Innocence

The Palme d'Or is one of the most prestigious awards in the world of film, coming from the highly respected Cannes Film Festival. For a film to get nominated for the prize is in and of itself a great merit that deserves praise. Within the few of several animated films that bring about a huge influential force within the industry and art itself, there's only been one Japanese animated film that was ever nominated for the said award.

Regarded as even more dense and rich in philosophical detail than its predecessor, Mamoru Oshii's follow-up to the widely successful Ghost in the Shell, Innocence, is a visual ... feast of intricate design and narrative. With a nine-year difference between the two films, it could be said that Innocence was a highly anticipated sequel. Yet with as much consensual praise it garners from film critics, on top of it a coveted Palme d'Or nomination, what exactly makes this film any different from your above-average anime?

In the same ways, it delivers like the first film, with Oshii's slow but methodical approach in setting scenes to build up suspense and evoking a rising curiosity to the viewers. Ghost in the Shell 1995 exemplifies scenes like the long, calming pause before the conflict arises, or the climactic chase scene with the Puppetmaster to emphasize the Major's internal existential crisis. This way, the slow-burner aspect of the film is justified as it allows the viewers to immerse into Kusanagi's thoughts as a human-slash-cyborg.

This film delivers none of those.

The snail pace of Innocence isn't really something that is as appealing as the first film's, and as a matter of fact it hinders the possibility of giving the film progress. Imagery...and long, establishing shots that take 30 seconds onwards without giving proper character conflict makes this time for the viewers to ponder completely baseless. The film does not allow us to relate or get into Batou's mindset, nor does the meandering moments help. It's something that makes the visuals and the narrative so out-of-sync it becomes flat-out boring.

The first half fails to captivate the audience with the "suspense" it should contain, and I couldn't really immerse myself into the film when all I see is Batou feeding his dog. The plot itself isn't bad—a string of murders by sex robots occur, but a particular one leaves a message that falls under Section 9's prying eyes. But if this two-hour film was a mini-series divided into two episodes, most would have dropped it after watching the first one. It drags on needlessly and unnecessarily, and only a few interesting moments happen. Not to mention the innumerable quotations from other forms of literature that makes me wonder if Oshii was writing a script or a reference list.

The story only really starts to kick in by the second half of the film, where we get into a convoluted but intriguing hacking sequence and from then onwards becomes a thrilling action-packed final act balanced with excitement and the same feeling that made the '95 film so interesting.

Whereas the story failed in execution but had enough steam to keep it going, the character aspect of the story had less appeal but were delivered well enough. Batou comes across as a ruthless character that the viewers would have a hard time relating to while Togusa sets a foil, becoming his voice of reason. We also see how these characters react as the intensity of the plot builds up, but it honestly doesn't have the approach GitS (1995) nailed with Kusanagi's unique characterization.

More or less, Kenji Kawai's helm in Innocence's soundtrack remains the same, although it becomes much less as a topic of discussion, just like the first film. It doesn't overpower, but it doesn't do anything to stand out as well. On the other hand, the sound effects and the voice acting remain one of Ghost in the Shell's strong assets.

CG animation, for the most part, does not blend well with anime—especially in a time like 2004. However, Innocence makes it all look natural, and its aesthetic (yet baseless) sequences help complement the otherworldly feeling the film's story and theme addresses. Whether it compares to the first film or not is up for debate, but in my opinion the animation utilized for Innocence and GitS 1995 are apples and oranges.

The Ghost in the Shell film series remains an overrated part of anime, both inside and outside the community. Don't get me wrong, I'm not stripping them of its merits—what GitS has done remains a groundbreaking move for anime cyberpunk. However, it is not without its flaws, and is nowhere near perfect. What is considered as a thought-provoking, introspective and philosophical form of visual art lauded by many is surprisingly straightforward, and doesn't really have that many meta-narrative interpretations that can be attached to it. Does it deserve the Palme d'Or nomination? Maybe so, but I'd like to think Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence just happened to be there, and if I was given the chance to pick another animated film that best represents the medium in terms of style and substance, I would.

I wanted to add that this movie has an epic opening! It shows the girl in the picture 'being made', with an awesome soundtrack piece from Kenji Kawai. Really breathtaking music and visuals!

Some parts of the story is good, some parts a little lame. The main thema about the 'robot-sex-slave's-problem' didn't interest me much, but made me think 'Actually that can happen!' :) I liked the part about virtual reality and generally giving thought about the future world it creates.

