The Ghost in the Shell

To be fair, this isn't intended to be a stand-alone cinema experience. It is the first two episodes in a spinoff series based around the film from 1995 and the manga that inspired that. As far as it goes, the animations themselves do what you'd expect from the opening of a series: they introduce us to the principal characters and to their scenario in a city where AI is now dominant and where human beings are even more paranoid about the toxic effects of corporate and technical globalisation. Fortunately, there is a section of the public security police that is assigned to trying to root out the nasties who would perpetrate heinous crimes on this unwitting society. This pitches the independently minded "Kusanagi" and her team with the equally innovative cop "Aramaki" and so a standard fayre of escapades ensue. What I found far more interesting here was the acompanying documentary that showcased some of the skills involved in crafting this work. Using interviews with the director, the creative and the musical teams we get a sense of the pure passion that has gone into this. Though it is all entirely digitally created, there is still a fair degree of human creativity in sketching out characters that are fairly faithful to the original artwork and quite impressively, there is an orchestra used to create some of the score instead of just relying on a bank of keyboards and a mixing desk. There is a kind of deference shown to originator Shirow Masamune that is also quite reflective of the philosophy behind the story and it's one of those rare ocasions where I might have preferred to watch this first before actually seeing the product of their meticulous planning on a big screen.