Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Director: Mamoru Oshii
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Synopsis:
In the high-tech world of Ghost in the Shell, humans and cyborgs coexist. Cyborgs who were once normal humans retain their humanity by having a part of their cybernetic brain contain a ‘ghost’, which represents their memories and individuality. A hacker known as the Puppet Master surfaces who can not only hack into the cyber brains of people to control them, but also alter their ghosts. There are two criminals at the beginning of the movie who are victims of a ‘ghost hack’. While they appear to be lucid during interrogation, when asked about personal things such as their parents, childhood memories, even their own name (things that would be stored in one’s ghost), they can’t recall any of them.
This attracts the attention of Section 9, a military division that is particularly specialized in cyber warfare. We later learn that the Puppet Master is a computer program that believes itself to be a sentient life form. For reasons best explained in the movie (as it is the core plot that I don’t want to spoil), it has wanted to get in contact with Section 9 for a long time, and this was the best way it decided to do it.
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Other reviews:
Roger Ebert once called Ghost in the Shell “Unusually intelligent and challenging science fiction, aimed at smart audiences” (proudly printed on the cover of the 1996 VHS release). Director James Cameron described it (on the UK version of the recently released remastered Blu-ray edition) as “a stunning work of speculative fiction, the first truly adult animation film to reach a level of literary and visual excellence.”

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My Review:
Ghost in the Shell thrives in its SciFi “post cyberpunk” setting. The main character is a female member of Section 9, referred to as the ‘Major’. She is fully cybernetic, having no human parts in her besides her ‘ghost’. The first dialogue we hear from her is not spoken with her mouth, but through her cyber brain to one of her teammates over a network. For them, everything revolves around the information network, which is where the Puppet Master emerges from. Once she learns of the Puppet Master’s ability to hack and change a ghost, she begins to wonder if she ever really was human. After all, if a hacker could change someone’s ghost, it could be easily manipulated by the organizations in charge of maintaining cybernetic bodies. The question of what makes a human, what constitutes life, sentience, and individuality is a theme that prevails in all of the media that the Ghost in the Shell franchise encompasses (it started as a Japanese comic, then this movie, then later another two movies and a 52 episode television series).
When I first watched this film almost seven years ago, all of the philosophy talk bored me. The movie also isn’t afraid to utilize its vocabulary of ‘technobabble’, which can make it hard to follow at times. Now that I’m a little older and more patient, and more familiar with anime, science fiction and this particular franchise as a whole, I can absorb a lot of the heady concepts they present more easily. The expertly animated action sequences still hold up incredibly well fourteen years later and are what really kept me interested in it when I was seven years younger. Now, I can derive even more intellectually stimulating entertainment from it.
This is certainly a film intended for adults. The violence is graphic (though only average by anime-of-the-time standards) and the Major spends much of the movie naked. As an example: the first few minutes of the film have the naked Major shooting a diplomat in the head, causing it to explode in a mess of red liquid and electronic wiring. Immediately after that, she activates her thermoptic camouflage to disappear from sight. We learn in one of the other series that it’s not really necessary for her to be nude to use thermoptics, but she prefers it anyway. This is a trait inherited from the original comic creator, Shirow Masamune, who is notorious for finding any excuse to draw women in various states of undress.
The only criticism I really have for it is its accessibility issues: there are long, pensive scenes where not much happens (a trademark of the much respected director Mamoru Oshii); esoteric philosophic and ‘technobabbley’ conversations which also go on a little long sometimes; and frequent nudity that might turn off people who might otherwise really enjoy the film. In spite of that, I’m glad that this is a film that I can appreciate even more as I mature. I actually envy people whose first exposure to anime was Ghost in the Shell. It is a spectacular way to be introduced to the medium of anime.

This is depressing.

I have no inside knowledge, and very little knowledge of how the actual licensing process goes, so this post is mostly speculation (and desperate rationalization) on my part. I thought I’d share in hopes it would help calm the minds of other fans who are awaiting the ADV DVD release of Gurren-Lagann.

You may or may not be aware that the DVD versions of anime sometimes offer an enhanced version of what was shown on TV. Whether it be removing certain censoring, improving animation quality or outright changing scenes entirely. Gainax has been doing some of these edits with Gurren-Lagann.

