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Anime Media Movies

Ghost in the Shell 2 in Theaters Late This Summer 356

Posted by CmdrTaco from the return-of-a-classic dept.
Peter Williams writes "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is due out in theaters late summer 2004. The english website can be reached here."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Ghost in the Shell 2 in Theaters Late This Summer More

Ghost in the Shell 2 in Theaters Late This Summer

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  • Ghost in the shell (Score:5, Funny)

    by Psymunn ( 778581 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:48PM (#9521028)
    Man, that movie is my favorite naked assassin movie ever. Can't wait!

  • AWESOME!!! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by drgonjo ( 746794 )
    Ghost in the Shell was one of the most impressive Animes I have ever seen! If your not yet a fan of anime the original Ghost in the Shell is a hell of a place to start. Heres hoping the sequel will do it justice!

    • Re:AWESOME!!! (Score:4, Informative)

      by spacerodent ( 790183 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:56PM (#9521132)
      you should also check out the "stand alone complex" series based off it. It assumes no familiarity with the movie but has the same chracters and a whole new plot. Right now theres planned 48 episodes but only 32 are translated by fansub groups. Very good anime unlike most the crap floating around.
      • Yes, Stand Alone Complex is excellent. It's an episodic series, so there's far more scope for tangled plots, characters development and osmotic atmosphere than when such a story is crammed into a 2 hour movie.

        There are 32 episodes translated now? Yikes... I better go check those newer ones out!

      • Re:AWESOME!!! (Score:5, Informative)

        by Chibi ( 232518 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @04:01PM (#9521834) Journal
        Or you can buy the retail version that comes out July 27th (in the US, region 1). Most of the US anime companies are very fan-friendly and do not carry the same practices as the RIAA/MPAA. Please support an industry that is fan-friendly.

      • Re:AWESOME!!! (Score:3, Informative)

        by BigFire ( 13822 )
        The first 26 episodes are the first season. Manga Entertainment and Bandai Entertainment are releasing them next month.

        The second batch of 26 episode (also known as The 2nd GIG) deals with another sets of problem, and is currently being broadcast in Japan 2 episode at a month on a PPV channel.

    • Re:AWESOME!!! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by escher ( 3402 )
      I hope they do a better english dub this time. The first was an astounding movie with one of the worst english dubs ever.

      • Re:AWESOME!!! (Score:3, Informative)

        by ceswiedler ( 165311 ) *
        Actually, the English and Japanese dubs were done at the same time. I agree the voice acting is...stilted, but it wasn't a dub done after the fact. The movie was a Japanese / American / European co-production.

  • Warning... (Score:4, Informative)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:49PM (#9521041) Homepage Journal
    severely Flash crippled site linked to. Suffocated my Firefox - severe resizing/etc. Even now when I change to the tab containing that site, Firefox resizes window.

    Maybe a bug in Firefox, but I hate the jazzy, flashy movie websites anyway.

    • Re:Warning... (Score:5, Informative)

      by MooCows ( 718367 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:51PM (#9521068)
      You might want to turn off resizing in your javascript options. (Options -> Web Features -> Advanced)

    • Re:Warning... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:53PM (#9521104) Homepage Journal
      I am using Safari on my Mac and it is suffering. I didn't realise this site required the minimum hardware specs for Longhorn? This is why Flash designers need to be taken out and beaten, or at least shown the wisdom of good site design.

      • Re:Warning... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:56PM (#9521140) Homepage Journal
        Adding to this, why does the 'skip intro' always have to be in the flash animaton. How do I skip if I have flash disabled?
        • wget the .swf
          grep for strings with 'http' or 'html' or 'php'
          Copy/paste/enjoy

          • Re:Warning... (Score:3, Insightful)

            by aardvarkjoe ( 156801 )
            Try:
            • Go to stupid flash-based website.
            • Spend thirty seconds to determine that there's no way to get in without Flash.
            • Say "Bad web designer! No cookie!"
            • Hit the back button and find something else to read.

            • Re:Warning... (Score:4, Insightful)

              by painandgreed ( 692585 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @04:06PM (#9521885)

              Say "Bad web designer! No cookie!"
              Hit the back button and find something else to read.

              ...or enter the late 90's and install Flash.

