Ghost in the Shell

Talk to me about Ghost in the Shell. I haven't seen any of it. About the first movie, I hear on one hand that it's a great film, and that on the other hand it's all style an no substance. About the second movie I've heard virtually nothing. About the TV show Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, I hear that it's set in the film world if the events of the film hadn't taken place. I also hear that, aside from Battlestar Galactica, it's the best SFF on TV, and that the second season's even better than the first.

So: is the hype for real? Is this show that good?

 

All style and no substance

GITS is full of substance. Its all very metaphysical and new wave-y but in a good way.

I still haven't gotten through GITS Innocence. I just got my disc back from Dreamworks and on the one hand I haven't had time to watch it and on the other I don't like the more complete CGI integration.

SAC is good but personally I wouldn't rank it that high. I have the first season DVDs but haven't gotten anything from 2nd Gig but I've been Tivo-ing it. I hadn't heard the parallel universe thing. I'd always though that it was meant as a prequel (though it makes more sense that way).

Overall I'd say check out the first movie first. If you like it try the sequel and the series (or maybe even Shirow's manga). If you don't like it don't bother with anything else.

 

The best sci-fi show on TV is actually Neon Genesis Evangelion. Good characters, interesting concept, and tons of subtlety. It's probably stuff you've seen elsewhere, but it's presented oh so well.

The original GitS film was decent. Well animated, decent enough plot, but whenever it started to dable in philosophy it got very tired, since it's all things you've heard elsewhere, and better.

The second film I hear is more pretentious than the first. Either you like it more, or you hate it. I've not seen it yet myself.

The TV show is a decent cop show. But the cops have less character than the characters on Law and Order. Out of a short film, I can forgive this. But a full 26 episode TV series made it annoying. It's divided into "Complex" episodes which deal with the overall plot, and "Stand Alone" episodes which are one shot stories.

The sequel show so far has better and more interesting characterizations of the cops. I can't say much more than that.

In summation, GitS is good stuff, but the people telling you it's so fantastic want to seem smart by liking smart things. More style than substance, but if you have the time and ability, it's worth a watch.

Oh, and on the multi-universe issue: There's three GitS universes. Matsumune Shirow's two volume manga is one. Each volume was adapted by Mamoru Oshi into a film. From what I understand (I've not read the manga.) he cut out a lot of side story stuff, and characterization moments, while making Innocence (The second film) a lot more metaphysical than the original manga. And finally, the TV shows took stories from the manga not yet put to film, while making up many more side stories, etc.

-P!-