Allusions and References
Innocence begins with a quotation from Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's Tomorrow's Eve (1886):
"If our Gods and our hopes are nothing but scientific phenomena, then let us admit it must be said that our love is scientific as well."
The movie is filled with references to fantasy, philosophy and Zen and addresses aesthetic and moral questions. The numerous quotations come from Buddha, Confucius, Descartes, the Old Testament, Saito Ryokuu, Richard Dawkins, Max Weber, Jacob Grimm, Plato, John Milton, Zeami, the Tridentine Mass, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam and La Mettrie, author of "Man a Machine" (1748).
The characters and character names contain many allusions to earlier works. For example, the "Hadaly" model robots refer to Tomorrow's Eve, the first book to use the word android, and which features a human-like robot named Hadaly. The police forensic specialist, Haraway, is most likely named for Donna Haraway, author of the Cyborg Manifesto. Haraway's character is most likely based on Susan Calvin from Asimov's Robot series. The Robot series is also referenced in that the androids in the movie comply with a modified version of Asimov's Third Law of Robotics.
Dolls are an important motif in Innocence; many beings have a "spirit" of some sort, but at the same time are not quite human. The female dolls are based on the art of Hans Bellmer, who is the pioneer of ball-jointed dolls. Bellmer's name briefly appears in one scene on a book cover. As Oshii comments, "They want to become fully human — but they can't. That dilemma becomes unbearable for them. The humans who made them are to blame. They try to make a doll that is as human as possible — but they don't think of the consequences." Even the human or partly human characters move in doll-like ways, grants Oshii. Oshii also planned an exhibition to commemorate the film. The exhibition showcased several Japanese artists' work of ball jointed dolls.
The parade sequence is based on a religious procession and a temple in Taiwan.
Read more about this topic: Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence