Due to the unpopularity (perhaps deserved) of my review thread, I've decided to instead repost my review of the first disc here and request the other thread closed.
Please EVERYONE give your review of the first disc of GITS: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig. What you liked, didn't like, and so on. This includes the episodes but also the features on the disc.
2nd Gig- DVD Disc 1 discussion
Moderator: sonic
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Willowhugger
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Fri May 26, 2006 1:11 am
2nd Gig- DVD Disc 1 discussion
Author of "Machine Goddess" and "The Undying Machine"
Machine Goddess: http://tinyurl.com/gkp5z
Undying Machine: http://tinyurl.com/jvw9p
Machine Goddess: http://tinyurl.com/gkp5z
Undying Machine: http://tinyurl.com/jvw9p
-
Willowhugger
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Fri May 26, 2006 1:11 am
1. Re-Embody
I rather liked this episode honestly as it struck me as an excellent intro to the storyline even if its yet another episode of PS9 vs. terrorists. It's not nearly as clever as the intro to Stand Alone Complex either. In that, the actual action took a backseat to the Machiavellian plotting. Here its pretty much an all out action episode that the main result being convincing the new PM to take them on the job as we know they will. I will confess I like the PM's design and she actually is one of the more gorgeous anime designs I've seen. Good job for the animators there.
I must confess that the ruthlessness of the team shines through here the most as they dispatch all of them without taking prisoners. It's here that the series first started to seem less "Ghost in the Shell" and more "La Femme Nikita's ticked off cyborg sister."
Still, no complaints and better than most anime out there.
7/10
2. Night Cruise
This episode I weirdly call the "Evangelion" episode. It's what I term episodes of anime that focus on people whose fantasy lives apparently are the only way to cope with the mind numbing pointlessness of life. It sticks with me strongly but it causes me to wonder what it is about Japan that results in this sort of thing that shows up repeatedly as a theme in the shows. Gio ends up being one of the most memorable characters in the series, in no small part because of the fact that the entire episode is from his point of view.
I do find it weird though as I could swear the Particularlist Eleven were supposed to be Anti-Refuge from the first episode yet here the guy is going to assassinate the Media Kingpin because of his stance for the Refugees.
It's a tad confusing.
Also, I keep wondering why they have the Major dress up 'sexily' as I just can't get her character design as attractive. I loved the Manga Kusanaga but her anime appearences are just awful to my eyes.
8/10
Cash Eye
I thought it was pretty much obvious from the beginning, the "twist" of the episode. Then again, I'm not sure there was meant to be a "twist" and it was in fact meant to be obvious from the start. The adult nature of the storyline was something I also appreciated as in the first episode of Stand Alone Complex they dodged around the aspects of sex-dolls by talking about 'brain switch' (I can't imagine any child fooled by that) while seemingly jumping head first into the sex doll trade for this one. I appreciated the honesty. The sheer garbage that Motoko puts up with was amazing really.
I do agree that there's plenty of truth to plenty of national policy being formulated at those kind of gatherings.
8/10
Natural Enemy
I rather liked this episode even if it does remind me strongly of the Tank episode from the first episode. The idea of machines running wild and people questioning the reason why is a oft-repeated theme in GITS. The Tachikomas action again takes up a large part of the episode but the investigation was especially well done here. We also meet whom I suspect to be the villain of this series in Ghoda. I liked the fellow, deformity is a wonderful method of conveying villainy like in Bond films (so long as the villain seems to take pride in it). His slimy performance here was the best part of the story.
9/10
Disc One Review:
Ghost in the Shell Second Gig starts off with a bang and immediately sets the stage for what I found to be a surprisingly direct continuation of the franchise from the first series. In the case of many stories, the franchise "reboots" in the second season and there are few if any reprocussions from that point. Here, the storyline opens with Section One still feeling the affects of toppling the previous government with their inactivity plus a new cabinet brought about by their actions. It's a refreshing change really and good to see Togusa now treating himself like a veteran rather than as a rookie.
