Monday, January 30, 2006

I WATCH ANIME: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG


It's back! And this time the title's even longer!! The only thing you need to know though about Ghost in the Shell SAC the TV series, is it's something not to miss! That goes double for this new "second" season!!

GITS is hardcore sci-fi, with a cyber bent, and SAC explores the concepts laid down by the great manga creator/mad-genius Masamune Shirow (or is it Shirow Masamune now?), specifically building on the elements from the original manga (and subsequent first film version) with Major Motoko Kusanagi and section 9, the special division of police force for cyberterrorism crimes. Taking the cast from the original manga and movie and expanding on it in a television series filled with all the twisting plots and scenarios of a police procedural drama, or detective series, but with copius amounts of future tech, politics, and sci-fi military action. Quite a heady blend, that entertains on many levels.

The second season continues with "stand alone" episodes with an overarching plot, this time centered around refugee camps and some sort of high level goverment plot afoot to test our Major and her newly reinstated section nine operatives. I dare say it's off to an even better start than the first season, and the initial volume is a treat of four fabulous episodes. Things pick up in a manner that one could come in without having to watch the first season, just as each episodes stands on it's own, but rewards those who follow along.

GITS SAC is always heavy on the dialogue, plot, details, politics, tech etc. It's a highly saturated dose for the mind, but can also work just as a visual treat too, with the top notch animation from studio Production I.G.

This is a sci-fi fan's paradise, a fictional glimpse into the near future full of technology, gear, and mecha, all wrapped around incredibly solid writing and visuals. One of the best shows out there, animated or otherwise.

Pick it up on DVD HERE

Or watch it on Cartoon Network HERE

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

it depends on whether you would want to be called martin jason... or something to that effect. yeah, it's no where near as funny as it should be... we could probably just get away with saying shirow, because we aren't personable with him or anything.

Jason Martin said...

Yeah, I don't get it.
At which point are we saying his name backwards?
Why up until about the last year was it Masamune Shirow, and now it's the other way?

It's like for about twenty years, until the boom, I pronounced manga - mayn-ga (as in man like a male) but it's mahn-ga (as in mon)... I felt the fool.
Curse you foreign culture and your mysterious Eastern ways!

Anonymous said...

the joys of different cultures. in our culture, it's masamune shirow (surname last). in their's, shirow masamune (surname first). while in our culture we often refer to people we don't know overly well by their first name (like betty down at the walgreens on the corner) as opposed to the japanese, who refer to other they don't know intimately by surname... which is why in some manga, they actually make an issue of it. i can't recall anything off hand -- maybe the rahxephon manga vol 3.

as for the pronunciation... same here. but even manga video pronounced it the way we did in their video release openings...

oh well. i'm all for being more cultured.

Jason Martin said...

"the joys of different cultures. in our culture, it's masamune shirow (surname last). in their's, shirow masamune (surname first)."

ah
you say that is if you know
and it makes sense
so I'll buy it
cool

ah culture

Jason Martin said...

er, uh
meant "as if" not "is if"
darn lack of an edit feature...

beety beety