The thing I didn't like about the movie is rather personal: I also watched the GitS TV anime series, and I love the main female character, ... the Major. In the movies, they gave less time to her, in this movie very little sight of her, and took the story somewhere else, making it more of a 'man's world' movie. Well, I'm a woman and I want my female character! ^^

Ghost in the Shell: Innocence is a rather base-breaking film. People either love it for its heightened philosophy and art, while others detest it for a lackluster plot and characters. I, however, am one of the /other/ people who found a middle ground: it contains a lot of thought-provoking concepts, accompanied by a strong soundtrack and consistent voice-acting, but lacks in an actual plot, character development, and solid art quality.

[Story - 6]

The story itself is rather simple, yet intriguing to a point - it follows two (really, just one) of the supporting cast members of Section 9 a couple of years after the events of ... the first film. This time around, they're involved in a case of rogue 'dolls', which soon unravels into something far more sinister. The film does also continue the themes of its predecessor (such as 'Do robots deserve the same basic rights as humans?' and 'What are the ethics of overwriting their hardware?'), but it however does not flow as smoothly as before. This time around, the philosophy is so suffocating that the actual story being told is rather bare-bones, and plot development can be jarring to see after a long while of discussion. While I do enjoy the philosophy a lot, I was rather annoyed with how it could not be interwoven with the plot more skillfully.

[Art - 7]

The artstyle used here is a mix of traditional 2D animation with multiple CGI renders splattered throughout the film. I'm gonna get this over with: I REALLY did not like the CGI at all. If I had to assess it in thirds, it'd be '2/3 of this is absolute garbage' and '1/3 of this is tolerable but would have looked WAY better in 2D'. One infamous scene representing the former of the thirds is when a 'cyber-dog' is rendered in CGI: I have no other way of saying this, but it looks like it was a reject scene from Toy Story.

That being said, the reason this got a '7' and not a '5' was the traditional 2D segments. Fortunately, this is still rather prevalent in the film, and still quite up to snuff with the original. The few combat scenes come together rather well, even when CGI is used to assist it. The colour/lighting palettes are as subtle and moody as ever, and the character design is rather fitting. I particularly found the technology used throughout the film rather 'cool', and I'm thankful that it still turned out okay.

[Sound - 8]

The sound in this film is also on par with the original. While the soundtrack may not be quite as memorable, it was still rather gorgeous and perfectly suited for the film. I particularly enjoyed the one soundtrack playing when the two protagonists discuss the case with a forensic analyst (can't remember the name though).

The seiyuus did a good job as well, considering most (if not all of them) are reprising their roles from the first film. Special shout-out goes to Batou's and Togusa's for doing their best to inject a variety of emotions into the script they had received.

[Character - 5]

The characters here are probably the weakest link in the film. I did try to go into this film without expecting a lot since the first film had proved that the creative team preferred a more 'brainy' approach, but I'm still rather surprised. Perhaps it's because of the overwhelming concept discussion in here, but I felt like the characters here were even less fleshed out than in the first film.

While Batou and Togusa are somewhat shown to be more than Just Cops with their own beliefs about the world around them, I feel like they needed a lot more screentime than what they got for us to truly care for them, and thus how they express their views on the film's proposed ideas. Togusa's struggle doesn't seem to be rather clear to me, and Batou's 'stoicism' is rather exhausting to see after the first film (despite having several scenes where he clearly opens up and/or expresses himself). The antagonist here is rather.....lackluster: A former soldier who now hacks in the comfort of his reclusive mansion, he doesn't really do much once met in person. Perhaps it's because of his 'condition', but since all he did was, again, spout out philosophy, I never really felt like he was a threat and just thought that 'he was a weirdo.'

Another reason that the film is lacking in character is because of the notable absence (for at least the first 3/4) of the former protagonist, Major Kusanagi. While I already knew that she wouldn't be prevalent in this film, and I found that it did help to strengthen the Batou-Togusa dynamic, I /still/ think she would have made this much better. Even though she isn't superbly fleshed out in the film canon, she is probably the best way to express the series' concepts of struggle, and it's a shame she only got to do that in the last 20 minutes or so.