              Simply put, designers are going to want a method of presenting their material in a non-browser determined environment similar to print. They get paid lots of money to put their deisgn skills (good or bad) to work, and letting a browser reformat everything according to local settings throws that money away and breaks design even worse. Developing in any sort of HTML based evironment for different browsers and platforms takes too much time and money. Flash is the answer. It allows for dynamic presentation that is rendered the same (for the most part) between all browsers and platforms. The ony thing really holding it up has been download speeds and that is disappearing as they increase and it (or something similar) will be the standard in advertising websites similar to PDFs and documents.

              • Re:Warning... (Score:3, Insightful)

                by tapin ( 157076 )
                ...will be the standard in advertising websites...

                Just what I wanted. Advertising that's even more obnoxious and slow than what we've already got. Thanks!

              • it (or something similar) will be the standard in advertising websites similar to PDFs and documents

                is that supposed to be good? anytime a document i need is only available in PDF, theres a little voice screaming inside my head: now i get to wait for 90 seconds while my pc is cold, hard, locked down as adobe acrobat's massive, bloated codebase climbs into my ram...

              • Re:Warning... (Score:5, Insightful)

                by aardvarkjoe ( 156801 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @04:43PM (#9522360)
                Simply put, designers are going to want a method of presenting their material in a non-browser determined environment similar to print.

                Tell you what -- I think I'll stay in the early nineties, when we actually thought there was more to the web than being a glorified print advertising medium, and that content was more important than style -- especially when that style is achieved at the expense of usability.
      • On the bright side... it's so nice that they kindly resize your browser to fit the whole desktop. It's rare to get that kind of service from a website.

        Quite often, I find myself thinking... wouldn't it be cool if my browser could take up the whole window? Sure, that Maximize button works, but what I'd really like is for the window to be at maximum size, so that I don't have to worry about whether the window is maximized or not... either way the whole screen is full! But it can be really tricky trying to do

      • I am using Safari on my Mac and it is suffering.

        Hrrm. Works fine on my G4 400 running 10.2. Somehow I don't think hardware specs are to blame. Design isn't really what I'd do, but I highly doubt it is the cause for any of your problems.

        Download speed maybe. I suspose there are some design things you can do with keeping people with anemic connections occupied while the site downloads.

    • Yeah, my Firefox window was resizing also... but then again, so was my brain. Very impressive flash intro. I can't wait until September 17th!

  • Wait... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by marnargulus ( 776948 )
    So they are bringing back the same characters? But how will this work with the merging of the AI with the naked assassin?

    • Re:Wait... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Kenja ( 541830 )
      Well the TV series "stand alone complex" was beased on an alternate time line where the puppet master never showed up. However, it looks like the second movie is more focused on Batu then the major.

  • PG-13 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Iscariot_ ( 166362 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:52PM (#9521092)
    Wait. This thing is PG-13? What does that mean? No more nudity? Less violence? What was the first one rated?

  • * YAWN * (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fiannaFailMan ( 702447 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:53PM (#9521098) Journal
    First, please don't mod me into oblivion, I know a lot of people swear by this show but I'm one of many people who just didn't get it and I'm entitled to explain why.

    That said, I saw Ghost in the Shell 1 and never was as bored in all my life. Sure the animation is good and the visuals are atmospheric, but the English dialogue was bordering on the hypnotic. Big overlong monologues that go on and on and on..... zzzzzz. And I got halfway through the film and still hadn't figured out what the hell they meant by a 'ghost.' I kept asking, 'okay, ghosts are an important part of all of this, I get it, now will you kindly tell us what the f@*# a ghost is please?' But no. Just more pseudo-intellectual waffle.

    I strongly warn against anyone watching this stuff if you want to get into anime for the first time. This yawn-fest is not representative of anime. Watch Cowboy Bebop [sonypictures.com] instead. It's a lot more fun, the animated cityscapes are stunning, and it doesn't take itself very seriously.

    • MOD PARENT UP (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      How is that trollish?? My goodness.. If someone dislikes what you like doesn't automatically make them a troll. It's called an opinion.

    • Agreed... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Cyno01 ( 573917 )
      GitS is suposed to be one of like the top Anime films, i picked up the dvd for that reason, not the first in my collection, but i got it pretty much just to have it. I liked it, but it was kinda boring in parts (not as boring as metropolis though, what a yawn fest), probably didn't help that i had the flu and a 103 fever when i watched it, but anywho.. I Agree, the CB movie is much better to introduce someone to anime, that or maybe Princess Mononoke. I'd recomend Akira as a second film.
      • Hmm... Well, I'd list Akira much further down any list of good starter films. Millenium Actress by Satoshi Koh(sp?) is probably my number one pick. Amazing film.

