Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence

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In 1995, a theatrical film based off of the "Ghost in the Shell" manga (Japanese comic, virtually always written by one person and printed in black and white) of the same name was produced. The film was a new milestone in animation, raising the bar on philosophy in anime and the way action was depicted. At the end of the film, the main character, Motoko Kusanagi, shuffled off her cybernetic coil to merge into the larger net. Her partner in Public Security Section 9, Batou, also a full cyborg, was left behind. Although never spoken of, it was clear that Batou had strong feelings for Motoko. I remember thinking at the end of that film, that poor man is going to be all alone.

Flash forward to the sequel, ten years later. In the movie continuity, three years have passed since Major Motoko Kusanagi disappeared under mysterious circumstances, presumed dead. Of the familiar faces at Public Security Section 9, Chief Aramaki, Ishikawa, Togusa, and Batou remain. Batou has only recently been given a new partner, Togusa. They´re put on an investigation into some recent murders, committed by life-like androids called gynoids. Very life-like. For some reason, none of the families involved are filing suits against the androids´ manufacturer, nor are the crimes receiving much media attention.

The criminal investigation is actually not very intricate. Fans of the "Stand Alone Complex" TV series will be familiar with how Section 9´s cases can get a little twisted. A great deal of time is taken up with philosophical conversations between Batou and others he and Togusa encounter. Before any can get too far, Togusa brings the conversations back on track. Not that there isn´t plenty of action, but the central theme explored in "Innocence" is how can life be defined in this brave new world? In an era where people´s entire bodies can be swapped out for cybernetic components and a ghost was born in the net, "human" becomes more difficult to define.

There are several treats in here for people who have seen the first movie, including a reference to Project 2501. Also, Aramaki tells Batou that he´s not in the jungle working as a Special Forces hit man while dressing him down. At some point before joining Section 9, that´s exactly what Batou was.

The divide between human and cybernetic life is more pronounced in this movie than the prequel. Batou and the androids barely have any facial expression at all. Even when Batou is around his basset hound, carefully preparing its food, his face remains placid.

One of the reasons I´m so entranced by this entire series is because I´m convinced this world is where we´re headed. I earned my Masters in Mechanical Engineering, and one of the things grad students do is read tens and hundreds of journal papers. Although not directly related to my thesis, I read a lot of papers on nanotechnology and biomedical/mechanical engineering. Man-machine interfaces are becoming increasingly well understood. There´s no technical limitation that would prevent us from, within twenty years or so, logging onto the net and getting cybernetic limbs much like in "Ghost in the Shell". Maybe society will have to deal with these issues head-on, even in your kids´ lifetimes.

I promised myself I would only spend one paragraph talking about the release itself, so here it is. This release comes from DreamWorks, and I can safely say this DVD is the absolute worst I´ve seen. It´s almost as if DreamWorks wanted to see how half-assed a release they could put out and still get enough people to buy it to break even. The cover art is uninspired and insulting to the content. There is nothing in the DVD case but one DVD. Although the DTS logo is in the credits, there´s no such audio track on the disc. The subtitles are close-captioned and for the hearing-impaired. That means sound effects and so on also get subtitles, and the subtitles are encased in large black boxes. Most spoken lines are preceded by the speaker´s name, but some lines are misattributed. It did not have to be this way. Manga Entertainment held the rights to the UK release. They put out a double-disc release with an English dub with the cast from the first movie, an additional interview with director Mamoru Oshii, and English and Japanese DTS audio tracks. The release also sports regular subtitles and every extra included on the R1 release. I´ve heard that DreamWorks actually declined the opportunity to use the UK release in North America. I can only assume it´s because DreamWorks doesn´t care about quality. If you can play R2 discs on your home system, pretend the DreamWorks release never happened and buy the Manga version.

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