Hi, today I'm going to review one of the classic masterpiece of the anime industry which very well known on the community and contributed a lot to our anime today. Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film "Ghost in the Shell".
Note : (It is heavy on spoilers so be sure to watch the mivie first before reading this.)
Characters 8/10
In the age where death can be prevented through transferring your "Ghost" (Brain) into your desired "Shell" (Robot)
the story follows Major Makoto Kusanagi and Section 9 as they follow this world renowed Hacker which goes by the name "Puppetmaster" who started hacking politicians for unkown reasons.
First, I'm gonna start off with Major Makoto, who is having an existensial crisis if her "Ghost" is really hers or it is just copied from one of the million cyborgs here in this world, she can't define the blurred line of being human to a robot.
Now for the "Puppet master", he is a renowed hacker who always play with police with Unknown intentions, until later, he is revealed that he is just a program for for "Section 6" for which he will be used for creating the perfect existence (this part is really self explenatory so this is just my own conclusion). With no goal on his mind, his curiousity kicked in and started collecting data, then he also builds his own existensial crisis, he started to think on what it really feels to be a human and gathered collected data on how to become that. Then he became interested with Major Makoto which we all know is having the same problems, so he created a scenario where they can meet by throwing himself into the police then creating a fuss so that the section 6 and 9 will chase him, then his plan commences by telling Major Makoto that both of them needs to merge so that they can give birth to a "perfect being" (just like human who do sex so that they can give birth to a child.) which will result to their own evolution and thus becoming a "human".
Though, sadly to say, most of the characters felt bland and dry (except for Major and Puppetmaster) like it feels that they didn't have character development and some of them became forgettable due to short screentimes and which is really a letdown after all the work they have done between the two Main characters.
Visuals and Music 10/10
Production I.G did a hell of a job on this, the animation is really good which in my opinion is even better with Gainax' Evangelion (which is considered one of the best animated series of their time which is the 90's). Credits also Mamoru Oshii for his godlike visual storytelling and cinematography which feels like you are watching a movie from Hollywood, the fight scenes were really spot on and is oozing with coolness. The SFX is also really good which perfectly sets the tone for its setting and its Opening song that really gives me the chills on my spine whenever I hear it.
Overall thoughts 9/10
I gave this a 9/10 because the message it portrays is very thought provoking and it very realistic as far it goes. Plus the fact of how beatiful the effort given by Momoru Oshii on how the visuals look stunning just makes it a borderline masterpiece if it werent for the flaws like Some if the characters are dry and bland and poorly characterized and lack of exploration on their technology and how it became used in their society.
Overall I recommend this to everyone who loves shows Like Serial experiments Lain or Texhnolyze since both of those two has gotten some inspiration from this Franchise.
I hope you've enjoy this movie and also the review :)
