Live action Ghost in the Shell - Starring Scarlett Johansson

Ghost in the Shell the first anime movie didn’t have all that much to do with Japan, but it was very clearly Japanese. Ghost in the Shell the overall achievement, manga, other much more clearly Japanese films, much ultra-Japanese TV series, is about as Japanese as anything can be.

My favorite character is Batou followed by Togusa. The Major would be third. I enjoyed the episodes where Batou and Togusa worked together more like detectives though I cannot remember which series that was but it was during the period where the Major was absent for a time.

I am hoping that the movie captures all the characters.

My favorite character is the tachikomas as a group :) but I also like Batou and, strangely enough, Aramaki.The major is fun, but she’s so neutral most of the time, and so remote the rest that it’s hard for me to like her all that much. I also like Saito despite the fact he’s kind of a jerk when not sniping people, and Boma, for being so goofy.

So you basically like all the characters. :)

Well yeah. Togusa is a bit of whiner, and Paz is kinda dull, too…

Togusa has family concerns where the others do not. So not sure I would call it whining; his foundation is different than the professional soldiers.

I wanted to mention the tachikomas too but I could not remember how to spell them!

Togusa was my favorite in the animated series. I think he definitely had some depth due to what @geewhiz said, he has external concerns and he wasn’t cyber, well not like the others, which was interesting in a group full of cyber enhanced individuals.

You guys are just making me want to watch SAC again. So great.

I guess I didn’t really dislike Togusa. I thought they spent too much time on him though. And that hair…

Rocking a mullet in cyberpunk Japan is the definition of cool.

Togusa was the character that brought in a different element. The Major had the computer hacking, Batou (and the others) the military, and Togusa the detective mystery/police part. I think it allowed them to do more intricate plots without having anyone character being the superhuman I can do everything by myself (well in as far as a cyborg world could be).

Togusa is particularly good in the SAC movie, Solid State Society.

So I was at the movie theater last night with a friend and we walked past a big GITS movie display. I mentioned that I loved GITS and was hoping the movie would be good, and she said “I’ve never heard of that…what is it?” I think that we nerds on the Internet tend to forget that the majority of the viewing public have never come across any of the source material. Whether the movie is considered a success is largely going to depend on how people with no knowledge of the manga or anime receive it. I’m keeping my expectations low from a GITS-lore perspective, but hopefully the movie will at least be good enough to make some new folks interested in the world.

There have been several successful reboots that hit the “nerd” realm but also appealed to mainstream. Ghost could be one of those despite some of the controversial choices made during the make of.

So besides the 1995 movie, which to my mind is very good (Hint: I don’t watch anime), what would be the best additional material to view in the Ghost in the Shell universe? I apologies if this was already covered extensively previously in the thread, but I am incredibility lazy. :)

The early 2000s anime series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. There are two seasons, I’m told the movie looks like it’s going to use some stuff from season two, but I still haven’t seen all of that second season yet. I’ve seen season one twice though (once long ago and again recently) and it’s fantastic.

I like the movie, but I love the series.

And there’s no good way to watch the series (in the US) in HD in the original Japanese with English subtitles unless you get resourceful. The Bluray that just came out a couple months ago is actually terrible, apparently. The English audio track has random bits that are still in Japanese, and the English subtitles to go along with the Japanese audio aren’t normal subtitles, but actual closed caption descriptions—annoying if you just want the dialog.

So yeah, see what you can find out there on the interwebs, if that’s your thing.

My thanks. Well I may be more used to the English dub voice over actors to be honest so maybe not a major issue maybe?

In that case you probably still want to avoid the new Bluray release, but I think there may have been a previous dubbed version you could pick up, or you can buy the episodes digitally through Amazon or iTunes.

Seriously, Stand Alone Complex is amazing. Both seasons are good, too.

And the SAC movie is solid, too! (Pun intended, har)