Ghost in the Shell II

[IVstudios]

Has anyone seen Ghost in the Shell II yet? If so is it any good? I read most of the Ghost in the Shell II comic books, and judging from the trailer, they look totally unrelated (thankfully, I couldn

[Sword Chan]

It was utterly confusing!!! Well, that's probably just because I'm a baka... Anyhoosh, my opinion of it is that it's definitely a movie that requires multiple sit-throughs to get the full idea because they throw so many philosophical things at you. But the graphics and animation were sweet! And I loved the dog! The dog is everywhere....

[IVstudios]

Thanks, I'm probably going to wail till it comes out on video and rent it just for that reason, so I can watch is multiple times...and because I don't know how to get the a good movie theater from my college.


Darn Amish country

[KODAMA]

:'O IT WAS BEAUTIFUL.

[IVstudios]

I finally got to se it. We actual got to watch it in my Intro to Digital Art class. It was really cool, but I liked the first one better.

[JexKerome]

Geek.

[MixedMyth]

I havn't seen the second movie, but I have seen a good portion of the series. It's very good. It's got it's downsides, of course. It's still pretty wordy and confusing at times...I remember one particular episode that takes place entirely in a chat room. But at least most of the explainations consist of stuff we don't know. That was one of my biggest beefs with the first movie- they'd show you all this symbolism that you could easily understand, and then spend five minutes explaining it to you afterward. The series reminds me a bit more of the manga, which I'm currently reading. Oh, and tachikomas flat out rule. They gave them a sort of child-like voice. But you know what? It really fits!

Oh yeah, and the music is good. I've actually had to rent the series since I don't have Cartoon Network.

I wish I could find someplace around here that has the second movie. I missed it when it was in the theater because I was sick at the time.

[IVstudios]

The series reminds me a bit more of the manga, which I'm currently reading.

Is it the "Ghost in the Shell II" comic books? If so, do you knoe why the hell it keeps going back and forth between black and white and color? Is it supposed to mean something or did the artist just get lazy?

[JexKerome]

Way I understand it, japanese comics seldom like doing colors because it's expensive. Remember there are no japanese comic books per se (flimsy 32 page issues, all about one comic), but rather these huges books containing 16+ different comics, each 16 pages long (like the American shonen jump, which is rather flimsy by japanese standards); these are rather cheap, and so they use a paper that holds black and white well, but not color (like news paper). Colors are saved for special occasions and, like in the american Shonen Jump, have to be put in higher quiality paper, making it more expensive, so even a guy like Shirow will draw most of it in black and white. Not to mention that making a color comic takes far more time, and depending on the magazine they're working for, the artist and his team may have to output a 16-page episode in as little as a week, which usually leaves coloring right out.

Even so, guys like Shirow can deal out amazing images on good ol' black and white.

As for Mr. Shirow's wordiness, he creates mind-bogginly huge and complex backgrounds for his worlds. Grab a copy of Orion if you're able. Like the chat room episode you mention, he devotes a whole lotta pages in a bar, where the main character discusses with her buddies the whole background and theory behind interstellar travel in that universe. It is so long, wordy, and confusing, that about halfway (if I remember correctly), one of the buddies thinks to herself "I don't get it", which is, basically, Shirow making fun of himself and his need to explain his backgrounds with minute detail.

And the tachikomas rock. If you caught the original Ghost in the Shell manga, Shirow did this tachikoma comic fillers for some of the episodes, one-page gags with SD tachikomas. And then he also dedicated one episode to them, where you see one of them trying to convince the rest to start a revolution against the humans, claiming they are little more than slaves. In the end, the agitator is found to be basing his dogma on a whacky grade-B sci-fi movie, and is run out of the tachikoma barracks by sheer ridicule; but it turns out the humans were watching the scene unfold, because this thing happens from time to time and sometimes they need to step in. Basically it turns out the tachikomas really are alive and the humans so consider them slaves, and thus treat them well but are always alert against insurrection; in fact, I don't remember correctly, but I think the situation was defused by the humans taking control of one of the tachikomas and pointing out gthe origin of the revolutionary dogma.

Pretty heavy stuff, this guy writes.

[Chibiartstudios]

Eh! GITS2 was dissapointing. It's not because of the depth or confusion. I like confusing movies. Alot.

No, to put it simply it was too slow.

I loved the first Movie and I love the TV series. But the second one just didn't do me quite right. It DID have it's good points. For one it is UNBEFUCKINGLEVABLY beautiful. I honestly have no clue how one would even start on making some of those backgrounds. Dear god! And that thankfully kept the movie from drifting from slow to boring.

The basic problem was that the director likes to make long establishing shots and he takes extra time to explain everything in the most minute of detail. I usually can let this slide but he does it at the expense of character and plot development. In the first movie the hacker threatened the whole city. In this one it's a few girls and that's it. Hardly the same steaks. It makes me wonder why the main character was pushing so hard the whole time. And while it was nice to see a certain face at the end, relatively little was done with her. She could almost be cut out without affecting the plot. Which is a shame. Becasue that character is cool.

Overall I'd say it's a B- movie in an A series. Not BAD per se. But not as good as I have come to expect.