The Ghost in the Shell
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| The atmosphere in this anime is only bolstered by the visual quality. The main characters have far more depth than you'd expect from a short film like this, and the action scenes are dynamic and smooth. The plot has an excess of geopolitical dialogue and mentions of Section 9 and 6 and so on, which gives you much to process in the short length of the film. Maybe some of the sequels will develop those agencies more. I didn't like that stupid tribal chant that played three seperate times though. Very ear-grating and unfitting of the setting. |
  ｲ乇刀乇乃尺ﾑ乇 ╔⏤═⏤╝   ╚⏤═⏤╗☽ Shaded Horizon ☾ |
| Finally watched this classic, and I'm disappointed. It's overrated. 4/10. Not bad, and clearly a fraction, not a full adaption of the manga apparently, but regardless... standalone, it was very boring. I don't know how better the manga is, but apparently it's "worse" for being comedic, even though it's a fuller story, but overall dense, while the rest of the interpretations of the other movies is also based on the manga by using its concepts. So, it seems like all of its iterations is based on a mediocre flawed manga with great ideas and concepts, but is somehow popular in attracting an audience. Based on this movie, I never learned what a "ghost" was, but basically, as far as I understood... The world is mainly "living" of cyborgs, with few humans, and mostly humans who transfered their brains either actual or neurotically to improved cyborgs. That's cool. Meanwhile there's forces doing potentially illegal things, while a random "ai" cyborg hacker who's taking control of cyborgs and hacking around for knowledge, kinda... but ultimately in the end of the film, it wants to be "real" by dying and creating offspring, by copying his data to the network. Throughout all of this is Major Makoto, a female cyborg, who's body is built in with camouflage, so she has to get naked to become invisible, sexy, but... fan-service. The character design of the females are big on the eyes, and her hairstyle is odd, so she's not exactly beautiful, but anyway. For whatever reason, she questions her existence, with somewhat intriguing monologs from a cyborg, wondering about her individuality and what makes her her, even though she has copies of herself. So the hacker ai likes that about her, and wants to merge with her, so he does. ... and that's pretty much it. The first event of the story is some illegal event, then it's Makoto and the others chasing a garbage man who's hacking, hacked himself with a false memory. Cool. To then realizing that this blonde female cyborg similar to Makoto's body gets hacked by the sentient ai hacker. To which it escapes, and then merges with Makoto... There's cool intriguing concepts but the events and lack of the rest of the story or any explanation to Makoto's origin or whatever makes this movie disappointing and boring. Overrated. I love the opening credits song though. That's the best. Otherwise, maybe the manga is in fact a little better... I'm not sure about the rest since all of them aren't exactly faithful as a full adaption at all and all base from it instead which I'm not a big fan of, since that's technically uncanon and not from the original creator. |
| Clearly the Puppet Master only wanted to save himself, i did not think the Major would be so weak to enable the fusion... Not really a fan of the end. |
| An interesting movie, its been on my PTW forever. I liked the main male lead detective guy. The buildings in this anime and the overall aesthetic are missing in todays anime. |
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| It's not easy to digest. I was left with lots of questions. I'll definitely need a re-watch if not reading the manga too. |
| "The me today will not ever make the future me to regret!" (Emily Adachi from Air Gear: Kuro no Hane to Nemuri no Mori - Break on the Sky)  |
| This movie definitely leaves something to be desired in the ideas and messages it brought to the table. The main thing I took away from this is what defines someone as uniquely them, as a human, specifically the boat scene. This was my favorite scene of the movie but beside that it left something to be desired, something more for it's message of human uniqueness in a world consumed by A.I. and augmented humans which stands even more relevant today. Like if I were to compare this to other shows that tackled the potential dangers of the internet and technology on mankind. I would rate it in the order of Lain, Psycho-Pass, then Ghost in the Shell. Both Lain and Psycho-Pass provide something more fleshed out in it's vision and messages where Ghost in the Shell just leaves me wanting more from it's concept. Thinking on the Garbage Collector B interrogation, this scene could have been expanded in a way to provide more emotion and empathy on the viewer on the pain he experienced being told that this life he thought he lived with a wife and kid were all a lie, but instead it glides through it with minimal emotion placed on the viewer as it continues on. It's gonna be an 7 for me as I was left with slight disappointment but still appreciative of it's vision, message, and experience it provides despite this. |
Celest__Feb 5, 2024 1:11 PM
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| Great story especially with everything that’s going on currently with all the AI stuff and really cool animation |
