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Review of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Lawrence Person writes "Given how the series itself touches on so many topics near and dear to the hearts of Slashdotters everywhere, I thought my review of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (first season) at Locus Online would be of interest. It is longer and more in-depth than the average review, and touches on GitS:SAC's relationship to obvious cyberpunk and postcyberpunk source material, the elements that make it unique among anime science fiction, the role of P2P networks in popularizing anime, and how GitS:SAC compares to the other great science fiction TV show currently on the air right now, Battlestar Galactica."
Season two ("Second GIG") is finished and a third one is rumored. Was about time people started talking about it (outside anime-centric sites that is :-)).
My advise: if you watched the movies and found them to hard to follow, don't worry. The series are closer to the source material and despite some odd episodes (like the one covering a online chat session and nothing more), it's really worth it.
The season finale is incredible.
"You superiour intellect is no match for our puny weapons" - The Simpsons
I'm interested in watching much more Ghost in the Shell and getting caught up with it- I watched what I believe to be the first movie from 1995 a few months ago but I'm not sure if i've jumped in in the middle of the story.
Could someone in the know please tell the noobs here what we should watch to get everything in, and what order we should watch it in. I'm mildy offtopic but I think if this review has piqued anyone's interest, some info on how to catch up on what we've missed would be excellent.
Thanks!
When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
Odd, that the series hasn't had more attention on /., because it touches the subjects that slashdotters are sensitive to. GITS tries very logically to describe tomorrow's hi-tech world, where giant corporations are in power and government can easily spy on anyone (wait, it's not tomorrow's world :). I also like the political depth of GITS, because it places constraints on what is possible to do, and thereby makes the series more realistic.
Who is John Galt?
I'm a real sucker for the Tachikoma.
Something about having AIs with child-like curiosity (and voices to match---well, at least in the original audio, not so much in the dub (however, despite my being a sub snob, I will admit that the dub is acceptable to watch)) in high-performance, well-armed machines really does it for me.
Cartoon Network Adult Swim is running episodes on Saturday nights at midnight and 3am Eastern currently, along with another great series running right after it: Fullmetal Alchemist.
However, both shows are currently in the middle of their second seasons in the rotation on AS. Stand Alone Complex's second season (aka "2nd GIG") has a plotline relatively unrelated to the first season, so you don't necessarily have to watch the first season first, but there are plot elements that will make more sense if you watch a particular season from the start.
Fullmetal Alchemist's two seasons are almost all arc episodes, meaning that if you plan to start watching it, you should start from the beginning of the first season (in other words, at this point you'll have to rent or buy the DVDs).
I've really enjoyed the entire Ghost in the Shell series. The bits that attracted me appear to be the bits that turned you off... I own all of J.D. Salinger's works and enjoyed the tie-ins. I also really enjoyed the philosophical monologs and side issues. And I'm glad they got rid of the ridiculous outfit, for the most part, the Major had in the original series as I felt it detracted from the overall effect.
I also think that many anime pieces fall flat when they try to make an extensive (and often ludicrous) technical explanation.
While I enjoyed Cowboy Bebop, I'm perfectly willing to go get the entirety of a series if the complexity of plot is worthy... there is only so much ecchi & general immaturity (which I think goes hand in hand with the ability to skip episodes) I can put up with, even in animated works. And I'm put off by the recent works in the hack & slash Goth genres due primarily to the lack in artistic innovation and the apparent arms race of bigger & bigger weapons and battles.
Recently I read & then saw Ai Yazawa's "Paradise Kiss". I found this to be quite good and very enjoyable despite being far outside my normal genres and being geared towards an audience which I can barely tolerate, much less enjoy. I found myself sometimes wishing the animators had spent a little more time with a scene or two... but all in all it's still a worthy series. This has led me to "La nouvelle" manga genre but I'm having trouble finding it in German or English. Hopefuly these will be animated soon!
Oh and I don't who did it... but I saw "The Glass Ocean" at a friend's and I must say that's the best animation I saw in 2005.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
I was actually able to pick up season one and season two (haven't watched either yet) at a Media Play store closing for around $100 US. The whole anime section was the only thing left worth visiting in the otherwise empty store.
"Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
Check out Serial Experiments Lain.
Geeks will love it (especially the Mac/NeXT crowd) as it's filled with more or less obscure geek/hacker references. Beware though, SEL is pretty fscking weird.
If you really are "a stupid american who wants cheap entertainment", then I'm guessing this isn't for you. But I'm also guessing that you aren't, so maybe it is.
I actually watched Lain just recently. I thought I was going insane when I thought I saw a "car" (as in Lisp car) fly by. Apparently they bothered getting some real source code from a code walker and an implementation of the game of life in Common Lisp to show on Lain's handheld computer scheme. Plus the chalkboard at one point has printfs et al on it...
I thought that was pretty damn cool.
You apparently don't watch much in the way of drama, do you? With any good series you'll feel as though you missed something if you fail to see certain episodes. GiTS is no different. Some of the episodes actually can be skipped (although why you'd want to is beyond me), such as the one from season 2 where a combat veteran turned pilot continuously fantasizes about murdering his employer. It has little to nothing to do with the overall story arc, and could easily be missed without damaging your sense of continuity.
Part of what makes GiTS worth watching is the level of detail put into things, especially the technical aspects. In fact, I'd almost like to see a technical manual published for the series. Having said that, if you ever get a chance to read some of Shirow's manga, he almost always includes extensive footnotes and essays in the back of the books. Things like that are what make the series brain candy instead of simply being eye-candy. I'll admit though that my wife doesn't really like it either - she's much more entertained by Dragon Half and similar series. Strangely enough, she doesn't like FLCL either...
And I'm glad they got rid of the ridiculous outfit, for the most part, the Major had in the original series as I felt it detracted from the overall effect.
Kusanagi has had quite a different personality in all instances she'd showed up so far. In the manga she is good looking (cute face, great body, big tits) and has a spunky, playful personality. This is going to appear quite strange, I suspect, to people who only ever saw the movie or the series. But it falls in line with many of Masamune Shirow's female characters. Think of Leona in New Dominion Tank Police.
In the first Ghost in the Shell movie the guys that made it went with a very serious Kusanagi, and they made her not quite a beautiful, she has a much more common face and features compared to what you usually see in anime. It was great, IMO, because it matches the mood of the movie much better.
Finally, in both series Kusanagi is once again a bombshell, but she keeps the serious personality. This production had yet another different bunch of makers (director, screenwriters, character design).
To each their own, I say, I consider they succeeded in giving each production their own life. It's hard to imagine the Major in the movie or the series laughing or saying "neeeh!", but then I wouldn't want to even if I liked the manga imensely.
i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer