Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex - 1st GIG, Volume 1

Written by Tom Clare in Film Reviews, Sunday 6 August, 2006

"Watch In Awe, Aeria Gloris"

As anime releases go, the 1995 film adaptation of Masamune Shirow's epic Manga Ghost In The Shell has to rank among the most significant. A complex but brilliantly realised portrayal of Tokyo in a future that embraced the use of cyber-brains and prosthetic bodies, it captured the imagination with its stunning visuals and thought-provoking take on the role of artificial intelligence - posing the question that if a programme expanded and was able to think and act for itself, what consciously separated the human part of the brain and that of a robot? Aside from this, it was also sighted as being the chief inspiration for The Matrix, and watching it, it isn't difficult to see where the Wachowski brothers got their inspiration from.

In 2002, the silence that had followed the movies success was finally brought to an end. Fans prayers for more were answered in the form of a 26-part TV series, each episode having a running-time of around 25 minutes. Question marks remained over the ease with which such a complex franchise could be broken up into bite sized episodes, and the films legendary director, Mamoru Oshii (Patlabor, Avalon) was no longer at the helm - directing reigns had been handed over to Kenji Kamiyama (Blood: The Last Vampire). Stand Alone Complex has since been split into 7 DVD's and the topic of this review, the rather-bulkily monikered Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 1st GIG Volume 1, contains the opening 4 of those 26 episodes - and it's with these I'll start.

Set in the year 2030 A.D. GITS: SAC is in many ways like a futuristic cop-show, with the added quirk of it all being animated. These opening 4 episodes gently reintroduce the characters who featured in the classic film, and they're quite a bunch. 'Major' Motoko Kusanagi is the leading lady with a difference; her entire body is prosthetic (and no doubt a dream for the animators as her appearance rarely changes) and she remains perhaps the most prominent character featured in the series. Then there's her partner-in-crime Batou who is the 'muscles' behind the operation but also a welcome contrast to the more-serious Kusanagi. Fans will also recognise Togusa, who in sharp contrast to the Major, remains almost entirely human in his make-up. They all work for an organisation known as 'Section 9' - set up to combat hackers and online terrorists, as in the future all brains and identities are registered and part of a mass web. As the film-version told us in its concluding phase - "The Web is vast".

The opening episode, "SECTION 9", gets things off to a fairly positive start, symbolically beginning as the film ended, with Kusanagi perched atop a Tokyo skyscraper in the neon-drenched night time, and seemingly back in her original prosthetic body and free of the 'Puppet Master' villain who invaded her mind last time we saw her. Though Section 9's antics in this episode don't get the pulses racing, the story of identity theft and the stealing of 'brain-cases' is nevertheless a clever one and, to the relief of many fans no doubt, you'll discover that it fits nicely into the 25-minute format. A good start, but there's room for improvement.

Perhaps the most immediately striking element of GITS: SAC 1st GIG Vol. 1 is its visuals. The quality and consistency are absolutely superb, especially when you consider that this is the start of a lengthy series, and not a feature-film. Though CGI graphics have been combined with traditional animation, there's none of the crude one-then-the-other techniques that made the 2004 film Ghost In The Shell: Innocence look such a mess. Stand Alone Complex has a real finesse and air of ambition about it, straight from the get-go - the characters are gorgeously animated; the locations and cityscapes are remarkably detailed and believably vast, and the reflective and lighting effects among the best I've ever seen in any animation.

"TESTATION", the second episode, is excellent as the levels of action and intrigue have both gone up a notch. A tank is on the rampage, though events quickly become rather more interesting as no terrorist organisations are claiming responsibility for the apparent hijacking. However, it appears that the ID of the cyber-brain inhabiting the tank is that of a man who had died the previous week. What ensues is a frantic episode consisting in one part of an investigation into the 'dead' mans background, motives and what his likely actions would be, and the other is a thrilling game of cat and mouse between the seemingly-unstoppable tank and Section 9's own 'Tachikoma' tanks, as they try to stop its charge towards a residential area and potential carnage. "ANDROID AND I" sees the mass-suicide of a brand of outdated android models, initiated through a virus apparently implemented by the owner of the last remaining virus-free model. In many ways, it follows a similar investigative pattern to the previous episode, but shrewdly poses questions as to whether androids can expand beyond their limited programming, and the price humans pay for becoming too attached to them. Of all 4 episodes featured on the Volume 1 DVD, this examines emotion and logic the most, though as a consequence it can prove a little heavy going.

