Koukaku Kidoutai

In the year 2029, Niihama City has become a technologically advanced metropolis. Due to great improvements in cybernetics, its citizens are able to replace their limbs with robotic parts. The world is now more interconnected than ever before, and the city's Public Security Section 9 is responsible for combating corruption, terrorism, and other dangerous threats following this shift toward globalization.

The strong-willed Major Motoko Kusanagi of Section 9 spearheads a case involving a mysterious hacker known only as the "Puppet Master," who leaves a trail of victims stripped of their memories. Like many in this futuristic world, the Puppet Master's body is almost entirely robotic, giving them incredible power.

As Motoko and her subordinates follow the enigmatic criminal's trail, other parties—including Section 6—start to get involved, forcing her to confront the extremely complicated nature of the case. Pondering about various philosophical questions, such as her own life's meaning, Motoko soon realizes that the one who will provide these answers is none other than the Puppet Master themself.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kusanagi, Motoko Main

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Batou Main

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Togusa Main

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Project 2501 Main

Kayumi, Iemasa Japanese

Aramaki, Daisuke Supporting

Ooki, Tamio Japanese

Ishikawa Supporting

Nakano, Yutaka Japanese

Garbage Collector B Supporting

Yamaji, Kazuhiro Japanese

Daita, Mizuho Supporting

Miyamoto, Mitsuru Japanese

Tsuan Gen Fang Supporting

Matsuyama, Takashi Japanese

Nakamura Supporting

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Ishikawa, Mitsuhisa Producer

Watanabe, Shigeru Producer

Iyadomi, Kenichi Producer

Oshii, Mamoru Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 7, 2024

Thecrot

Recommended

The fact that I finished GitS today is magnificent. I really liked the film, at such applied standards you can tell that he worked hard on it. The year it was launched is just a number and I realize that anything is possible regardless of time and space. The film is a work of animation, story and sound, also inspiring my favorite combat game (Oni Bungie).

Certainly all this in a super movie with action, adult cast and much more, of course, the movie is an art in the anime industry and should not be forgotten by anyone. Transposing the Cyborg world into such a ... good story will turn out exactly the same Gits, but this one has something special, the complexity.

For the story I will give it a 9, even if I liked it a lot, honestly the action was here and there but at the right time, of course. The action scenes every time came in wonderfully and attract you to watch more and more.

The animation is superb for '95, the characters and the background say they are part of the real world. They are so well made that you can't believe it was made in that year, the style in which it is made, simply brilliant. 10/10

I can't say more about the audio and characters, they are superb, they are so well executed that you have nothing to comment on this chapter. 10/10

GitS will remain and is an anime worth watching, for fans of such genres, of course you must be of the minimum age required for viewing recommended by stream apps or legitimate sources.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Feb 22, 2024

khattikeri

Mixed Feelings

Ghost in the Shell is visually and aurally stunning. Its animation is smooth, its music is gorgeous, its art holds up to the test of time, and its futuristic setting is captivating. However, watching it for the first time in 2024 clearly left me with different thoughts than someone who might've seen it for the first time at its release nearly thirty years ago.

That is to say, this movie failed to have any actual substance in its characters or plot. It is purely a vehicle for existential philosophy. Which is painfully ironic considering it's literally a movie called "ghost in the shell".

Of course ... it can be fun to contemplate the integration of rapidly developing technology with the human condition and what it literally means to be human. It is not fun to be beaten over the head with it in blunt monologues from one person to another, especially when you have no reason to care about the people spouting it.

I honestly can't even remember most of the characters. Nearly everyone is either a mook or a stoically badass cop with bare minimum details to differentiate them. The only memorable people to me were Batou, who has an actual subtle character arc, and the garbage man from the first third of the movie, whose mini-arc left me with the strongest impression in spite of him being largely irrelevant. The antagonist, Puppet Master, and the protagonist Motoko Kusanagi, are both underdeveloped to the point that I didn't care for just about anything they did. I didn't root for either of them. I didn't learn anything about them. They aren't fully, biologically human, which may have been the point. But they're still characters in a story, and the audience still needs SOMETHING to derive anything from what they're watching these people say and do.

The main plot is meant to be a conspiracy drama, but its pacing is fairly atrocious. It speeds up and slows down worse than a teenager struggling to work out their first car's accelerator. Longwinded existential rambling devolves into quick-paced action scenes which are then followed by minutes-long city montages overlaid with traditional Japanese music. Rinse and repeat. And even if you CAN follow the plot, there's little reason to care about what has happened by the time the credits roll, because none of the characters are explored in depth or made memorable whatsoever.

I understand why this movie was so influential, and I appreciate it for its role in anime and sci-fi history. It does look and sound great! But it utterly fails to tell a story or create interesting characters, which... is literally what a movie is supposed to do. My barely-positive impression of Ghost in the Shell is largely because of its legacy rather than its actual contents, and for that I really can't rate it higher than a 6/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 21, 2024

Emnic

Not Recommended

Funny

God damn this is boring I wish there was a powerpoint presentation of screenshots from this movie because the art is the only masterful part of it. The film drags through it's story like a little child from checkpoint to checkpoint before you can even realize what's happening. Plot jumps all over the place, It's also extremely uninteresting I had even forgotten what it was about half way through. The themes are spoonfed to you as if insulting your intelligence, "you are here to watch a film not think! What did you think this classic from '95 was about?".

God damn what is the minimum ... word count.
filler...
Art = top notch like I said, really sells the futuristic vibe with great designs and of course the best part of the movie is the intro animation
Animation = action is great but you can see that they took away from everything else in order it could be that way.
Characters = good design but they feel very bland and without much personality for much of the film.
Story = horrible

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Ghost in the Shell Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) naikou - Jan 29, 2009	173 replies	by MaybeKris »» Nov 15, 10:22 PM
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