Ghost in the Shell is an interesting movie to talk about. It was one of the earliest examples of anime in the west along with Akira and Ninja Scroll. It was also one of the earliest examples of "prolific" anime dealing with more abstract philophical themes along with something like Neon Genesis Evangelion all though unlike the latter, I actually do tolerate this movie more by comparison.
Let's get to the good, the animation and Kenji Kawaii's music are absolutely breathtaking. I think these 2 aspects are worth checking the music movie out for alone. I feel like some of the most memorable aspects of Mamoru Oshii movies is just having him montage his visuals and have Kawaii's music play in the background. I always find it memsmerizing whenever it happens. The opening sequence "Creation of a Cyborg" was just beautiful to watch. The action is also very good, it feels grounded enough and gritty. The fight scene with ghost hacked criminals and the tank being highlights. Also, I do find the themes of the story interesting with it's themes of identity and questioning your own memories to be interesting enough.
Now, on to the bad or should i say, the more lukewarm aspects of the movie. While the themes of the movie are interesting, the actual plot feels like a smaller part of a bigger story. I did read the GITS manga and while it is a difficult manga to adapt to a movie, it felt like Oshii and the writers took the couple of the later chapters of the manga and adapted other parts from it and turned it into a movie narrative. It kind of feels like the Spriggan movie from the 90s in how that movie adapted one arc of the manga and turned into a movie narrative. Due to this, some things feel half baked. For example, the movie goes out of it's way to describe the character of Togusa but he doesn't really play that big of a role in the grand scheme of the overarching plot outside of planting a tracker on a vehicle and solving a weird issue 2 people entering a door and it taking 3 seconds longer to get in. Then there is also Batou's attachment towards the Major and also Major's backstory and history while it is easy to blame this on being a movie, I also find it because they tried to adapt a manga that mainly told it's story in stand alone cases that eventually started to link together. Due to all this, the characters can feel rather dull due to how underdeveloped they can feel. Also, while I get the ending for being "open ended", it feels like it an end of a chapter and more was going to happen.
Overall, if you want an interesting philosophical anime movie with great visuals and music, you can't go wrong with this one but if you want a story with a more of an exapnded world, story and characters, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex is the better anime to go with. Watch that series, after you watch this movie. Just a disclaimer, they are both in different continuities but are based on the same manga
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