Ghost in the Shell

By: Roman Martel
Review Date: Saturday, February 16, 2002
Release Date: Saturday, March 21, 1998



The Review!
In the future, the world is controlled and run by information. Unfortunately, this makes for an all-new type of criminal and the types of crimes they can commit. Enter Section 6, a group of agents with the objective of stopping cyber criminals. However, they are about to meet their most formidable enemy, the Puppetmaster, a criminal who hacks into the brains of others and uses them to enact his criminal plans. Now Section 6 must find and capture the Puppetmaster before he wrecks havoc on the entire nation. The only problem is that he seems to be trying to take control of the leader of Section 6, Major Kusanagi.

-Artistic Ratings-
Animation: 5
Sound: 5
Plot: 5
Acting: Japanese- 4
English- 2
Music: 5
Overall: 4

-Disc Ratings-
Sound: 5
Picture: 5
Menu: 4
Presentation: 5
Goodies: 3
Overall: 5

-Review-
If you haven't seen this anime before then watch it now. I doubt you'll be disappointed. Not only is the animation top notch (perhaps the best I've ever seen), but the story is really engaging. Unfortunately I couldn't even begin to get into intricacies of the plot in only six sentences, but believe me this is the type of film that makes you think after viewing it. In my book, that is a very good thing. The sound in incredible as is the music. The only fault I had artistically was with the English dubbed actors, especially the woman doing the voice of Major Kusanagi, who seemed to be either going through the motions or doing her first voice over. I like the Japanese voiceover better, but the rest of the movie more than makes up for the weaker dubbing.

As for the disc itself, the sound and picture quality were the best. This is the first DVD that I bought and I wasn't disappointed. The menu is good, but compared to Pioneer's Armitage menu, it's kinda bland. The overall presentation of the disc (the keepcase, the insert, the disc itself) are of high quality and eye catching to boot.

As for the goodies on this disc, they are a little disappointing. The in depth Character and plot analysis are a little weak and I would have preferred some story boards or even some stills of the original manga. The behind the scenes documentary is very well done, however, and makes up for it. The trailer is also included on the disc. Now, maybe I'm a little jaded with extras on many of the collector's edition Laser discs I own, but I see some great potential for some really cool extras on DVD. I hope to see some soon on the forthcoming anime releases.

Review Equipment
N/A