Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Vols. 1-7)
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Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Vols. 1-7) Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Intellectual Sci-Fi
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Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, is based on the anime movie of the same name. It is based on the movie, but this t.v. series has different storylines that deal with the secret government agency called "Section 9". Section 9 can delegate its power of influence over law enforcement agencies, computer hackers, field operatives and political connections that authorize their activities. Since this series takes place in the future, cyborgs, robots and artificial intellegence have advanced to the point of self awareness and the machines that haven't reached that point yet get used as a tool by crime syndicates. The crime syndicates, are typical of the ones that exist even today; mafia, computer hackers, assassins, terrorists, corrupt military and political officials. Section 9 deals with each of these threats in many of the episodes which are self-contained. Led by Major Mokoto, Section 9 field operatives work "under the radar" so to speak and the general public doesn't even know they exist (unless they identify themselves). A lot of the series has covert operations. Even though many of the episodes are self contained, there is also a story arc of the "Laughing Man".
The animation and artwork are superb. The artists used 3D cell shading techniques with standard 2D art and the results are impressive; they sucessfully merged 3D CGI with 2D animation, something which many other anime titles fail at. The character design all have a distinctive look, you won't see a bunch of characters that look like each other with minor cosmetic changes (like other anime). The action compliments the story perfectly; the use of violence does not propell the story, it actually works the other way around; there are lots shoot outs and martial arts sequences when they arrest criminals, its all very cool. There is a lot of investigative work before they get to arresting or killing anyone. The stories are very philosophical in nature and explores many of the questions raised by the movie which the series is based on. Some stories touch upon; when is a machine considered alive?, what does it mean to be human?, when is death final? and can immortallity be achived through a machine with a conscience? The sound effects are really good and will take advantage of your theatre home system. The voice acting in both Japanese and English dub are excellent.
Although this is a great series overall there are a few things about it I didn't like. Most of the music in the episodes are good but there were some tracks that repeat too much. The opening theme song is terrible and felt like nails over a chalkboard (of course you can skip the opening). The story arc of the "Laughing Man" was cool at first, but drags on too much. There were also some other episodes which seemed pointless and felt more like filler episodes. The philosophical dialog is interesting but it is coupled with a lot of techno-babble which is hard to follow. I guess the writers of the series did this to ground the story to its sci-fi roots. I just felt that the tech talk should have been written in laymen terms so that a wider audience follows it more easily; however, the dialog was written to pander more to the really geeky audience. These are minor complaints which prevent it from getting a perfect score in my book. I think the series is great overall and highly recommend it. It contains slight nudity, blood and violence; for adults only. I also recommend the anime series called "Bubblegum Crisis 2040".
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Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Vols. 1-7) dvd movie.