The movie asked thought provoking questions up front, even sometimes directly through the dialogue. However, the anime worked differently by rather subtly hinting to the same ideals, highly clinging onto the idea of memories (such as "The Major's" watch) and the development of your soul (referred to as ghosts).
The anime, in a general perspective, was all I could hope for. Fighting scenes, thoughtful scenes, hacking scenes, BLOWING SHIT UP, dramatic irony, and one possibly sweet scene that I think shippers might go for (however, based on the audience that this anime seems to attract, I doubt shippers would be a big craze), basically anything you could ever hope for. The story is quite confusing in some aspects though, mostly due to the reason that I could not quite figure out if something was a filler (if there are even fillers in this anime) because the episodes sometimes seemed apart from the main story (which I also, at times, struggled to grasp as to what the main story really was), but somehow connecting in the end. Not to mention, the ending given is quite non-explanatory, and seemed slightly rushed, taking the idea of reputation quite lightly. It is due to this the enjoyment value decreased in the slight, as I was, in the midpoint of the series, very confused as to why these seemingly random events were happening. I was lost, but after grinding through more episodes (not through the determination of "oh, I need to finish anyways, can't drop now," but rather in "oh my goodness I need to figure this out!!"), I was satisfied as to how they seemingly connected together.
The art and sound of this anime is quite honestly one of the most beautiful things I have seen in all my anime watching history. To be specific, the art style in this anime is honestly my favorite art style, the one that deviates from the traditional anime approach. Serious faces with real facial emotions will forever be superior to the traditional anime faces (in the concept of thought provoking shows of course). The art is quite the feet, and I felt as though I was watching something in 2016 rather than 2002. It looked so.. amazing, I cannot describe it. The opening is quite honestly one of the best openings I have seen in my life, and judging from the animation and sound showed in that, I was quite sure that they would be one of the best aspects of the show (and quite surely, they were). The soundtrack is downright captivating, and I cannot imagine skipping any single note from the soundtrack. The soundtrack perfectly complimented the anime.
When compared to the 1995 counterpart, the characters were quite amped up. It initially served as a downside to me, but now served as another perfect aspect of the show. It made the characters I loved even better, and the characters who were okay to me great. I adored how the anime did not go overboard with the comedy and kept it as subtle as possible, only in times that weren't essential. I cannot number how many anime have been ruined in their attempts to be funny by the writer, but ending up self-destructing themselves.
The opening is captivating, the show is intriguing, and the animation is gorgeous, and the soundtrack is beautiful. What more can you ask for in this psychological roller-coaster? Off I go to season 2!
