Ghost In The Shell: Innocence is the sequel film of the original 1995 Ghost in The Shell Movie, but at the same time, even a name as big as GITS, this installment is downplayed horribly. I have two reasons:
- People are not aware of the existence of the sequel movie even though they have watched the original 1995 movie
- Or if they have watched it, people complain about it because "too many quotations" or "pretentious" or "trying to make it look smart"
The anime indeed uses many quotations from famous philosophical figures such as Plato, Confucius, Descartes, and even Buddha. Many people interpret those quotations as an information dump that makes the anime unbearable to watch. While I do get sometimes that wordy films can be hard to get through with and not for everyone, however, what I disagree with is that people treat them as if those quotations are just there for the sake of it to make the film looks 'intellectual'. I also do not understand how this film is the only one that gets more "pretentious" criticisms when even Stand Alone Complex has way more stuffs like that in quantity, it seemed like double standards. In fact, it is impressive for a film like Innocence to make good usage of direct quotations from famous figures and incorporate all of them to construct a brilliant philosophical film.
Innocence contains similar themes to the original movie. The philosophical theme of transhumanism and soul is retained and even expanded further. And as mentioned previously, the film also makes good usage of the philosophy of various famous figures, ''Cyborg Manifesto'' or "Man a machine" for example, which talks about the boundary between humans and machines. The film presents another philosophy after another mostly relating to transhumanism and presents the viewer with moral questions and can make anyone deeply wonder about what life could've been in the future. It's impressive how this film presents us with "what the world could be" sometime in the future. It can also make any person wonder: Can a machine and a human stand as equal to each other? Can a machine develop a soul and a sense of individuality? Can you escape death by becoming one with cybertechs? It presents us with endless questions about life, as what I also loved about the GITS franchise as a whole. It is also impressive for the film to give the viewers a psychological attack as if this exact scene in the anime felt like you are one of the characters and experiencing this trippy scene
This film directly picks up where the original GITS left off and expands what happened further, especially all about the "net". Innocence contributes to the lore further by showing the relation of the net to the GITS universe, Motoko was shown to have merged in the net and is wandering from another vessel to another, as well as the hacker Kim also had similar circumstances as his soul, a.k.a. him, is inside the "puppet". Giving us more insight into the worldbuilding of GITS is what really stood out in this film the most that were absent in the original film.
The major difference between this film from the original movie is the absence of Motoko Kusanagi until the end of the film. Motoko's absence in the film impressively gave side characters such as Batou and Togusa much more spotlight, especially Batou. Batou's mental instability because of Motoko's disappearance was portrayed well and adds up to his characterization. It was actually impressive that Batou was portrayed as that. Motoko may not be present in the film until the end of it, but seeing the side characters lead the course of the film is very engaging as both of them are really good characters.
The film is not also just all philosophical talk, of course, it also presents amazing action scenes paired with amazing sound designs and Kenji Kawai's OSTs that helped in setting up the mood.
The film is undeniably PERFECT when it comes to visual storytelling. The whole noir and eerie mood are fantastic as it perfectly engross every viewer and make you feel the actual atmosphere thanks to the great direction. The cinematography is GREAT, the 3D art is blended well with 2D art, and I am a huge fan of it. Probably what stands out about the movie is the 3-4 minute parade scene, which by the way took a year to animate just for that scene alone. It perfectly captures the brilliance of religious motifs of a Taiwanese parade (which what inspired the scene in this movie). It is a visual masterpiece which still stands out up to this day as not many animation have reached to this level even now.
What makes this film stand out compared to the previous GITS film is Motoko's absence which may affect a viewer's enjoyment especially if they are a fan of her. Although she may not be mostly present in the film, Batou and Togusa's duo is a really good compensation for her, and both are really engaging characters. The philosophical aspect has been present and is executed really well in both GITS 1995 and Innocence, only that Innocence just has more philosophical elements to it. GiTS Innocence feeds you philosophies and moral questions one after another, and transcends your mind and lets you rethink about life. Better be prepared for a trippy and mond-blogging ride!
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