The Ghost in the Shell #01 — The Far Future of 1998
July 7th, 2026
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Impressions:
You'd have to screw the pooch pretty hard to get me to speak ill of a sci-fi girls-with-guns show in this day and age. Though of all the things you could safely change, the year it occurs seems like something you should have no reservations about changing. It's just silly to see it start out with "In the far off future year of 1998, cybernetic nanochips were invented." I'm also not sure the retro blobby style meshes all that well when it tries to get more serious. A lady gets her head exploded, and sure, she was a cyborg with a backup, but it was gruesome. Same with the torturing of children scenes. It makes it unclear what is meant to be brutal and what's just being overexaggerated for comedy. Similarly, the music through the end when the antagonist was highjacking all of them was all placid and classical. Not to invoke SAC, but a more techy or at least dramatic soundtrack feels like it would've worked much better. Hell, a Burn Up jazzy soundtrack would've as well.
But take these as minor complaints. I'm sure other people will have more, especially about it randomly spewing technobabble making things a bit iffy to follow, and how completely unserious it is in comparison to its SAC big brother, and I do think they're warranted. That was how you do an actual adaptation to the time and place, while this feels more… I dunno, transcriptive, I guess I'd put it. An effective transcription, with actual animation, stylistic flair even, in a genre of action that is badly lacking in anime over the last decade, and one that I am particularly fond of, so I'm pleased with it existing at all, and especially being done relatively competently, but the spectre of such an iconic franchise will be hanging over this, and like Nanoha, I can't help but feel like I'd be more excited for it if it wasn't trying to hitch its success to the old franchise.
Posted in Ghost in the Shell | 2 Comments »
Denny De Yeeto
42 pages out of 340 to 350 were adapted, and the chapter’s ending got moved into the next episode. Next up, one the worst chapters and the best part of the 95 film due a page one rewrite. The basis for Innonce ain´t great either. I didn´t hate this, but my brain checked out halfway through as the episodic plot goes nowhere. Tech Otaku Shower Thoughts – The Manga is a good summary of the source material and it only gets worse after Vol 1. This anime is far easier to follow than the manga due to the more unified art a bit less “humor” but IG´s PSX cutscenes, the only other time the 89 artstle was adapted, have a better style. This time and money should have gone to a real Appleseed adaptation and the market is choking on biblically accurate readaptations. Being “like the manga this time” ain´t enough to stand out.
Michael Bay would unironically be the best choice to make a live-action film to “get it right”. Eye candy + production values + military porn + sexism (sexualizing child sex slaves is a choice) + frat bro humor + a cast of millions is another good way to describe the show/manga. See next episode, it all neatly collides there. Bay made The Island, so technobabble is in his wheelhouse! I rest my case.
The 2 films skipped chapter 2 (adapted here), 4 (4 pages of Fuchikoma “gags”), 7 and 8, so not much material will be “new” but Oshii´s team changed so much that comparisons are pointless.