Reviews for Koukaku Kidoutai Stand Alone Complex (8.88) 4q194

SIMILAR TO: Ghost In The Shell (movie)This series is an audio-video delight. The soundtrack, sfx and ambience, together with the intelligent and beautiful visuals, are superb.

Visuals:
Focusing on the visuals, the aspect that hits you as the most striking at times is the lighting - everything is lit so well and provides such a vivid tone for a scene - it really has an effect on the mood that is trying to be conveyed. Much of the the series consists of scenes where the characters are still and communicating via neurological cyber links, and here we sometimes see subtle alterations to the lighting as time progresses - it all adds to the atmosphere. The design of the world is extremely intelligent - since the anime is set in the future, there are many gadgets, gizmos, and general utilities that have been expertly designed and developed by the animation team. But it's the fact that it seems so effortless that really makes you appreciate it. There are many complex bits of artwork in the series, with integrated 2D/3D parts, and it all blends together very well. The characters are animated well, and the style of the whole series is very well crafted throughout. It makes good use of 3D visuals, not going overboard but still providing a suitably futuristic feel. The only possible flaw is the ever so slight lack of detail on the 3D objects.

Sound:
The sound has been as carefully put together as the visuals. Every sound effect is instantly believable as being something futuristic. The ambiance is probably the most impressive - subtle things like the humming of machinery or vehicle traffic sounds in the background, add an infinite degree of intricacy to the audio. The character voices are excellent - being suitably different when the characters are communicating verbally or neurologically. The music for the series is wonderful (I've already got the cd in my collection), and compliments the general tone of the anime.

Story:
The story is noticeably flawed, but yet awesome at the same time. It's often too complicated and political, but yet highly intelligent and well devised when you think about it. This can make it dull at times, despite being clever. (Still, the last half-dozen episodes keep you glued to your seat despite the somewhat complex nature.) This anime has tried to incorporate the best of two worlds - action and drama. But often, instead of mixing the two properly, it keeps them separate - having a period of time being devoted solely to some wild action, and then having a very lengthy period of time where there is a lack of action, and instead, more of a monologue of plot advancement.

GITS is set in the distant future, where the majority of humans have a cyber or robotic part to their bodies. Most have an element of their brain being part machine. With this aspect in place, we have a stage set for complex hackers and cyber criminals to try and play around where they shouldn't. GITS focuses on an elite team of law enforcement - known as Section 9, who handle the more difficult, and rarer type of crimes.

Since the anime is set in the future, there is a LOT of time spent given to the characters simply communicating with each other about past events - in order to help those watching the anime understand the nature of the GITS world. This often makes the anime feel slow, especially when there has just been an intense action sequence. However, most of the time there are interesting major revelations - sometimes subtle, sometimes pronounced - in the "slow and talky scenes" that give them a good redeeming factor, if you're able to understand the complex nature of them. The complexity of the series is another double-edged sword: often you can get hopelessly lost in the political or mechanical garble that makes up such a large part of the series, but when you rewind the scene and persist with understanding it, there is a great sense of satisfaction when you finally put the pieces together.

GITS SAC's main plot focus is "The Laughing Man Case", which weaves its story throughout the series. But there is enough room to accommodate stand alone plots in several episodes. I found that the story as a whole was ambitious, but thankfully controlled - there is such a huge premise that it was possible to make a mess of the series, but luckily I found it to be very disciplined whilst covering a large scope of plots.

Characters:
This is not really a series about character development. Priority has been given to the plot, and the main characters have only been developed to the point where it was considered necessary. In fact, the Tachikoma tanks were probably given the most development in the series. Overall, even with the lack of character development, the characters are above average because there is no real reason to fault them - I never doubted that a particular character should be presented in a certain way. I was concerned at the end of the series however, when I realised that all of the of Section 9 hadn't really been given much screen time. There had been emphasis in the series that it was about Section 9 as a team, but only about 3 of the were ever really the focus throughout.

Value & Enjoyment:
With the complex plots, some being duller than others, the replay value of the series is tarnished to a certain degree, especially since you have to be in a certain receptive mood to watch it. But overall, I enjoyed it greatly. My advice though, is to persevere - it's a bit unfortunate, but this series requires it. You'll get something out of it in the end if you liked the feel of movie. (I myself originally gave up watching the series after 4 episodes, and then came back to it after a whole year to finish it off after being urged a friend.) I don't doubt that this series would have been more enjoyed if I were able to understand Japanese - having to watch it with subtitles was often difficult at times due to the vast amount of information to take in at once. But like I said before, persevere - if you have half a mind you'll be glad you did.