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[Spoiler-Free Review]

What I liked about the series:

(+) Above average animation quality. Colours were bright and vibrant.
(+) Mech fights were decent. They were spaced out because a good chunk of the anime involved duels between Bubuki (weapon) users instead of the larger-scale Buranki (mech) brawls.
(+) There are trains.

What I disliked:

... (-) The story took a backseat for most of the early episodes, with only vague references to this and that. Basic plot details were only revealed on the 11th or 12th hour. Up till them, the anime seemed like a hollow setting for the sake of the fights.
(-) The main squad was rather boring. Like the average shounen title, they spent half the time bickering amongst each other instead of doing what they're supposed to do, and the other half surviving battles either with plot armour or because their enemies for some reason refused to finish them off. With the huge plot detail dump near the end, the Reoko squad seemed way cooler in comparison. The anime would have been more interesting from their perspective instead.

TLDR good for the big fights with little else.

As this is a sequel, some spoilers from Ghost in the Shell(1995) follow.

SOUNDTRACK

Kenji Kawai returns to direct the soundtrack for Innocence, with the screech choir making a return as well with the movie's intro.

Though, aside from that, not many other tracks stand out.

Soundtrack score: 6.75/10

... ANIMATION QUALITY

This movie has a very high production value, with extensive use of 3D graphics, especially in the iconic parade scene in the middle, with gratuitous displays of colours and movement. There's also a gunfight scene that's well-animated.

The animation quality is the best aspect of this movie, that much I'll say.

Animation Quality Score: 9.0/10

CHARACTERS

Because of the Major’s fate at the end of the previous movie, Batou takes the helm, with Togusa as his new partner. However, their partnership does become strained as the investigation goes no, with Batou taking more risks to get a break in the case, with Togusa trying to keep up and not getting killed, just so he could go back to his daugther in one piece.

One of Togusa’s interesting points as a character is his investigation prowess despite being mostly human compared to Batou, a full cyborg. While this was prominent in the previous movie, it wasn’t really shown here, as most of the dialogue between him and Batou are philosophical in nature, instead of focusing on the investigation itself, a letdown if you ask me.

There were also Chinese lines later, which was interesting.

Characters score: 6.50/10

PLOT

The movie still takes place in the same city with a Hong Kong vibe to it just like the first movie.

While the case of the gynoids murdering their owners seems like a regular one at first, more complications turn up the deeper Batou and Togusa investigate the case, such as the cryptic audio message, and even mafia involvement later on, whose boss was also killed by a gynoid.

Though, even without considering the Major’s absence in the sequel, there are a few things that significantly bogged down the plot:

1) Conversations focusing heavily on philosophy and quotes, instead of the actual investigation. If you ask me, the point of the Ghost in the Shell movies is to explore cyberpunk and android themes, and one way to carry out this is to explain things about the world or the case itself as the investigation goes on. It’s just that the movie kept focusing on the line between man and machine too much that it just devolved into abstract philosophy, instead of talking about cool things like gadgets, robot hardware, weapons, security protocols, all that good jargon that the original movie had.

2)A hacking scene covering the middle 1/3 of the movie. While the explanation itself was interesting, it was needlessly drawn out and took up a lot of screen time, which isn’t good as the movie had a run time of barely 1.5 hours.

Aside from a few references to the original movie, there was very little connection between the two titles. What happened to Section 6 and their secrets? Did Section 9 expose them, or was everything swept under the rug? Not a lot that, unfortunately.

The movie did manage to wrap up and explain the entire case by the movie’s conclusion, so I’ll give it credit for that.

Plot score: 6.5/10

SCORE SUMMARY

Soundtrack score: 6.75/10
Animation Quality Score: 9.0/10
Characters score: 6.50/10
Plot score: 6.5/10

CONCLUSION

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is one of those movies that look good, with not much else. I don't mean to be harsh when I say this, but it seems like the sequel was riding on the hype of the first movie. Since it doesn't really add much to the original movie timeline, it's not worth a watch if you ask me. You're better off exploring the Stand Alone Complex timeline after the 1995 movie.

