Ghost in the shell

[Aion]

After finding my Manga Force DVD, I decided to take a break from SAC and watch the movie to see if I like it better. I didn't.

The movie creators tried to make it deep with lots of heavy dialogue and forgot that they were making entertainment; not a difficult to comprehend series of pointless conversations. There was no emotion, no explanations (I'm still as clueless about why spirits are talked about in a factual manner as ever) and the film dragged on an awful lot when it's less than 90 minutes long. I saw very little that helps me understand why the film is so highly rated - It bored me for the most part.

I felt even less for the case in this movie since there was no time spent on development, all of the short runtime instead being spent on the completely uninvolving. SAC does a bad job developing its characters over 26 episodes but at least there were minor things that made me feel attached to the cast...

The end lost me completely, me not understanding why Motoko wanted to merge with a human created existence for the fun of it when people were coming to kill her. I gave up trying to stay interested when the Puppet Master started rambling.

I'm also at a loss as to why Motoko kept randomly jumping around naked. People could go invisible without getting naked and it seemed to be just cheap fan service. Like with quite a bit of the movie, bizarre came to mind during those sequences.

...At least it's better than the over-rated mess that is Akira. That's pretty much the only plus point I can come with at the moment.

 

[Akaten]

.

 

[shira]

Nope, the movies are totally seperate from SAC.

And in my opinion not nearly as good in terms of story, and characterisation. Oh and the series has a much better soundtrack too (currently playing away in my car lol)

Totally agree with that. SAC imho has better art aswell. HOWEVER they are both frickin' awesome.

 

[chaos]

...At least it's better than the over-rated mess that is Akira. That's pretty much the only plus point I can come with at the moment.

I've just realized you are the last person I would ask for a recommendation...

I believe that both GiTS and Akira needs a bit of context in time to be fully appreciated. It's sort of watching the back to the future. It looks crap, there are more awesome things available now, BUT at their release dates, there was simply nothing better or not even as good as them.

The number of trends they started and the number of new works they inspired tells me they are not overrated at all. If you don't understand / don't like them, well, it's the old saying.. You can't please everybody.

 

[Aion]

I really don't know where to begin, it really doesn't seem that you're gonna like Ghost in the Shell regardless of whether its the tv series, manga or Mamoru Oshii films, unless you want to persist with the SAC until the main plotline really kicks during the final six episodes. Sorry you didn't like it, but your initial post, made me think you'd at least be interested in the film, I was wrong, and then some .

Don't worry, I can fully understand why you thought I'd like the movie more going on my first post since I mentioned that the cast didn't get philosophical in SAC. What I didn't expect was a movie with a runtime of 80 minutes (including credits) to turn out to be an amateur philosophy lesson where the characters spoke their dialogue like robots.

I have actually warmed up to SAC now that I'm coming up to the end (watched episode 23 last night). The faults are still present but main story thread finally getting explained has improved the series significantly (in my eyes at least). I'm going to re-watch all The Laughing Man episodes without any of the filler once I complete the series.

The problems SAC has are...

1: Filler / Stand Alone Episodes

The majority of SAC episodes are forgettable single episodes stories that add nothing to the characters or main plot thread. It would've made sense for there to be so many stand alone episodes if each revealed more about the cast or added small details to The Laughing Man story, but...

2: Lack of Character Development

SAC presents a cast of likeable characters and doesn't even attempt to flesh them out. I know Motoko had her body replaced as a child, I know Batou served in World War III, I know Aramaki used to work for Intelligence..and that's practically all I've learnt during the first series.

Due to the high percentage of filler (not sure if the filler I'm referring to actually appeared in the manga), I'm going to assume the manga author simply did an awful job of developing his characters and the anime studio couldn't do anything about it unless they added a huge amount to the source material...or, in other words, going off on their own.

Firsat I'd say that I think your premise if wrong, forgot to make it entertaining, not all works, especially cinema have to be "entertaining" by your criteria in order to be entertaining for others, besides I don't think it it a very difficult piece, your own attitude is preventing you from approaching it, much of Japanese popular culture, including anime deals with spirits and souls in various ways, be it Neon Genesis Evangelion to Mushishi, not to mention several Studio Ghibli films.

True; the amount of people that love it shows that I'm in the minority in not finding it entertaining. Still, there are people are share my view about it being over-rated and dull.

At its heart it wasn't a difficult story to comprehend: A lifeform created by man to do their dirty work starts thinking for itself, the lifeform wants to be more than it is/human and attempts to merge with another existence to be complete. However, the almost robotic dialogue and execution of the story made it difficult to follow and Motoko's need to to "dive into" the Puppet Master wasn't very well explained.

Again this comes from the manga, fetishes and even has kinky lesbian sex (and peeping tom Batou!) - of course in the tv series censorship requirements mean they remain her female friends but with hints and winks about what they really get up to in their free time. In the film, her octo camo is worn over her skin (the man they chase wears a camo coat) yes it is gratuitous but its not explicitly sexual ( precisely because she isn't human, and Motoko lacks human inhibitions towards nudity (unlike Batou who first covers her up and is later uncomfortable with her casual attitude on the boat).

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see perverted goings on in a movie that tries to be adult after watching so much anime. It's just too bad Motoko looked ugly in the movie!

With regards to her not being human and not having the same issues with nudity people with human bodies have, it's strange you don't see men running around naked who think the same way as Motoko, isn't it?

*sigh*

Akira was an incomprehensible mess of a movie. It tried to cram what I believe to be a lengthy manga story into a movie and failed to pull it off, with the events that occurred not getting explanations and the movie simply coming across as utterly bizarre. The thing I hate about anime movies the most is how directors try to force too much into the time they have, and Akira had this problem more than any other movie I've watched.

Whenever I see praise for it the animation is always the main mention. Why? Because it's the animation that makes people overlook the huge amount of flaws in other areas.