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| Finally settled for a re-watch after 2 years, the final scene of the dialogue between Motoko and Puppet Master where both lying down in an abandoned Nissen-hut-like structure gotta be one of the greatest scenes I've ever seen in any film. |
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| It's either too late for me to enjoy this movie in 2024 or the movie is bad. The characters are just so bland and the world was not explained, it pretty much assumes that you know all these cyberpunk concepts. Maybe in 1995 where people would sit down and just enjoy an avant garde movie to then ponder philosophically what it all entailed and the potential of transhumanism but in 2024 where we live in clown world and you get ads thrown to your face every other minute kind of hard to appreciate. 90's media like perfect blue or evangelion i think are masterpieces but this one feels meh to me. |
| just rewatched before i see innocence (for the first time!) in theaters this weekend absolutely incredible, especially on rewatch one of the most thought-provoking and genuinely interesting things i have ever seen super excited to watch innocence |
"Leonardo... it wasn't, by any means, only your eyes that we welcomed into Libra." - Klaus von Reinherz |
| Did the same as above. Watched this for the first time after watching a bit of SAC, and wow... Major Motoko is definitely a great character no matter the rendition. Her struggle to see where the humanity in her begins and ends definitely shines brightly in this movie. So much so even the Main Antagonist was drawn too it! The atmosphere was amazing, and the locations were stunning. I'm glad they went with the decision to use Hong Kong because its scenery really rocks in the background. The ending of the movie was definitely surprising to me, usually I'd expect the humans to strive to keep their humanity through it all and shy away from becoming something else. But, from my interpretation of the events I don't think it was fully Motoko's choice. Considering they killed the other shell that she and the puppet master were linked too. Good job secret agents, you made a superintelligent being. 10/10 movie for me, I see why section 9's story didn't just end here. This cast and the world they live in is super interesting and they knew it! |
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| Ah Ghost in the Shell, probably one of the first non Ghibli films I saw growing as a teenager. This along with Akira are probably the first animes that were more on the grittier side of things and I remember that there was a magazine that us brits had in the UK called Manga Force that a line that was around until 2010 which was a film called Ichi which I honestly never saw but in the issues you would get free DVDs of various animes from the likes of Evangelion, Macross Plus, Bubblegum Crisis, Hellsing Ultimate, Perfect Blue, the list goes on and on. And I remember the first issue was bundled with Ghost in the Shell in particular. It was nothing I had seen before and I remember watching it in the dead of night as well. Sadly I watched the movie years ago and I couldn’t remember if I enjoyed it or not. I would see like glimpses of the movie thanks to me listening to the song King of my Castle from Wamdue Project because parts of the film was used in the music video and it wouldn’t be until this year that my original Manga Force of this movie was found. So there was no bones about it, I had to rewatch for myself to see if it was any good. And much to my surprise, I ended up enjoying the film. The thing that it does is atmosphere. Seriously the moment you start the music really sells you on the world itself, some people think that the montage scenes are annoying and distract the viewer but to me they add to the feel of the film because there’s a lot of exposition being thrown at you and you really need to pay attention to what’s going on. So to me I feel they are breather after all the information we’ve been given. The animation is just gorgeous to look at, I did find The Major’s design a bit on the unnerving side of things but that’s kind of the point when we are talking about how she reflects that she may or not be human at all so I guess that was intentional for her to look like that. I did enjoy the philosophical and religious feel to the movie, really liked the dynamic between the Major and Batou, but I honestly feel like I didn’t enjoy as much as Akira and apart from Mimi Woods, god bless her she did well on what she was given but I feel like her performance for Motoko or the Major if you will was just lifeless and monotone a lot of the time compared to say Richard Epcar who was really good as Batou in the English dub that is. Overall I will say that Ghost in the Shell gets a solid 8/10 from me. |
| Honestly, the philosophical questions that were asked in this movie are middle-schooler level at best. This show doesn't offer any unique insight that a developing teenager hasn't thought about and hasn't answered already by the time he graduated. It's such a childish drivel that I am baffled why it gets such praise and recognition. Goes to show how moronic the anime audience really is. |
