Archive for the Ghost In The Shell Category


Ghost in the Shell: Arise – Border 1 (English)

October 2nd, 2013

GitSAriseboxHaving watched Ghost in the Shell since it first arrived on western shores I, like so many other fans, have had a few questions about Major Kusanagi. Who is she? How did she get a fully cyborg body, where did she come from, what her family was like…these all seem pretty reasonable questions, when you think about it.

Ghost in the Shell: Arise 01: Ghost Pain answers these questions – without actually removing much of the mystery behind Kusanagi. Although we now know how she meets Aramaki, Batou, Paz and Togusa, there’s still way more questions than answers we have about her life. With luck, none of them will be addressed in future episodes. ^_^

The main strength in Arise, is that someone with little to no knowledge of the Ghost in the Shell franchise – and the ability to flow with a cyberpunk-y, slightly non-linear narrative – will have no trouble following this story. (Completely unlike Innocence, for instance, which makes little sense if you have not seen at least some of the other GitS franchise.) You do not need to know Kusanagi Motoko – Arise will introduce more about her than we have had in all the previous series.

Of interest to me was Motoko’s superior, Kurutsu, who was a character design that could only exist in anime. Long yanki-style skirt over black leather pants, no bra, shirt open to the navel…what military is this again?  I had very much hoped that she and Motoko would end up fighting, because Kurutsu so wore the look of “mentor gone bad.”

The Japan Collector’s Edition contained Episode 01 on Blu-Ray,  a few frames of “film” of Batou and a booklet with commentary and character designs.  The episode comes in just shy of an hour so whether you feel its expensive, will depend on how you feel about paying for your anime.

The plot is convoluted, and has obligatory government corruption, brain hacking and a fair amount of fanservice, so if looking at Kusanagi in underwear or naked is high on your list, bonus points for you. It is a solid OVA (OBDA, maybe, since it’s a Blu-ray?) for GitS.  I’m definitely looking forward to Ghost in the Shell: Arise – Border 2.

Ratings:

Art – 9 Top notch, except in a few scenes. Faces in 3/4 profile still seem to be the most challenging for animators.
Story – 8
Characters – 7 Comfy, rather than good
Yuri – 0 (I was really hoping for something between Kusani and Kurutsu, sad face)
Service – 6

Overall – 8

My very very since thanks to  an anonymous Okazu hero for sponsoring today’s  review! It was so much appreciated  – and enjoyed! It would be even better if you tell me who you are, so I can thank you.





Event: "Ghost in the Shell: Innocence" Lecture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

June 13th, 2008

Just a heads up for all the New York City-area readers we have here.

Tomorrow, Saturday June 14, at 1:PM, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, as part of a New York citywide exploration of Japanese culture and art, is showing the Ghost In The Shell: Innocence movie.

I will be introducing the movie, and doing a short Q&A afterward.

The movie begins at 1PM, I’ll be doing my intro at about 12:45. It all takes place in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Forum on the 4th floor. Admission to the movie is free with admission to the museum. If you pay for a Muakami exhibit ticket, you get to see that exhibit, the rest of the museum AND the movie, so I hope you’ll come early and take in the great art, then join for Ghost In The Shell: Innocence!





Ghost in the Shell Manga Volume 1, 2nd Ed.

September 27th, 2005

Blah, blah, blah.

No seriously – does anyone on a military mission talk this much!? ^_^;

So, waaaay back in the dawn of time, I had a copy of Ghost in the Shell in Japanese – you know, the version with the gratuitous lesbian sex scene left in. I sold it for a fair amount of $ because, at the time, the version put out by Dark Horse had removed those pages and you know how crucial to the plot they were – people freaked.

Time has moved on and I was killing an afternoon over at Anime Castle, torturing Bill, the owner (who is a seriously decent dude and we at Yuricon and Onna! owe him a great deal of thanks. In fact, I nabbed a fun toy prize for some lucky contest winner while I was there,) I saw the *2nd* editions for volume 1 and 2 and thought, “why not?” So here I was faced with actually reading the thing.

It’s four days later and I’m still not finished. Let me put this into perspective – I can complete a 200-page novel in about an hour and a half of uninterrupted reading. Four days of reading this thing and I’m going slower, and slower, and…..

It’s not even that they talk too much – it’s the typeface. It’s killing me. I *know* that the convention on lettering comics is ALL CAPS. I *know* that the convention is to fill the word balloons as full as one can (and with Masamune Shirow, it’s kind of inevitable anyway,) but seriously – this lettering is KILLING my eyes. I read two pages and have to stop.

I saw the original GiTS movie way back, when everyone else as old as I am did, and I wasn’t impressed. I loved the idea, but the movie was really dull, IMHO. And I feel much the same with the original manga. It’s such a cool idea, I wish someone had *done* something with it.

I wasn’t really interested in GitS until the first TV series, “Stand Alone Complex: 1st Gig”, and even then I found the end kind of a cop-out. The movie “Innocence” was, like the first movie, nothing more than a series of quotes strung together with visually rich, but essentially meaningless, imagery. I liked it, but not as a movie. It read like an attempt at playing Umberto Eco, without his ability at tying the links together to make a coherent whole. It was gorgeous, but left no real impression.

Of all of the GitS franchise, the one I liked the best was “Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig”, entirely because at the end, we’re left with a Major that one can actually *see* taking the route we were shown in the “Innocence” movie. For that, and that alone, I think the 2nd Gig was worth watching.

I’m also quite besotted with the Tachikoma. :-) When they pull that prank (if you’ve seen it, you know which one I mean…) on Batou, it made the entire franchise worth its existence. ^_^

But we don’t care about this! We want to know if the sex was worth the book! you scream.

No, don’t be stupid. It’s pointless fanservice. Mostly it’s the springboard for a goofy gag with Batou. But if you’re the kind of person who thinks that 3 pages of shiny unrealistic women having porn sex is worth shelling out $30 – then get thee over to the Yuricon Shop and buy thee copies of Yuri Monogatari 2 and 3. Two books for the same price…and twice the meaningless sex. ^_^

By the way – in case you’re wondering, I love the Major and I actually do like GitS for what it is. Great art? I don’t know. Groundbreaking? Let’s wait another 40 years and decide. A powerful idea and a popular franchise? Yes, 100 times yes.

Ratings:
Art – The hair! The HAIR!!! 6
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Yuri – 4 It’s all of three pages out of 300.

Overall – I rate it a 7. It’s not going to be my “go back to” book, but I like the whole group enough to keep trying.

One last thing – Dark Horse, with a book this thick, the binding is REALLY crappy. You needed to vent it or make it stronger. I’m not even through with reading it once and it’s starting to crack.