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Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

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Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#91

Post by wccrawford »

XorNot wrote: post #2

Ghost In The Shell suffers from really dragging in the middle. There's a bunch a bunch of sequences which go on just way too long for the total amount of plot in the film, and there's a lot of missing context for the main character's motivation: we just kind of get a couple big exposition dumps, but no real feel for who the Major is or why the core conceit of the plot matters to her. The Stand Alone Complex series, c…

I don't agree with you, but it's really sad that you're getting downvoted for having an opinion and explaining it. I'd understand it on Reddit, but this is HN, and it's supposed to be better here.

Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#92

Post by jonathanlydall »

maxglute wrote: post #47
Shinchy wrote: post #34

I'm not sure what others are saying, I re-watched Ghost in the Shell again recently and I had forgotten just how brilliant it is. There is something pure about it that you just don't find in modern anime, something that really resonated.

Every part of GiS has been, per article "endlessly ripped off, referenced and remixed". Whatever one liked about original GiS, there's a derivation out there that turns dial to 11 and makes the original feel basic in retrospect. But that's testimony to GiS greatness.

I watched The Shining for the first time in around 2012 and when commenting to an older friend about it I said something to the effect of "It's good, but I didn't feel it was exceptional." to which he replied saying that "Yes, but consider that it was the first real film of that genre, it only seems "okay" today because you're comparing to all the films of the same genre which came after and were largely influenced by it."

I don't know enough about films to know that if he said was accurate, but it's stuck with me.

I was about 16 when The Matrix came out and I find it interesting asking people who were born after it came out what they think about it, if they've seen it their reaction is typically (much like me with The Shining) "seemed alright", while for me at the time the movie was phenomenal and in terms of many of its special effects, unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#93

Post by bmacho »

YurgenJurgensen wrote: post #46
nanna wrote: post #4

I 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…

All these people giving recs are doing it wrong. You can determine if an anime is worth your time by merely looking at the title and what the source material is and the following simple system: Candidates start with 5 points. If they have a positive score after applying the system, they're at least worth checking out (although they will not necessarily be good). If not, you are likely wasting your time. 1) Every word…

That's a long elaboration of an old joke.

More seriously, no, you can't "determine if an anime is worth your time by merely looking at the title and what the source material is". Especially if you don't have anything to watch, and all the false positives (plenty!) have infinite negative value.

Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#94

Post by cjk2 »

rapnie wrote: post #82
cjk2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is good stuff out there. I watched Pantheon and Scavengers Reign recently, both excellent, but not old stable anime. Scavengers Reign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWQH8cMpWTU Pantheon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_HJ3TSlo5c

Dammit, they are in other livestream imperiums than where I dwell :(

There are other ways!

Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#95

Post by FranOntanaya »

chambers wrote: post #21

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.

I never felt it was any different. The 95 movie was always the more mystical take, for story the SAC series was better, specially 2nd GIG.

Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#96

Post by marci »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #78
chambers wrote: post #21

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.

I don't understand this at all. It's a story about model merging. The stuff in that movie is more pertinent than ever!

The story of how MajorMeat/Phantom-Dense-XXb-fp64 and a 2501Silicon/MoE-XXb-64bit finetuned with the Whole-Internet Dataset frankenmerged.

Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#97

Post by yrro »

pjc50 wrote: post #39
austin-cheney wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite is Patlabor 2. Here is the Japanese cultural explainer (spoiler): https://youtu.be/ybLKmO5Kq5A?si=bzIEK436EeWF_o5s

I didn't understand why people kept recommending this until I spotted that the director is Mamoru Oshii, director of GitS. It's perfectly reasonable as a standalone film without having seen 1. And it's good in the same ways as GitS; mix of action, political thriller, and lingering artistic set piece.

You'll probably enjoy Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade as well.

Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#98

Post by ghaff »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #92
maxglute wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every part of GiS has been, per article "endlessly ripped off, referenced and remixed". Whatever one liked about original GiS, there's a derivation out there that turns dial to 11 and makes the original feel basic in retrospect. But that's testimony to GiS greatness.

I watched The Shining for the first time in around 2012 and when commenting to an older friend about it I said something to the effect of "It's good, but I didn't feel it was exceptional." to which he replied saying that "Yes, but consider that it was the first real film of that genre, it only seems "okay" today because you're comparing to all the films of the same genre which came after and were largely influenced b…

There are a number of films: The Matrix, the original Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Avatar, I’m sure many others that were just so different and jaw-dropping in many ways when they first came out—in those cases because of effects of various types mostly—that it can be hard to appreciate their novelty at the time.

Some stand up better than others.

Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#99

Post by bullfightonmars »

ojhughes wrote: post #51
YurgenJurgensen wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All these people giving recs are doing it wrong. You can determine if an anime is worth your time by merely looking at the title and what the source material is and the following simple system: Candidates start with 5 points. If they have a positive score after applying the system, they're at least worth checking out (although they will not necessarily be good). If not, you are likely wasting your time. 1) Every word…

I really enjoyed "Re:ZERO - Starting Life in Another World" despite it scoring -11.5 using your system (Isekai translates to another world)

Ha. Stuff like this is entertaining but it is not what I would call good. It’s like the reality tv of anime. Cheap wish fulfillment fan service.

There have been some legit good series recently that play with these fantasy genres, have solid writing and animation.

* Friern: Beyond Journey’s End - an extremely sentimental coming of age tale that explorers children raising parents, loyalty, and platonic love.

* Delicious in Dungeon - a really silly story that subverts the dungeon crawling genre by crossing over with the food/cooking genre and playing with all kinds of genre/tropes.

* Pluto - a classic scifi morality tale on what it means to be human. This series tried really hard to be a modern Ghost in the Shell. It was successful in some ways and fell flat in others. Definitely worth watching though.

There are lots of entertaining anime out now, but so little of it is well made or written. Maybe that’s ok though. I still watch lots of the low quality stuff because it’s like popcorn/candy and is easy to watch.

Re: Selling 'Ghost in the Shell'

#100

Post by cedilla »

xorbax wrote: post #68
YurgenJurgensen wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That something is acetate.

This is why I think Akira can't be surpassed. Not just because it was done on acetate, but because of the level of skill and consideration required to animate that way. You can't just undo that brush stroke onto the cel and try something else. As much as technology has democratized the field, I think it also lowers the heights. I desperately hope I'm wrong and just old, but I haven't met someone who puts up something…

Akira is a cult classic and a pivotal point in anime - much more in the US than in Japan. If you don't know of a film surpassing it in skill and consideration in the thirty years since it was made it probably says more about your exposure to anime. Maybe it's just that Cyberpunk is less popular now and the big genres are of less interest to you.
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