Humanity Without Limitations

Anime provides artists with a vibrant medium to explore the depth of the human experience. Without the physical and cost constraints of live actors, animators are able to tell deeper stories that look forward into our future as a race. A common theme in anime is the exploration of the fusion of human and machine components. Sometimes as pilots of advanced robotic suits, sometimes as cyborgs that have had much of their humanity replaced by artificial organs, these characters are very effective exploring the future of humanity in light of modern and near future technologies become more pervasive in life. Anime such as Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis specifically uses cyborgs as agents to explore the loss of morality that comes of humans breaching their physical and moral boundaries with the limitless power of technology.

Metropolis follows the interactions of cyborgs with humanity in a futuristic setting but makes a very relevant argument to civilization today; morality originates from the boundaries and limitations and technology breaching those boundaries threatens our core concept of humanity. In Metropolis the characters who demonstrate the highest moral behavior are those who have the greatest limitations upon them. The human antagonists have many rights and can move freely about the city but are shown to be petty and cruel with fewer boundaries imposed on their behavior. Meanwhile the robotic servants who can be killed if found outside their assigned sector display a great deal of empathy and kindness to those around them. When the two main protagonists fall down a drain, they are rescued by a garbage cleaning robot named Fifi who shows great compassion and brings them water and food after finding them unconscious. Fifi goes on to risk himself by hiding Tima and Kenichi from the human hunting them. The irony is that Fifi is can only speak in squeaks and whistles, and possesses only a vaguely human likeness but behaves in a manner that we could consider the most human of any character in the film.

Tezuka makes an argument in this contrast that, technology by itself is not evil, but morality comes from external pressures that encourage good behavior. Technology allows humans to bypass or breach boundaries that have previously kept morality and ethics relevant. As such technology needs to be treated with respect. Without consequences for immorality, humanity quickly descends into a Machiavellian state. As a counterpoint to the robot Fifi, the cyborg Tima breaches the boundaries on her capabilities when connected to the Ziggurat. She loses her moral center as a result of having the boundaries between desire and power breached and acts to exterminate humanity in revenge for the cruelty she has observed in the humans she has met and announces, “this is your punishment for toying with robots” (“Metropolis”).

The heart of Tezuka's exploration of the consequences of breaching humanity's boundaries with technology comes just moments before the film's climax when the robot Perro confronts an angry mob and inquires why humans must always resort to violence to solve issues. The human responds that emotions are always at war within humans and they have no choice but to move forward, seeking peace through destruction (“Metropolis”). This argument is underscored by the human promptly shooting Perro and moving on as part of a mob destroying the city. Without any externally imposed restrictions, human emotions are able to run unchecked and destroy everything in their path. Using robots as the characters with the moral high ground and cyborgs as overly power and dangerous helps Tezuka show the need for certain boundaries on access to technology to allow humans to grow and evolve with technology while keeping their inherent destructive tendencies in check.

While the main character, Tima becomes a destructive force at the end of the movie, this results only as she breaches the boundaries between her initial perception of herself as human and the computer mainframe of the Ziggurat. While the situation is futuristic, it is analogous to the question of any modern use of technology in present day and what loss of humanity may arise from the boundaries of accepted norms of ethics and behavior. Questioning the wisdom of allowing a single entity access to unlimited computing power in a futuristic weapon is not dissimilar from the question of whether humanity has become better or worse for the internet, for smart phones, for Google Glass and other technologies that become more pervasive in the human experience all the time. A human with a smartphone and an internet connection is really not far removed in principle from a human with an artificially enhanced and networked brain.

Tezuka's argument is actually rather straightforward and very relevant as a cautionary tale for the modern day. The robots of Metropolis act in a moral way and humans with limits often do as well. It is only when humans become cyborgs – having more power than they have maturity to wield responsibly does humanity's inherent destructive tendency get unleashed. By allowing the development of technology alongside humanity and not breaching those boundaries, humanity can continue to enjoy ever increasing technology without it becoming a tool capable of destroying humanity. Tezuka makes good use of anime as a medium to show the audience this simple lesson using cyborgs as the archetype for the ultimate fusion between humanity and technology where all boundaries between the two have been breached and the embodiment of the resulting destruction.

Work Cited

Metropolis. Dir. Rintaru. Tezuka Productions, 2001. Film.