It is a time when, even if nets were to guide all consciousness that had been converted to photons and electrons toward coalescing, standalone individuals have not yet been converted into data to the extent that they can form unique components of a larger complex.

Background:

Most people have probably heard of the movie Ghost in the Shell, which was hyped for its thought-provoking philosophical approach to human identity and existence in a time where those may be compromised by the union of cyber technology and human minds and for its masterful mix of cel and computer animation. Based on the manga by Masamune Shirow, this 26 episode anime series continues with the characters that were present in the movie.

Volume 1 of the DVD contains the first four episodes of the series. There are two types of episodes, Standalone and Complex. The Standalone episodes are basically one-shot stories where they aren’t connected to any pre-existing storyline or to any other episode in the series. The complex episodes deal with the on-going storyline of the Laughing Man.

Review:

The first episode basically introduces the function of Major Motoko Kusanagi and her unit of Section 9 (Public Security). When political and other sensitive leaks, terrorism or other threats to the public occur - Section 9 must step in and resolve them. Kusanagi basically acts as the leader of the group, deciding on what to do, when to do it and how to do it. She’s also the brains, not only brawn - for she’s an expert in the world of cyber-technology. Not much is revealed about the world, but as the audience learns, through simple observation, small details are revealed as the series progresses. GitS also doesn’t require one to be familiar with any of the characters or premises; it’s a good and “tranquil” ease into the GitS universe. I say this as a comparison, because the violence and action of the first four episodes are toned down. The cool sequence in the GitS movie isn’t recalled here, but that’s all right because what is expected must later come.

As expected of Production I.G., the animation is top notch - fluid and all the scenes are rendered very well. I noticed too, that the style and colour scheme is reminiscent of film noir. The stories are approached in a very “detective” manner; nothing is too obvious, but it isn’t unnecessarily convoluted for the sake of convolution either. The character design is slightly different from the movie version and I personally prefer Kusanagi from the GitS movie. Nonetheless, they retain most of the feel - that vaguely futuristic Sci-Fi kind of feeling.

The music is by Yoko Kanno who is well known in the world of anime, scoring such anime as Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop. And rightly so, the music is very well done - sometimes creepy, intriguing, mysterious but not entirely tuneless (I also recommend the Ergo Proxy OST too, as a sidenote). The OP by Origa is really cool - mostly in Russian. I watched part of the episodes with the english voice cast and most of the voices matched with their Japanese counterparts. I found the english Kusanagi lacking assertion though, she needs to be a bit more snappy and commanding (as a Major should be).

The show brings up a lot of interesting issues that would predominate a certain world like the GitS one. Since technology technically dissociates the brain from the body, cyberkinetically enhanced (cyber brains) can be switched into various prosthetic bodies or machines. Thus, the validity of human identity as a whole with one’s body is questioned. Once again, the show ponders over what consciousness is and what kinds of identity can be associated with it, whether identity is independent of physicality in a world where physicality is no longer static but dynamic. In the second episode, religion interferes with a sick boy’s right to obtain a prosthetic body. Even now and here, medical operations like blood transfusions, organ transplants and even stem cell research clashes with religious fundamentalists. In the third episode, the old question concerning whether or not androids can develop “human” emotions and feelings is dealt with. The show never enforces any stance on the viewer; nothing is cut and dry. The fourth episode introduces the on-going Laughing Man case which is probably its deepest philosophical undercurrent. I’ll go over that more in the next volume’s review as it’s more relevant in the later episodes.

The show isn’t without its faults however, there’s a lot of lengthy, sometimes tedious conversational dialogues which make the show seem stale at some points.
Not to mention, in a CSI-esque manner, the case of the episode’s motives, causes, reasons, etc are discussed at the end of the episode. It’s almost to explain to the viewer just in case s/he was too slow to understand but admittedly, it is helpful. All in all, I recommend it (even after only watching the first four episodes) for people who don’t mind slow, but intriguing Sci-Fi.

Tags: anime, ghost in the shell, series, stand alone complex

Category: Series Reviews

A. Papillon is not amused.