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 2

By Lyndonimus
19th Feb 05

GITS:SAC sees Major Motoko Kusenagi and her motley crew take on more cyber criminals in an ongoing fight against crime. The DVD contains episodes 5 – 8 of the of the explosive 26_episode series. Episodes 5 (Decoy) and 6 (MEME) lead onto the trail of the ‘Laughing Man' a cyber terrorist who hasn't been seen for six years! A serious assassination threat against the Police superintendent_General leads Section 9 to trace the threat to find out if it is genuine or simply a decoy.

These two episodes are very well done, incorporating a lot of tense atmosphere while a deadly cat and mouse game is launched in a race against the clock. The characters are all in play and need little introduction (and/or character development) as this TV series follows off the back of the films and Mangas that came before it. Everyone should know who these guys are and what they are up to.

Episodes 7 (Idolator) and 8 (Missing Hearts) are simply an open and shut affair. They're not as engaging as the previous episodes, which seems like a bit of a let down, however Idolater provides some amazing set pieces that are nicely choreographed. Missing Hearts is noted for it's nice use of the Tachikoma tanks with the amazing stealth camouflage.

This DVD seems to be a bit of a hit and miss, episode 5 kicks off with an engaging storyline and ends on a bit of a cliff hanger, making you immediately continue onto the next episode to find out what happens. The latter two, while being just a single episode seem to be just a regular case, nothing really engaging about them to be honest, while they had some nice philosophical questions and some moral issues raised (especially in Missing Hearts) I don't think they were as dynamic as I might have liked.

Like I said before, it's a pretty mixed bag, but with a 26_episode series they aren't all going to be master pieces and the animation definately holds it's own through all four episodes. Besides, no_one is going to buy volume 2 without buying volume 1 first right? Right! A stable brick in the collection and I just hope they roll out volume 3 as soon as possible.

6/10

R2 DVD Notes

Features: Disc 1 - Interview with Osamu Saka (voice of Aramaki), Interview with Yoko Kanno (composer), Episode Profiles, Character profiles, Trailers, Anamorphic Widescreen presentation, English and Japanese audio in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 - Disc 2 - Anamorphic widescreen, English and Japanese audio in Dolby Digital 2.0 and DTS 5.1, Interactive quiz

Release information: UK: 29th February 2005, Manga

Notes: The extras are quite a nice addition to the series but only if you're really into your anime and actually know who the actors and composers are. Otherwise there is not much here worth taking note of, except perhaps the sheer number of trailers on the DVD, I think it's actually the entire Manga Ent. Catalogue of DVD's and videos (many of which I hope come to DVD really soon). The nice added addition of DTS 5.1 in Japanese is also very welcome, too often do we get DVD's with 5.1 English audio and simply Stereo Japanese audio, a real thumbs up there).

-- Lyndonimus 19th Feb 05

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Images