I knew this for a while, but this particular idea dawned on me while looking at the DVD version of episode 27 (which is so freaking clean compared to the original broadcast fansub…there’s a torrent of the translated dvd version of ep 27 on the ‘net right now…).

ADV ‘bought’ Gurren-Lagann while it was still being broadcast. So, I’m assuming this means they have the rights to the TV version and were working on it from that point. But, after witnessing all the quality improvements made in the Japanese DVD version (which I’m assuming they *don’t* have the license for), they want that one instead. The last JP GL DVD was just recently released, so ‘that version’ is now available in its entirety.

Perhaps the delay ADV is giving us is related to getting the DVD content as opposed to the TV content. That would certainly be an acceptable reason for me.

Here are a couple of examples of the DVD improvements:
This first one is more a fault of the broadcast method than the source material. It was just too epic for cable to handle.

TV on the left, DVD on the right

This one is more spoilerful (and large), so I’ll just link it. DVD on the left this time, TV on the right
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/600/dvdchangessa8.jpg

I have no idea how to pronounce the show’s name properly in English, but the katakana used for the name are pronounced ‘mu ne mo syu ne’. Which is funny, since the ‘mune’ part taken on its own means ‘breast’ in Japanese. Haha, tits. I’ll get back to that later.

The structure of the show is pretty interesting. It’s a 6 episode series and each episode runs for an hour (45 minutes without commercials). Starting Feb. 3rd, they’re airing one episode per month. Pretty weird. It’s like an OVA, but on Satellite.

I’ve only seen the first episode raw (I don’t think there are any subs yet), and my Japanese is hardly at the level where I can ‘get’ everything, but I have the general idea of the show. Taking place in 1990, it centers around the green haired lady in the image above. She’s Rin Asougi, the central character who runs a sort of detective agency along with a loli chick named Mimi. Rin strikes me as a cross between Yomiko Readman of Read or Die and Motoko Kusanagi of Ghost in the Shell. She’s highly skilled and pretty ruthless at times, but when she’s not fighting someone she’s playful, compassionate and even a little clumsy.

Now let’s get back to the boobs. This is definitely an Adult show. Rin doesn’t have any problems rolling around unclothed with nary a puff of steam or strategic prop placement to be found. Putting aside the nudity, there’s some pretty disturbing violence in one extended scene involving a chick with a piercing fetish. It’s actually worse when the piercings are taken out. Yikes. Rin actually dies 3 times in this episode. This was being advertised as having ‘erotic violence’, and it certainly lives up to that advertisement.

If you’re the type that follows seiyuu, this show has a few big names to it. Mamiko Noto, Rie Kugimiya and Rie Tanaka all play major roles in this show. Nobuyuki Hiyama is in it as well, but I didn’t recognize his voice at all. The opening and ending songs are done by the Japanese metal band Galneryus

Looky here for a 3 minute trailer to have an idea of what the show looks like.

I’d imagine Mnemosyne would be more interesting if I understood what they were saying. It did hold my attention through its entire 45 minutes, so this is something I’ll be following during its run. It wasn’t anything particularly spectacular, but it is one of the more exciting programs this season. Hope someone subs it!

Bunny Suit Kallen. Geass was always a huge pile of pandering amusement, but now they’ve gone too far.

They’ve hit my weak spot.

For massive damage.

[via DbD]

This DBZ movie is getting really weird.

Click for full-size.

I’ll list what these actually are:
Row 1
-The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Special Editions vol 3 & 4 (Complete)
-Eureka 7 Special Editions vols 9 & 10
Row2
-Fighting Spirit/Hajime no Ippo Complete Collections vol 1 & 2 (Complete)
-Gundam the Movie: Char’s Counterattack
-Scrubs season 6 (one of these things is not like the others…)
Row 3
-Virtua Fighter 5 for 360
-Ace Combat 6 for 360
-Zack & Wiki for Wii (this game is all kinds of good. I’m thinking of making a post about it in the future)
-Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations for DS
-Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a day for DS(I really like these games. Once I get bored of them, I can give them to my mom as a gift…if she doesn’t go out and buy it herself)
-Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for PSP

So there. Eight of these items I have already seen/played to completion in previous forms. Suzumiya, Eureka 7, Ippo I’ve seen on fansub. Virtua Fighter 5 I already had for PS3. I had already played the Japanese/English version of Gyakuten Saiban 3.