    • Spirtuallity and Philosphy are the keys (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:10PM (#9521274) Homepage Journal
      In order to appreciate films like this and Final Fantasy, you definetly need a better understanding of spirtual beliefs. The ghost, is the spirit or soul of the machine, in the same way a ghost is the bodyless soul of a person.

      Final Fantasy, lends itself to the Gaia Theory, and taking it further to suggest that planets are living enties with their own soul.

      Japanese animation has plenty of philosphy in them (not all of them admitedly), and can be very deep, so it takes more to appreciate them than your average american cartoon, which in contrast are very shallow.

      • In order to appreciate films like [...] Final Fantasy, you definetly need a better understanding of spirtual beliefs. [...]Final Fantasy, lends itself to the Gaia Theory, and taking it further to suggest that planets are living enties with their own soul.

        Hey, hold on. I'm not buying into the "You didn't appreciate FF because you lack a spiritual understanding" thing.

        It's not that I didn't understand the Gaia premise; I did. It's just that I put it in the same category as people who believe in aromath

      • Maybe, but having a good understanding of spiritual and philosophical beliefs does not neccesarily mean you'll like this movie. I've seen it twice and have a hard time staying awake each time. I consider myself intouch with various philophies and have studied several religions back in school. it doesn't make this an interesting movie. I gave it a few chances. I give it the grade of C-

        I'm no huge anime fan, but i like a good movie and I appreciate good animation. I've only seen a handfull of anime movies an
    • I completely agree with you on the "confusing aspect" you mentioned. Also, for me the movie didn't seem to actually have an ending, it just ... stopped. Am I missing something?

    • Re:* YAWN * (Score:5, Interesting)

      by pilkul ( 667659 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:16PM (#9521332)
      Yeah, the GITS movie is actually quite obscure in Japan. As any anime fan knows, the vast majority of anime (putting aside the question of whether it's actually good or not) is not at all like Ghost in the Shell, and that sort of thing is not very appealing to most Japanese. The film just happened to be the subject of early marketing pushes for anime in America, probably because it involves a lot of futuristic, gritty violence.

      The Western perception (steadily eroding, fortunately) that anime mainly consists of sex and gunfighting is ironic. Here's what happened, as I understand it: Japanese marketers saw American films like Terminator, figured that Americans like lots of sex and guns, and decided that they should only release in America those anime films "appealing to American tastes". The American perception of anime to a large extent reflects the Japanese perception of American tastes!

      • Re:* YAWN * (Score:4, Interesting)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Thursday June 24, 2004 @04:22PM (#9522105) Homepage Journal
        Interestingly, the big eyes style prevalent in anime was derived from American animation. It's amazing how we come full circle in so many ways...

      • Re:* YAWN * (Score:3, Insightful)

        by hambonewilkins ( 739531 )
        The Western perception (steadily eroding, fortunately) that anime mainly consists of sex and gunfighting is ironic. Here's what happened, as I understand it: Japanese marketers saw American films like Terminator, figured that Americans like lots of sex and guns, and decided that they should only release in America those anime films "appealing to American tastes". The American perception of anime to a large extent reflects the Japanese perception of American tastes!

        While an interesting idea, I'd like to see

    • You don't know what a ghost is?

      I didn't think their usage of ghost was particularly obscure, though maybe you didn't understand what a shell was: A shell was a body, and thus a ghost in the shell is a soul in a body.

      And of course, the whole point of the movie, by the end, was the ghost outside the shell :)
    • Yes Cowboy Bebop [amazon.com] is good . . *hint* *hint*

    • MTV attention spans (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:30PM (#9521484)
      That said, I saw Ghost in the Shell 1 and never was as bored in all my life.
      [snip]
      And I got halfway through the film and still hadn't figured out what the hell they meant by a 'ghost.'

      Ghost in the Shell does not pander to MTV attention spans, and like the Patlabor movies, there's a complex plot. And a "ghost", while a vague concept, is quite obviously(if you pay attention) "what makes a person a person and not a machine". It's your personality, memories, etc. Part of it is that nobody seems to quite be able to put their finger on what a 'ghost' really is; hence the scene where Motoko wonders with Batou whether or not she's really human anymore. Are her memories manufactured, she wonders?

