Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence

Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence is a beautiful and much more intellectual anime than any other that I've seen before. It has a bit slower pacing than many, but the depth of the characters and the numerous references to literature make it much more engaging than many other anime features typically targeted at a teenage audience.

The combination of tradional cell animation and CG is very well done and leans more toward the cell style look and feel. The blending of the two different techniques is more masterfully done than the earlier release of Ghost in the Shell (#1).

The notion of life and its definition when combined with mechanical means is yet again explorer. I kept thinking of the early 90s Japanese film Tetsuo, the Iron Man throughout the entire film. The Japanese definitely have a bit of a fetish with this topic, and if I can say, they are a bit ahead of the Western world in thinking about the ethics and differences between man/machine. Or heck, maybe the Japanese are just a bit more obsessed about it.

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