Several years after Major Motoko Kusanagi (voice: Atsuko Tanaka) vanished into the computer network, the highly cybornetic Batô (voice: Akio Ôtsuka), with his new partner Togusa (Kôichi Yamadera), are assigned to investigate a string of murders committed by “gynoids” upon their masters. Clues suggest that the huge Locus Lolus corporation is somehow responsible. But more than just the case, the head of the secretive Section 9 is concerned with Batô’s attitude, and that he is beginning to act the same way that the Major did before she disappeared.
A sequel to Mamoru Oshî’s influential, animated treatise on identity and existence, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is much like its predecessor. Oshî’s has returned nine years later with the same philosophy, but with a lot more experience and some new animation programs. Everything that was good in the original is better. And that should tell you much of what you need to know because this is only for those who have seen the first. There’s no attempt to get the viewer caught up. As I’ve seen the first, I found that refreshing. You should also be familiar with Cyberpunk, anime, and Japanese doll veneration. If any of those make you scratch you head, you’ll find Ghost in the Shell 2 a confusing mess.
Like in the first film, the future-Noir setting is filled with cyborgs, androids, advanced weaponry, criminal gangs, corrupt corporations, and an ever-present Internet. But it is expanded, with greater detail and complexity. And it is displayed with exquisite computer animation. While the major characters were created with traditional 2-D drawings, everything else has been constructed in computers (quite fitting for the subject matter). It is impressive work. Even those who dislike the film will still be dazzled by the look of it. You could be entertained by ignoring the story and just studying the backgrounds.
Of course the extraordinary quality of the computer animation makes the hand-drawn Batô and Togusa appear bland and out of place. That may have been intentional, but if so, it was a poor decision. It is more distracting than meaningful. However, Batô’s pet basset hound (who represents the innocence in the title) still looks great. It is obvious that a great deal more effort was put into cell animating the dog than his master.
The central mystery of the movie is interesting, even if the characters don’t think so. Batô and Togusa are much more concerned with their debates over the nature of man than they are with who is killing whom and why. But it is an engaging riddle nonetheless.
The pace is a bit quicker than in the first, with a gun battle or android assault happening when things get too slow. And those action scenes should please anyone looking for carnage. No, the entire city doesn’t go up in flames (which tends to happen in low quality anime), but there’s plenty of machinegun fire, bombs, and swordplay. Add a dramatic score by Kenji Kawai (Ringu) to give the movie emotional resonance, and this is Oshî’s best film.
However, while he has improved upon his strengths, he has done little to diminish his weaknesses. As was all too apparent in the first Ghost in the Shell and his live-action Avalon, Oshî is incapable of making his points within the story he is telling. Instead, he has his characters constantly talking about the human condition. Sometimes it is relevant to what they are doing, but more often, it isn’t. Walking, driving, or sitting in the office, it is a non-stop philosophy 101 class. What’s worse, it rarely comes to anything. Instead of arguments, they toss about one-liners on the soul or the fate of humanity, and then quote The Bible or Milton. The quotes, always out of context, have no depth, but we’re supposed to feel they do.
In order to fit in all the navel gazing of our heroes, the story ends up being overly simplistic. It could have been covered in thirty minutes. Figuring ten minutes of the film is focused on showing off how pretty it is (and I’m not saying that as a complaint; those are a worthwhile ten minutes), and that leaves close to an hour of these guys talking and talking and talking. I’d love for Oshî to make a point about what it means to be alive, and I’d love it even more if he did it by having something happen, and then leave it to us to work out the point without a character declaring it. But that’s not what happens here.
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is an astonishing piece of animation. No one will be bored by looking at it, but most people will by listening to it.
A note on the DVD: It is not dubbed into English, and many copies do not have English subtitles. Instead, they have English captions for the hearing impaired. So, not only do we get the dialog, but also text telling us there are crowd sounds or gun shots. Since this is such a visual film, any additional distractions on the screen are a real problem. Apparently a new pressing has been given proper subtitles, but I haven’t seen that yet.