Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society

tollie01 May 8, 2016

8

Right, it's confession time for me. If you have been reading my reviews than you may have noticed that I tend to rip the anime a new one. There is a reason for this though and it has to do with the fact that I can't turn my brain off when watching anime. I can't ignore the stupid shown in the anime and this is a problem as most anime are very stupid indeed. In this case I'm not talking about a 90 pound girl catching a multi-ton cruise missile and throwing it back. Yes, it is stupid but it is a stupid that I'll allow. It's anime. Things like this are normal here and I'm pretty much fine with it. It annoys me to be sure but I will not rant about it. So, having explained this lets rip into this anime shall we? Just a heads up: There will most probably be spoilers. The more I hate an anime the more spoilers there will be. ART: The art is excellent. There is nothing much to say about it really. The GITS series is a popular one and movies tend to have a bigger budget to work with so it is no surprise that it looks good. SOUND: Music by Yoko Kanno. When you see this than you know that you are in good hands. She has made the music for countless anime and is considered one of the greatest composers for anime music. Voice acting is excellent as well. CHARACTERS: Main character is Togusa. After Motoko disappeard he has taken her place as field commander of Section 9. STORY: Motoko is gone and Togusa is trying his best to fill the void that she left behind. Together with Batou he is tasked to find out a new threat that has risen. Very little is known about this group, only that they call themselves the Solid State Society. RANT:....I got nothing. I'm sure that there are plotholes and such but I didn't notice them nor did I care. In the GITS universe this one stands out even more than the second movie. Chronologically it takes place after the second movie and Motoko is still out of the picture. Where in the second movie Batou was leading Section 9 (or that was the vibe I was getting), here it is Togusa. This makes for some interesting dynamics and I kind of liked it. Personally I would have liked it if they hade made this into a series like Stand Alone Complex. There is a lot thay could have expanded on. The new dynamic between Batou and Togusa for one and Motoko also plays a major role in the events happening. While the movie works the thing I liked about the series is the time those take to set things up. In terms of visuals and story it resembles the series and not the movies. If you liked the series then by all means pick this up although it may leave you confused to what happened to Motoko. The movie sort of expects you to know what happened in the movies as well.