      Watch Cowboy Bebop instead. It's a lot more fun, the animated cityscapes are stunning, and it doesn't take itself very seriously.

      Cowboy Bebop is one of the all-time greats, but there are those of us who do enjoy serious anime.

      There were a lot of complaints about Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex too- a lot of immature people complained there wasn't enough "action" and there was "too much talking". Well, guess what- that's -exactly- what GITS has always been about, right down to the manga, which sometimes has -paragraphs- of narration.

      If you don't like philosophical anime, fine- go watch mindless shit like [shivers] Dragon Ball Z, [gets sick] Naruto, or [throws up] One Piece. But don't try to make every anime fit your tastes and complain when something doesn't.

      The slashdot crowd might really enjoy PlanetES, about a young girl full of ideals who goes into space to work in a debris collection department- and finds space isn't quite as romantic, and astronauts not quite as valiant- as she thought.

      Last Exile is about two kids serve as couriers, piloting a flying machine in the midst of a war and hoping to some day find their father(s) who were lost delivering a vital message.

      Read or Die(watch the OVA first) is a fun series about three detective-sisters(named after martial arts starts, incidentally- Anita, Maggie, Michelle; there's also a Lee, a dove named Woo, etc :-) who are "paper-users" like the famous bibliomaniac Yoriko "The Paper" Readman, who worked for (heh) the British Library Special Forces. The OVA is particularly strange in a fun way. Kinda girly and -very- moving towards the end.

      Oh, and lastly, Spirited Away is fantastic. Not nearly as preachy as Ghibli's earlier stuff(which is also excellent, but extremely heavy-handed in environmentalist ways. Princess Mononoke, Nausicca Valley of the Wind, etc).

      • Re:MTV attention spans (Score:4, Funny)

        by Pxtl ( 151020 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @04:05PM (#9521879) Homepage
        Actually, GiTS is a Shirow comic. So, while it may have been very dramatic and spiritual, the actual subject of it was sexy cyborg chicks dressed in tight leather dominatrix outfits with cables sticking out of them.
      • Dude, I have a pretty good attention span and am pretty well read thank you very much. I'm all in favour of movies that dig into philosophy, but in my opinion GitS was just overlong and not a little pretentious. There are better ways of doing philosophy than putting the audience to sleep.

  • Down your pants (Score:4, Funny)

    by Jackboot ( 791190 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:54PM (#9521109)
    Goodbye warm grits, hello innocent GITS.

  • wtf? I didn't even type anything (Score:5, Funny)

    by nebaz ( 453974 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:55PM (#9521121)
    bash$ boo
    bash: boo: command not found
    bash$
  • Does anyone know if it will be featured at the Montreal FantAsia Festival?
    • I sure hope it will be.

      The movie list was supposed to come out two days ago..

      It's a national holiday today (St-Jean Baptiste), so there's little chance we'll see the page updated today.

      For those who want to check it, here's a link [fantasiafestival.com].

      I missed last year, but for this year I'm working one block away and will try to attend as much of it as I can.

  • Check it out .. (Score:5, Informative)

    by z0ink ( 572154 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:57PM (#9521152)
    If you are a fan of the Ghost in the Shell movie than you need to get your hands on the series. Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex is one of the most well produced anime series I've seen in a while. You don't need to be some total "Anime Freak ^_^" to watch these. Definatly some great stuff in here and better background on the GitS story.

  • Ghost on my mind (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Wellmont ( 737226 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:58PM (#9521158) Homepage
    Compared with Armitage (along with others) and it's subsiquent sequels the creators of Ghost in the Shell really outdid themselves with it's production. Rarely does an Anime movie mix great plot, action, and camera angles with good "art". The entire Si Fi genre in Anime has suffered from serials that continue far beyond their disturbingly bad pilots. I for one am looking forward to this new sequel, from what i've heard it's not going to be a direct interpretation of the original movie's lines and characters. And if anyone has seen the original movie you can attest to the fact that it steps beyond the common "anime" genre and out-performs most of it's field and regular "live-action" movies as well.

    • Re:Ghost on my mind (Score:3, Informative)

      by ed1park ( 100777 )
      Don't forget the music from Ghost in the Shell by Kenji Kawai! Best soundtrack since Akira's by Geinoh Yamashirogumi. Made the long distance drive the other day awesome.

      I look forward to the new music.

