Movie Info
Based on the manga by Masamune Shirow and directed by Kenji Kamiyama, GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX takes viewers to futuristic society where technology has saturated citizens' daily lives. Along with the new technology comes new types of crime that exploits it, but female cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi and her team of police, Section 9, devote their lives to chasing criminals, both on land and in cyberspace. In these episodes, the team must figure out the secret behind a spate of
Jul 27, 2004
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (1) | Fresh (0) | Rotten (0) | DVD (10)
Audience Reviews for Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Vol. 1
"This getting up early," he thought, "makes a man quite idiotic."
There, now all I need is an ominously rotating smiley-face, and I can be as hip as all you people.
Oh one more thing. My main issue with Ghost in the Shell. I get the premise. Ghost in the Shell... The soul in the machine... cyborgs, androids, AI... a postmodern world where the melding of technology and humanity has called into question what it means to be human, has fundamentally altered our identity and reality. I get it. It's pretty interesting.
Unfortunately, the TV show isn't about that. It's today's world, with some robots and androids tacked on. People still live in their city apartments, eat their bento lunches, and go to the temple to pray. Everything's pretty much normal. Then once in a while an android goes crazy and kills someone, or a big robot goes crazy and tries to kill someone, or in a surprise twist, an android goes crazy and kills itself.
If you want to see some REAL mind-bending postmodern anime, go rent Aeon Flux and stop griping at me.
[/font]
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Vol. 1 yet.
What's Hot On RT
Pictures from a zombie nation
Woody Allen in San Francisco
See the Desolation of Smaug trailer!
Where does This Is the End rank?
Fresh Links
Featured
Movie: ID: 770964331 Title: Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Vol. 1 Release Date: null MPAA: 6 Status: 11
The Looks of Johnny Depp
To celebrate the star's birthday, BuzzSugar looks at the many faces of Johnny Depp.
10 Egregious Product Placements
Rolling Stone wonders if The Internship goes too far... then provides 10 examples of movies that did.
Horror Movie Mistakes
Moviefone offers up 8 of the most obvious glaring errors in popular fright flicks.
10 Bad Movies That Look Great
Sometimes even terrible movies can be beautiful; here are 10 of them, from HitFix.
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Featured on RT
- Video Interviews with Cast & Crew of Monsters University 0
- Digital Multiplex: 21 & Over, Quartet, and More 1
- RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Jack the Giant Slayer and Quartet 23
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Man of Steel Sets June Record 101
- Weekly Ketchup: Man of Steel Sequel In the Works 197
- Five Favorite Films with Joss Whedon 127
- Bonus Footage of the Cast & Crew of Man of Steel 1
Top Headlines
[color=blue]I'll admit that, given my love of GitS in general, this review is slightly biased. I bought the box set about a year ago, got up to the 6th disk, and didn't want to finish it because I wanted to leap immediately into the 2nd season. Now that I own both, I've finished it, and let me tell you it still holds up even now.[/color]
[color=#0000ff][/color]
[color=#0000ff]The original manga came out in the late 80's to early 90's, ending about a year before Mamoru Oshii released the first movie. This series, which I say is about as close to the manga as possible without entirely copying it, keeps the feel and emotion of the manga without the darkness and gloom of the movies. It's a perfect balance, knowing when to be serious and when to have a little fun.[/color]
[color=#0000ff][/color]
[color=#0000ff]The fun parts are largely due to either Batou (who is nowhere near the depressed middle-aged man we see in Innocence) who's sarcasm perfectly offsets the other members of Section 9, and the Tachikomas (who were cut from the movies, although they played key roles in the manga). The Tachikomas, being the second version of the manga's Fuchikomas, are very much like children. They're innocent and curious, but still deadly AI that learn from their opponents. How they were left out of the films, I'll never know, because without them, the Section 9 crew would have been killed hundreds of times over.[/color]
[color=#0000ff][/color]
[color=#0000ff]Even without them, there's still a great story to be had. This is set just before the movies, before the Major fuses with the Puppet Master (or the Puppeteer depending on which you read/watch) and is lost to the reaches of the net. She is investigating the mysterious Laughing Man, who is a "triple class A hacker" known for embezzlement and for an amateur hostage situation. He's been under the radar for years, but when he pops up again, all Hell breaks loose. [/color]
[color=#0000ff][/color]
[color=#0000ff]This series has run on Adult Swim for a couple of years (although I don't know if it still does), and most people who watch anime are familiar with it in someway. I won't tell you to buy it if you're not a hardcore GitS fan, but if you love scifi that easily rivals anything this side of the Pacific, then you may want to catch it on cable or rent it if you can. Most used dvd places will have these for a decent price. I bought one or two volumes for about 10 to 12 bucks. It's a seven dvd boxset, and its well worth your money, time, and attention. [/color]