Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence Review

Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence is a movie I have a huge soft spot for from the get go. This is because my favorite GITS character Batou gets his own story centered around him. It almost feels like a Batou spin off in a lot of ways. This movie is probably the closest thing to a Batou and Togusa buddy cop spin off that I always wanted. That alone is enough to make me a big fan of it.

On paper, this movie already sounds like a winner to me, and luckily, in terms of execution, the movie also delivers. Oshii's visuals and Kawaii's music are both just as great as ever, I love how dark and gritty the movie's visual style is. It feels like a dystopia very much far removed from human civilzation as we know it. The music while a lot more subdued compared to the first movie but is still fantastic when it does play.

I feel like overall, and this may be considered an "unpopular opinion" but I prefer this movie over the first one. When it comes to moment to moment dialogue and character interactions, it feels like in many ways the writers of GITS SAC got involved in this movie. The characters here have much more chemistry between each other. It's not just Batou and Togusa but Ishikawa have some good interactions with the two leads as well. I really enjoyed Ishikawa's interactions between Batou involving dogs the most because it feels like Ishikawa shows how concerned he is Batou to the point where he even questions the way the latter takes care of his dog and why he even has one to begin with. While Aramaki doesn't pop up that much in this movie, I do feel his scenes when he does show up are memorable in that he is like a stoic leader who will try to help but does pamper them too much. Of course Togusa and Batou's interactions are great and the scene where they barge into the yakuza hq is fantastic.

Speaking of the yakuza hq shootout, there are many great scenes in this movie, there is the opening sequence where Batou hunts down the rogue doll, the scene where Togusa talks to Harrowaway, the scene where they investigate the inspector's death, the scene with Batou relaxing at his house feeding his dog, the before mentioned yakuza shootout, the convience store Kim hacking, the seqence where Batou and Togusa enters the Northern Frontier, the 2nd Kim hacking and the final action sequence.

The whole movie feels much more like a stand alone narrative to me than the first movie does. The whole film feels like an interesting film noir narrative cyberpunk narrative. With the before mentioned character interactions, it feels like the characters have a lot of history together because of the way they talk to each other. The story feels much more small scale compared to the first movie and I feel it benefits this film as a result. The fact that Batou tries to handle Locus Solus' investigation himself after getting targetting by them and Togusa chooses to help him just helps makes the stakes of the movie more personal as a result.

The movie also does the existential philosophy better too. With stuff like how far removed human civilization has gotten with how hi tech everything looks. Also stuff like how it talks about machines and humans and with the mind screwing Kim hacking scene in the Norther Frontier, the movie tends to make you question about how far humanity will go when technology gets so advanced.

And this leads to a rather infamous aspect of the movie, the excessive philsophical quoting, while I get it being there because it's the characters trying so hard to cling on as to what even makes them human and what humanity they have left, but it can get a bit overbearing at times. I feel like they can go a bit overboard at times. Not enough to ruin the movie but it feels like at points, the characters try too hard to sound smart. It's not a super big deal but if I have to mention a negative, this would be it.

Overall, GITS 2: Innocence might be one of my favorite anime movies ever and one of if not my favorite movie Oshii has directed. I loved this movie back when I watched it and I still love it now.