Koukaku Kidoutai

In the year 1920, a Czech writer named Karel Čapek released a sci-fi play called R.U.R. (short for "Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti"). As you can tell from the title, this play introduced the world to the word robot. The play is about a robot uprising causing the extinction of the human race. The last act of the play tries to answer a simple question. Can a machine become human? The play was met with negative reception from critics, although that probably had more to do with the author's political leanings than the work itself. Either way, the play turned out to be a massive hit and ... its influence can be seen in sci-fi media to this day. Sci-fi as a whole has obviously changed over the years, yet to this day many authors try to tackle the same question Čapek did more then a hundered years ago. Ghost in the shell is one of these stories.

With so many different books, plays, films, series, songs and video games insisting on exploring the exact same question, it must be a real head scratcher, right? Well no, not really. As you might have noticed by looking at my profile picture, I am a Christian. This is important, since from the Christian perspective, the obvious answer is "NO, it doesn't have a soul". You don't even have to be a Christian to arrive at the same conclusion. As long as your belief system includes some sort of spiritual element that makes us who we are, you are golden. You might counter this by saying that I didn't really answer the question, I just used my religious beliefs to dodge it. Alright, you might have a point there. So, for the sake of argument, let's assume that no such thing as a "soul" exists. The answer is once again obvious. NO, a machine by definition cannot be human. But since, as we already established, there is nothing special about us humans, the question becomes completely meaningless. A much better one to ask would be "Can a machine become conscious?". The answer to this depends on the setting, but it usually becomes blatantly obvious after the first five minutes. The robots in this story are either conscious or they are so good at faking it that they are completely indistinguishable from conscious beings. And at that point they would just be conscious *insert that Kaiki quote from Nisemonogatari*. Well, there you go, mystery solved.

Now, contrary to what some of you might think, the purpose of my last paragraph wasn't to dunk on everyone with my huge fucking brain. In fact, most of the things I wrote didn't come from me and have been floating around for some time now. I wrote the whole thing to explain in detail that the story has absolutely nothing deep or philosophical about it. What it has is an illusion of depth that can be very easily dispelled just by thinking about it for a few minutes. But because online discourse, by its very nature, will always be dominated by midwits, most of the reviews on this site praise Ghots in the shell for exactly these qualities. What is even more frustrating than that is the fact that the movie manages to stumble upon an idea that would have made for a much better story. Early on, we find out that one of the minor villains had his memories changed. Now that's an interesting direction to take the story. This might be just me, but I am a sucker for stories that fuck with the characters memories. It introduces so much suspense, mystery and even some actually hard questions to tackle. Well, if you are looking for a story like that, I would highly recommend you watch Memento or read "There is no antimemetics division" because those stories actually do something with it. Here it gets immediately dropped. I honestly dont get it. Why would you introduce something this important and then never use it for anything? This is basic writing advice. The gun always has to go off, otherwise it shouldn't even be included in the story.

And last but not least, we have the presentation. The presentation is the only reason I gave this movie a positive score. Sure, it has aged a bit and I have seen better looking shows over the years, but it still delivers when it needs to. Sadly, unlike Akira, Ghost in the shell cannot get by on animation alone and, as I already explained, the story is a meandering journey to answer a question you already know the answers to that came nearly a century too late to be innovative. What we are left with is a bloated mess with no meaning or message. If there is one thing I took away from watching this movie, it is that so called classics only rarely live up to their name. A lesson which I have already been taught too many times to count.

The 1995 Ghost in the Shell Movie had an interesting setting and concept, but weak execution. The first 20 minutes of the movie didn't grab my interest; it didn't established why should I care about the characters and the story. The characters are presented badly; I would label them as pretentious and uninteresting. There is a modicum of time or no time given to show the viewers the important characters' intentions, backgrounds and personalities.

Story-wise, it is just plain boring. They didn't manage to create a compelling threat or a stake to the plot. I didn't feel the presence of the main antagonist which should be ... a big driving force to make the story interesting . The dialogue is decent and has some valid points regarding its themes, but the characters who delivered it have no charisma, and it could have been delivered in a riveting manner. It hurts to watch, because there is no engaging moment throughout the entire 1hr. and 22 mins. run time.