The set up for the Particularlist Eleven plot is a lot more solid and important here than the Laughing Man plot of season one with only one episode not devoted to the refugee crisis. Oddly, the one episode not devoted to the Second Season "mythology" arc is one that's devoted to last season with a political crony of Yokoshima (sp?) being the villain that Section Nine takes down. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Ghoda, the refugees, and the P11 group will end up being the main plot for this season. This indicates to me that we're also going to see a lot less 'Stand Alone' (pun intended) episodes this year. Almost all of them will tie together to the Refugee Crisis as opposed to the relatively few episodes of the Laughing Man/Serenno/Secretary General plot.
One thing that does occur to me for this first episode is the fact that they seemed to have ramped up the stakes considerably for Disc 1. In Season 1, we had the Laughing Man incident being relatively small potatoes. If Section One had never involved themselves in the scandal then really nothing would have changed in the country but a few more people would die of Cyberbrain Scholrosis (and its noteworthy that the disease was all but gone anyway). Here, its fairly obvious that there's the entire stability of Japan at stake. I didn't quite catch how many refugees were really in Japan but it seems like it could throw the whole country into turmoil.
I rather liked this episode honestly as it struck me as an excellent intro to the storyline even if its yet another episode of PS9 vs. terrorists. It's not nearly as clever as the intro to Stand Alone Complex either. In that, the actual action took a backseat to the Machiavellian plotting. Here its pretty much an all out action episode that the main result being convincing the new PM to take them on the job as we know they will. I will confess I like the PM's design and she actually is one of the more gorgeous anime designs I've seen. Good job for the animators there.
I must confess that the ruthlessness of the team shines through here the most as they dispatch all of them without taking prisoners. It's here that the series first started to seem less "Ghost in the Shell" and more "La Femme Nikita's ticked off cyborg sister."
Still, no complaints and better than most anime out there.
7/10
2. Night Cruise
This episode I weirdly call the "Evangelion" episode. It's what I term episodes of anime that focus on people whose fantasy lives apparently are the only way to cope with the mind numbing pointlessness of life. It sticks with me strongly but it causes me to wonder what it is about Japan that results in this sort of thing that shows up repeatedly as a theme in the shows. Gio ends up being one of the most memorable characters in the series, in no small part because of the fact that the entire episode is from his point of view.
I do find it weird though as I could swear the Particularlist Eleven were supposed to be Anti-Refuge from the first episode yet here the guy is going to assassinate the Media Kingpin because of his stance for the Refugees.
It's a tad confusing.
Also, I keep wondering why they have the Major dress up 'sexily' as I just can't get her character design as attractive. I loved the Manga Kusanaga but her anime appearences are just awful to my eyes.
8/10
Cash Eye
I thought it was pretty much obvious from the beginning, the "twist" of the episode. Then again, I'm not sure there was meant to be a "twist" and it was in fact meant to be obvious from the start. The adult nature of the storyline was something I also appreciated as in the first episode of Stand Alone Complex they dodged around the aspects of sex-dolls by talking about 'brain switch' (I can't imagine any child fooled by that) while seemingly jumping head first into the sex doll trade for this one. I appreciated the honesty. The sheer garbage that Motoko puts up with was amazing really.
I do agree that there's plenty of truth to plenty of national policy being formulated at those kind of gatherings.
8/10
Natural Enemy
I rather liked this episode even if it does remind me strongly of the Tank episode from the first episode. The idea of machines running wild and people questioning the reason why is a oft-repeated theme in GITS. The Tachikomas action again takes up a large part of the episode but the investigation was especially well done here. We also meet whom I suspect to be the villain of this series in Ghoda. I liked the fellow, deformity is a wonderful method of conveying villainy like in Bond films (so long as the villain seems to take pride in it). His slimy performance here was the best part of the story.
