestion of sexual assault (episode 7)

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co