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May 19, 2010
There are several things I don't appreciate in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
Spoilers included by necessity:
I found it really disappointig that the final solutions to the main mysteries didn't actually have anything to do with the technology of GITS's world like would have expected. Why not explore the chance that, for example, the EXACT replicability of things electronic input/output to brain allows could result in different minds processing the raw thoughts to a same conclusion as the results of human minds being at some level identical? Instead the "copies without original" were explained through memetics, despite the fact that the concept of memes
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doesn't have much to do with random people deciding to do the same thing randomly after witnessing some event.
This reminds me much about the reasons why I don't like Paranoia Agent - making a work that involves psychological and sociological dynamics, but then exaggerating the phenomenon to totally unplausible levels causes it to not deliver any real message, or illustrate the workings of these theories in educational sense. Some may find it brilliancy, but I find it as a lacking sense of reality and/or poor grasp of the concepts it is all about. It's even more frustrating when it's offered as a solution to a mystery the whole series is based upon.
Also, what's up with the Major's outfit? Nobody wears clothes like that, that's pure fanservice. It's up to you to decide whether or not this cheapens the work (GITS is not a character-driven show to begin with after all), as long as you aren't a hypocrite and think that in the case of Code Geass it does but in the case of Ghost in the Shell doesn't.
Some praise the difficulty of the plot to follow, such as mentioning a important, relating case in one episode in the beginning when one has not a clue of the whole picture of what the series is about, and then casually referring to it later on. I can't see how this is a positive thing and somehow adding 'depth' into it and not different from just bad storytelling.
My strong opinion is, mindfuck for the sake of it is never good, it should be used only as a tool to serve a purpose, to deliver the message of the work if it cannot be effectively delivered any other way (such as in Paprika, in which it is fun to guess whether what's happening is a dream or real event, or to a lesser extent in Serial Experiments Lain, which uses uncertainty and inconsistency as a metaphor for the layman's defective understanding of the nature of modern technology and detachedness from the world's clockwork functions).
Overall, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex is pretty average and unrealistic cyberpunk that has nothing that is actually worth a honest thought of 'what if this happened in reality' and you haven't seen somewhere else already. And by this I mean most of the Stand Alone episodes are based onto recycled cyberpunk ideas.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 19, 2010
Monster could really have been a good show, but like so many works it tried to put too much stuff in one packet to really deliver anything.
The premise was very interesting, and if compressed into 20-30 episodes could have made a great series. However, it went the another way, putting Tenma through many many sidequests that had nothing to do with the main plot, and the wangst resulting all his encounters had not much to do with his character's development. In classical terms, we would call these 'fillers'.
If these were quickly over their existence would not ruin the overall enjoyment. However, they are treated as
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equally important with the main story, and the pacing which is on par with The Bold and the Beautiful totally killed the enjoyment. It's just frustrating when you'd want to see where the story twists next and nothing happens in the time of 3-10 episodes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 19, 2010
I've watched this show 2,769 times and still can't make any real sense of it. And I for God's sake like philosophy and science fiction very much.
Its metaphysics are somewhat contradictory, and some things are never explained in any way, and any theory I'm able to form about all this show presents leaves something out.
Its important characters are all shallow and don't show any kind of appropriate/understandable emotional reactions. This is by no means the number one show I'd recommend if you wanted to think about the effects modern technology has on people's lives.
I figure this is after all its ultimate goal: to illustrate
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how, because of the complexicity and rapid advancement of technology, many questions previously safely put on hold about the world, society, reality, humanity, identity etc. must be asked again, and there's not really time to think them beforehand, only when it's too late to do anything if needed. Ultimately, the average person, in here the viewer, can't really know for sure what's happening in the world around them. They can only consider sources more or less reliable. Such case is the source for all conspiracy theories, which Lain's plot ultimately is about.
However, seeing how this is illustrated in the media of animated mini-series is barely worth using 13*25 minutes of your life.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 19, 2010
One Piece... is just one decades long shonen battling series among others. Who likes what best and others not that much is a matter of opinion but saying that One Piece somehow objectively shines above all others is just masqueraded fanboyism.
Story? It is stupid IMHO. The main hero Luffy just one day decides without any real reason that he's gonna become the KING OF PIRATES and be the person to find the mythical treasure One Piece that countless others have tried in the past and present. Yes he has a special power, but so do many others and I'm sure he couldn't be fully unaware
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about that. So how can he be so confident in himself? Making the character 'stupid' is not an excuse for poor character development IMHO. Which in turn is no excuse for a simplistic plot.
After the average beginning the series goes totally downhill. Nowadays, it is too focused in inventing new sidequests after another, new islands after another, new strange powers after another so that the main story progresses nowhere in even a hundred chapters. Also every story arc is more and more comedy and less substance, which i suppose is the main reason why One Piece is slightly more popular than Naruto or Bleach, which may take themselves too seriously. But I for one like seriousness... So...
Most characters rely only on their personality disorders with doing things, and their role in the series becomes clear immediately when they're introduced. And it barely ever changes. Nothing surprising ever happens character-development-wise. Even the cowardly Usopp's henshin into somewhat more heroic SogeKing totally fits his tendency to put up blatant lie shows so it's not real development. Side-characters likewise consist only of their 1) design 2) powers 3) a quirk or few.
The battles are IMHO duller than those in Naruto or Bleach. This is partly because the decisive move is usually something unbelievably weird stunt that only a person living in a quixotic world after watching too much comedy shows in a marathon would think of pulling out. Another reason is the concept of Devil Fruits which I liked and found having much potential. This potential however is wasted because some of the characters also have superhuman strength the origin of which is never explained, and their strength builds up linearly as the series progresses, and hence a character without Devil Fruit powers can be as strong as one having them, and a character with the powers can be much stronger or weaker physically than another user. This is stupid, and very generic.
Also some people claim it's objectively better that there's no knowing beforehand how two of the powers will do against each other. I think it's just a matter of taste, and like said above, even the potential for this to be really interesting is wasted, because the Fruit powers play only a little role in the grand scale. If a character loses Devil Fruit -wise they still can win by physical strength, and almost always do so. There simply is never the same kind of 'gaming' experience or excitement you find in the tournament arcs of some other shonen series, and good grief One Piece doesn't have one, it would be too boring for me to continue.
The only reason I gave it overall score that is "bad" instead of "average" is because there weren't any before, unlike with Naruto or Bleach which have many. It's not unreadable if you like series like it, but originality-wise it's definitely 1 like Naruto and Bleach.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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