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I have a soft spot for this weird piece of work.

Its mix of CG and traditional animation and the humor will not appeal to everyone. I didn’t enjoy absolutely everything, and boy was Toucan annoying, but there were many hilarious moments and even some heartwarming ones. As a working adult I found it relatable, and a good way to just relax, switch off my brain and go with the flow.

And Lion is absolutely adorable! I like the main VAs Tsuda Kenjiro, Ishida Akira (personal favourite) and even Shimono Hiro, and I totally heart Ohtsuka Akio in this. As well as him singing the ED, and ... that the show was airing around his 60th birthday. Shassho-hamster cracked me up too.

This, and Spirited Away, was the one that got me into the anime fandom years ago, hence it will always have a place in my heart.

GitS is a whole franchise with many iterations now, but this movie’s animation, incredible atmosphere (many comparisons to Blade Runner), soundtrack and cyberpunk themes are still memorable to me. Love the Japanese chants and chimes in the theme tracks, and have replayed ‘Reincarnation’ many times. Tanaka Atsuko will also always be Kusanagi Motoko to me. Caveat: I do enjoy ‘old-school’ animation, and the grainier aspects of some of the older shows.

The story of the movie may not be anything ... earth-shattering (and heralded the fact that many anime shows do not have a ‘proper’ closure) but I took it that the themes were raised as sort of teasers to get us into the rest of GitS universe, since at the time I knew the movie was based on a manga. It’s a movie that, I believe, is a significant part of anime history.