      GITS
      http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0 0 005NZZE/ qid=1088104694/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/002-1798687-48680 65

      Akira
      http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/deta il/-/B000 0076D8/ref=m_art_li_1/002-1798687-4868065?v=glance &s=music

    • Re:Ghost on my mind (Score:3, Interesting)

      by PPGMD ( 679725 )
      I believe the movie was too short for it's own good, even in Japanese, there is very little that makes me want to care the characters in the story, just not enough depth to make the movie really that good, but the animation quality, and music make it worthwhile to watch.

      IMO the top three anime movies that I have seen (haven't seen Akira yet) are:
      1. Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise - The first production from Studio Gainax, the folks that brought the world Eva, and a few other great shows. Fantastic

  • Looks Good... (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by bfg9000 ( 726447 )
    ... but is it good enough to make up for the last Matrix movie? *shudders*

    I've sworn off entertainment completely since I heard that blind Neo is teaming up with Chaka Khan to entertain the Merovingian in the next film, Matrix:Chicago (the musical). But I should've guessed this would happen, since the warning signs were all there. [azcentral.com]

    Sigh... anime may be dead to me now, but they can never take away the classics of cinema [amazon.com].

    • Re:Looks Good... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Destoo ( 530123 ) <destoo@gmailLAPLACE.com minus math_god> on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:42PM (#9521646) Homepage Journal
      Speaking of the matrix...

      Watch the original Ghost in the Shell.
      Then Watch the first Matrix.

      Compare.

      Of course, the Wachowski brothers did say they were trying to do a "live-action japanese animation movie".
      We just didn't know they just wanted to do a 1-to-1 conversion of a specific movie.

      • Re:Looks Good... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by dgagley ( 468178 )
        The best of the matrix is the Annimatrix.

        I haven't watched the first Ghost in the shell - I'll have to get it. I do want to see 2 in te theatres. I would love to also get the Aeon Flux series on DVD.

        My wife thinks i am nuts because I watch alot of the Annime in japanese. Sometime watching the art of the annimation without understanding the words gives a whole new perspective.

  • Good introduction to Anime? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by B5_geek ( 638928 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:05PM (#9521230)
    I guess I am what you would call: "A Lazy Fat-Bastard"

    I have enjoyed a lot of the Anime that I have watched, but I still don't know enough of it to reccommend to anybody as a good beginner/intro movie/show.

    My Favorites:

    Ninja Scroll (#1 in my book)
    Ranma 1/2
    Robotech (not the sanitized US version)

    I guess I am still an Anime vigrin (although Ninja Scroll was a brutal introduction), what movies/series would you suggest a person who wants to watch more Anime view?

    • god, why did you put yourself through the awfulness of ninja scroll?

      watch akira, the wings of honneamise, and lain
    • Cowboy Bebop. It is the best show ever anywhere. Better than Good Eats. And I have a pair of welding gloves for hot pads, so that's saying something.

      To a lesser extent: Blue Gender. A little forced, kinda weird, but it's got guns and bugs.

      Trigun. If you can ignore the annoying faces they make sometimes. (That show could have been really bad ass if they hadn't done that stuff.)

      Whatever you do, do not watch Inu Yasha. I stayed up late one night to see what was on, and gave up on anime when I saw Inu Yasha.


    • Well, I also liked Ninja Scroll, and would probably put that pretty high on my animated film list. I've been told I'm not really into *real* anime.

      *shrug*

      Oh well. I also liked "Vampire Hunter D." You might want to check that out. I guess I liked "Lain" as well. It's different. I never cared for "Akira" that much, but "Princess Mononoke" was pretty good.
    • I want to thank everybody who replied to my message. You have now given me enough movie titles to keep me busy for awhile, I think my wife will enjoy the Vampire one too. (she like Ranma 1/2 a lot)

      Thanks folks.
    • Out of curiosity, what is the other version of Robotech? I hope you don't mean Macross, because it would hurt my ears if you call Macross 'Robotech.'

      I guess I am still an Anime vigrin

      No shit.

      Planetes
      Patlabor 2
      Cowboy Bebop
      Vision of Escaflowne
      Castle of Cagliostro
      Porco Rosso
      Macross Zero
      Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex
      Giant Robo

      That'll do for a start.
  • in other words, good or neutered?

    Or maybe I should just wait until the Japanese version is out on DVD, like Kill Bill.

