Day 178: "There's nothing sadder than a puppet without a ghost."

You're all going to have to forgive me this week, I'm in Las Vegas on business, and am running around from dawn until dusk, so these reviews are going to be a bit brief for time's sake.  Today's movie was the 1996 release of Ghost In the Shell.  I am not really a fan of Japanese animation, but I loved Akira, and thought it was time to add to my woeful total of one Anime seen.  Ghost is gorgeous, for starters.  I can't remember ever seeing a more technically precise and beautiful hand-drawn animation.  They filmmakers also used computer animation as well, which was in its infancy in 1996.  The story, from what I can tell (I never was very good at following the convoluted plots of Anime films), revolves around a specialized task force that hunts down rogue androids whose artificial intelligence has gone wrong.  Someone is reprogramming domestic androids to become assassins, and the group has a whole new problem on their hands, as they are made up of augmented humans, and still subject to most human weaknesses.  The action is fantastic, and the sound work is really good too.  I had a lot of fun watching this, even with my lack Anime experience.  I watched the subtitled version, so I have absolutely no idea who was in this, but the actors did very good voice-overs.  I have to be honest here, I would rather watch a subtitled film than a dubbed one simply due to the fact that a lot gets lost in translation.

If you are looking for an entry film into the world of Anime, I recommend Ghost highly.  It's a lot of fun, with a story that is a bit confusing at times (to me), but worth a viewing or two due simply to the high quality of the animation itself.  8.25/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!