Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Review

A Summarized Synopsis:

A special unit called Section 9, takes care of all cyber crimes in future Tokyo (the movie was in China). An era when cyber brain hacking is the new and most used crime to date…

The Review:

This was the first anime I viewed after I had seen the great movie, Ghost in the Shell, which was released in 1996. I didn’t have any expectations going into it, since it was my first anime, but I came out fascinated. In my opinion, this series has taken a different and drastic turn from the style in the movie, while bringing some components from it in, you can see the difference. Trust me, it’s a good difference.

Story:

The story is complex, during a couple of episodes it does drag on and get boring, but it is still an interesting story. This series contains many side stories to take breathers from the main one. The main premise of the story is that a new super hacker named Laughing Man who blackmails a top organization, but it is much more “deep” than that.

Characters:

The series brings in the main characters from the movie, but mostly focuses on them more than the new add-ons. There is Major Motoko Kusanagi, the intelligent, beautiful cyber crime fighter who stops at nothing until her job is completed. Next in line is Bateau who is the big guy that kicks ass every day of the year. There is Chief Aramaki as the old overseer and head of the unit. Finally, there is Togusa as the reliable human cop, and Ishikawa as the computer nut who can hack anything. The new recruits are Boma, Pazu, and Saito (he’s the pro sniper). New introductions of non-humans are the mini-tanks known as Tachikoma’s that have amazing AI and can carry conversations with their superiors and team members. They can be very amusing and interesting, but can get annoying at times.

Music:

The music is great of course. I bought volume 1 with the OST, and I couldn’t stop listening to it. It has a techno beat to it, but not so over done that you have every rave partier in the world running to you. Yoko Kanno! Don’t forget that name. She’s the best music composer in this world to date; I’d suggest just buying all the anime with her name in it, that way you can at least not be disappointed with the music.

Animation:

One of the best animated series I’ve seen, and the best part is I never saw any slips in the animation, it was awesome every episode. The characters are all drawn extremely well and detailed realistically. Not only are the characters drawn to the max, the background is fantastic as well as the specific detail to the Tachikoma’s, guns, helicopters, etc. I must admit the CG cars look awkward, but does not take away from the show, thus I won’t dock any points for that.

Sub/Dub:

An anime series with both a fantastic dub and sub. No way! The two main characters and my favorites (both with amazing sub and dub) are Motoko Kusanagi and Batou. Motoko’s voice actors are Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Atsuko Tanaka. They do an amazing job at sounding like the smart, strong, and sexy Motoko. There is also Batou. Akio Ohtsuka and Richard Epcar do amazing jobs as acting the “crack skulls and take names later” tough guy. Of course, all other voice actors do a very respectful job for their characters, both Japanese and English.

The Verdict:

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is probably one of the best anime series to date. This is one you will not want to miss. It was aired both on YTV and Anime Network, but it’s still something you will want to add to your collection. This is an obvious must for the “cyberpunks” or anyone who loves anything cyber-related. People always bash the series sayings it’s boring, but if you pull through the minimal boring episodes you will not be disappointed!

As a final note, you’ll probably watch this series 3 or more times. There will be one for the dub, one for the sub, and then one or more for the story. The story is very complex, and you might miss a thing or two and will make you want to re-watch it. I think the more you watch it, the more you will understand and appreciated it for its complexity. I like it the way it is (being complex) because it doesn’t show you or tell you everything, you have to think about it and find out your own way, which makes this series all the much better.

Rating: