Review of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex: Vol. 5

Introduction

We enter the final straight, with this the fifth volume of Ghost In The Shell Standalone Complex. After this, there will be only six episodes left to go in this first series. Once again, I cross my fingers and hope that Manga have managed to avoid any technical flaws with the continuing release of their flagship title.

Ghost In The Shell inhabits one of those strange new worlds we often hear tell of. Set in the not too distant future, the divisions between man and machine are blurring. AI is a reality, and life like androids do the menial jobs that humans used to. It isn`t unusual for the average citizen to be enhanced in some way with implants or prosthetics. For some the enhancements are to such a degree that little of the original human remains. Major Motoko Kusanagi of Section 9 is one such person, who since the age of 6 has been equipped with a totally cybernetic body. The only biological component left is her brain. The differences between man and machine becomes ever more meaningless when machines can develop personality. It also opens up a whole new area of criminal activity, when cybernetically enhanced senses can be fooled by an enterprising hacker, or worse their brains themselves can be hacked into, subverting the innocent by reprogramming their `ghosts`. In the light of such terrifying possibilities, a special unit is created to head off the threat of such cyber-crime. Section 9 led by Aramaki is at the forefront of combating the new cyber criminals.

Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex comprises a mix of stand-alone episodes that sees Section 9 investigating the various cyber-crimes that threaten the societies of the future. The complex episodes follow Section 9 as they pursue a mysterious cyber-criminal known simply as The Laughing Man, in a convoluted storyline that stretches through this first series. This release from Manga Entertainment comes on 2 discs. Disc 1 contains the four episodes and the bulk of the extras, as well as DD 2.0 and DD 5.1 soundtracks. Disc 2 contains the same episodes, but with DTS soundtracks.

Episode 17. Angels` Share
The Major and Aramaki are in London to attend a Counter Terrorism Conference. During their time off, Aramaki visits an old friend who runs a wine fund catering to excusive speculators. She suspects that her business is being used to launder Mafia money and asks Aramaki for his help. Aramaki is out of his jurisdiction, but has no choice than to get involved when a couple of opportunistic thieves break into the building and take them hostage. But the British police are under orders not to safeguard the hostages when they raid the building. It`s up to the Major to resolve the situation without loss of life and without involving the corrupt British police.

Episode 18. Lost Heritage
A death threat has been made against a visiting Chinese dignitary, and it falls to Section 9 to investigate the threat and protect the minister. Aramaki leaves Batou in command, as today is the seventh anniversary of a friend`s death. Tsujisaki`s daughter meets him at the grave. She tells him that her younger brother has been behaving oddly of late, and has begun to resemble their late father in his behaviour and mannerisms. She asks for Aramaki`s help, who can`t abuse his position for personal reasons. Yet when Section 9 tracks down the assassin, Aramaki has to rethink his refusal to get involved.

Episode 19. Captivated
Former Prime Minister Kanzaki`s daughter has been kidnapped, and Section 9 is brought in to solve the case and rescue her. Suspicion falls on a mafia group who traffic in stolen organs. This group only needs a few more victims to make up their quota and time is rapidly running out. Following a lead, Togusa and Batou manage to locate the abductees, but not before the ringleader makes her escape with them. They manage to identify her though as Cruzkowa, an enhanced cyborg that will test even the Major`s limits.

Episode 20 Re-view
A janitor steals medical research from his workplace, a list of recipients of the Murai vaccine. Meanwhile, Section 9`s investigation of the Laughing Man hits a dead end when all the leads point towards the Ministry before drying up. Without any concrete evidence they can`t touch the government, but Togusa gets a new hunch when he recalls the connection between Salinger`s Catcher In The Rye and the Laughing Man logo. He follows this hunch at The Ministry Of Health, Labour and Welfare and finds that a certain file has gone missing, one that points to a decades old conspiracy to falsely denounce valid medical research for financial gain. But those who want the vaccine suppressed will not rest until all who know the truth are eliminated.

At the end of each episode, the Tachikomas continue their mini-adventures, now in Tachikoma paradise.

Video

Ghost In The Shell is presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic ratio. This is the best transfer of a GITS: SAC volume yet. The image is clear and sharp throughout, digital banding is kept to a minimum and there are no moments of pixellation of glitches. It must be said that the character design is greatly simplified in comparison to the detailed and beautiful characterisations of the movie. That`s to be expected when creating these characters for a serialised television show, but the animation is still dynamic and effortlessly realised. However the sheer detail and intricacy of the world design is marvellous. It`s the mix of the animation and design that makes this show look so good. It`s nice to know that clichéd Bobbies will still walk the beat in 2030 London, and the humble Route master will still drive past the Houses Of Parliament. In general the episodes on this disc continue the high standard of design and animation established in earlier volumes.

The Ghost In The Shell movie was lauded for its use of CGI. Computer imagery was used to create displays and overlays in the film and certainly contributed to its look. Seven years of advances in animation have made Stand Alone Complex a different animal when it comes to CGI. All 3D objects are realised through the computer, and are flawlessly integrated with the traditional style animation. The displays and overlays are if anything better than in the film. To cap it all off, the title sequence is completely rendered in CGI, with a 3D version of Major Kusanagi in action in a computer-generated world.

Audio

This release comes with a full selection of soundtracks. Disc 1 has soundtracks in DD 2.0 English and Japanese Stereo, as well as DD 5.1 English and Japanese, whereas Disc 2 allows you to watch the show with DTS 5.1 English and Japanese (encoded at 754kbps), as well as a repeat of the DD 2.0 English Stereo track. There are English translated subtitles for both discs.

As usual I chose to listen to the original Japanese track. The surround is stunningly effective, with full use made of the soundstage to effectively convey the action, the future world and Yoko Kanno`s stunning music. Listening to the action and gunfights in the episodes, I felt totally immersed in the world, and if anything the quality and effectiveness of the surround tracks exceeds earlier volumes.

I spot checked the English track, and was shocked yet again. There are no glitches, no dropouts, and no sync problems with the sound on Volume 5. The sound just like the picture is as near as makes no difference, flawless. Just when I was going to forgive Manga Entertainment all their sins however, the subtitles reared their ugly head. I`m not concerned overmuch about the occasional spelling error or missing caption, as much as I was wholly irritated by the fact that for the fifth volume, the subtitles are in white text printed on thick black rectangular captions that obscure the image at the bottom of the screen.

Addendum: Nick Foster noted in the forums on this site that the DD 2.0 Japanese track in Angel`s Snare is actually the English stereo track repeated. It was too good to be true.

Features

Once again, I received the test discs for review minus any packaging or artwork. The discs` presentation is impressive. Glorious animated menus reflecting the cyberpunk style of the show are set to the show`s music. The transitions between menus are short and never get tedious.

Disc 2 contains just the episodes, and an Interactive Quiz. Answer ten questions about and around Ghost In The Shell, and you unlock a sneak peak of episode 21.

Disc 1 contains the episode synopses and character profiles related to the episodes on these discs. Beware of reading them first, as they obviously contain spoilers for the episodes.

There is an 11-minute interview with Kenzi Teraoka and Shinobu Tsuneki. They are mechanical designers for the show, if you see a car, gun or other device; they are the ones who create it anew for the near future. They talk about the demands of the show, and where they get their inspiration.

The second interview is with Director Of Photography Koji Tanaka and 3D Director Makoto Endo. They talk about the role of 3D CG in the show, and there`s plenty of behind the scenes footage showing work in progress. This featurette also lasts 11 minutes. The curse of Manga strikes the interviews, as they fail to autoswitch to 4:3, and the disc stops playing at the end instead of returning to the main menu.

Finally there is a trailer for the Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex videogame.

I did notice that the Manga trailers, which have taken up half an hour apiece of the previous discs, were conspicuous by their absence on this fifth volume. If the extra space liberated by their absence has resulted in the problem free picture and sound then it can only be a good thing.

Conclusion

If English is your language of choice when it comes to watching anime, then you can rest easy that the fifth volume of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex will offer an unblemished viewing experience, with all the problems of the earlier releases ironed out. However, if like me you prefer to watch in the original language, then it`s more painful than ever to watch Manga Entertainment come so agonisingly close to getting it right, then screwing it up at the last minute.

Usually when it comes to anime, most companies choose a nice unobtrusive font for their subtitles, usually yellow with a thin black border for legibility. Manga Entertainment have tried a different subtitle font for each successive GITS: SAC volume, and with the fifth volume they have found the worst possible. Having thick black rectangles obscuring the image is unwelcome at the best of times, but when it such a visually spectacular show like Ghost In The Shell, it becomes downright infuriating. What makes it especially galling is that while the technical issues with the previous volumes could be put down to quality control, someone actively chose these captions for this volume. When you see a black bar obscuring the mouth of whoever is speaking, it distracts horribly from the scene, something that happened during tense or emotional scenes in the first two episodes of this volume. All that is left to do is either to learn Japanese, or watch the English dub. I`ll cross my fingers that this will be corrected for the retail release, but I won`t hold my breath.

As for the show itself, I`ve noticed that with the last volume and this volume in particular, Ghost In The Shell has hit something of a mid-season lull. The Laughing Man storyline takes a back seat for a strand of seven stand-alone episodes, three of which are on this release. These first three episodes are enjoyable enough, but I got the distinct feel that they were padding, going over ground that had been already visited earlier in the run. We have a hostage crisis, an assassination attempt and a kidnapping, which are all themes explored in earlier episodes. In two successive episodes, Aramaki states that he cannot use his authority for personal reasons, yet ends up doing so anyway. Also, the absence of the cute little Tachikomas is certainly felt, with the episodes missing their light-hearted natures. It`s a `seen it all before` feel that gives the suspicion that the show is running out of steam. Still, the ending of Lost Heritage is excellent, and Captivated mixes politics and action to good effect. Even a mediocre Ghost In The Shell episode stands head and shoulders above its rivals.

When it looks like the narrative engine has stalled, we get kicked into high gear once again, with the welcome and overdue return of the Laughing Man storyline. It`s practically a law that any conspiracy will involve Catcher In The Rye, and this is no exception. Togusa goes undercover once more to find out about the Laughing Man`s actions, and finds that there is a cover up reaching to the highest levels of government, and affecting all aspects of the cyberized society. All through this, the Laughing Man`s loyalties and intentions remain clouded, and the climax of the episode will have you eager to find out what happens next.

The first three episodes while enjoyable, do little to move the story along, but the thrilling return of The Laughing Man in Re-view is the jolt that the show needed, and once again makes this an indispensable release. The technical glitches are confined to the extra features this time around, but were it not for those horrendous subtitle captions, and a flubbed Japanese stereo track on the first episode, Manga Entertainment would have got it right instead of falling at the final hurdle. I`m actually beginning to feel sorry for them.