TV Review: Ghost in the Shell- Stand Alone Complex

11/08/2004

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Cartoon Network, happy home of such surreal fare as Space Ghost, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, has been slowly buying domestic broadcasting rights for various high-quality japanime and showing the series on late night weekend blocks. They've made Cowboy Bebop a household name (well, very few houesholds, but anyway) and now they are poised to do the same with the enigmatic Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The series ran for about 26 episodes in japan in 2003, and was soon leaked worldwide thanks to the bootleg market, though only recently has it become available on region 1/2 DVD. Adult Swim just broadcast the first episode on Saturday, and that's what will be discussed here. I'm in happy ignorance as to the future plot elements in the series. But this I can tell you: it's better than the first Ghost in the Shell film, and that's saying a lot, brother.



The first episode starts with a bang...almost... as Major Kusanagi thwarts a would-be cyber-terrorist, on the roof of course. SOon, Section 9 is called in to mitigate a lethal hostgae crisis where several people have been detained by rogue geisha robots, utlizing wicked sleeper holds, and intel indicates a besieged political ally of the section chief's been watching a foreign minister on suspicion of treason, who of course happens to be in the geisha restaurant. Kusanagi, Batou and the rest do some sweet covert ops work, take out the geishas, rescue the foreign minister, and then later reconstruct events to discover that, as usual in this series, all is not as it appears, and that suitcase might just contain a braincase... the minister is apprehended at the airport and stripped of his duties, if you can call several sniper tracer beams clustered around the sternum "stripping" and the episode ends, with the mystery just beginning.

The animation style is clean and subtle, reminiscent of Production IG's work in the OAV Ghost in the Shell a few years earlier. But with time to stretch out and experiment a little, the team have really pulled together the fusion of CGI and traditional cel animation in a cohesive fashion. Unlike the flashy but stiffly artificial CGI opening sequence, the show looks very traditional as straight anime, unlike several popular trends today to push as much super shiny, fluid CGI into everything. You can really only tell the CGI is happening when your eye catches that perfect, flawless 3d animation with a cel overcoat. The voice actors remain the same from the english dub of the first film and the recent, inexplicable sequel, and while I prefer to watch Japanese with subtitles, it wasn't unbearable. The sound was true stereo, possibly surround, but I had it down low due to special interest group pressure. There are some great images in this ep: close up on the foreign minister's optical implants as he tries to read some classified data on the way to claim asylum in the states (below) or the great geisha hits. Probably my favorite image was Major Kusanagi glaring from behind a stuffed chair of some sort with her hair blown to one side. Really sharp look.



The series is 1/26th under way, so you still have time to jump on-board if you desire it. The box sets of the DVDs are fairly pricey, but can be obtained through bootleg means for more expedient viewing. Great stuff, so far, though I freely admit to being heavily biased as a Shirow fan, and this series benefits from his direct involvement in the production.

9/10 Clicks

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Want to know more about Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex? Here's a complete episode guide at destroy-all-monsters.



Meanwhile, if you want to get to the root of all this ghosty goodness, you must go straight to the source: Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell manga. The first book has been collected in trade, dubbed in english, and is available at the local comic shop (and well worth it) while the sequel manga, Ghost in the Shell II: Man-Machine Interface, is still being published domestically in indidual issues before trade collection. You can read about it here.



But I know what you're thinking. "Hey, wrongrobot, didn't the Matrix look an awful lot like Ghost in the Shell?" Brother, i think you're on to something. So do they.



Lastly, can't wait for those GiTS: Stand Alone Complex DVDs to come? Need your shooting, dodging, actioning, hip-swaggering Kusanagi (or Batou) fix immediatement? Try the game for PS2 and other platforms, available as of tonight! Here's a teaser trailer for the game...(you have to submit to Gamezone.com's downloader app full of spyware and shit like that, but eeeeasy like sunday morning, you'll be able to restlessly watch the game without any semblance of control.



So says...Wrongrobot!


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