Tonyblack said:
I also watched the live action version of Ghost In The Shell. I have never seen the Anime version, so I can't compare. But I did think the the live action version was very good.
While the original anime film is fine, there's a LOT of navel-gazing, and it stripped out the humour that was present in the original manga. I haven't watched the live action film myself yet, but I do wholeheartedly recommend the TV anime series
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. While not as humorous as the manga, it's closer to the spirit of the manga, I feel, and has some interesting storylines. The geisha bots attack from the live action film is actually taken from the very first episode of
Stand Alone Complex.
Both seasons have stories that are either standalone stories, or else form part of a wider story arc. The first season revolves around the mysterious Laughing Man, a cyberterrorist who seems to have it out for certain medical companies, and Section 9's investigation uncovers a wider conspiracy. The second season revolves around a refugee settlement, a terrorist group called the Individual Eleven (and its leader, Hideo Kuze, who lent his name and something of his character to one of the characters from the live action film), and a mysterious spymaster called Gouda.
Then again, the manga isn't without its charms, though you have to go into it with the right mindset (and the second manga series,
Man-Machine Interface, is nigh-incomprehensible). There's a hilarious sequence (often censored for the English editions) where Batou is told to contact Motoko while she's on vacation. Unfortunately, she's in the middle of helping two of her girlfriends produce a cybersex simulation (blame Masamune Shirow), and Batou, while contacting her, links up with that...and is freaked out, if only because he's feeling sensations in organs that he doesn't have. In annoyance for interrupting her vacation time, Motoko promptly takes control of him and makes him punch himself in the face (Motoko does this a LOT in the manga).