| This is my 3rd time watching I think (maybe 4th..) but it stays pure art. At this point its a weird sort of comfort anime, Im probably looking forward to it more than I actually enjoy watching it. Or rather the total amount of enjoyment is greater, since this movie is not very long. Every frame is pure art, the OST is absolutely oustanding. Its still hard for me to understand why they ever demastered this with inferior CGI (2.0). I remember watching an interview with Oshi from the BD for GitS 2 Innocence and he highlighted how long this parade scene took in CGI and damn its just not worth it, compared to what this original delivers. Ironically the movie itself is not even THAT good, I mean the characters and story are not outstanding, but the atmosphere is just so damn thick if you are even remotely into this there is nothing else like it. I tried SAC and sadly its so far removed from what makes this great I never bothered to finish it, I will probably try again next year simply because this movie is so damn amazing I cant help but crave more of it, even though I know its pointless.. I cant even decide whats better, the art, the music, or the overall style. For me its all a 10/10. Its actually funny how little I remember about the details of this movie for my third time watching, I completely forgot about the ending scene for example. One thing which stands out to me is how it doesnt shy away from beeing nerdy, I mean compare it to Matrix which originally used the human brains as computers but they dumbed it down to "batteries". I frequently see criticism about how the philosophical aspect is "shallow", but quite frankly thats pure nonsense. I dont think beeing more complicated would make the movie better at all. Its exactly what it needs to be. @shmoomp Im jealous, I would kill to see a classic like GitS in cinema |
| "This emotion is mine alone. It is for Madoka alone." - Homura or how I would describe Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. |
Reply to Comander-07
This is my 3rd time watching I think (maybe 4th..) but it stays pure art. At this point its a weird sort of comfort anime, Im probably looking forward to it more than I actually enjoy watching it. Or rather the total amount of enjoyment is greater, since this movie is not very long.
Every frame is pure art, the OST is absolutely oustanding. Its still hard for me to understand why they ever demastered this with inferior CGI (2.0). I remember watching an interview with Oshi from the BD for GitS 2 Innocence and he highlighted how long this parade scene took in CGI and damn its just not worth it, compared to what this original delivers.
Ironically the movie itself is not even THAT good, I mean the characters and story are not outstanding, but the atmosphere is just so damn thick if you are even remotely into this there is nothing else like it.
I tried SAC and sadly its so far removed from what makes this great I never bothered to finish it, I will probably try again next year simply because this movie is so damn amazing I cant help but crave more of it, even though I know its pointless..
I cant even decide whats better, the art, the music, or the overall style. For me its all a 10/10.
Its actually funny how little I remember about the details of this movie for my third time watching, I completely forgot about the ending scene for example.
One thing which stands out to me is how it doesnt shy away from beeing nerdy, I mean compare it to Matrix which originally used the human brains as computers but they dumbed it down to "batteries".
I frequently see criticism about how the philosophical aspect is "shallow", but quite frankly thats pure nonsense. I dont think beeing more complicated would make the movie better at all. Its exactly what it needs to be.
@shmoomp Im jealous, I would kill to see a classic like GitS in cinema
Every frame is pure art, the OST is absolutely oustanding. Its still hard for me to understand why they ever demastered this with inferior CGI (2.0). I remember watching an interview with Oshi from the BD for GitS 2 Innocence and he highlighted how long this parade scene took in CGI and damn its just not worth it, compared to what this original delivers.
Ironically the movie itself is not even THAT good, I mean the characters and story are not outstanding, but the atmosphere is just so damn thick if you are even remotely into this there is nothing else like it.
I tried SAC and sadly its so far removed from what makes this great I never bothered to finish it, I will probably try again next year simply because this movie is so damn amazing I cant help but crave more of it, even though I know its pointless..
I cant even decide whats better, the art, the music, or the overall style. For me its all a 10/10.
Its actually funny how little I remember about the details of this movie for my third time watching, I completely forgot about the ending scene for example.
One thing which stands out to me is how it doesnt shy away from beeing nerdy, I mean compare it to Matrix which originally used the human brains as computers but they dumbed it down to "batteries".
I frequently see criticism about how the philosophical aspect is "shallow", but quite frankly thats pure nonsense. I dont think beeing more complicated would make the movie better at all. Its exactly what it needs to be.
@shmoomp Im jealous, I would kill to see a classic like GitS in cinema
| @Comander-07 I can see why you rated Elfen Lied and Mirai Nikki 10 |
Reply to CeaselessFrost
Absolutely brilliant movie. The ending left me thinking for a while with Motoko looking over the city. One of my favorite movies from this time.
| @CeaselessFrost You should watch Akira as well. |
| The movie has everything I love from Blade Runner 1982 and probably inspired Serial Experiment Lain to be this good, amazing movie. |
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