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Forum - View topicDoes it Hold Up? Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
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MarshalBanana
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I brought the series on Blu-Ray last year, first time I had seen it in 10 years. Production values are mostly good, it's better than most other early digipaint shows and the CG is miles better than anything Gonzo were putting out at the time. Though you can still tell it's an older show despite all that due them still using watercolour backgrounds.
GITS is a franchise that I feel benefits greatly from a TV format, where it can have both an over arching narrative and stand alone stories. And none of it feels dated, at least not noticeably. I think I may agree with you that 2ndGig was better, even if only slightly. With the recent release of the live action adaptation of Cowboy bebop, maybe next time you could cover its spiritual successor Wolf's Rain. |
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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Anonymous is kinda dead as an idea, nothing major as happened in the last couple of years that was ascribed to the group (you could argue they never did anything major). Nowadays most large scale cyber crime are done by state sponsored/tolerated entity with very specific goal in mind (usually monetary). That's not to say it goes against SAC storyline, but I don't see any reason to believe there's going to be more event like it in the future.
As far as movie Vs SAC, the movie is the clear winner as far as visual and direction goes, but story wise I think it's clearly lacking compared to SAC. I never found the whole philosophy around soul and such to be interesting, so that aspect of the story fall flat for me and I'm disappointed that it overshadow the more interesting political aspect and rise of AI as geopolitical tool/weapon. But ultimately it's hard to compare movie vs TV show. I did like S1 SAC more than S2 (which is still quite good), S2 central premise/mystery wasn't as interesting despite being much more focus on it compare to S1 which had plenty of self contained episodes. |
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5159 |
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Regarding Salinger's Catcher in the Rye:
I read it in high school for the entertainment value. When I finally put it down, though, I distinctly remember thinking that I didn't get it. It did, however, make some New York Times literary reviewer famous because he copied Salinger's style while simultaneously shredding the novella. |
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earl.m
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A couple of things.
One thing that the reviewer's retrospective omits: GITS: SAC was run by Kenji Kamiyama and was heavily influenced by his view of the war on terror, the Iraq War and the U.S. government that gave us both. Spoiler: Kamiyama can rather fairly be called progressive and his personal opinion of all 3 is clearly negative. Allegorical interpretations of GITS:SAC make this clear. Second, I guess people who hate Caulfield are incapable of seeing him as anything but a privileged white kid. First off, Caulfield and Rye were revolutionary, the likes of which had never existed before and have served - knowingly and unknowingly - as templates for much that has come in its wake. It is like driving a Tesla while bashing how the Ford Motor Company's internal combustion engines wrecked the environment, blissfully unaware that the former would have never existed without the the latter. Also people who complain about his immaturity and other flaws ignore that the character is a teenager with a clinical mental illness requiring institutionalization. Which part of this does his being a cis white male who needs to be made aware of his privilege negate? His being 17 or his being clinically mentally ill? Because acknowledging either one makes comparing his character arc to one in which The Laughing Man: 1. had eight years to realize 2. after already being an adult at the beginning and 3. didn't need to be institutionalized for severe clinical depression in the interim makes absolutely no sense. In today's world we are conditioned to dismiss out of hand the problems of anyone that we read as privileged - as opposed to making any attempt to contextualize, empathize or understand - no matter how real, severe and impactful they may be. |
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nobahn
Subscriber Posts: 5159 |
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My problem was not necessarily with the protagonist; it was that I didn't get what the hell the book was supposed to be about in the first place. The Ending is Paramount. That last scene where Caulfield is watching his sister on the merry-go-round and is suddenly overcome with this overwhelming emotional feeling (with no explanation as to what, exactly, that emotional feeling is) is, -- in a microcosm -- everything that I never understood about the novella. The novella had something to do with Caulfield's maturation -- even if said maturation was just a little bit -- throughout its narrative. But that's all that I could figure out; and I never bothered to look up any & all literary criticisms of that novella. Maybe I should have. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4830 |
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No disrespect intended to the writer at all, but I could craft a response to this question with two words: hell yes. GITS: SAC remains one of the most intelligent, finely-crafted series I've ever seen and is one of my all-time favorites. I watched the series years before finally seeing Oshii's original film, and maybe I'm something of an outlier, but I vastly prefer the former. The characters feel like actual living, breathing human beings, as opposed to Oshii's brand of philosophy textbook quoters. I'll agree that I prefer the first season a bit over the second, even if its plot did get a bit too byzantine for its own good, though the second season does a better job of incorporating even its "stand-alone" episodes into the overall narrative. Both series are an incredibly good time, though. As far as visuals go, it's admittedly been a while since my last rewatch, but I have fond memories of how the CG content was incorporated, and I've certainly seen far worse attempts to this day. The second season definitely steps up the visual game, as one would expect. Beyond the two original seasons, the Solid State Society movie is also a fun watch.
