Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

This film is the sequel to the ghost in the Shell movie. It was released 2004 in Japan , because the original GTS movie in Japan was not as well-received as it was in the West, the title was changed to innocence in that attempt to get more people in Japan to view the movie. Innocence had a huge budget for an anime of £10 million approximately ¥2 billion. Production I.G’s president asked studio Ghibli’s president to work on the project as co-producer in order to secure this amount of money. The anime was written and directed by Mamoru Oshii and is loosely connected to the manga which was taken from the story line Robot Rondo.

Innocence is set in 2032 after the 1st GTS movie when humans are dwindling. Most people are cyborgs like Batou but are vulnerable to ghost hacking (this was also the theme in the first GTS movie). As Major Kusanagi went into hiding Togasa is now the relucent partner to Batou. Section 9 is now investigation a cyborg corporation called Locus Solus. This is because the gynoid-androids they make (young female sex dolls) have killed 8 people. In the process of investigating these murders Batou and the Major are reunited albeit briefly to kick some ass. And before the Major leaves Batou again she tells him that “I’ll always be with you online”.

Now I have long been a fan of GTS but I did not much go for this anime at first. I am also not much of a fan of ‘pure’ CG animation (there are a few exceptions which I can count on one hand), but I can’t deny that the CG in this anime is superb and this one of the exceptions. But the story line was short and I felt that it could have been expanded on to make it better. So this GTS movie in my book is so-so and not the best out of the GTS collection.

Picture via photobucket