Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Highly recommended

Publisher
Manga
Director
Kenji Kamiyama
Production
Bandai, Dentsu, Production IG, Victor Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2002

Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Volume 1

By otaku_kei
4th Oct 04

This is a prestigious release from Manga Entertainment UK and a good start to their resurgence in the UK anime community.
Ghost in The Shell is one of the grandaddy's of anime and the Stand Alone Complex series has been receiving great reviews around the world since its release. This is as it states a stand alone tale that does not require any prior knowledge of previous GITS incarnations.

The story follows section 9, in particular Major Kusanagi as they continue to use any means necessary to protect & serve in a world where electronic crime, and cyber terrorism and espoinage are the order of the day. The series starts with section 9 foiling an attempted defection by a government minister to The USA, and does not let up from there. The story starts to pick up pace with early stories concerned with the connection between the ghost and the shell, before the final episode of this disc introduces the major antagonist of the series: The Laughing Man.
The series brings back all the major characters from the motion picture: Kusanagi, Batou, Togusa, Aramaki and they dont appear to be sidelined at all in favour of the Major as it was in the film. The characters are already being given their own room for development. And of course the weird little tachikoma's (is that how its spelt?) and how they act as weird childish
armoured mecha bodysuits. They're either gonna become endearing or annoying. The jury is still out on that.

OK so now onto the animation, and really there is very little to complain about here. The character designs are clear, individual, the secondary characters are not bland carbon copies from one episode to the next. The colours are bright and crisp. The mix of the digital animation and cgi bits look fluid. Really cant find any real problem with the animation apart from the Major's character design. Just personally - if you were leading a military/intelligence unit, would you wander round all day in a leotard? Or would you dress a bit more ready for action? Stupid fan-service.

The audio is also really good. The language options are english 5.1 (and the dub is good, the voice acting not melodramatic or whiney), and japanese 2.0 (havent checked this out yet). The set also comes packaged with a 2nd disc that presents the same episodes but with an english DTS soundtrack. The score is also really good, a mix of techno, punk and classical. Opening track being much better than the closing track of the show.
The extras are a mixed bag at the moment. 2 interviews (which i have yet to watch so cannot comment on) and a selection of character profiles - that add nothing to an understanding of the series, clearly manga just thought they should put something on.
Final thoughts - I'm looking forward to the rest of this series, its gotten off to a good start and hopefully should be able to keep up the momentum for the rest of the series.

-- otaku_kei 4th Oct 04

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Images