ReviewMasters Guild: Ghost in the Shell

Type: Anime

Genre: Sci-Fi

Running Time: 82 minutes

Rated: NR
(brief nudity, adult situations, violence)

Based on Masamune Shirow's hit manga, Ghost in the Shell was animated as a full length movie in 1995. The story revolves about Major Kusanagi Motoko, a cybernetically augmented agent of Section 9, a special government
security force, and her group's mission to find a computer terrorist known as the Puppet Master. In this dark cyberpunk-esque future, the term "ghost" refers to a person's entity, that which is not necessarily connected to the flesh. Thus Kusanagi finds herself often wondering about other's and her own existence in a world where one can be generated off of the vast Net and virtual world. Kusanagi's pursuit of the Puppet Master leads her into a web of political intrigue and cover-up. Ghost in the Shell is an 82 minute long movie packed with action, intrigue, and a classic look at a dark future.

Personally I had mixed feelings from this film. In general, I was most disappointed with the movie, due to the fact that it only touches upon a part of the full story by Masamune Shirow. Although this is typically expected from movie
adaptions of manga or TV shows, it doesn't change the fact that the movie is always merely a summary of a larger in-depth story, or only a segment of the full story, leaving me to think it would have been a better idea to run it as an OVA series. Otherwise, the movie was quite good, with a nice blend of both cel animation and CGI. Even the dubbing is done pretty well, with only a few bland scenes of acting that are easily overlooked due to the quality of the rest of the film.

In the future technology has greatly progressed but maybe too much. Law enforcement is now maintained by soul driven mecha. One agent created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, code named Project 2501 or Major Motoko Kusanagi, has been given the, what seems to be impossable, task of bring in the worlds most dangerous hacker the "Puppet Master." The chase is on to bring down the "Puppet Master" before he destroys everyday society or the Internal Bureau of Investigations find that he is a creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
With an extreme amount of violence, insane plot twists, amazing animation and nudity for all you little kids who like to see naked cartoon characters, Ghost in the Shell is definetly worth a view or two.

It is a movie which takes place in the near future. This movie contains ground breaking animation which might be a little to much for the weak of heart. The movie has its ups and downs, during the ups its like a none stop thrill ride, during the downs you look for the remote to fast-forward to the ups. I'd have to say that my favorite line in the movie "What kind of gun is that?" "It's your standard issue BIG gun." This movie has good characters which you learn to like in the time their there .
On the tux scale from 1 to 5 this movie received a 4.

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"Ghost in the Shell" is protected by ©1995 Masamune Shirow / Kodansha Ltd. / Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. / Manga Entertainment. English adaptation ©1996 Manga Entertainment. Use of names, titles, images, etc. is done without the consent or knowledge of the above mentioned parties.