Please don’t ask how much all of this cost me. I really don’t want to think about it…

You can watch video clips of the panel at this site.

If you’ve ever seen Excel Saga or Nerima Daikon brothers, or even the first few seconds of the first video on that site, you can get a good idea of his wacky personality. Throughout the videos, you can see he is very serious about what he’s talking about. He also goes a little into what the collective Japanese creators feel about international piracy of their works.

While he doesn’t outright condemn fansubs, he stresses that it is important to buy anime that you like when it is available. If you don’t buy stuff, the international companies won’t license more stuff. If the int’l companies don’t license stuff, that does affect the Japanese companies who may not be able to sufficiently fund new creations. If the Japanese companies don’t get proper funding, it can adversely effect both the quality and quantity of anime that is available. And if Japan starts to eke out unappealing shows, even fansubbers may be turned off. And anime will die.

Certainly there are more important things in life than anime, but I also feel that it’s important to support the business. It’s no different in principle than the music and film industries where there’s a big hubbub over piracy. Ultimately, people do these things for a living. If you appreciate their work, they should be supported.

This is on Xbox Live right now, but I believe demos will be coming to the PSN and somewhere on PC as well. (Long story short, I want this game now.)

Quick history lesson: Stranglehold is the ‘sequel’ to the John Woo film ‘Hard Boiled’, starring Chow Yun Fat. Fat’s likeness and voice are in this game as well, as the main character ‘Tequila’. The PS3 special edition will actually come with the BluRay version of the Hard Boiled movie.

I played the demo this morning, and I gotta say I enjoyed it. In fact I played through it three times. (I have a couple of tips at the bottom of the post.) I’m typing this from my memory, so some of the names of things I mention may be incorrect. I noticed some slight issues in the gameplay, but it has the feeling of just being fun. One of the cool things I noticed (after all the Matrix/Max Payne-like slow motion “Tequila Time”) is that you can pretty much break anything that isn’t a wall, door or floor. Breaking stuff is fun! There are various environmental devices you can use to take out enemies, though it usually boils down to ‘blow up the propane tank’ or ‘shoot the thing to make it fall’. At least as far as the demo goes.

You can interact with most things in the environment by using the L trigger. If nothing is in front of you, you’ll just dive. If you’re running at a rail, you’ll jump on the rail and slide on it (if it’s pointing down) or you can run around on it. If you run at a wall, you’ll jump onto it and then spring off it. All of these will trigger the Tequila Time if there are enemies around.

The ‘Tequila Time’ is a major part of the game. Whenever you are pulling off a ‘stylish move’, (i.e. anything other than ‘walking’), you enter this slow-motion mode automatically when aiming at an enemy. This is key for getting Style Points (or something) which is key to filling up your Tequila Bomb gauge. The more style points you accrue in combos (usually by killing people), the more your Bomb gauge will fill.

And you do want your Tequila Bomb gauge to fill, as it provides you with some of the most spectacular and useful abilities in the demo (and I’d imagine the whole game). There are 4 ‘bombs’, all mapped to the directions of the D-pad. You can unlock them all by playing through the demo multiple times, but the first time you play the demo you have the ‘Health Boost’ and the ‘Precision Shot’. Both are pretty self-explanatory, but the precision shot does the ‘follow-the-bullet-to-the-target’ thing. If you hit someone, it focuses on them reacting to the shot for a few seconds before you get back to the action. The two other unlockable ones are a sort of ‘Berserker’ mode where you can shoot like crazy while not using any ammo, and a ‘spin attack’ where you can kill everyone in the room in one cinematic event.

Another nifty gameplay element is how they handle the Mexican Standoff (basically a bunch of guys all pointing guns at each other). You take on each of the opposition one by one in Tequila Time. You can see where they are going to shoot and you can lean out of the way appropriately (or you can lean one way to bait them to shoot that way), and if someone is behind you there’s a chance they’ll kill that person if you set it up right. While doing this, you’re aiming your shot yourself. When you kill one, you move on to the next. It’s nothing particularly earth-shattering, but it’s a great way to add some variety to the gameplay.

