Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence

Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence released in 2006, also known in Japan as just Innocence, is an indirect sequel to the classic anime Ghost In The Shell. The creators meant for the film to be a stand alone film, not a sequel to the original. Innocence like it's predecessor is a cyberpunk scifi action movie. The plot of this film is that Batou (from the original film) is assigned to investigate a case of malfunctioning sex-doll androids called gynoids, as it appears that it might be a terrorist attack because of the murders that are being committed. I am not going to spend a lot of time going into the plot, I want to focus more on the film itself. This film even more so than its predecessor is quite existential and gets very philosophical. This is a very cerebral film, that questions humanity, and our existence in many ways, and our relationship with technology, and our human desire to replicate ourselves. There are a lot of literary quotes in the film, and the film has a level of intelligence to it, that is actually quite refreshing. This film also looks really good, with much more CGI than the previous film, but still uses a lot of cell-shading as well. At first I wasn't sure about the CGI, I was a little nervous about how it was going to turn out, as many CGI films of that era look absolutely abysmal now. That is not the case with Innocence, the CGI looks absolutely amazing in this film, and blends really well with the cell-shaded characters. There is so much detail, and the effects of for example the reflections on the cars is just absolutely beautiful. Compared to a movie like Dragonlance which shows how bad CGI in an animated film can be, this is a refreshing example of how absolutely amazing it can look. This film probably mixed the two styles of animation better than any film before or since it. Not only does this film look amazing, but the music is beautifully done, and as are the voice actors (this film unlike it's predecessor is filmed only with Japanese voice overs, and has no English dubs, so I had to watch a subtitled version of it). The movie is just absolutely beautiful in every way. The story is very engrossing, and complex and pulls the viewer in, much like the amazing writing of the first one, it is easy to tell that writing came from the same writers. This film is also based on the Ghost In The Machine manga, as is also the anime series Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (which I do not have and will not be reviewing). Innocence like Ghost In The Shell pushed the boundaries of what could be with animation, and story telling, and is definitely a must see film. Would I recommend this film? Yes, absolutely, it is definitely a must see film. So it was brought to my attention that some people really don't like anime, because of the famous anime tropes, like the over reacting, and over the topness of many popular animes. I need you to understand, if you are one of those people that feel that way, that Ghost In The Shell and Innocence are NOT that kind of anime that follows those tropes. These movies are dark, they are gritty, they are serious films, and even if you don't like anime I would highly suggest you still watch these films. If you are a fan of anime then you know who Studio Ghibli is, and if you know who they are, then it would please you to know that they co-produced Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence. This is definitely an amazing movie, and It makes me so happy that this is apart of my movie collection, and I hope that you get a chance to watch it yourself.