I watched this film the other day purely for three reasons. One because I felt like I was getting Tokusatsu burnout and needed something else in my life, two because my mom saw the original Ghost in the Shell and really liked it, and three I really liked the cyberpunk genre. And I have to say, wow.
This film might be the only spoiler-free review I could ever do, it's by every sense of the word peak and is a film which in my opinion, every fan of either cyberpunk or anime should see at least once.
From the artstyle and sound design to the story and the characters, this film made me feel a way I haven't felt in a while. I felt engaged, I felt anxious, and I felt like I needed to think over what I saw after watching it as I couldn't believe it was over. I couldn't get all my thoughts on the film down even if I tried, I was frankly intimidated to even review the film much like I did Lake Mungo which I still haven't wrote about yet.
The plot follows Section 9 members and cyborgs Major Motoko Kusanagi, Batou, and all natural detective transfer Togusa as they try to hunt down mysterious hacker "The Puppet Master" in 2029's fictional New Port City.
While it is a relatively simple plot, it works really well for the type of film it is, it doesn't need an overly complicated plot with a million twists and turns, it's simple and pretty easy to follow.
The artstyle, the simplistic soundtrack, the well detailed and animated guns are just perfection.
Togusa was my third favorite in the film. I really like the trope of the all natural/little to no cybernetics character in a sci fi world which for the most part, is 75% cyborgs.
I think he really blended well with the dynamic of the cast, and I personally liked the Mateba he carried around which definitely contrasts to the sci fi high-tech weaponry the rest carry around.
Batou is in my opinion, the MVP of the film, the Jackie to your V, the JC to your Denton, etc. He is the best non Motoko character in my opinion, he looks like a big brooding serious guy but he's pretty chill and funny and is actually really good at his job. Sure he doesn't get nearly as much action like Motoko but when he does he has some pretty crazy good scenes.
I'm a Batou fan and I do plan on watching Innocence since he is the central character of the film and I Do hope it is good.
The protagonist of the film, and the best character of the film. I loved Motoko, she's a super cool badass protagonist with really no flaws at all. She has great action, great dialogue, great scenes, and is easily the best part of the film.
I really loved her gun, it's this weird p90 inspired gun that folds open to reload and reminds me greatly of the Wasp-DS from Payday 2 aka the FMG-9 even though the GITS gun predates it by 13 years.
I did like how she could go invisible and the effect was really cool, but I could never figure out if she wore a bodysuit thingy like in the 2017 film or actually did go full nude for the invisibility thing.
A cyberpunk film that explores themes of humanity and self aware ai and if the human consciousness is really all that unique. It was a film that I felt too intimidated to review and is a film I feel any fan of the genre should watch at least once. It's a pure genuine 11/10 film and I highly recommend it.
The Wachowskis, directors of the Matrix trilogy, showed the film to producer Joel Silver and said quote "We wanna do that for real." Where they then took multiple inspirations from the film, such as the digital rain and using the back of your neck to enter hte matrix