Finally got around to watching Ghost in the Shell (the movie).
It was pretty good, it touches on some interesting ideas and everything comes together quite well.
It's a bit slower paced than I thought it might be but I think it worked pretty well since it's generally more philosophical rather than about big action or even the story. It didn't ever feel like the time was wasted and while many of the shots that are lingered on may seem "mundane" they often also felt relevant to the themes.
When there was action it was well done too, I particularly liked the way it integrated the fact that many of the people involved were cybernetic so that affected both what they could do and how they approached situations.
The characters were quite well handled, while there's not enough time to really go into detail they managed to convey most of the information we needed fairly efficiently. I have to admit, I did think that Motoko's driver/support Togusa would end up getting killed, almost every situation seemed to be setting him up for it and even the way Motoko introduces him seemed like a death flag. I think that added to my enjoyment of the film, though it was probably more of a personal thing. The Batou/Motoko team was great fun too.
I really liked the ending sequence, with the "child" body seeming appropriate for the beginning of a new life of sorts.
I also watched Soul Eater Not!, all 12 episodes.
I enjoyed it quite a bit, although I'm not sure about the "big" storyline (which was a bit more action focussed). While it wasn't bad and even had some quite good (and unexpected) moments I didn't think it was good enough to be more fun than the slice of life antics and character stories. As a result, I probably enjoyed the first half more than the second (well, it's really more like three quarters with only the last three episodes really being focussed on that story).
I liked the story between Kim and Jacqueline quite a bit, so it was a shame that they didn't appear much after that. There's even a moment that looks like it's setting up a new story for them that is then completely ignored. Apparently these two appear in Soul Eater (which I haven't seen yet) so that's probably a factor as to why they didn't get more time spent on them.
There's a bit of yuri content, though it's mostly subdued and implied. I have to admit, I think I'd like to have seen the series this could have been if it had gone a bit further with that and spent more time on the issues the characters faced adapting to their new lives.
That said, I don't have any significant complaints about what the show actually is. It's generally fun, the characters are all pretty well designed (in both appearance and personality) and I didn't feel bored of it at any point. The episodes relating to the café were probably some of the best, the "Master" was always fun. While the show is often light and silly, the characters do have some interesting stories that do actually involve development for them.
It's tough to say exactly who would most enjoy this show. It has elements of a battle/action show but they mostly only appear towards the end, the rest of the show is mostly character stories, comedy and cute girls doing cute things. You'd probably have to be able to at least tolerate both to some extent and preferably like both.