9/10
Disc One Review:
Ghost in the Shell Second Gig starts off with a bang and immediately sets the stage for what I found to be a surprisingly direct continuation of the franchise from the first series. In the case of many stories, the franchise "reboots" in the second season and there are few if any reprocussions from that point. Here, the storyline opens with Section One still feeling the affects of toppling the previous government with their inactivity plus a new cabinet brought about by their actions. It's a refreshing change really and good to see Togusa now treating himself like a veteran rather than as a rookie.
The set up for the Particularlist Eleven plot is a lot more solid and important here than the Laughing Man plot of season one with only one episode not devoted to the refugee crisis. Oddly, the one episode not devoted to the Second Season "mythology" arc is one that's devoted to last season with a political crony of Yokoshima (sp?) being the villain that Section Nine takes down. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Ghoda, the refugees, and the P11 group will end up being the main plot for this season. This indicates to me that we're also going to see a lot less 'Stand Alone' (pun intended) episodes this year. Almost all of them will tie together to the Refugee Crisis as opposed to the relatively few episodes of the Laughing Man/Serenno/Secretary General plot.
One thing that does occur to me for this first episode is the fact that they seemed to have ramped up the stakes considerably for Disc 1. In Season 1, we had the Laughing Man incident being relatively small potatoes. If Section One had never involved themselves in the scandal then really nothing would have changed in the country but a few more people would die of Cyberbrain Scholrosis (and its noteworthy that the disease was all but gone anyway). Here, its fairly obvious that there's the entire stability of Japan at stake. I didn't quite catch how many refugees were really in Japan but it seems like it could throw the whole country into turmoil.
Author of "Machine Goddess" and "The Undying Machine"
Machine Goddess: http://tinyurl.com/gkp5z
Undying Machine: http://tinyurl.com/jvw9p
Machine Goddess: http://tinyurl.com/gkp5z
Undying Machine: http://tinyurl.com/jvw9p
Well, she certainly didn't look very sexy in that puffed up jacket/coat. But other than that I don't see why she wouldn't be attractive.Willowhugger wrote:Also, I keep wondering why they have the Major dress up 'sexily' as I just can't get her character design as attractive. I loved the Manga Kusanaga but her anime appearences are just awful to my eyes.
But they did switch brains, didn't they? It seemed to be a key part of the plot too, unlike whatever the guy might have been up to while riding in the geisha android.Willowhugger wrote:The adult nature of the storyline was something I also appreciated as in the first episode of Stand Alone Complex they dodged around the aspects of sex-dolls by talking about 'brain switch' (I can't imagine any child fooled by that) while seemingly jumping head first into the sex doll trade for this one. I appreciated the honesty.
I was disappointed in her and the others. I thought they'd be too hardened to care about garbage, human or otherwise. When they run around in sewers you don't hear them complain about the smell. Toughguys don't complain, they endure.Willowhugger wrote:The sheer garbage that Motoko puts up with was amazing really.
Was this the first time their tender, young minds came into contact with human garbage? Poor little rookies, better not throw up from nausea.
I never understood how Motoko managed to stop that helicopter by holding on to that wire as if she's Neo in Matrix. I'll grant that she could certainly have the strength to do it, but with the helicopter being far up in the air and she only having a ledge to brace against, at that angle I would say that it'd be physically impossible to not get pulled up after the helicopter. No matter how strong one is!Willowhugger wrote:Natural Enemy
I rather liked this episode even if it does remind me strongly of the Tank episode from the first episode. The idea of machines running wild and people questioning the reason why is a oft-repeated theme in GITS.
Recommended cyberpunk:
But they did switch brains, didn't they? It seemed to be a key part of the plot too, unlike whatever the guy might have been up to while riding in the geisha android.
So it was most definately implied. Otherwise the braincase switch wouldn't make all that much sense.
I never understood how Motoko managed to stop that helicopter by holding on to that wire as if she's Neo in Matrix. I'll grant that she could certainly have the strength to do it, but with the helicopter being far up in the air and she only having a ledge to brace against, at that angle I would say that it'd be physically impossible to not get pulled up after the helicopter. No matter how strong one is!
Anime physics and nanocarbon frame do wonders, together.
Hei! Aa-Shanta 'Nygh!