I've never been good at writing reviews, and this is my first attempt at a MAL review, so I thought I would choose my favorite movie.
I've seen this movie. 7 times as a matter of fact.
Each time I watch the movie, I'm put into a state of awe and immersion just like the very first time I watched it. The film makes the viewer ask questions but does not distract from the enjoyment of the movie.
The story, in my opinion, is not exactly revolutionary but the way the movie executes the story makes it one worth watching. Cyberpunk-esque themes are presented throughout the film in some ways subtle and some ways overt. Just how valuable is a human life and soul when it can simply be replicated with a new shell and downloaded into another cyberbrain? I mean, has anyone ever seen their own brain? Do we believe we exist only because of what our environment tells us? It encourages the viewer to put on their thinking caps and makes us ask questions of our own. Mamoru Oshii did not hold punches in the philosophy department, which I won't go into because there are other reviews that do a way better job at explaining it than I will. There's also not a whole lot of time the movie spends explaining the universe. Cyberbrains, Ghosts, diving, all these terms may be overwhelming and confusing, but after a few rewatches (and a bit of Googling), one can make more sense of the technologies used in the film. However, for those that are not keen on sci-fi or cyberpunk anime, this movie may be very difficult to get into because there is not a lot of information dumping. For some, the lack of info dumping makes the movie more enjoyable as you make your own assumptions about this futuristic, yet modern, universe.
Our heroine, The Major, is a brooding personality. A full cyborg, she ponders if she is simply a replicant, a copy made from a dead original. She is unable to leave behind genes or reproduce, adding only to her existential dilemma. She holds respect for authority, but is not a machine made to take orders. She acts on her own volition, makes independent choices, sometimes in a manner that's almost disrespectful. We get some background knowledge of the rest of the Section 9 crew, but not much is known other than what they show us on the
surface. Batou, Togusa, Aramaki, Ishikawa, all crucial members of the team, but the movie does not waste time getting into their life story (Stand Alone Complex/2nd GIG does a great job of that anyway).
Needless to say, the visuals are gorgeous. The details of the city and the backgrounds do not speak of a distant future, but feels rather modern. The skyscrapers dotting the landscape reminds me of bustling, modern cities such as Hong Kong where both tradition and future collide. I have to say Kusanagi's character design is one of the factors that keeps me coming back to this brilliant movie. No expense was spared in the artistic department. From the busy and noisy market, full of pedestrians each carrying about with their lives, to suburban city streets lined with shops, everything was incredibly well done with immaculate attention to detail.
Kenji Kawai's work with the soundtrack created a beautiful environment and added a sense of immersion when I was watching the film. The film's title sequence is probably one of the most memorable scenes, at least for me. We see the birth of Kusanagi through a machining and manufacturing process, combined with a beautiful Japanese chant which is repeated a few times throughout the movie. The chant highlights the marriage of human and machine into one being that is virtually indistinguishable from an organic human. The sound in the movie, for being nearly 20 years old, was very well done.
After 7 re-watches, I'm still awed by this movie and I still enjoy it just as I did the first time. I "dive" myself into the music, the audio, the gorgeous but slightly desaturated visuals, and of course, the impeccably executed story and the identity struggles of our cyborg heroine. All these elements combine into, what I think, is a cyberpunk classic that every fan should watch at some point in their exploration into anime. Maybe you'll start to ponder your "ghost" as well.
Thanks for taking the time to read my (1st) review.
