Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Because this series, on a second rewatch, seems to follow the same beats of the Space Battleship Yamato remake: very good first iteration, with probably the best animated take on the original Ghost in The Shell 1989 Manga Masterpiece by Masamune Shirow ever produced (Mamoru Oshii who?), but then the second gig follows...and in the incredible amount of SEVEN EPISODES the writing turns into complete garbage, with one of the worst written and most pointless episodes I've ever seen in any anime series in my life. It's true the start wasn't that enticing since already the second episode was a 1000% filler, but how the hell this series turned in such a contrived, bad way I will never understand. And, as the icing on the cake, the production team suddently felt the need to chastely cover up the skin of the Major, when in reality she wasn't tasteless in any way in the first series. All the contrary, she simply showed that she's so dominant and strong-willed she doesn't care in the slightest of what her colleagues or bigots/idiotic "male-gaze" critics think or not of her revealing clothing, the same exact one she had in the Manga series. What an utter disappointment! I might watch the compilation movie just to rewatch solid state society, but the second gig is a complete no-go. 8 for the first series, 3 for the second, the ending experience is a 5,5. Watch the first series and forget the second one ever happened.

Maybe the 1995 and the 2017 movies set the expectations so high, it's just not possible to enjoy the series, but I tried to give it a fair chance - sadly my rating is 5/10. Albeit some nice plot turns and background, The stories tend to be unfocused and half baked, the oversimplified main arc streaches well beyond what is appropriate, and, worst of all, in contrastto the intriguing title, Ghost In The Shell (meaning the human consciousness inside a machine body, as in a cyborg), the series DOES NOT explore this subject, but rather follows the work of an elite police force, which happens to come by cases that are shadowed by this subject, by a clear connection is never made. I'm sorry, I did not find here what I was looking for. Good potential, wasted to make a mediocre police drama.

I was very skeptic about this show. Like most of the people I already watched and was a huge fan of the movies and its philosophical themes, so all the talking about this show being a CSI-like anime didn't give me a good felling. The different look and outfit of Major Motoko Kusanagi didn't help too much either. And indeed, the first three episodes were pretty boring and they have increased my fears about this show, mostly because the creators tried to put too much in a runtime of only twenty minutes. Fortunately, when the main plot was introduced everything changed and started to become better and better. After a seven episodes long ending of the first season my mind was blown, and the second season was even better because it has almost none standalone episodes. All standalone episodes are nothing special except the ones who are about the past of some characters, and the 18th episode of the second season which is a undisputed master-piece. The animation is amazing. Along with Cowboy Bebop, this show is one of the best animated ones ever, and even now after more than ten years it still looks like it was released today. I also recommend this show in English dub, although the Japanese dub is way better. The thing is this show is mostly "talk" than action. If you choose Japanese dub you will find yourself reading subtitles all the time and that can affect your personal enjoyment. Stand Alone Complex is definitely not for little kids, not because it's violent or contains nudity, but because it's very intelligent and complicated and requires some knowledge of history and culture in general to be fully understand. This is not your usual police-detective show. This is something much much more.

The great writers at Production IG in Japan have done it again, not only have they made a great production in terms of storyline, and animation quality. They have even manage to give a in-depth view into a few of the major characters backgrounds (E.G. Motoko Kusanagi), and also how Public Security Section 9 was formed. As usual there are a few episodes which are stated as Complex, meaning that they fit together to form a large scenario, and Individual episodes, which are stand alone stories. The main feature of this sequel are the return of the ever lovable SPOILER! - Tachikomas - which have been fully restored and are now stated as active members of Public Security Section 9. For those who have not watch the 1st Gig or 1st Season or any of the Ghost In The Shell Movies, do not worry, you don't have to have watch either of these to enjoy this exciting 2nd installment of Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex. Truly a must have or watched for any Ghost In The Shell, anime, Shirow Masamune or S-F Fan.

