Anime: Ghost In The Shell (1995)

The great thing about being such a latecomer to anime is that I get to see a whole ton of cool stuff with fresh eyes and no preconceived ideas. I had of course heard of GITS thanks to it being constantly mentioned on all time anime lists and friend recommendations. Oh and of course last year's Hollywood film adaptation.

My mate sent me this Blu-ray edition of GITS as a gift. Wow this film is awesome and it really made me ponder on the question - what is life? I mean, how do you define what is life and what is artificial?

I can see why GITS is considered such a pivotal film in the history of anime. It’s a true work of art. The scenes are so beautifully drawn with character art, background and action all blending perfectly into one another. I haven't read the manga but I assume many scenes faithfully recreate the panel artwork from the printed version. The opening sequence alone is just stunning as the main hero of the film, Major Motoko Kusanagi, descends from a tall building, almost naked (the reason is made clear afterwards it's not just gratuitous nudity) and fires rounds through an office window while continuing to free fall and then disappear. It's incredibly well envisioned.

There is another long interlude where the animators depict city scenes and rain, no action takes place, it just rains and lets the viewer soak in the dark and brooding atmosphere of a near futuristic cyberpunk world.

The manga itself was written in 1989 and the anime in 1995. Back then, the internet and web based communications were barely in their infancy. I was pretty amazed at how this film portrays a future that isn’t too far from how things are today or soon will be. I also see how much it has influenced The Matrix. I also see how much Blade Runner influenced GITS. All of them btw great films.

In GITS, cyborgs with human body parts are fairly routine but the 'ghost' of the movie is a completely artificial digital entity known as the Puppet Master who considers itself to be a life form. How long before artificial intelligence being developed right now will one day consider itself to be alive? If the entity can think for itself, control external mechanical parts, learn, grow, even die...surely it is as alive as much as a human is alive?

Lots to ponder! And the good thing for me - there are plenty more Ghost in the Shell series of things to watch. For example there are the Arise movies on Netflix plus several anime series and follow up movies.

9/10

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