SYNOPSIS

It is the year 2029, where widespread cyberization has allowed for humans to accept robotic limbs and organs, including cyberbrains to store & process information at a much faster speed, and even access networks. Full-body cyborgs are a possibility as well, and one such person is Motoko Kusanagi, who works in Public Section 9 tasked with dealing with cases of cyber-terrorism. The movie follows Kusanagi and Section 9’s team of investigators in cracking down on a hacker known only as the “Puppet Master”.

From its MAL entry, the movie has a more darker tone compared to its source material, the manga of the same name.

ANIMATION QUALITY

According ... to the production report, the movie uses DGA (Digitally Generated Animation), a combination of hand-drawn images and computer graphics. DGA was a novelty at the time, so it brought some neat aesthetics to the table, especially the thermoptic camouflage effects.

The gunfights are great. Lots of bullets flying, and you’ll get the occasional exploding of cybernetic bodies, too.

To sum it up, great animation quality for a movie from the 90s.

Animation Quality score: 8.5/10

SOUNDTRACK

The movie’s soundtrack greatly enhances its cyberpunk atmosphere, the most iconic one being “Making of Cyborg”, played at opening credits sequence.

There’s also the “Puppetmaster” track that plays while a thug is running down a long alleyway, giving a sense of gloom and isolation.

Soundtrack score: 8.0/10

CHARACTERS

The characters help to highlight different degrees of cyberization. While Batou is a full-fledged cyborg, Togusa is completely human save for a slight brain augment, and prefers to use his Mateba revolver in fear of automatic weapons jamming up. However, he’s no slouch, and has a great observation ability as a detective, able to detect anomalies even without fancy cyber eyes or sensors.

And then there’s the main character, Major Motoko Kusanagi(simply referred to as “Major” by her peers, probably because she outranks them), a full cyborg save for her organic brain. Despite being all-machine, she enjoys diving in her spare time, much to Batou’s chagrin, fearing the floaters would one day stop working and she would drown.

One of the main plot aspects is Kusanagi’s identity crisis. While she is enhanced with many abilities and access to a vast network, she feels restricted somehow.

More of her Kusanagi’s internal struggle is explored later as the team digs deeper into the Puppetmaster case. Their investment in the case grows when it ties back to the corporation that made the artificial limbs of Section 9’s personnel including Kusanagi’s body, as only Togusa and Chief Aramaki do not possess artificial limbs.

Characters: 7.5/10

PLOT

Unlike the source material, the movie has a much darker tone, which is perfect for a cyberpunk setting.

The invention of a cyberbrain is an interesting concept. It allows an individual to access a wide information network directly, leading to a new world of possibilities. When Kusanagi was tracking down a garbage truck, she directly accessed the city’s Sanitation Department records to determine how many trucks were making their rounds at that time, and because she could see could track the truck in real time while Togusa couldn’t, she proceeded to remotely take the wheel of their armoured car, all while relaying orders to the rest of her team members on their comm frequency via thought alone.

Later in the movie, we see personnel being able to directly interface with their combat vehicles for greater accuracy and control.

While direct access to the net via a person’s brain seems great, the connection works both ways, and that’s where the hacking comes in. A person’s cyberbrain can be hacked for information or to take control of their body.

There is another term that gets a fair mention throughout the series, the titular “ghost”, the equivalent of the human soul or consciousness. This is the core of the series, to explore the possibility of machines having a soul, or to closely mimic one. This also ties in with Kusanagi’s identity crisis mentioned earlier.

Accessing the network or a device with a ghost is known as “diving”, to imply that the entire person’s consciousness enters the network.

The plot thickens when the team discover an android that self-assembled itself on a production line and fled the area, and when scanning its backup brain to reveal the presence of a ghost, something only humans were able to possess.

My only gripe with the plot was its short run time. A mere 82 minutes wasn’t sufficient to cover what the movie sought to explore, and as such, it ended up doing so only at a surface level of something with a much greater depth.

Plot score: 7.0/10

SUMMARY

Animation Quality score: 8.5/10
Soundtrack score: 8.0/10
Characters: 7.5/10
Plot score: 7.0/10

CONCLUSION

Ghost in the Shell has great production value for its time, coupled with decent characters & soundtracks. Watching it was a great cyberpunk experience, one I will not soon forget. If only the plot was longer.