  • For those who had never heard of it (Score:4, Informative)

    by kingstalemuffins ( 786246 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:14PM (#9521312)
    Ghost in the Shell [wikipedia.org]

  • Bah (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 )
    Just another sequal series which will disapoint (like Gundam SEED, Macross Zero etc).

    It's annoyingthat years after the originals people want to cash in on the name rather then using their heads and making something intresting and original (Full metal alchemist forexample)

  • Grrr... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Hassman ( 320786 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:21PM (#9521386) Journal
    That site totally turned me off. I hate it when web sites mess with the size of my browser. I like it a certain size (which my home page will set when I open my browser just in case...) so when sites annoy me like that, 9 out of 10 times, the window gets closed. It reminds me of the days before pop-up blockers where pr0n sites would pop up full screen everywhere.

    blah. I didn't even get past the flash intro.

    Anyone want to let me in on this series?

  • Translation (Score:2, Interesting)

    by tierra ( 608450 )
    I've been waiting months for this, and now I get to wait a few more.

    I've had the japanese version for a long time, but could never translate it for myself no matter how hard I tried =(.
  • so few interesting movies... and both this and Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow [skycaptain.com] open the same weekend.

  • SIFF premiere... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Quadrature ( 524139 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:31PM (#9521500)
    I was able to see this movie when it premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival (at the Cinerama [cinerama.com] no less with it's kick ass visual and sound systems). It focuses on Bateau 3 years after the first movie. I enjoyed 2 in much the same way as 1 but it definitely has the same over use of philosophy and metaphors. If you don't get hung up on that, it is the most visually stunning film I've ever seen. While some of the scenes seem like they just did them to look good and don't aid the story at all, there are other moments where the juxtaposition of classical animation on top of intricately detailed CG environments gives it a remarkable look and sense of immersion. If you liked the first one, you'll definitely enjoy this one, even if it is a bit lighter on the substance. If you couldn't get by 1's philosophizing diaglouge, 2 will drive you insane.

  • Notes from the SIFF Premiere (Score:5, Informative)

    by Batlord ( 33242 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:31PM (#9521502)
    I was lucky enough to be at the North American Premiere as part of the Seattle International Film Festival. Brief impressions below:

    The Crowd
    The theatre (Cinerama) was packed. The rush line (people who didn't buy tickets in advance) wound around the corner. I don't think many got in.

    The Presentation
    Subtitles. Hooray!

    The Movie
    One of the few films that's substantially better than the original. I re-watched the original a few days before seeing this to refresh myself of the story (not necessary).

    I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I'll just say that it's some of the best feature-length anime I've seen in a long time.

    The things that bothered me with the original (like the gratuitious nudity and slow pace) were left out.

    Overall
    It's great that this film is making it to theatres, in any case, it would be a big hit on DVD. The big screen was a big help.

    • The things that bothered me with the original (like the gratuitious nudity and slow pace) were left out.


      I don't know that nudity in anything from the Japanese is gratuitious. Nudity doesn't have the same stigma with them as it does in the West. If there isn't any nudity it's either a "western" influence (for western distribution) or it wasn't appropriate to the plot element even for Japanese.

  • alternate trailer (Score:4, Informative)

    by neoThoth ( 125081 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:34PM (#9521528) Homepage
    Make sure to check out the japanese trailer [gofishpictures.com]. It's way better and ironically almost entirely in english.

  • I read the whole article... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Bill Hayden ( 649193 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @04:24PM (#9522122) Homepage
    ...but it never mentioned if it was bash, tcsh, or ksh.

  • Why 2? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Elias Ross ( 1260 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @07:34PM (#9523701) Homepage

    The producer in Japan said that the title of the film should not have "2" in its name. The American title should have been Refer [animenewsnetwork.com]"Innocence - Ghost In the Shell". His intention was to target this movie to Japanese people who hadn't seen the original.

    I think sequels are generally poorer than the initial movie and are a marketing convenience, but how many people won't see "2" because they missed "1"? Now that anime is widely popular (at least, compared to back in 1994), they should have stuck with the Japanese name.

    "Innocence" also conveys the director's vision than "2" does. Mamoru Oshii is making a movie about life. What is human life and existance, as opposed to those that are machines? "Innocence": The theme of the movie.

    Mamoru Oshii's vision is to make a movie that discusses--often overtly, which bothers some--the nature of human existence and how technology is changing the definition of humanity.

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