Just a fast few thoughts on Avalon. Most have been already said, but I wonder whether Oshii is familiar with works of Stanislaw Lem? I mean Oshii said he knows at least Wajda’s movies, so maybe also Lem’s work, they were translated into Japanese, I think – and he is old enough to remember them…
In few Lem’s works there is an expression of strong Lem’s belief, that once you get into VR [Lem didn’t use the term VR directly], you can never return – since the “returning” can be also part of VR. Once you log in, you can never log off, so to speak. So Ash may live in VR all the time – and she in fact has no hope of ever returning to real life…