Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence

timbloid writes "I spotted on Ain't it cool news that Mamoru Oshii's new anime Innocence Ghost In The Shell 2's website is now open! The trailer is beautiful! But I can't help thinking a translated version is some time off from the 2004 Japanese release... Maybe it would be faster for me to learn Japanese?"

Comments

A Friend Suggested GitS as Example of Good Anime

[avdi]

So I watched it, and yeah, it was better than a lot of the anime I've seen, but it still sucked by any conventional film standards. Animation was horrible (I don't care how good of a painter you are, this is *animation*, the pictures are expected to move fluidly). The dialog was unremarkable at best (yes, I watched the subtitled version). The plot was cliched and confused (not confusing; confused). Animation still can't show fights worth crap; fights are always broken down into a montage of "scenes" - a girl rolls, a kick connects, a gun fires, a wall cracks. Worst of all, like all anime, it was way too wrapped up in it's own visuals. Note to anime filmmakers - I'm impressed when a live action film achieves an iconic visual style, because I recognize how difficult that can be given the realities of lighting, camera limitations, physics, and acting. I'm far less impressed when an animated film achieves a similar style, becaus by definition it's a completely controlled environment where (at least theoreticaly) anything is possible. So when Our Cloaked Hero stalks away, wreathed in steam, through a downpour, in perfectly noir-lit streets, I'm not going to oblige you be saying "wow". It's not like you had to arrange for the damn fog machines.

Also: anime depictitions of "angst" are as laughable as they are ubiquitous. Downcast eyes and hunched shoulders do not a Tormented Hero make. Don't think that a few seconds of canned backstory footage is a substitute for decent acting when trying to drag some character sympathy from the audience.

I get the impression that when fans sit down to watch anime, all the standards which they might otherwise apply go right out the window, because it's ANIME!!!