I've been a sci-fi and fantasy fan, as well as author, for many years; thus I enjoy anime that has well-done sci-fi. Unfortunately, GITSAC doesn't do that, I'm sorry to have to tell all those people who think it does. GITS is fantasy. There is no real science in any of the GITS movies or series. This can be OK if you treat the storyline accordingly - as in fantasy and magic stories - but they treat everything here as if it's possible and everybody knows that it is. It isn't. You can't disappear into thin air no matter how badly you want to. The tachikomas wouldn't bounce around when they talk because it would use too much power and eventually bounce them to pieces. You can't broadcast thoughts any way at all, ever - thinking is entirely different from any broadcast system. There is no "ghost" in any living thing; mind and spirit are a function of trillions of cells and interconnecting electrochemical junctions, not some alternate existing thing. Computers work entirely differently than brains and you cannot make the two of them compatible; all you can do is get some minor functions in a bionic prosthetic part to respond to simple brain pattern electrical impulses. We can do that today with arms and legs, for instance; this is the most rudimentary connection of electromechanical devices to some of our simplest brain impulses; you cannot duplicate what the brain does with a computer. Even the best AI is far inferior to and simpler than what the human brain does. In fact, it's inferior to what a Border Collie's brain does! You cannot match the trillions of cells and connections in the brain with even a few hundred thousand electronic circuits in computers. GITS is NOT the future, it's FANTASY, ie, making a story with things that cannot happen. It's more like magic, since magic can't ever happen either, but we understand that and can make interesting fictional dramas with it. I've only pointed out a few things here that are not and never will be possible, but there are many more in the GITS series. It's a safe bet that regardless of how tough Motoko is in her "cyborized" body, she can't jump from a 50 story building, hit the ground and be fine! You couldn't drop a tank from a 50 story building and have it be functional after it hit the ground, and tanks are tougher than she is. The tachikoma can't jump all over the place as they do, their mass is too great and it would take tremendous power if it were even possible, which it's not - especially not with people inside. The sudden violent momentum change would smash the occupants to pieces. And there are many more impossibilities. The reason I bring it up is all of it destroys one's willing suspension of disbelief, and relegates it to Road Runner & Coyote "science" which just makes it another cartoon. All that said, the story is too disjointed and confusing, trying to put too much in when less would be better: more action, less theory and talking. The graphics and animation are about average here, there are much better anime, visually, out there. As in the movies, the characters are still bland, without much humanity; I mean, the tachikomas are more interesting, personable, and human, and they are complete machines! So, although some of the stuff they do in GITSAC is interesting, it just doesn't come up to being great sci-fi or storytelling.

I'd been looking at the DVDs for a while, but the different titles on amazon confused me, so a complete boxed set of season 1 was excellent. I'm a major fan of the movie, and i saw innocence recently, which was stunningly animated, even if it occasionally went up it's own backside with the philosophy side of things. The series and the movies need to be treated as separate entities, both tell similar stories, but they were produced for different contexts. the animation in the series isn't as polished as the movie, but why would it be? there's an overarching storyline, but it doesn't get in the way of the standalone episodes which have their own separate stories. a few are a bit "huh, what?", but most are nice, compact and exciting, and work their way into the whole nicely. as to one of the other comments here, anyone who looks at it as Anime for teen boys is missing the point, there's a real plot here, and real characters who work in a team dynamic, you need to watch again.....

If you have started Ghost in the shell with the 1995 and 2004 movies you will be very disappointed. Although at itself it is not bad, you will miss the atmosphere and philosophical depth of the movies that made them unique and outstanding. It is a series of 26 episodes and although it slowly grows it never reaches any of the peaks that the movies have. Basic dialogues...stupid infantile tachikoma's robots, all is pretty straight forward action manga. In the movies there is a atmosphere build, the travel on the boat through the city is mind-blowing (and yet that is surpassed by the parade in "innocence"), there is philosophical depth, all this is lacking in the series...