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Ghost in the Shell (Dub) Status: COMPLETE
Movie
I thought it was about time that I revisited the old 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie which cemented it's name into anime for ages to come and see if it still holds up.
Actually... that's a lie.
The truth is I haven't seen this movie in many years and the only two times I can ever recall watching it I remember being very bored by it and not really getting into the story.
This time I'm reengaging Ghost in the Shell with a much more matured critical perspective and I'm deadset on trying to divine whatever meaning there is to be had from this movie with my fingers crossed that it won't be a whole lot of the same navel-gazing dialog we got out of Ghost in the Shell 2.
Was it a success?
Well without going overboard I'm going to give that a "hell yeah".
Movie
I thought it was about time that I revisited the old 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie which cemented it's name into anime for ages to come and see if it still holds up.
Actually... that's a lie.
The truth is I haven't seen this movie in many years and the only two times I can ever recall watching it I remember being very bored by it and not really getting into the story.
This time I'm reengaging Ghost in the Shell with a much more matured critical perspective and I'm deadset on trying to divine whatever meaning there is to be had from this movie with my fingers crossed that it won't be a whole lot of the same navel-gazing dialog we got out of Ghost in the Shell 2.
Was it a success?
Well without going overboard I'm going to give that a "hell yeah".
Ghost in the Shell is THE staple example of cyberpunk in anime with it's only competition probably being Akira.
All of the backgrounds are well detailed and heads up displays offer us a realistic if retrofuture impression of what computer monitors might have provided for us if modern technology took root in the 90s.
All of the core cyberpunk themes are present: new information technologies, corporate warfare, cybernetics, and even a Neotokyo-esque city. All of it is richly detailed and even if we never get that pleasant coalescence of complicated machinery like we get in Appleseed, it's still a very real setting with a lot of attention paid to the small things that keep it that way.
We learn that our main characters, Matoko, Batou, and Kosuka, under the leadership of "Chief", helm a government police department known as Section 9. This is Ghost in the Shell 101 though, and I'd be surprised if anyone watching this actually remembered everyone's name by the end of the movie since there are numerous characters that get sidelined such as the techie who does research for Chief, whatever either of those characters' names are.
Batou and Kosuka are their usual selves and while I'm disappointed that Batou isn't as humorous as he appears in other incarnations, he still sounds natural, unlike Matoko Kusanagi who's voiced by a different voice actress than nearly every other incarnation of her.
Matoko as voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn comes across a exceptionally mature and well spoken, but Mimi Woods, who plays her in this movie sounds considerably younger and at times awkwardly at odds with the character she plays.
Matoko's a strange female character as far as anime is concerned.
She's virtually without personality unlike Batou, and even though she demonstrates a hobby here or a personal perspective there, she's largely emotionless. This is delivered hand in hand with LOADS of full frontal nudity all throughout the movie. We're presented the fact that Matoko is a top-of-the-line cyborg with the ability to cloak herself completely if she goes butt-naked.
Okay, so maybe her skin is the only thing that can cloak? NO, because she doesn't need to take off her boots or holster, does she?
Furthermore we see other characters just wearing LITERAL CLOAKS that turn them invisible, so what the hell? Awful convenient that the only character that can turn invisible on the team is the only woman there and she needs to strip her clothes off to do it, huh?
I'd be inclined to rip into this more than I am, but it's evident of the sorry state of anime when Ghost in the Shell even in this pretty blatantly shallow form comes off as the the friggen' Venus de Milo in comparison to most anime.
Matoko has pretty average breasts, there's never a single sexual comment made in regards to anything about her, and she can be way badass.
Why is THIS the exception today?
Why do most "serious" anime succumb to THIS!?:
All of the backgrounds are well detailed and heads up displays offer us a realistic if retrofuture impression of what computer monitors might have provided for us if modern technology took root in the 90s.
All of the core cyberpunk themes are present: new information technologies, corporate warfare, cybernetics, and even a Neotokyo-esque city. All of it is richly detailed and even if we never get that pleasant coalescence of complicated machinery like we get in Appleseed, it's still a very real setting with a lot of attention paid to the small things that keep it that way.
We learn that our main characters, Matoko, Batou, and Kosuka, under the leadership of "Chief", helm a government police department known as Section 9. This is Ghost in the Shell 101 though, and I'd be surprised if anyone watching this actually remembered everyone's name by the end of the movie since there are numerous characters that get sidelined such as the techie who does research for Chief, whatever either of those characters' names are.
Batou and Kosuka are their usual selves and while I'm disappointed that Batou isn't as humorous as he appears in other incarnations, he still sounds natural, unlike Matoko Kusanagi who's voiced by a different voice actress than nearly every other incarnation of her.
Matoko as voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn comes across a exceptionally mature and well spoken, but Mimi Woods, who plays her in this movie sounds considerably younger and at times awkwardly at odds with the character she plays.
She's virtually without personality unlike Batou, and even though she demonstrates a hobby here or a personal perspective there, she's largely emotionless. This is delivered hand in hand with LOADS of full frontal nudity all throughout the movie. We're presented the fact that Matoko is a top-of-the-line cyborg with the ability to cloak herself completely if she goes butt-naked.
Okay, so maybe her skin is the only thing that can cloak? NO, because she doesn't need to take off her boots or holster, does she?
Furthermore we see other characters just wearing LITERAL CLOAKS that turn them invisible, so what the hell? Awful convenient that the only character that can turn invisible on the team is the only woman there and she needs to strip her clothes off to do it, huh?
I'd be inclined to rip into this more than I am, but it's evident of the sorry state of anime when Ghost in the Shell even in this pretty blatantly shallow form comes off as the the friggen' Venus de Milo in comparison to most anime.
Matoko has pretty average breasts, there's never a single sexual comment made in regards to anything about her, and she can be way badass.
Why is THIS the exception today?
Why do most "serious" anime succumb to THIS!?:
IT'S FRIGGEN' STUPID!
And it's bizarrely refreshing to have nudity in an anime for once that nobody gives a **** about.
The nudity at least serves the barest of purposes (pun not intended) of at least emphasizing a transhumanist angle to the movie.
Just like in GitS 2 we get an elaborate opening credit montage of a cyborg getting made, but unlike GitS 2 it isn't in CG and it's actually related to what's going on, it's the Major (Matoko) dreaming about her manufacturing process.
But enough about the characters, let's talk about the biggest knot in any Ghost in the Shell story... the actual story.
Surprisingly easy to follow!
We get only one scene where Matoko and Batou go on a philosophical tangent and one theme, that of "overspecialize and you breed in weakness", gets foreshadowed and eventually exercised subtly.
This is a LOT more effective at getting any sort of point across than anything GitS 2 attempted, however it does at times suffer from regular flat exposition which immediately starts to drain my patience as soon as I notice it.
The biggest problem here is not what's being said, but how the information is being conveyed. We're simply being told about relationships between people and organizations we've hardly any orientation towards.
It's one thing to convey to us that a garbage truck driver's e-brain has been hacked to make him believe he has a wife and child as an excuse to rationalize hacking into private networks by SHOWING IT.
It's another to have the Chief just sit there with his head in his hands and talk about Section 6 and their involvement with corporate executives at MegaTech and how they all tie into some scandal involving a foreign diplomat's interpreter and *YAAAWWWNNNN*
*SNOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRREEE*
And it's bizarrely refreshing to have nudity in an anime for once that nobody gives a **** about.
The nudity at least serves the barest of purposes (pun not intended) of at least emphasizing a transhumanist angle to the movie.
Just like in GitS 2 we get an elaborate opening credit montage of a cyborg getting made, but unlike GitS 2 it isn't in CG and it's actually related to what's going on, it's the Major (Matoko) dreaming about her manufacturing process.
But enough about the characters, let's talk about the biggest knot in any Ghost in the Shell story... the actual story.
Surprisingly easy to follow!
We get only one scene where Matoko and Batou go on a philosophical tangent and one theme, that of "overspecialize and you breed in weakness", gets foreshadowed and eventually exercised subtly.
This is a LOT more effective at getting any sort of point across than anything GitS 2 attempted, however it does at times suffer from regular flat exposition which immediately starts to drain my patience as soon as I notice it.
The biggest problem here is not what's being said, but how the information is being conveyed. We're simply being told about relationships between people and organizations we've hardly any orientation towards.
It's one thing to convey to us that a garbage truck driver's e-brain has been hacked to make him believe he has a wife and child as an excuse to rationalize hacking into private networks by SHOWING IT.
It's another to have the Chief just sit there with his head in his hands and talk about Section 6 and their involvement with corporate executives at MegaTech and how they all tie into some scandal involving a foreign diplomat's interpreter and *YAAAWWWNNNN*
*SNOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRREEE*
If you can pay attention, it's not terribly hard to follow, but if you begin to tune out at the first sign of exposition you're going to have a rough time with this one.
Ultimately the plot transitions from a crime thriller with an emphasis on cybernetic transhumanism into a full-on assessment of sentient AI. The plot beats are interesting and the AI by the name of "The Puppeteer" has a very pleasingly deep English voice actor.
The action is very good too with no small amount of credit going to the BLOODY FANTASTIC animation quality.
For 1995, this is was really hitting the ball out of the park.
Ultimately the plot transitions from a crime thriller with an emphasis on cybernetic transhumanism into a full-on assessment of sentient AI. The plot beats are interesting and the AI by the name of "The Puppeteer" has a very pleasingly deep English voice actor.
The action is very good too with no small amount of credit going to the BLOODY FANTASTIC animation quality.
For 1995, this is was really hitting the ball out of the park.
I'd like to wrap up this review with a brief tangent relating to this point:
The animation is great. No question. So why change it?
I could point to all sorts of ways that GitS 2 managed to screw up as a sequel to GitS 1, not the least of which in it's visual aesthetic, but I'm talking about something more malicious than Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence... I'm talking about this thing I see about a "Ghost in the Shell 2.0".
Pardon my language, but
Why is obvious, jarring, and less visually appealing CG replacing perfectly exceptional cel animation? And why has all the realistic lighting been traded out for a piss-yellow filter and loads of BLOOM!?
This is more insulting than the Star Wars special editions.
I'm going to leave you with this VG Cats comic. Nothing more needs to be said.
The animation is great. No question. So why change it?
I could point to all sorts of ways that GitS 2 managed to screw up as a sequel to GitS 1, not the least of which in it's visual aesthetic, but I'm talking about something more malicious than Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence... I'm talking about this thing I see about a "Ghost in the Shell 2.0".
Pardon my language, but
WHAT THE **** IS THIS???
Why is obvious, jarring, and less visually appealing CG replacing perfectly exceptional cel animation? And why has all the realistic lighting been traded out for a piss-yellow filter and loads of BLOOM!?
This is more insulting than the Star Wars special editions.
I'm going to leave you with this VG Cats comic. Nothing more needs to be said.
Final Verdict: [Friggen' Awesome][Pretty Good][Meh...][Just... Bad][Irredeemably Awful]