Ghost In The Shell (DVD 2003)

Ground-breaking Japanese anime thriller with a touch of Blade Runner. Atmospheric and exciting, with a very curvy heroine!

A Fantastic futuristic animated thriller. This is an essential part of any manga film fan's collection.An excellent dvd version with English and Japanese language,plus special features (making of, biographies, profiles etc.)This film really makes you stop and think, it will blow you away, brilliant!!

Without a doubt, Ghost in a Shell is one of the most beautiful films ever animated. Though newer and better methods have been developed and subsequently used on other anime in the last 3 years this film still LOOKS to be state of the art, with it's stunning landscapes, limitless horizons and perfectly choreographed characters.
Similarly, the musical score is both beautiful and haunting - although at times one might consider it to be somewhat too 'traditionally' japenese for a movie based in the 'near-future', this is only a matter of taste and throughout it's hard not to be imopressed by the level of detail gone into simplesound effects and the sheer massive scale of the orchestra used to bring perfect pitch, mood and tone to each scene. Even the dubbing of American voice talent is done well, to the extent that one could easily foll oneself into believing that it was not originally a Manga production.

These are the highlights of the movie, but unfortunately I for one get the feeling that the director knows this too. A LOT of time is spent poring over beautiful landscapes and limitless horizons, and the characters pull off amazing feats of combat and gymnastics without looking contrived or implausible... while the actual plot is unimpressive and the characters themselves are seemingly 2-dimesional and incapable of emotion beyond stunned awe or outraged anger.

The plot runs along a very familiar vein to anyone who has any experience in anime movies - a special police unit attempts to track down a secretive, seemingly all-powerful nemesis villain, coming into conflict with their superiors and each other along the way until the brroding heroine finally discovers something about herself that allows her to make a breakthrough in the case. So far, so cliche.

Don't get me wrong - it's pulled off in an entertaining way and it's certainly enjoyable, but I felt that far too much effort had been spent on cinematics that were used to cover up what is essentially a slow and oft-repeared story. A few twists and turns along the way - mistaken identities, traps laid in wait - help to keep the interest but are ultimately yet more reused plot devices from a thousand other movies.

I'll probably get lynched by the Otaku community for saying as much, but these are my genuine feelings towards Ghost in a Shell. It is VERY beautiful and a joy to watch, however it is far from a cerebral exercise and I feel that it could have been a great deal better if the writers gave as much effort as the animators.

Entertaining, enjoyable and gorgeous.
Over-long, cliche'd and unchallenging.

This is one great anime. It's got a great plot, stunning visuals and the voice acting it very well done, all though a little difficult to follow at times, I found it to be a great movie. Highly recommended!

As a collector of Manga,I found this dvd excellent and well worth purchasing and watching,the outline of the story on the dvd cover gives people only a little snippet of what is in store once they watch the dvd,its absolutely wonderful and well reccomended

Ghost In The Shell is an excellent comic-to-movie adaptation in it's own right, but I would advise anyone who watches and enjoys it to read the full graphic novel aswell (by Masamune Shirow) as, for me, it fills in and answers many of the questions the movie generates regarding it's story and characters.

The animation in the movie is very well done and ties in nicely with the look and feel of the preceeding book, something not always accomplished with movie adaptations in my experience. The soundtrack is also worthy of note, as it too works very well.

The only negative point I can think of are that the ending is quite abrupt and mysterious, leaving you wanting a little more in terms of a what happens next explaination, but I guess that's the point, and again the second graphic novel fills in perfectly here.

Lastly, the special features on this disc are definately worth a look for a little background info and the 'making of' feature, and there is also a music vid which is cool if you like the tune.

the animation is abseloutely brilliant! the plot, the characters, everything! is great! the futuristic style and the fact it gets the viewer to think like the characters is fantastic!

the film was great
had you on your feet

























loved it

This was a beautiful animation that still included action in places. This was an enjoyable film and I would highly recomend it!

Have bought this item as a gift to a young friend.
hes into these japanese cartoon type films.
Hope he enjoys it!!!

i love the basic manga style, that doesnt make you r eyes hurt. its fun, thought provoking and v sexy... the animation is very real and it is easy to forget your watching a series of drawings.
the plot is full of suspense and misdirection that has you hooked till the end.. you wont blink through the whole film, if you have a soul