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| Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Season 1 |
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
As the broadcast series based on Mamoru Oshii's landmark feature Ghost in the Shell continues, questions concerning the case of the mysterious Laughing Man surface once again. In "Portraitz," a possible lead takes Togusa into an institution for children suffering from "Cyberbrain Closed Shell Syndrome," a sort of computerized autism. Nothing is resolved, and the audience, like the case, is left hanging. The Laughing Man is also the subject of "Chat! Chat! Chat!"--a cheat of an episode that consists of little more than footage of chat-room denizens wrangling over the character's true identity. "Jungle Cruise" provides some rare clues to Batou's past. But after the grisly images of a war criminal from the "American Empire" who skins his victims alive, the high-pitched voices and cute characters in "Escape From" feel incongruous at best. Overall, the series seems to be losing its momentum.
The extras include interviews with sound director Kazuhiro Wakabayashi and Akio Otsuka, the Japanese voice of Batou. Otsuka's velvety bass-baritone makes Batou a more compelling vocal presence than Richard Epcar's rougher tones in the English dub. There's also a two-disc deluxe edition that comes with a T-shirt and DTS 5.1 soundtracks in English and Japanese. (Rated 13 and older: considerable violence, grotesque imagery, nudity, tobacco use) --Charles Solomon
Product Description
Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 11/23/2004
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I would rate the show as 5 stars, this is a review of the extras and features of the Special Edition issue.
I recently bought all the Special Edition releases of "Stand Alone Complex" after trying to research what I was going to get as extras not included in the regular edition. I found the listings on Amazon's product details to be a little confusing and incomplete on some of the volumes so I decided to write this guide for others trying to decide. I'm not going to review the "Ghost in the Shell" episodes or the series in general because there are so many excellent reviews already on this site, and most of you probably know about this great anime TV series already. There are various other reviews that say that some of the DVD's and CD's have errors on them and Bandai will replace them with corrected discs if you send them in for exchange. I have not ran into problems yet, although I haven't gone through the whole series either. And I will also state that I love the TV series as well as both movies, but I would recommend the Imported Region 2 version of GITS2:Innocence if you have a region free DVD player. Dreamworks really messed up that release omiting the English dub and putting Hard of Hearing subtitles instead of regular ones on the early issues of that movie. Most people find them very distracting and annoying.
First off the discs themselves, you get two DVD discs in each volume with the same episodes on both discs. Volumes 1-5 have 4 episodes each, 6 and 7 have 3 episodes each making 26 episodes total in the series. Both discs are Anamorphic wide screen encoded directly from the High-Definition Masters. Both Discs also have English subtitles. Each set also has two interviews with voice cast or someone associated with the production of the anime, and a printed DVD insert pamphlet or booklet with different interviews and such for each volume. All discs are Region 1.
Disc one has Dolby Digital 5.1 in Japanese and English, and Dolby Digital 2.0 in English and Japanese.
Disc two has DTS 5.1 in English and Japanese and a Dolby Digital 2.0 English track.
Volumes 1 and 2 include soundtrack CD's of the music of Yoko Kanno, the most excellent and versatile composer of the music in the TV series. Anime lovers know her work from the many fine soundtracks that she's done for countless other anime movies and TV series.
Volume 3 has a Black XL Fruit of the Loom Tee-Shirt with the section 9 logo on the front and a Major Kusanagi graphic on the back. Nice shirt!
Volumes 4 and 5 have a collectable I.D. cards for a section 9 member.
Volume 6 has a Black XL Fruit of the Loom Tee-Shirt with the section 9 logo on the front and a Batou graphic on the back, and another I.D. card. Nice shirt again!
Volume 7 has another Tee-Shirt! This time it's a White XL with the section 9 logo on the front, and the Laughing Man logo on the back! Once again nice shirt! It also comes with a tin box that's supposed to hold all 7 volumes of the DVD set. I was excited about getting the box but when it arrived I was disappointed with the design. It's kind of like the rectangular lunch box that you used to take to school as a kid, without the handle and latch. Its also of a thinner metal that dents easily. It has marketing type of printing on the backside that pertains to vol. 7 only, and the DVD cases stack inside one on top of the other. The spines of the cases are not visible when you open the box, only the front of the last case you put in. So you have to take all the cases out of the tin to get to a specific volume. There's also not room for the cardboard sleves that the DVD's were in when you got the individual volumes, and no room for the soundtrack CD's either. All said, I was disappointed with the box. Because of it's odd dimensions it doesn't stack in well with my DVD library. I would have much preferred the normal five sided box that usually comes with DVD sets.
