Have to say i find Shirow's career somewhat amusing, like he drew a bunch of manga that got him paid via Anime adaptions and then decided to just skip the whole narrative thing and just draw books full of tits and guns for the rest of his life.

Nice work if you can get it.

 

I'm kinda pissed off that I'll probably never get to read Dominion: Conflict 2, but I can't really say I blame the guy.

Do you suppose he still has a day job as a high school art teacher?

 

An otaku comic magazine and Dark Horse reprints is still more audience than the first animated movie ever had...

And I'm not sure if the first movie was even that popular with anime fans in the West. It was loud and advertised for a time but I don't think it really hit the cult classic status.

Which begs the question why to spend so much money making a Hollywood remake of a franchise interesting only for the people who will dismiss it anyway because it's not the manga/anime.

GiTS 2 manga is basically Shirow spending half of his time drawing T&A... His artistic journey is fully in effect there. :X

 

I just finished the movie! That was awesome! Great visuals, great mix of old story elements and new elements into something new and different that, at the same time, feels totally like the Ghost in the Shell movies/TV shows. Also great music. Only downside, I wish the Blu-Ray was 3D. Was the movie not 3D in the first place or why did they not include the 3D version with the steelbook? Weird.

I love it!

 

The movie was in 3D, but the only way to get it is in a regular bundle with the 2D version. Assuming the steelbook you got was from Best Buy, it seemed that they wanted to push 4K more, which is why the second Steelbook comes with the regular blu-ray and the 4K version.

Glad you enjoyed the movie, though.  

 

No, we don't have Best Buy here. I got it from Amazon Germany. There was only one Blu-Ray inside. I don't think it's 4K, just regular HD. I will buy the 3D version for sure, as I thought that a lot of scenes might have looked even better in 3D, than they looked in 2D. The purchase was definitely worth it. The steelbook looks nice and the movie did not let me down!  

I also liked how it basically is a re-telling but also a prequel to the Anime  

 

Aside from getting The Major's character totally wrong (which I already went into much detail a few pages back, along with the movie messing up Kuze's character), I also had a problem with the general art direction with this film. It was shallow and vapid in how it used its CGI effects (no matter how cool the practical effects like the geisha gynoids costumes were), especially in how poorly framed/lit a lot of scenes were (mistakes that rookie art directors would make) and in how it tried to portray its city.

In the original GitS animated film, the city was based heavily on Hong Kong and was vibrant and alive just as much as it was gritty, dirty, and lived-in (right down to the signage and the use of music/vocals playing in the background). To me, the city was as much as an important character to the movie as it was the setting. The live action movie totally gets it wrong when it tried to adapt it into something more generically Bladerunner-ish.

Here's an excellent video explaining it further in detail:

 

Paramount Japan Posts "Ghost In The Shell" Official Anime/Live-Action Mashup Clip

 

In the United States, I can't think of any anime film more popular in the 1990s, other than Akira. If you asked an anime fan for recommendations, it was pretty much always on the list alongside Akira and Ninja Scroll. Anime fans here were few though, so the bar for "popularity" was pretty low. I'm not sure how much more popular it could possibly have been at that time. It looks a lot less significant now, but that's largely in the wake of anime becoming more popular in general, and America discovering Studio Ghibli.

EDIT: And I guess it did pretty well despite the small demographic of anime fans at the time. Per Wikipedia:

 

Live-Action Film GHOST IN THE SHELL Has Been Nominated For 2 HPA Awards

Outstanding Color Grading and Outstanding Visual Effects.

 

So I saw the scarjo, enjoyed it, watched the original anime movie and thought it was decent and then watched the scarjo one again and felt a good appreciation for what they did in remaking the movie. Honestly, I prefer the scarjo movie over the original. The story was tighter and the pacing was a lot better, imo. Felt like the original had two or three moments where for 5 minutes at a time nothing would happen. It did well to show off some really beautiful art/backgrounds but yeah, really derailed the story for me (that came off a bit convoluted to me *anyways* so that didn't do it any favors). Majors character was different but I didn't mind. With the story shifting to her and her dealing with her past and who she was, (being a but more introspective, although I think they could went deeper with all of that) I didn't mind it. I kinda preferred her to be less chatty  

I dunno! I liked it quite a bit, I think it's pretty underrated though I can understand why the differences might not be to old fans' liking. I have zero attachment/nostalgia towards any of that stuff so.. idk? Hah. I guess it's like this kids who grew up on the Unicron trilogy stuff or got introduced via the bay movies and don't quite get the love for g1 or bw sorta thing in effect  

 

Those were very much on purpose. Oshii kinda stole it from Blade Runner, but it's a big part of why the anime film is so acclaimed. It's a way to build tension, since you're wondering when the action will happen, but it also lends a sort of artsy ambiance. It really puts it in your face that what you're watching isn't just a "cartoon" or a mindless action movie with some T'N'A--it's serious art. That really resonated with anime fans at the time, who were struggling to have their interests taken seriously.

Times have changed, and preferences differ, so of course your mileage may vary.

 

Yeah, everyone's gonna have a flavour of GITS they prefer - mine is the tv show: a fairly simple police procedural setup but with the Major and co. as the police.

 

Yeah, it's been a really long time since I've seen any of stand alone complex, but im aiming to give it a rewatch, especially now. But I remember liking that a lot when it was on adult swim.

Yeah, no I definitely got that "artsy" vibe

And appreciate it for, like I said, showing off some amazing artwork. But it just feels a little contrived and only serves to slow down that slog of a story. My opinion, tho, of course! But I hear what youre saying.