Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 01 (Episodes 1-4)
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DVD details
Actor: Ghost in the ShellDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-20
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Manga Video
DVD Reviews of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 01 (Episodes 1-4)
DVD Review: What you would expect!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is what you would expect from the team that makes this awsome film and series! Visuals are as always, Top notch in the anime world, with thought provoking story lines, that make it so you can't wait to watch the next episode in the series. If you like you anime like i do with realistic looking charaters, and just alaround good damn movie. you have to have this in your collection, along with the whole series!DVD Review: A warning about cheap versions of this series
Summary: 5 Stars
I own both the Ghost in the Shell movies, and both complete series. They are very intelligent and very well scripted stories. The first movie, especially, is a masterpiece. If you are into linear, simple action ANIME, you may not like these, because (especially in the two GIGs) the story is very complicated.
I purchased the 2nd GIG from eBay, where I ordered a very inexpensive box which included the complete series. I am writing this review mostly to warn you against doing this, or at least so that you know what you are likely to purchase if you do as I did. The box is, I believe, a copyrighted original, which is much cheaper than the products sold by Amazon because the box is an Asian import. The video quality is good, as well as the sound. There is no dubbing, so all the dialogues are in Japanese, but I don't care about this, and actually I think the Japanese versions are much better than the English versions anyway, because the Japanase actors involved in this sort of production are much better professional than the 2nd or 3rd rate folks who dub the US versions.
So, where is the problem? The SUBTITLES... In the cheap complete box I purchased the subtitles of many (fortunately not all) episodes are so bad that you often literally CANNOT understand what the characters are talking about. Sometimes you can clearly infer that the characters are saying the OPPOSITE of what the subtitle suggests. Grammar and syntax are all over the place, and there are sometimes words which are just made up. It is clear that the translation was done by a Japanese with a VERY poor knowledge of the English language, and no one English-speaking professional was consulted. I was surprised by this, because I purchased an equally cheap complete box of the first GIG, and in that case the translation was spotless. But you truly have to consider that if you buy a cheap box for the 2nd GIG chances are you will end up with a hardly comprehensible series, and given the complexity of the storyline, this will seriously affect your ability to enjoy your purchase.
This said, AS FAR AS I COULD UNDERSTAND, the 2nd GIG is excellent, even if I have the feeling that the first had better artwork. Anyway, it's still a very stimulating ANIME story, but just make sure you know what you are buying if you decide to go ahead with the purchase.
DVD Review: Good start so far
Summary: 4 Stars
2nd gig picks up storywise where the last left off. Section 9 is given the opportunity to get another mission. However it has to be executed perfect, because the public hasn't forgot the scandal they were behind at the end of the last series. All the characters from the first season has returned. So far the stories is pretty interesting. I enjoyed all of them even though its not guns blazin every episode. The soundtrack is alot better to me this time. Especially the end theme. I can hear it over and over. The dvd has 4 episodes with some extras. I haven't seen the later episodes yet because this time I'm waiting for the boxset to drop. Usually if I really get into a series I wont wait for the collection. But right now I'm checking out a few different shows that to me are far better than this. If your already a fan, and you enjoyed the last season plus the movie. Then your most likely going to enjoy this one.DVD Review: Cutting edge Cartoon, not for children
Summary: 5 Stars
As a fan of the Matrix, Stargate, and other Sci-Fi type films, I was given as vol. 5 of 2nd Gig, as a gift by a well intentioned, but uniformed family member. I think the person thought it was the entire season, so did I when I opened it, but as you know, or learn, there are 3 episodes per volume.
Review of the story, the concept is not new, but very inventive in the twist on the Bionic Man (6 million dollar man) story from the US series in the 70's, staring Lee Majors. Additionally, with the fame of secret service, government intelligence drama, (Tom Clancy's CIA, Broccoli's 007, the many KGB stories, Israeli Mossad, Japan has entered the mix with its own fictional (or is it) "Section 9" of the Public Safety Ministry. Like their Anglo counter parts, this supper secret agency answer only to the Japanese Prime minister, has lots of high tech gadgetry, even more heavy duty fire power, and more importantly, a very keen nose for high level government corruption and conspiracy.
One of the more notable plot devices used by the author is the "tochcoma" which is not a fancy car, not an invisible submarine, nor a super plane or helicopter, though Section 9 does possess all those things, what a tochcoma is, only the Japanese could think this up, a "think tank," in the literal since of the phrase. It is a tank, which can think, talk, solve problems, follow you around like a 20 ton puppy, and of course, save the day with a 88mm howitzer when everything else in your bag seems to fail. The tochcoma does provide both a sub plot of its own, and at the same time, becomes a vehicle to move the main along with the story begins to drag. The author, similar to Tom Clancy, likes to have lots of elaborate complex dialog essentially to explain, "why are we here?" The author does take a serious look a possible future of the world and technology in the same vein Blade Runner. If you like Blade Runner, you will probably enjoy this too. The only criticism I can offer is, the author, in an effort to explore the plight of the refugees, does not explain in more detail, the plight of the refugees. The refugee protagonist, is not in fact a refugee, but a mysterious enigma of nobility who was part of the original research in prosthetics, same as the Major, the female good guy protagonist. There are some other minor plot flaws that we could discuss, but not necessarily debilitating to the story. Besides, it is the flaws in literature, that makes it worth discussion. Overall, this is an excellent piece of work for television, home theater that is worth watching, often more than once. Take note of the opening theme, which the lyrics are in Latin, English and Russian, with subtitles, this is novel, and quite interesting.
DVD Review: The Best Contemporary Work of Science Fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell- in all of its incarnations- is an exceptionally literate and stimulating franchise. But the best of these incarnations is the second season of Stand Alone Complex, directed by Mamoru Oshii. Even at the most superficial level, the visual and sound design of the series are pathbreaking. But Shirow's vision for the manga was deeply informed by artificial intelligence theory and philosophy of mind. This series continues to explore these themes, even as Oshii has added on layers of international politics, speculative history, diplomacy, systems theory, law, bureacratic infighting, Japanese culture. The final product is even richer intellectual and dramatic material than its closest rival, the new Battlestar Galactica. Unlike the Matrix, this series gets better with each installment, with a bit more of the puzzle revealed in each installment. This is because - also unlike the Matrix- there is a POINT. This is not an endless symposium on the dualing natures of technology and humanity, it is thesis-driven and these questions are ultimately RESOLVED. The stories are so complex and the pace of the series is so quick that many viewers complain that it is impossible to follow. But this is merely an invitation to multiple viewings, and they repay the effort with interest.
Description of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 01 (Episodes 1-4)
Major Kusanagi and the other agents of Public Security Section 9 hit the ground running as the second season of the Ghost in the Shell broadcast series begins. The new storylines have a more overtly political tone than the previous sci-fi adventures about the Laughing Man and the scandals surrounding cures for "cyberbrain sclerosis." Chief Aramaki gets his funding restored when he resolves a hostage situation for the new Prime Minister. This terrorist incident is linked to the poor treatment of Asian refugees and their role in the economy of the world following World War IV. When military helicopters go haywire above a refugee compound, the government faces a potential uprising, while evidence suggests that an even bigger plot may be unfolding. In the unusually sardonic episode 3, Aramaki, Kusanagi, Batou et al. set up a hi-tech sting operation to trap a corrupt industrial mogul. The newly cognizant Tachikoma robots join the crew as "recruits." (Rated 13 and older: violence, violence against women, sexual situations, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles SolomonGeneral DVDs
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