[Enjoyment/Overall - 7/6]

Nonetheless, I still walked away from here not being completely let-down. It's rather light on the plot/action, but it has quite a lot of thought-provoking material for those who prefer to digest that (myself included). I would actually only recommend it for that alone, as I feel that this was an ultimately unnecessary (but somewhat enjoyable) experience in the GitS franchise. Proceed at your own caution if you do decide to check it out.

What will happen, if you take original GiTS (1995) and strip it of flawless animation, good pacing, and magnificient lore? You get this.
Story. Too much philosophy, wrapped in mediocre detective. Comparing it to original, Innocence has no lore exploration, almoust no characer development, and instead focusing on a overly complicated philosofical ideas. 5-6/10
Art. GOD DAMN CGI!!! You were amazed by world, characters and action of 95's movie? You were jumping in your seat, when you saw oppening building of an cyborg? Too bad insead of that you get atrocious looking cgi backgrounds, cars, dolls and so on. Some places show, that director was so ... amezed by this technology, that he created wet sgifill's dream. Criklejerk of complicated buildings. God, it's SOOOOO bad. 3\10
Sound. 7\10.

As this is a sequel, some spoilers from Ghost in the Shell(1995) follow.

SOUNDTRACK

Kenji Kawai returns to direct the soundtrack for Innocence, with the screech choir making a return as well with the movie's intro.

Though, aside from that, not many other tracks stand out.

Soundtrack score: 6.75/10

... ANIMATION QUALITY

This movie has a very high production value, with extensive use of 3D graphics, especially in the iconic parade scene in the middle, with gratuitous displays of colours and movement. There's also a gunfight scene that's well-animated.

The animation quality is the best aspect of this movie, that much I'll say.

Animation Quality Score: 9.0/10

CHARACTERS

Because of the Major’s fate at the end of the previous movie, Batou takes the helm, with Togusa as his new partner. However, their partnership does become strained as the investigation goes no, with Batou taking more risks to get a break in the case, with Togusa trying to keep up and not getting killed, just so he could go back to his daugther in one piece.

One of Togusa’s interesting points as a character is his investigation prowess despite being mostly human compared to Batou, a full cyborg. While this was prominent in the previous movie, it wasn’t really shown here, as most of the dialogue between him and Batou are philosophical in nature, instead of focusing on the investigation itself, a letdown if you ask me.

There were also Chinese lines later, which was interesting.

Characters score: 6.50/10

PLOT

The movie still takes place in the same city with a Hong Kong vibe to it just like the first movie.

While the case of the gynoids murdering their owners seems like a regular one at first, more complications turn up the deeper Batou and Togusa investigate the case, such as the cryptic audio message, and even mafia involvement later on, whose boss was also killed by a gynoid.

Though, even without considering the Major’s absence in the sequel, there are a few things that significantly bogged down the plot:

1) Conversations focusing heavily on philosophy and quotes, instead of the actual investigation. If you ask me, the point of the Ghost in the Shell movies is to explore cyberpunk and android themes, and one way to carry out this is to explain things about the world or the case itself as the investigation goes on. It’s just that the movie kept focusing on the line between man and machine too much that it just devolved into abstract philosophy, instead of talking about cool things like gadgets, robot hardware, weapons, security protocols, all that good jargon that the original movie had.

2)A hacking scene covering the middle 1/3 of the movie. While the explanation itself was interesting, it was needlessly drawn out and took up a lot of screen time, which isn’t good as the movie had a run time of barely 1.5 hours.

Aside from a few references to the original movie, there was very little connection between the two titles. What happened to Section 6 and their secrets? Did Section 9 expose them, or was everything swept under the rug? Not a lot that, unfortunately.

The movie did manage to wrap up and explain the entire case by the movie’s conclusion, so I’ll give it credit for that.

Plot score: 6.5/10

SCORE SUMMARY

Soundtrack score: 6.75/10
Animation Quality Score: 9.0/10
Characters score: 6.50/10
Plot score: 6.5/10

CONCLUSION

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is one of those movies that look good, with not much else. I don't mean to be harsh when I say this, but it seems like the sequel was riding on the hype of the first movie. Since it doesn't really add much to the original movie timeline, it's not worth a watch if you ask me. You're better off exploring the Stand Alone Complex timeline after the 1995 movie.

Warning possible Spoilers

After almost 10 years since the original movie, a sequel came out and it had the monumentous task of being a good sequel. Was it a good sequel, to me not really.