Overall I'd say it's worth it to buy volumes 3, 6 and 7 new to get the shirts if they interest you and pick up the others used if you can to save some money on the series. That is if you're interested in the DTS soundtrack options. I much prefer the DTS mixes to Dolby Digital and wanted the soundtrack CD's as well. Also the cardboard boxes that come with volumes 3 and 6 are better than the tin box to store your set in when you complete the series, if you stack them on shelves one row of DVD's on top of another row, and you can fit the movies into those boxes as well to fill them the rest of the way.
I recently bought all the Special Edition releases of "Stand Alone Complex" after trying to research what I was going to get as extras not included in the regular edition. I found the listings on Amazon's product details to be a little confusing and incomplete on some of the volumes so I decided to write this guide for others trying to decide. I'm not going to review the "Ghost in the Shell" episodes or the series in general because there are so many excellent reviews already on this site, and most of you probably know about this great anime TV series already. There are various other reviews that say that some of the DVD's and CD's have errors on them and Bandai will replace them with corrected discs if you send them in for exchange. I have not ran into problems yet, although I haven't gone through the whole series either. And I will also state that I love the TV series as well as both movies, but I would recommend the Imported Region 2 version of GITS2:Innocence if you have a region free DVD player. Dreamworks really messed up that release omiting the English dub and putting Hard of Hearing subtitles instead of regular ones on the early issues of that movie. Most people find them very distracting and annoying.
First off the discs themselves, you get two DVD discs in each volume with the same episodes on both discs. Volumes 1-5 have 4 episodes each, 6 and 7 have 3 episodes each making 26 episodes total in the series. Both discs are Anamorphic wide screen encoded directly from the High-Definition Masters. Both Discs also have English subtitles. Each set also has two interviews with voice cast or someone associated with the production of the anime, and a printed DVD insert pamphlet or booklet with different interviews and such for each volume. All discs are Region 1.
Disc one has Dolby Digital 5.1 in Japanese and English, and Dolby Digital 2.0 in English and Japanese.
Disc two has DTS 5.1 in English and Japanese and a Dolby Digital 2.0 English track.
Volumes 1 and 2 include soundtrack CD's of the music of Yoko Kanno, the most excellent and versatile composer of the music in the TV series. Anime lovers know her work from the many fine soundtracks that she's done for countless other anime movies and TV series.
Volume 3 has a Black XL Fruit of the Loom Tee-Shirt with the section 9 logo on the front and a Major Kusanagi graphic on the back. Nice shirt!
Volumes 4 and 5 have a collectable I.D. cards for a section 9 member.
Volume 6 has a Black XL Fruit of the Loom Tee-Shirt with the section 9 logo on the front and a Batou graphic on the back, and another I.D. card. Nice shirt again!
Volume 7 has another Tee-Shirt! This time it's a White XL with the section 9 logo on the front, and the Laughing Man logo on the back! Once again nice shirt! It also comes with a tin box that's supposed to hold all 7 volumes of the DVD set. I was excited about getting the box but when it arrived I was disappointed with the design. It's kind of like the rectangular lunch box that you used to take to school as a kid, without the handle and latch. Its also of a thinner metal that dents easily. It has marketing type of printing on the backside that pertains to vol. 7 only, and the DVD cases stack inside one on top of the other. The spines of the cases are not visible when you open the box, only the front of the last case you put in. So you have to take all the cases out of the tin to get to a specific volume. There's also not room for the cardboard sleves that the DVD's were in when you got the individual volumes, and no room for the soundtrack CD's either. All said, I was disappointed with the box. Because of it's odd dimensions it doesn't stack in well with my DVD library. I would have much preferred the normal five sided box that usually comes with DVD sets.
