Ghost in the Shell 2

i thought it was gonna be about a new movie :-(

(nb: the comic is pretty good but i preferred appleseed)

Well there is one now.

The trailer makes 0 sense. There is a series that is apparently coming out on DVD in the US in July--I suppose it could be downloaded but Interweb anime people are fucking freaky.

Sounds par for the course.

Hmm, sounds interesting. I think the first movie was actually better than the comic. Most of Shirow's work I've read is muddled by his unnecessary attention to detail and his quasi-philosophic mumbo-jumbo ("Orion" being the most notorious example).

Appleseed is better as a comic. But did you ever see the appleseed anime!? it's horrible.

Also, Tuomas I haven't seen Orion, but have you seen the "Man-Machine Interface" comics? The unnecessary detail is so disgustingly thick it's always impossible to figure out what's going on. He's really getting worse as he goes along in that respect; Appleseed just had the detail stuff as like little flourishes here and there.

Uh, I meant the 1988 Appleseed cartoon, since I guess there's a new one out I didn't know about?

I think there are two Appleseed animes, but loads of manga. I only have the first 4 collected books, as I think these are the only ones that have been translated so far. The manga are much better and richer in detail, political stuff etc. The first film (haven't seen the second) isn't terrible per se, it's just nowhere near as interesting.

But yay! more Major Kusanagi. She's the bestest.

shirow's comics have a jodorowsky-style madness to them, but you have to be in the mood for page-long footnotes detailing why this particular giant robot would leave a different kind of impact crater than is depicted, etc etc. you also have to be in the mood for giant cartoon titties - his women lately are sloppier than ever.

i downloaded the engrish-packed movie trailer ("this is the promiscuous story of a lonesome 'ghost' of a man") a while back. different animation style, seems to center around Batou this time - which may be a good thing, as he was the only character in the first movie who had anything resembling a personality. I'm sure Oshii will see to fixing THAT, though.

haven't seen the TV show, it's apparently more of a straight-up comic adaptation, with the fujikomas and such. even my friends who don't dig anime much seem to be into it, so make of that what you will.

I think the first Ghost in the Shell film was better than the comic, because it basically handled the same theme as the comic, but did in a sort of poetic way instead of Shirow's endless lectures. Shirow's influence did show in a couple of long, pedantic monologues (especially the one at the end), but I guess they were in a way necessary to make the plot understandable.

I think that's easily as much Oshii's influence really, as his work can be just as bludgeoning as Shirow's, in its own way sedate kind of way. maybe even moreso due to the ease with which his movies can render you unconcious (omg ZING!). similarly I think that Shirow's utterly berserk storytelling is capable of many 'poetic' moments in a way that Oshii cannot evoke (nb. it might not be entirely fair to compare the two since one draws comix and one directs movies, but it's not like anime appeared in a vacuum either..)