I rewatched Ghost in the Shell recently and I was struck by how poorly it aged. Its animation holds up but its story felt weaker than I remembered. Like the director reached for something deep, couldn't get ahold of it, and then covered his tracks behind wordy philosophy.
Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
21–30 of 236 posts
Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still working my way through season 3 so may change my mind. :) Any recommendations?
Yeah, I wrote a whole list a few comments up (or down). You can't miss it. :) As a quick thought, have you seen Cyberpunk Edgerunners, and Made in Abyss? For stupid fun (mood dependent), then probably One-Punch Man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-Punch_Man It's super famous these days, so you've probably already seen it. ;) Personally, I also really liked "Hai to Gensou no Grimgar" due to its focus on character gr…
Cyberpunk Edgerunners was good, Made in Abyss was too but I have to say it got borderline too depressing for me by the end of the last season.
OPM I really can't stand - dropped it just after a few episodes. :)
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar had a lot of promise with a different take on the common theme, but pity it looks like it will not be continued. :(
Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
#23I feel like I haven't seen an anime in years that's been in the same league as Akira or the great Miyazakis (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Totoro). Yes i'd be brutal and include Miyazakis following works in that list, from Howls Moving Castle to The Boy and the Heron. Ive seen lots of incredible animation, sure, but nothing like the cinematic depth. What am I missing? What should an old fart who's becoming convin…
This is heavily biased by my preferred genre of anime but here are some my favourite more recent anime series off the top of my head: Full metal Alchemist: Brotherhood https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_Alchemist:_Brother... Attack on Titan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Titan Mushishi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushishi Frieren: Beyond Journey's End https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frieren
Frieren is a modern classic, with some of the best animation I've ever seen & deals with the themes of companionship and regret in a surprisingly mature way. It would be my recommendation for sure!
Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I wrote a whole list a few comments up (or down). You can't miss it. :) As a quick thought, have you seen Cyberpunk Edgerunners, and Made in Abyss? For stupid fun (mood dependent), then probably One-Punch Man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-Punch_Man It's super famous these days, so you've probably already seen it. ;) Personally, I also really liked "Hai to Gensou no Grimgar" due to its focus on character gr…
Cyberpunk Edgerunners was good, Made in Abyss was too but I have to say it got borderline too depressing for me by the end of the last season. OPM I really can't stand - dropped it just after a few episodes. :) Hai to Gensou no Grimgar had a lot of promise with a different take on the common theme, but pity it looks like it will not be continued. :(
Yeah, that's a fair point. I haven't yet watched the 3rd season of Made in Abyss. Have been hesitant to do so due to its reputation. ;)
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Hai to Gensou no Grimgar has both manga, and light novels, that stretch on for many more chapters past the anime. The Manga was good and continues on well from the anime. After reaching the end of that I picked up the light novels to continue on further.
Unfortunately (around novel 13 I think?) the author clearly didn't know what to do with the story and it turned silly and boring, so I moved on to other stuff. :(
Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
#25I hadn't realised Jin-Roh was from the same creator. And I can see why it wasn't a success: Jin-Roh is dark, properly dystopian, confusing, and unforgiving. But underneath there is a retold story of the little red riding-hood, in the original Grimm fashion. The wolf wins.
Jin-Roh is but part of Oshii's other magnum opus, The Kerberos Saga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerberos_Saga . I haven't read the second half, which wasn't available in english when I first saw Jin Roh, but I've heard that The Red Spectacles and StrayDog are great if you liked it, but hard to find. I should retry that search one of these days.
Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners was good, Made in Abyss was too but I have to say it got borderline too depressing for me by the end of the last season. OPM I really can't stand - dropped it just after a few episodes. :) Hai to Gensou no Grimgar had a lot of promise with a different take on the common theme, but pity it looks like it will not be continued. :(
Yeah, that's a fair point. I haven't yet watched the 3rd season of Made in Abyss. Have been hesitant to do so due to its reputation. ;) --- Hai to Gensou no Grimgar has both manga, and light novels, that stretch on for many more chapters past the anime. The Manga was good and continues on well from the anime. After reaching the end of that I picked up the light novels to continue on further. Unfortunately (around nov…
Somehow I never got into reading manga, probably a good thing too - I checked my MAL stats and I says I have watched 330+ shows and I know I have been lazy and not rating all of them ...
Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
#27I feel like I haven't seen an anime in years that's been in the same league as Akira or the great Miyazakis (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Totoro). Yes i'd be brutal and include Miyazakis following works in that list, from Howls Moving Castle to The Boy and the Heron. Ive seen lots of incredible animation, sure, but nothing like the cinematic depth. What am I missing? What should an old fart who's becoming convin…
It's hard to understand if you are including Boy and Heron or not. If you are, then obviously there are recent master pieces.
But I'd say you are in for a treat: Satoshi Kon.
Perfect Blue, Paprika, Tokyo Godfather are all cinematic master pieces!
I also mostly agree with the hype that surrounded "Your Name", although I don't think Makoto's other works are nearly as impressive.
Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, that's a fair point. I haven't yet watched the 3rd season of Made in Abyss. Have been hesitant to do so due to its reputation. ;) --- Hai to Gensou no Grimgar has both manga, and light novels, that stretch on for many more chapters past the anime. The Manga was good and continues on well from the anime. After reaching the end of that I picked up the light novels to continue on further. Unfortunately (around nov…
Somehow I never got into reading manga, probably a good thing too - I checked my MAL stats and I says I have watched 330+ shows and I know I have been lazy and not rating all of them ...
Heh Heh Heh
Since you're not into Manga, this url probably won't be of interest then: ;)
https://mangakatana.com/manga/kaiju-no-8.24869/c1
• If you visit it, make sure you have an ad blocker. Too many ads otherwise.
• Japanese manga is read from right to left, the opposite of western comics. Just saying. :)
Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is heavily biased by my preferred genre of anime but here are some my favourite more recent anime series off the top of my head: Full metal Alchemist: Brotherhood https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_Alchemist:_Brother... Attack on Titan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Titan Mushishi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushishi Frieren: Beyond Journey's End https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frieren
> Attack on Titan Ugh. Such an incredibly padded, dragged out story. :( :( :( Maybe the first season was decent, but after the 3rd season it was mostly just boring to the point where skipping episodes didn't miss anything. Never bothered to watch anything after about the 3rd season. It became far too tedious. --- Yeah, Frieren was good. It closely matches the manga version of the story, though the manga goes on quite…
The plot suddenly shoots forward in the 3rd season, from memory. The season where they start explaining everything.
Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'
#30I feel like I haven't seen an anime in years that's been in the same league as Akira or the great Miyazakis (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Totoro). Yes i'd be brutal and include Miyazakis following works in that list, from Howls Moving Castle to The Boy and the Heron. Ive seen lots of incredible animation, sure, but nothing like the cinematic depth. What am I missing? What should an old fart who's becoming convin…
Your Name (2016, Makoto Shinkai) and Ping Pong the Animation (2014, Masaaki Yuasa) are both IMO top notch (and the creators are active and have extensive oeuvres). The Shape of Voice (2016, Kyoto Animation (RIP)) was also much acclaimed. Of these, I recommend Ping Pong the most (and Yuasa's other works as well).
I suppose for more sci-fi/fantasy, Rebuild of Evangelion (2007-2021) might be interesting, although to me, its popularity in Japan and why the retelling was made is actually more interesting to me than the works themselves. It didn't win any particular awards or acclaim, but I was a fan of the incredibly stylish manga series, and I personally enjoyed the Blame! (2017, Hiroyuki Shesita) CGI anime film for those into the Japanese post-cyber-apocalypse sci-fi aesthetic.
I think these days, the economics of anime has driven more interesting work into series rather than features. Recently some memorable ones I've enjoyed are Steins;Gate (2011-2015, White Fox), Devilman: Crybaby (2018, Studio SARU), Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022, Trigger), Pluto (2023, M2), and Frieren (2023, Madhouse).