Ghost In The Shell [DVD]

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There are plenty of half-baked (and fully baked) analyses of the deeper meanings behind this film (and its associated series, the Stand Alone Complex 1st and 2nd Gig/Solid State Society etc) that aren't really worth reprising. Suffice to say that the GitS milieu is a future world with national rivalries still going on while society itself is ever more merged by connected cybersystems and modified individuals capable of tapping into the big data that underpins society, all the while questioning what it means to be human to an ever greater degree. In amongst this there are individuals intent on everything from petty crime to grand criminal acts, who are unafraid to subvert and exploit systems and people (to the extent of "hacking" individuals) to pursue their schemes.A crack team of modified intelligence operatives is directed by a task force (Section 9, that perhaps occupies a similar space to MI6 but without the subtlety) to engage a criminal mastermind known as the Puppet Master, and this process eventually reaches a showdown in a deserted part of town.Part of the fun of the journey through the plot is all the tech that is used, from thermal masking to the cyber-implants grafted into the team themselves, as well as into the back-office staff who run operations in real-time (fabulous modified hands, etc). This all adds to a sense that tech really is taking over, and a lot of the team's more philosophical interludes focus on this tension between the biological/spiritual and the tech. Nevertheless it is all used to make progress in the investigations into hackings, killings, and betrayals.A key attraction of anime to me is the sense of observation that goes into the animation. The best anime will incorporate details that seem obvious but which are phenomenally easy to overlook if you were trying to recreate a cartoon scene for yourself (such as rain running along cables and dripping from the low points). The result is often deceptively simple scenes that feel real and which you feel you're inhabiting, and when the story stops itself for a moment and launches into a scene that re-immerses you into the city, or setting up for a key moment such as interception of a vehicle and setting up the snipers and road blocks, there's a tremendous sense of place. It takes a gutsy director to stop the action for a five-minute tour of a city (to some tremendous music by Kenji Kawaii) that is so utterly immersive that it creates a spell of its own, or to show the minutiae of establishing a road block and the teams moving into position. This is where I think GitS scores big - it sets convention aside and tells its story in its own distinctive style. If you get along with that style you'll be thrilled (you must like detail, and prepare to be confused for a while until things become clear), but it isn't for everybody.It is moderately "grown up" anime, and while it isn't especially cerebral along the lines of later anime productions, it does make some interesting concepts about human/machine integration come to life, as well as telling a rapid-fire story of espionage and intrigue as it goes.This film was given a mild makeover years later, to appear as  Ghost In The Shell 2.0 Redux [DVD ] which was a better buy since it contains not only the made-over movie, but this original version too. There have been some complaints about the transfer of the old movie in the Redux set, but my copy looked okay to me, with the (extremely minor) anime glitches showing up in both versions.Moving on to the second movie,  Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence [DVD ] is not such a great idea plot-wise. The animation is superb, as usual, but the plot is at once pointless and flat while in parts it is actually ludicrously overblown. For me, the best part of the GitS system of films and episodes (the Stand Alone Complex sets) is this very first movie, either in its original form or with the mild makeover.

This is one of the key anime films around (or at least one of the key ones released in the west), it's a classic sci-fi anime with lots of great action backed up with a complex but solid plot. It's very nice to see a film which is both intelligent and exciting. It is however, quite short for a full length film, which is understandable, this is often the case with animated films because of the amount of work which goes into them (and the work that went into this shows), but the pacing seems a bit odd to me whenever I watch it, for example, it seems to reach a climax too soon. This also leaves little room for characterisation, but then that isn't the real point of the story. What there is is a very complicated but incredibly intruiging plot which leaves you thinking long after you've seen it. I really wish there were more films like this but unfortunately they're a rarity.The film, I would say, is a must-watch, and most probably one you will want to watch again. But there is the problem, as mentioned before, of the DVD's sound being out of sync with the picture. I did notice this a lot through the film and I found it distracting, some people might not be bothered, you'll have to decide for yourself wether to get it on DVD or not. It didn't totally ruin the film for me, although I had seen it before on VHS. The extras are ok, it gives you the option of the sub or dub, I always prefer subs since the translation is usually more accurate but it's interesting to compare, which you can only really do on DVD. The making-of documentary is perhaps becoming out of date as far as the technological info but there's some interesting facts about the film. The ROM content isn't that interesting.I do hope a DVD without the sound syncing problem is available sometime, but I doubt that'll happen. If that won't get to you then I'd reccomend this.

OOOOGGGOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! (???????????????)!!!!!!!!!Okay, here it is you beast you.I got like, high standards right?I like my content entertaining and awesome and impactful and engaging right?So what are you waiting for? BUY IT nimrod.Conscious customer ey? I got what you need.ANIMATION - Have you ever seen that there water flow? Yh, it's like that, fluid. But nah, they must've had the animators working 25/8 without pay or something horrifying cause theses guys knocked it out of the park......and then the earth see?PLOT - PLOT! THERE IT IS! BADABING BABY! But nah, it's amazing. Don't expect to follow it perfectly, but expect to be engaged all through.CHARACTERS - But nah, they're amazing, nah really. The main is mysterious and interesting, something that most fail to acheive and the same can be said for the supporting characters, even the normal ones.ANIME - anime? ANIME BABY, YOU GOT IT!!If you love the 'classics', ya bebops, triguns, akira's and other ACTUAL anime, then this is so far up your street it might as well be a shotgun between yer eye-balls see?(Now if you like that stupid big-eye, short skirt, underage, moe-moe, turd s*** then stay away.)