There is a lack of criticism for this movie on the internet despite of its lackluster quality. It hurts even more to see this movie topping every anime movie recommendation lists and it is rated highly on MAL and IMDB. Yes, it is an important anime, but it should not equate to people rating this so high.

I'll level with you- this movie is boring as fuck. I've been trying to get through Ghost in the Shell since I was 11. I'm 26 now. I still fall asleep every time. With the exception of the action scenes and opening credits, I can't say that this film is worth watching.

The delivery of the story leaves a lot to be desired. The scene structure is, essentially:

-> Gorgeous animated sequence that ends too quickly
-> Characters giving long, monotonous explanations of things that would have been better represented through gorgeous animation sequences, or at least not through what is essentially "radio"
-> Rinse, repeat

I know anime ... doesn't grow on trees and there are budgets, but it takes a lot away from the experience of the film when so much of it consists of talking heads. There's almost no characterization to speak of, and those sequences are all the more excruciating because of it.

I get that strong characterization is not the point, but the concepts that form the foundation of the film are kind of trite and not interesting enough to carry a story on their own.

I understand and appreciate the historical significance of this film, but I'd say save yourself some trouble and just watch clips on youtube and read the synopsis.

Review in brief:

Ghost in the Shell takes itself far too seriously, and in turn ends up spreading its considerable aesthetic focus thin across a soulless plot and a theme that it can’t wrap its own head around. With a self-imposed split between its story & its presentation made worse by its frayed structure, it’s not hard to figure out why it’s known more for being complicated than compelling.

Review in full:

Ghost in the Shell loudly presents itself as serious, deep, and thought-provoking. While it’s clear that many of the people involved possessed the skills to match this appearance, the direction mixes its quality elements ... into the anime equivalent of a pretentious college student; the sort of person who tries to one-up the professor by constantly attempting to disprove the class lectures or thinks they've unlocked the world's greatest secret because they've recently become an atheist. Such a person isn’t necessarily bad or lacking in constructive traits, but they tend to believe their oft-basic qualities have a far higher value than most other people would and come off as annoying or shallow because of it.

That is the way Ghost in the Shell acts in its execution, time and time again. It features a number of skillfully choreographed action sequences and needlessly draws them out to show off its animation. It contains expertly crafted & stylized visual and audio design but dumps most of it into lethargic montages that not only render much of the rest of the movie quiet, barren, and full of dry exposition (especially in the later half) but also could be cut by 95% and still deliver their meaning. It has the bright idea to flesh out its world through character interactions but in a world that is effectively just Hong Kong with robots and characters that may as well be robots themselves (the "twist" could have been that every human was actually a soulless robot the whole time and I would have been 100% unsurprised). It has the basic elements of a thrilling conspiracy drama but squanders it by diving into monologue after monologue centered around unrelated minutia, crowding out all of the room the narrative would need to flesh out such a story properly.

The driving purpose behind all of this is to explore transhumanism, and how it does so is a large part of why it falls apart. Transhumanism isn’t a difficult concept to understand, and so it’s not hard to explore in depth. Ghost in the Shell rarely seeks this depth however, instead straining itself over the base concept of what it means to put a person in a machine. Yes, that’s what the title refers to and no, there isn’t much to it here past “ghost = mind, shell = body” besides repetitious ponderings and shallow monologues on questions that don’t actually have to do with transhumanism, as if prefacing them with the concept was all that was required.

In fact, there’s a multitude of concepts tacked onto the already bloated discourse that this movie struggles to understand. It heavily ties individuality to having an observably unique face (whelp, guess identical twins aren’t individuals then!), postulates that people can’t prove their humanity without physically observing their own brains (so is trepanning back in style?), and drones about the importance of reproduction & evolution shortly after making a show of a depiction of the tree of life (i.e. a representation of reproduction & evolution) getting defaced with bullet holes in a robot vs. human fight.