Story (6/10)

The story focuses more on Batou and Togusa, since Motoko vanished at the end of the original film. This is definitely one of the better parts of the film as we get to see a working relationship between these two, who really didn't get that much screentime in the first film and this film nicely develops their characters.
The plot on the other hand is definitely a mess, a crazy sex droid, ... yes a sex droid you heard me correctly, is going around killing people. So Batou destroys it and with the help of Togusa they investigate why it was acting like this.
This investigation does take them on a big journey, bigger than the first film and I will admit the first half genuinely felt like it still had the feeling of mystery that the first film had. However when the second half kicked in, everything just fell apart as the story became so confusing and mind breaking I had no idea what was going on. Soon after the whole mindfu*k segment, we got a big ol' shootout section where Motoko randomly shows up without warning and then her and Batou save the day.
Yeah the pacing wasn't exactly great either at this point too, basically the first half was really good and the second half just makes the film fall apart very quickly.

Characters (7/10)

The characters was definitely the best part of the whole thing, seeing the relationship between Batou and Togusa as they tried to solve the mystery was interesting and really expanded upon their characters from the first film. Batou seemed like the grizzled veteran, while Togusa was the rookie even though these guys have known each other for a good while now at this point.
Batou seems to have also picked up Motoko's philosophical side too as he and Togusa quote more and more stuff as the film progresses, hell we even get to see that Batou is a dog guy showing he does have some kind of maternal bond.
Motoko does make an appearance during the final 20 minutes of the film, but the both times I've watched this her re-appearance felt disappointing and it sucks we don't get to see her in the body at the end of the last film and instead she just takes over one of the sex droid bodies.
Other than that there really wasn't much else to say about the characters, since it mainly concentrates on Batou and Togusa, which I am completely fine with.

Art (5/10)

Definitely the most annoying part of the whole film, is the amount of concentration on the CGI and it looks ghastly and can be pretty eye soaring at times. As much as I liked the fact they expanded more upon the GitS world and went to different locations this time, it was all ruined by the CGI, that felt like it got more and more over the top as the film went on.

Sound (6/10)

The music this time around wasn't as mesmerising as the first film and the only piece that stuck out was the re-repeat of the soundtrack used in the scene where Motoko is travelling around the city and was re-used for the exact same thing, except in a different place.

Extras:

When it came to the psychological aspect, the first film nailed it perfectly. This time around it just doesn't work well at all and gives you a big ass headache as you try to figure out what the hell is going on, this made really clear when you reach the second half as you see Togusa go on some weird as mindfu*k ride that made absolutely no sense.
The action was still pretty decent and the final shootout was pretty entertaining, however these moments just don't feel as memorable compared to the first film and made Batou seem like some indestructible terminator, hell he took on a whole gang of dudes and an army of sex droids without a scratch, which doesn't seem very likely really.

Enjoyment (6/10)

Overall (6/10)

Overall this wasn't a very good sequel, it tried to up the level on confusing you're brain and did it in a negative way this time, plus it focused way too much on the CGI making the amazing artwork from the first film look even more amazing.

Feels like a parody of the first one. The story is the same general "We have to catch this villain with mysterious motives" plotline that shows up in half of Oshii's movies, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Issue is, GitS and Patlabor 2 were a lot more interesting and I just watched both of those, and by comparison this just doesn't have the extra spice to make it stand out. Batou's the main character this time but he isn't nearly as interesting as the Major, and a solid 50% of the script is dedicated to quoting philosophy. You could ask Batou what he had ... for breakfast today and he'd probably give you a Bible verse followed by a Confucius quote, then that wailing music would suddenly start playing for 30 seconds or so. The first movie actually brought up some interesting ideas about what it means to be human and all that shit, but in this one everything's muddled by the seemingly random quotes getting thrown out constantly.

The animation is also a general downgrade, usually the CG stuff looks fine but there are some cases with like parade floats and birds where it looks really ugly. I'm sure most people would agree that a lot of the appeal of the original GitS is that it's cool. In this case, there is some stuff that's cool but it usually just feels like it's either a retread of cool stuff in the original or it's just medium-level cool. Medium-level cool can't hold a candle to high-level cool stuff like the optic camo fight at the start of GitS or that one scene where the guy's hands split apart and type really fast.

Well, I wouldn't call this a bad movie, the problem is just that the original basically does everything better and this one often feels like it's trying to channel the original but not doing a very good job of it.