In this paper I demonstrate how an ontological perspective variously informed by Spinozan and Deleuzian philosophy and the (Shinto-influenced) work of Japanese artists Masamune Shirow and Mamoru Oshii offers an approach to landscape which decenters human position(s) and allows an exploration of landscape on its own terms. Through an empirical exploration of this approach, I analyze the animated Japanese science fiction film Ghost in the Shell (1998 [1995]), and discuss how its imagery, ideas, and philosophies can elucidate and aid in an understanding of landscape, not as a separate or passive entity but as a relational living and endeavoring thing.
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