Saying all of this doesn’t justify the frustration this movie imbued in me, because the real frustration was getting such a vapid experience from something with clear potential. Yes, this movie does feature some top-notch 90’s animation, and in the few moments it’s used to show the story it does so very impressively. Were those moments not so few, they would have stood out more against the dull & static imagery that dominates the film. The sound is at a more consistent quality, with voicework that does everything it could have to bring life to the movie and a standout soundtrack whose only weakness is its limited quantity. The effects work is often mismanaged, but in the handful of moments when it all comes together (most notably, the Making of Cyborg sequence early in the film), the aspiration that went into the production is made readily apparent.

The story, when not totally buried under overbearing thematics, at least shows itself to be a respectable idea. It has a conspiracy drama angle that is intriguing on its own and would have been an acceptable element for the movie to lean on if it wasn’t pushed to the side for much of the movie’s first half and unceremoniously uprooted & unveiled shortly after. There are implications of an interesting origin for many of the major characters that would have done wonders to flesh them out if tapped into beyond Batou bluntly exclaiming “The Major and I go way back!” late in the film. The two real criminal investigations that go on are rather well thought out from a structural standpoint, even if given less focus than they deserved.

All in all, Ghost in the Shell has many good qualities but thinks far too highly of a handful of its traits and uses them in such a masturbatory way that it detracts from the experience as a whole. There's a reason the term "creative limitation" exists, and this movie exemplifies the opposite to a startling degree. Putting less work into the nigh-pointless montages would likely lead to condensing them rather than drawing them out. Doing the same with the action scenes and quickening them would create a bigger rush when there is action. Accepting that the movie's world and theme are rather basic would allow the narrative to lessen the focus on minutia around them. From there it could display the world in the background and allow the character interactions to instead develop the characters themselves. Most importantly, if this movie didn’t hold the definition of transhumanism as sacred and explored where the concept leads better, perhaps it would have had more to do with itself on the whole than style, robots, and a naked cyborg woman beating up villains.

Verdict:

A brooding film that wants to be deep and thought-provoking but has a drive so shallow and a progression so slow that the only thing it manages to do is drag itself to the next overly drawn-out action sequence every half hour or so. It had everything it needed to be compelling, yet squandered it all so thoroughly it’s like it was directed by robots as a facsimile of human pondering. Fitting, sure, but not fulfilling in its inert execution.

I came in with very high expectations, this is 'Ghost In The Shell' after all, it's one of the pillars of anime. Nothing could have prepared me for this droning snooze fest. There isn't much to review here, because the movie is soul-less, its a husk.

This movie looks the part it certainly does, but you will find more plot and likeable characters in trash like 'Date A Live' and 'Okami-San and Her Seven Companions'. I have seen Hentai with better characters and better plot and no its not an exaggeration.

The biggest problem with this abysmal film is the lack of humanity. Oh what a hilarious ... irony lol. All the people in this film might as well be robots. There isn't a single character any person can relate to in this movie. There isn't the slightest bit of warmth or smiles to be found here. Robocop has more humanity than this, and is more believable as a real person than any of the cringy idiots found here. Oh and the plot, don't even get me started on it. You know how all of us have come across many reviews stating how they had no idea what the plot was about. And then we ourselves watch it and we can see that the reviewer just couldn't get into it or perhaps missed a few things. Well this is the first time in my lifetime that I truly can say that the plot here is thinner than a wafer and with more plot holes than swiss cheese. Nothing makes sense its awful. When I finished watching it. I asked my brother what he thought about it. He is 10 years younger than I am. He immediately replied with "based 10/10". I told him that I wanted my 1.5 hours back. He then said "well its got zero characterization and almost no plot, but its got gorgeous animation and the lore is great". And there ya have it, why this piece of crap is raved on about until this day. Want a better plot and cooler characters? Try Hentai......

Cult film based on the manga, with a very different aesthetic, by Masamune Shirow. Undoubtedly "Ghost in the Shell" has two virtues that it is fair to highlight: its later influence and its zero aging. Let's go into his soul.


