Ghost in the Shell Live Action Trailer

[Greatsaintlouis]

And he cried out in a loud voice, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

At least they're keeping the music for now?

[Gaijin Punch]

It's not as horrible as I expected, but I'm not as optimistic as a lot of people in my News Feed are.

[Greatsaintlouis]

It's not horrible, but it's nothing close to good, either. It looked like someone had transplanted Beat Takeshi's eyes into a creepy rubber mannequin.

I guess all three volumes of the manga are getting definitive, hardcover, non-flipped & original Japanese SFX releases here in January, so there's at least that to look forward to.

[layzee]

At least they're keeping the music for now?

The answer to that question is as yet unconfirmed, leaning towards no. The video you linked to is, according to a user commenter, a fan-edit with the original music added in (among other minor edits). Here's the official teaser(s) videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... sbV3PGmRVU

In any case, I probably won't watch it.

Any of y'all seen Arise (2013 series) and/or "The New Movie" (2015) yet? I'm debating whether to watch it or not. For reference, I love the first two films (GitS and Innocence), very much liked 1st Gig (The Laughing Man), and to a lesser extent 2nd Gig (Individual Eleven) and "Solid State Society" (felt these two dragged a bit).

[Greatsaintlouis]

Isn't that the same one I posted? Watched with the sound off, but it seems to be the same link. It took me a while to find one that seemed "official," though--all the top links were some sort of weird edit that cut to the title logo (accompanied by the same annoying noise) after every single scene.

But yeah, the verdict on seeing it is the same.

I haven't watched any of the new adaptations yet--I had meant to get to Arise but for some asinine reason the first two episodes got removed from Netflix a while back and only the third remains; I haven't found any other legit means of watching them. Haven't looked into the new movie, but I got the impression that it was similar to the other "movies" that just summed up parts of the TV series in that low-rent way that anime studios try to squeeze extra cash from the fandom. Is it actually a new story/adaptation?

I really need to go through SAC and 2nd Gig at some point--I've got a few episodes in on a number of occasions and something always pulls me away. Having a 1 year-old doesn't help--I think the last time we had the TV on was in June.

[layzee]

Oops, I copied and pasted the wrong link. Check previous post again for the right one. Or you can do a search for "Paramount Pictures Ghost in the Shell" on YouTube to get guaranteed official ones. Based on what you just described, that was probably it. The main difference with your fan-edit link video is the lack of sound effects (e.g. Beat Takeshi's gun shot) and the insertion of the GitS music.

Also, WTF... I googled/wikipedia'd Ghost in the Shell: Arise to find some information about it and I just realised I've already seen it (probably two years ago). It can't be too good if I forgot I watched it!

Anyway, maybe Japan themselves should make their own live action GitS like they did with Rurouni Kenshin (e.g. it's actually good, great even).

Is it actually a new story/adaptation?

Arise? Yeah, consider it a reboot/reimagining. Now that I remember I've watched it, I think you can give it a miss unless you're a diehard GitS fan. Besides, your greater priority is the Standalone Complex.

[Greatsaintlouis]

So the first official trailer (or so it says; I'm not sure what that other one was, then) is out, and it's...not as horrific as I thought? Batou looks weird, but otherwise, I wasn't immediately gripped by total loathing and revulsion. 2016 has been one mindfuck and shitshow after another, so I guess anything's possible in Donald Trump's America.

[layzee]

So it's been out for about a week now. Based on what I read so far, the main actress wasn't half bad as Motoko (though unnamed in the movie), Batou as a character was particularly good, the soundtrack is similar to the original, the Hong Kong-style cityscapes were well done, and the special effects were good enough. However, and this might be a deal-breaker for some, the philosophical aspects (e.g. what it means to be human in a techno world) were apparently massively dumbed down to the point the movie becomes a generic goodie-vs-baddie sci-fi.

Personally, I see no compelling reason to watch it so I won't. Today I reminded myself when the original GitS anime was released and that was the year 1995. More than 20 years later, the art and animation quality still amazes me. I don't want to sound like an old fart, but I'm going to sound like an old fart: they don't make 'em like they used to.

[Gaijin Punch]

Indeed they don't.

Everything I've read has panned out exactly as I thought it would after seeing the trailers. Any GitS I've watched (which is all of 'em sans Arise) are brutally difficult in terms of material. I have to either pause and rewind or use subtitles regularly. The vocab and density of the dialogue is just too much. There's few anime where I play that card. I just didn't get that idea at all from the previews. Maybe it's bad to judge a book by it's cover, but a trailer is the cover and a few pages, IMHO.

So yeah, not giving this one my $10. Hoping that it tanking reminds whomever owns Akira to just pull the fucking plug now.

[Greatsaintlouis]

I'm not sure if it's still going on, but apparently Funimation was doing a limited showing of the original GitS in select (i.e. big city) US theaters as a sort of promo for the live action film. That sounds like a much better potential use of ticket money.

But hey, the new hardcover releases of the original collected manga volumes are nice, at least.

[CIT Seven Force]

But hey, the new hardcover releases of the original collected manga volumes are nice, at least.

Did they finally release them uncensored? Always pissed me off they left the best part out of the English edition.

[Greatsaintlouis]

I'm not really sure--I've got the first volume in the first English Kodansha printing, which is pretty well done anyway, so I didn't bother with the hardcover for that volume. In any case, the version I have is definitely uncensored.

I got the hardcovers for 1.5 Human-Error Processor and 2.0 Man-Machine Interface. I've got the run of all of the original issues by Dark Horse for both of those and I'll have to take a look at some point to see if there's any substantive difference. I'm not sure I've heard about any content from those that's been removed; most complaints seem to revolve around the removal of the lesbian scene from some (most?) Dark Horse editions of the first manga.

The hardcovers are nice to look at, but there's not really much in the way of extra content that merits calling them "deluxe" editions; I had hoped at least for a gallery of the individual issue covers or something. It's fun that they read right-to-left, though.

[Gaijin Punch]

It's fun that they read right-to-left, though.

For the ultimate weabo experience.

[layzee]

I still haven't watched this movie (and still won't) but out of curiosity, I checked out the live-action "hand-to-hand fight in a puddle" scene... the anime version of that same scene is WAY superior. Why did they omit the bone-breaking and the "stare blankly into the distance" parts?

I'm also a big fan of the anime movie end fight (battling the Tachikoma under gentle rain in the museum) which is basically anime action perfection so if the movie reused that scene too, I doubt it's anywhere as good as the original. I'm not going to check to confirm.

[Gaijin Punch]

I'm also a big fan of the anime movie end fight (battling the Tachikoma under gentle rain in the museum) which is basically anime action perfection so if the movie reused that scene too, I doubt it's anywhere as good as the original. I'm not going to check to confirm.

I'll just say... you pretty much hit the nail on the head.