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In a new-type technology world, Major Motoko Kusanagi and her partner Bateau are part of a covert division of the Japanese police.  It is their job to investigate the cyber crime and crimes committed by runaway robots.

In their world, it is almost impossible to find a person who hasn’t been tampered with by electronics.  But, as Major Motoko states, “if we all reacted the same we’d be predictable and there’s always more than one way to view a situation what’s true for the group is also true for the individual.  It’s simple, over specialize and you breed weakness, it’s slow death.”  That is why it is important for Togusa, the second most prominent male in the story, to be a part of their team.  As an almost human being, except a slight brain augmentation, he adds a different view on the situation for the team.

Ghost in the Shell
3 Stars

In a new-type technology world, Major Motoko Kusanagi and her partner Bateau are part of a covert division of the Japanese police.  It is their job to investigate the cyber crime and crimes committed by runaway robots.

In their world, it is almost impossible to find a person who hasn’t been tampered with by electronics.  But, as Major Motoko states, “if we all reacted the same we’d be predictable and there’s always more than one way to view a situation what’s true for the group is also true for the individual.  It’s simple, over specialize and you breed weakness, it’s slow death.”  That is why it is important for Togusa, the second most prominent male in the story, to be a part of their team.  As an almost human being, except a slight brain augmentation, he adds a different view on the situation for the team.

The team encounters what first appears to be a hacker they call the Puppet Master.  This so-called Puppet Master specializes in implanting false memories in unsuspecting people, just so they will do his dirty work.  The first case starts with a poor and unsuspecting garbage man, a pawn of the Puppet Master’s, who is tricked into believing he has a neglectful wife who wants a divorce, and a daughter who blames him for the divorce.  The Puppet Master gets him to use a public phone, so he doesn’t get caught, to try to hack into his wife’s ghost to better understand the reason for the divorce.  When Major Motoko and her highly skilled team of cyber crime fighters realize what is going on they must catch up with the oblivious garbage man, who ends up leading the team straight to the person who “helped” him.

The team races around the film to only discover that the Puppet Master is an artificial intelligence that has no shell.  The Puppet Master leeches onto anyone he can and controls everything the pawn of choice does.

Major Motoko, once a beautiful shell of a woman, is reduced to a child after tearing apart her last body to get at the Puppet Master.  The thing I like the most about the shifting of her ghost from one shell to the other was when she began talking she had the personality and voice of the child, but soon personalized to her normal self and voice.

The anime is artistically beautiful; however, they did a horrible job at explaining what is going on before they dove into the story.  The voice over at first sounds pretty poor, but after a while you get used to it and it stops distracting you from the story.  I hope that by then you have a good grasp on the film, if not you could easily hit stop, because you really aren’t missing much.

I have had a couple people recommend this to me on some forums I am part of, and I have to say, this is the first time I have thought their recommendation sucked.  Forgive me, I know…  With so many agreeing, why didn’t I like it?  Honestly, I haven’t the slightest clue, this is the typical story for typical me, technology, gadgets, telepathy, guns and action.  On top of all those mouth-watering genres, there is absolutely no love story, none at all.  However, for some strange reason, it just sucked.  Best of luck with this one, many people enjoy it however I did not.

Last week I watched and reviewed Princess Mononoke, one of Hayao Miyazaki’s well-known masterpieces and said that I would tackle Spirited Away the following week, since it was the first screenplay he wrote after Princess Mononoke.  Well, that week is here and I must say, I throughly enjoyed this film.  Miyazaki sure has one wild imagination because his films are strange in their own way.

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
5 Stars

Last week I watched and reviewed [Princess Mononoke], one of Hayao Miyazaki’s well-known masterpieces and said that I would tackle Spirited Away the following week, since it was the first screenplay he wrote after Princess Mononoke.  Well, that week is here and I must say, I throughly enjoyed this film.  Miyazaki sure has one wild imagination because his films are strange in their own way.

Our heroine Chihiro is in the midst of a big move to the suburbs with her family when they take a wrong turn at a dirt road near some spirit shrines and end up at the opening of a large building.  Her adventurous middle class parents decide to get out of the car and investigate.  Chihiro refuses to go, begs them to come back, but finally gives in and grabs hold of her mom as they walk down the long dark tunnel.  On the other side of the tunnel there was another opening across a room that lead to a bright and sunny field of grass with a path leading to what seemed like a run down amusement park.  With every step they took the abandoned park seemed to draw them in.  Once they crossed the river and walked up the steps they smelled the delicious aroma of a banquet waiting for them.

Upon finding the feast, Chihiro’s parents sat down and began gorging on the food in front of them.  Chihiro, still nervous about the consequences of being discovered, stood outside the barrier that held her parents.  Chihiro wandered off to explore, while her parents pigged out on food, and ran into a boy named Haku.  Haku was frightened that she was there and told her she needed to leave before the sun went down.  With only seconds before the sun went down Chihiro ran off in the direction of her parents.  When she arrived at their side she discovered two large pigs dressed in their clothes.

Frightened and feeling abandoned, Chihiro ran off in the direction of the car, only to discover that the grassy field was now a river with a ferry drawing nearer.  Day had become night and she was becoming see-through.  When the ferry reached the bank where Chihiro stood, it began unloading its passengers.  The passengers all began walking towards the bath house at the end of the village in a parade of colors.

Chihiro had ran off and hid in nearby bushes where Haku finds her moments later.  He tells her to eat a berry or she would disappear.  If a human does not eat food from their world they will disappear, if they eat the wrong food, like her parents, then they will turn into pigs.  Haru secretly leads her into the bath house, where everyone is freaking out because there is a human in their world, and tells her how to save her parents.  Chihiro must get to the boiler room and beg for a job from the spider-armed Kamajii, the keeper of the boiler room.  This is when Chihiro meets Lin, one of the women who take care of the baths.  Lin leads Chihiro to the office of Yubaba, the witch that runs the bath house, and determines the fate of the people in the world.  After nearly being spotted a couple of times she finally makes it to see Yubaba.  Chihiro needs a job in the bath house or Yubaba will change her into an animal, so she begs Yubaba and gets turned away multiple times.  Finally Yubaba gives in and Chihiro signs a contract giving away her name, from that point on she becomes Sen and that is where her real adventure begins, but you’ll have to watch to see the rest of that.

Hayao Miyazaki’s films are fun to watch and enjoyable all the way till the end.  The story in this is fun to follow along with, and easy on the brain.  This one is very predictable, but that does not detract from the story.  Comparing this to Princess Mononoke, I would have to say that I enjoyed Spirited Away much more.  Yeah, the story in Princess Mononoke was fun, and full of battle, but the struggles of a sheepish girl in a new world was way more fun to see how she accomplished everything.  A must see for those who enjoy the other Miyazaki films.