Something that deserves a special shout-out is Yoko Kanno's brilliant soundtrack. Her work on Cowboy Bebop gets a massive amount of praise, and rightly so, but for my money this just might be her magnum opus. She effortlessly weaves between pumping electronica and contemplative lyrical pieces, and combined with the late great Origa's vocals, both seasons have all-time bangers of OPs. |
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nobahn
Subscriber Posts: 5159 |
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Oh, I forgot about this:
I would like you to cover Her Blue Sky. Since it appears that there never will be an English license, I have put my thoughts down around here.* It would be great if you could find out why there will never be an English license. *or here |
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Dop.L
Posts: 725 Location: London |
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I rewatched the first and second Stand Alone Complex series last year, and I'd agree that 2nd Gig is the better, possibly going as far as saying it's the best iteration of Ghost in the Shell by far.
Also, spoiler[the tachikomas' singing a jolly childrens' song while crashing their AI satellite into the nuclear missile will always bring a tear to my eye!] |
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r3l1c
Posts: 1 |
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I think the one who learned the most from the 2nd gig lesson is Russia and people are still failing to realize that.... In my book, several instances from the 2nd gig became Almost prophetic
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datumguya
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Except that is not true. Sure, he might have some psychological problems like anxiety, PTSD or borderline personality disorder, or maybe even even bipolar disorder, but none of these really require being institutionalized unless they cause severe problems like suicide or harming others, which is not the case for Holden. And writing in bold doesn't make your argument any more right . |
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Multi-Facets
Posts: 261 |
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Honestly, I've thought for years that Holden had problems with complicated grief coming out in all the wrong ways. So he may not have needed a mental clinic's services, but I believe he needed a therapist. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6363 |
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If you're looking for a review of the show animenewsnetwork.com/review/wolf-rain/.159938 or a review on the show and it's themes animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2017-03-08/chasing-flowers-wolf-rain-and-romanticism/.112323 Also Wolf's Rain being a spritual successor to Wolf's Rain I don't know whether that's absurdity or a backhanded compliment. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4161 |
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I loathe the show and what it did with the Major and I thought it was just a stupid adaptation. What went wrong?
Well, the major theme is the ghost in the shell. The movie did it right, where the rising Ape/AI meets the falling angel/human spirit in the same bodies so what went wrong in the show? The Tachimakis. In the source material? the Major kept the little self aware buggers around for various reasons... they were harmless, they were useful, they were alive, the police are supposed to protect living beings so hey, it's kind of their job so... in the show though? KILL THE MAJOR FOR WHAT SHE DID. I still remember Batou trying to get the Major to react when they gave their unique and singular lives for her and he/she/it, a similar ghost in the shell as them? Her reaction: "Ehh."They invented their own moral code, nothing especially special about that? I couldn't even watch the second series because it was all about this murderer who got away with it because she was the main character. The rest of the show is just meaningless cyberpunk junk to me compared to this one thing but to get the core theme wrong is the dumbest thing an adaptation can do. The theme is in the title, how the hell do you bungle writing that much?! "It's about paranoia." How about No? "It's about mass media." The movie wasn't, the manga predated most of that anyway. "It's about the Laughing Man." The Show was a Stand Alone complex and any sort of through plot was more of a throwaway. |
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Scias
Posts: 44 |
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I like how the dude did not understand Holden or Catcher in the Rye in the slightest. Imagine dismissing a great book because the main character is a white male in his teens that is suffering from trauma and depression, he must have white privilege so his struggles and pain don't matter, eh?
"He's immature" yeah, he's a teen, I'm willing to bet all of us were at that age. There are people in their late 20s that are just as lacking in maturity and emotional intelligence or even older. |
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MarshalBanana
Posts: 5525 |
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