The DVD allows the option to view the episodes in Japanese with subtitles, or in the English-dub format. Given that each episode is either fast-paced or complicated and dialogue-heavy, it is rather difficult to enjoy the experience as much in Japanese. It's no great loss though - the English-dub is quite excellent and not overcooked, which is something of a rarity in modern anime. Voice-acting certainly appears to be something of an art - as countless Hollywood actors have seemed well out of their depth when voice serious animations. Fortunately that isn't the case here.

By the third episode, things are starting to come together nicely. You can usually tell when you are onto something good when you begin to take an interest in how each of the main protagonists behaves and reacts around each other. Kusanagi is a more-rounded, less cold figure than in the film for instance; as we see glimpses of her soul that will doubtless be expanded upon in later volumes, and a definite advantage of the series that has emerged in Volume1 is that the previously less-central figures of the piece seem to be developing and fitting into their roles very well.

So, after 3 'stand alone' episodes, the best is saved until last - the 'complex' finale that forms the first part of an ongoing storyline that will develop over the next few DVD Volumes. "INTERCEPTER" pleasingly focuses on Section 9's unsung mullet-clad hero Togusa, who is urgently contacted in the early hours of the night by an old acquaintance from the police, who is desperate to meet with him to discuss the 'Laughing Man' case - already several years old - as the detective is worried about "suspicious activity" in the top-ranks. He's right to be worried; he dies before he can meet Togusa. This episode is notable for several reasons - firstly, it ends on something of a cliff-hanger, which is rather rare by anime standards; secondly, for its pulsating use of techno-styled music and finally for a stunning, Bladrunner-esque section whereby Togusa is analysing photographs belonging to the deceased detective, under a computerised zoom lense - if anything this works even better in animated form; the futuristic presentation and attention to detail is simply breathtaking.

So the 4 episodes you get are on the whole very good, but what else do you get for your £7.99? I'll start with the smaller of the discs, Disc 2 - this is curiously bereft of extras, to the point of being pointless. You get the same four episodes as you do on the first disc, only with three more sound formats to try (two of which won't work on standard DVD players) and a nice interactive quiz, which again, could simply have been put on the other disc!

Still, Disc 1 more than makes up for it - there is an 'Image Gallery' that shows-off the magnificent CGI-opening that is present at the beginning of each Stand Alone Complex episode. It's a real eye-opener, and when accompanied by the wonderfully haunting, operatic J-Pop song that is 'Inner Universe' by Origa, it's no exaggeration to say that the hairs on the back of your neck will stand on end. Indeed, the music is yet another incredibly strong facet of GITS: SAC 1st GIG Vol. 1 - there's such diversity - be it slow-American rock, pulsating techno, J-Pop or orchestral, it's all fantastically pitched.

Also on here is perhaps the most thorough selection of 'Manga' anime previews I think I've ever seen on a DVD - there's over half an hour of them! The real incentive however for fans will doubtless lie in the two ten minute interviews - one with the director Kenji Kamiyama and the other with Motoko Kusanagi's Japanese voice-actress, Atsuko Tanaka. Whilst perhaps not as interesting as interviews in the later Stand Alone Complex volumes, they are nevertheless well-structured affairs. Kamiyama's has some useful and interesting touches, though perhaps isn't as insightful as it might have been given he is the top-dog on the project. Tanaka's interview is helped by the visual references made to certain events and conversations that her character Kusanagi makes in the opening episodes, though I did get the impression the interviews were rather limited so as not to give too much of the plot away - after all, they are assuming you've only got 1 of the 7 DVD's as this is the first. Nevertheless, don't look a gift horse in the mouth as the old adage goes, and for £7.99, all this surely represents outstanding value.

Would kids enjoy it? Well…probably not in truth. Whilst it is easier to grasp than either of the two Ghost In The Shell films, it isn't without its complexities. Helpfully, each episode comes with its own plot description and there are character profiles too, and between them they prove very useful if you feel you've missed something or all the talk about artificial intelligence just got too much to follow. The DVD carries a '12' certificate, and whilst there isn't any truly gratuitous violence or gore, it is nonetheless a rather serious sci-fi series. Teenagers will perhaps get the most out of it as adults have a tendency to scorn all-things animated, no matter how thought-provoking or well-crafted they are.

So ultimately, Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 1st GIG Volume 1 (phew) is well worth £7.99. Fans will no doubt appreciate the beautiful animation, consistently-memorable musical scores, top-class voice acting and large quantity of mostly-great extra features. And for those who've yet to break the stigma of 'animation is for kids'; the well-judged action-meets-philosophy concept displayed in Stand Alone Complex may prove the ideal tonic, with an ending just tantalising enough to leave you wanting more. Warmly recommended.

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