I mentioned having a minor gripe with the gameplay, and that’s with how Tequila moves. In addition to the ‘stylish moves’ triggered by the L trigger, Tequila will automatically hop or slide over any solid thing that is about waist-height. This is actually pretty smooth, and I like it quite a bit. It’s just that occasionally it happens when I’m running around in the middle of a gunfight, and if it’s something like a long table that i’m sliding over, I’m a sitting duck for the 2 or 3 seconds it takes to traverse the tables on my Yun Fat tush. Usually when you slide over stuff with enemies around, you automatically use Tequila Time to slow things down. More often than not however, I’ve already used up my Tequila Time gauge (it does run out, but recharges) in the gunfight so I’m sliding across the long table in Real Time, unable to aim quick enough to stop the onslaught of ammunition. Less of a problem on the lower/normal difficulties, but on Harder modes the enemies are more accurate and you can die faster. It’s very minor and doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment, but it did take me out of ‘Butt Kick God’ mode for the few seconds I was being filled with virtual lead.

As a gamer who owns all of the ‘active’ systems, the rest of the year is just overflowing with good games to buy and Stranglehold was but a faint blip on my radar. After the demo though, it’s definitely on my ‘Worthy Buy’ list. I was leaning towards the PS3 version of the game that comes with the ‘Hard Boiled’ movie in HD, but there’s no word on when that version is coming yet. Stranglehold comes out on August 24th for Xbox 360 and PC in the US.

—Trix Tip for the demo—
Aside from the twin pistols and the shotgun, you can find a Golden Pistol in the demo as well. There’s one part of the demo (the area where you have to shoot the telephone pole to progress over a fence) where you can run up another pole. You’re on the right pole if you see a paper crane along the way.
Go all the way around and you’ll eventually see the prompt, ‘hold X to pick up’ the Golden Gun. And there you go.

You can only hold 2 weapons though, and the Golden Gun seems to have limited ammo (since you can’t reload from other people’s guns… they don’t have it!).

If you beat the demo multiple times, you unlock harder difficulties and 2 more ‘Tequila Bombs’. Cool stuff.

I don’t know how many beats my heart skipped when I saw this.

Super Dodgeball Advance was the first game I bought with my GBA, back when I was a bonafide ‘noob’ and hardly knew anything about video games. And I loved it to death. I would definitely put Dodgeball Advance in my top GBA games list. I completly forgot about it until I saw this article.

While the scans are really small (I can’t read much Japanese anyway), it’s going to be 8-player online. Judging from a couple of images, it looks like you can physically attack other players if you’re close enough. I don’t know how I feel about that, but at least they’re not just porting it (though I’d be entirely content with that).

The thing about Super Dodgeball is that it was pretty wacky while still having a little bit of depth. You could throw and catch, just like normal dodgeball. From what I remember, you could catch everything as long as you had your timing right. Then you had Super Moves, and you did a different super move depending on your position (forecourt, backcourt, running, mid-air, etc). They came out in a variety of ways, thwarting any catching attempt if the target was not paying close attention.

Then you had your teammates on the sidelines of your opponent’s half of the field. You could pass the ball to one them, and they could either pass it back to you or throw it at one of your foes (no super moves though). I believe you could, if you had the ball, temporarily knock out one of your foe’s sideline teammates (who are on your side of the field).

Actually, looking at the images on that site again, it appears that the people who are doing the physical fighting are the sideline teammates. That’s pretty cool.

One of my favourite things to do was:
-get a running start
-pass to one of the sideline teammates
-leap into the air
-get sideline teammate to pass back while in the air
-spike it into the nearest surviving enemy

Of course, this had a huge disadvantage of I missed or if the opponent caught it. I would land in their half, and therefore be completely vulnerable to attack until I could get back to my side.

Great, great fun. I need to dig up the GBA game again, and I’m super excited for this game to come out. I don’t see this game being very text-heavy, so it should be a safe import.