As some of you already mentioned, the technical section is quite remarkable. A purely nineties classic animation, in 2D, which I personally prefer to the digitized rigidity of the 2000 era. The accompanying soundtrack is delightful and the moments of both pause and action are well inserted and carried. The theme around artificial intelligence may not be completely original but it brings seriousness and a certain ... message about the robotic evolution of Man. In this sense, it is fully in force despite the past twenty years and in fact the technological flood that is expected here has been completely true. In addition, only by looking at the credit titles we realize that the very "Matrix" was inspired, or copied, from it.


So it seems that there are no hitches but, oh my friend, there are quite a few. The main one: "Ghost in the Shell" has no plot. The plot is very poor and, what is worse, it seems that it is a lot without being so to mislead the viewer from the true subject: what the Puppet Master is and what he wants, a dangerous hacker who is persecuted by the police. Don't be fooled by the political, scientific, philosophical and police elements that fill the hour and a half of footage, because none of this leads to anything solid or coherent. If we omitted the first sixty minutes, the last story would remain intact. Lots of straw for a clear and simple idea. Perhaps too clear and simple.


Overrated.

This movie is a take on metaphysics that is supposed to make you think you have a large brain. Everyone here reviewing as a stick up their ass and watched too much anime instead of studying for a good college. The main metaphysical aspect of the anime that I could see would be the ship of Theseus that asks how objects can remain the same after being replaced. Everyone here is just a pseudo-intellectual circle-jerking around a terrible anime where I can't even remember any of the character's names. It is an old-as-shit pathetic excuse for a philosophical anime. Just watch something like Perfect Blue ... or Legend of the Galactic Hero's if you want to watch something that won't feel like a waste but still make your penis hard at how "cultured" you are.

God damn this is boring I wish there was a powerpoint presentation of screenshots from this movie because the art is the only masterful part of it. The film drags through it's story like a little child from checkpoint to checkpoint before you can even realize what's happening. Plot jumps all over the place, It's also extremely uninteresting I had even forgotten what it was about half way through. The themes are spoonfed to you as if insulting your intelligence, "you are here to watch a film not think! What did you think this classic from '95 was about?".

God damn what is the minimum ... word count.
filler...
Art = top notch like I said, really sells the futuristic vibe with great designs and of course the best part of the movie is the intro animation
Animation = action is great but you can see that they took away from everything else in order it could be that way.
Characters = good design but they feel very bland and without much personality for much of the film.
Story = horrible

If you want a mediocre movie, you can toy with a concept; if you want a good movie, you can ask questions about a serious concept; but if you want a masterpiece, your movie has to represent a timeless idea.

Sadly, Ghost in the Shell is a mediocre movie dealing with an outdated trend. It is advertised as a philosophical and thought-provoking movie with some deep story elements that make it way ahead of its time, but in reality, this movie is just another ride on the 90s' sentient AI trend.

Even in 1995, better movies discussed the topic GITS tried to touch way better than this ... movie did. The problem is the writers' inability to turn an exciting concept into a boundless philosophical idea.

Now the reason why they can't do this is that they do not even understand the basics of what they are lazily trying to deliver as a "philosophical-existential question."

There are many questions and definitions thrown at you throughout the movie, but to make these questions worth the time and effort one's going to put into answering, you have to give them a primary goal to reach.

I don't believe any questions asked during the movie's events are thoughtful enough to be called a tangible goal to be reached. And that's because there's simply nothing in the movie to turn them into something bigger than a few sentences coming out of the main character's mouth (in an unskillfully-written fashion).

The only occasion the movie can successfully convey a part of what it's trying to say is when one of the characters realizes their most precious memories were nothing but some fake images put into their mind by a hacker.

And again, even if the movie had dealt with every question it asked the same way as the fake memories side story, I still wouldn't call it a philosophical or thought-provoking piece. I still cannot see a timeless idea or a philosophical view being discussed here, and that's why I think the word overrated describes this outdated movie best.