Overall I'd say it's worth it to buy volumes 3, 6 and 7 new to get the shirts if they interest you and pick up the others used if you can to save some money on the series. That is if you're interested in the DTS soundtrack options. I much prefer the DTS mixes to Dolby Digital and wanted the soundtrack CD's as well. Also the cardboard boxes that come with volumes 3 and 6 are better than the tin box to store your set in when you complete the series, if you stack them on shelves one row of DVD's on top of another row, and you can fit the movies into those boxes as well to fill them the rest of the way.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The initial episode, 'Chat!Chat!Chat,' is another attempt to put some closure on the Laughing Man mystery. This time we are invited to a net discussion of the nature of the phenomenon, one which pursues many avenues, but never really pinpoints the 'enemy.' Kusanagi voices the opinion that the latest outbreak was a composite of many 'stand alone' actions, inspired by the Laughing Man, but not orchestrated by him. Is she right? We may never know.
'Jungle Cruise' is about a serial killer compelled to re-enact the gory killings he committed in wartime as a subversive terrorist. Whether he is driven by training or by personal pleasure is unclear, but he has never shaken the onus of the war. Batou, who served in the same war, was deeply affected when he discovered the activities of those trained to discourage the opposition. Now he must confront his own demons and deal with need for final justice while he hunts the killer.
The third episode takes us into a ward for individuals (mostly young) who are victims of 'Cyberbrain Closed Shell Syndrome' a disorder that is evidenced as a compulsive connection with the net. In a way, these children are the future's equivalents of the autistic children of today. But they are more than that, and when a hacking incident originated from the hospital Togusa is sent in as an undercover agent. There he expects to find staff corruption, but finds something even deeper in the inmates. Once again the laughing man makes a mysterious appearance.
The final episode combines two themes. Batou's tachikoma goes for a walkabout and encounters a young girl who is seeking a lost pet. While the machine learns a lesson in the meaning of grief it discovers a ghost case which still has a resident. In a curious parallel Kusanagi investigates the ghost and rediscovers her own ability to cry.
One of the things that fascinates about this series is the care taken to make this a story about not only machines with personalities, but personalities who have machines. The tenuous line, the presence of the ghost is often the only marker for human intelligence and spirit. Nor does the ghost guarantee human behavior. Instead, the human mind often flees into the machine or the net in an effort to find some freedom from their 'real' lives.
While the initial episodes of this DVD are more in the typical Ghost tradition, the last two episodes pursue the conflict between multiple realities and possible consciousnesses. The viewer is not asked to judge once, but many times, making the point that life has many possibilities. In truth we cannot judge.
'Jungle Cruise' is about a serial killer compelled to re-enact the gory killings he committed in wartime as a subversive terrorist. Whether he is driven by training or by personal pleasure is unclear, but he has never shaken the onus of the war. Batou, who served in the same war, was deeply affected when he discovered the activities of those trained to discourage the opposition. Now he must confront his own demons and deal with need for final justice while he hunts the killer.
The third episode takes us into a ward for individuals (mostly young) who are victims of 'Cyberbrain Closed Shell Syndrome' a disorder that is evidenced as a compulsive connection with the net. In a way, these children are the future's equivalents of the autistic children of today. But they are more than that, and when a hacking incident originated from the hospital Togusa is sent in as an undercover agent. There he expects to find staff corruption, but finds something even deeper in the inmates. Once again the laughing man makes a mysterious appearance.
The final episode combines two themes. Batou's tachikoma goes for a walkabout and encounters a young girl who is seeking a lost pet. While the machine learns a lesson in the meaning of grief it discovers a ghost case which still has a resident. In a curious parallel Kusanagi investigates the ghost and rediscovers her own ability to cry.
One of the things that fascinates about this series is the care taken to make this a story about not only machines with personalities, but personalities who have machines. The tenuous line, the presence of the ghost is often the only marker for human intelligence and spirit. Nor does the ghost guarantee human behavior. Instead, the human mind often flees into the machine or the net in an effort to find some freedom from their 'real' lives.
While the initial episodes of this DVD are more in the typical Ghost tradition, the last two episodes pursue the conflict between multiple realities and possible consciousnesses. The viewer is not asked to judge once, but many times, making the point that life has many possibilities. In truth we cannot judge.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I preordered this and it showed up the friday before the release, and that why I'm reviewing it early.
Ok, for those who haven't seen any of this show, the first 2 disks are a must watch because this show can get very deep and confusing when you don't know what happened in earlier episodes. For those who are caught up it this show already, these are 3 more great episodes and 1 so/so (2 "laughing man" related and 2 side stories). One of which I'm not sure sure will wind up on Adult Swim because of content (Think "Silence of the Lambs"), which was my favorite ep of this crop because it just creeps me out.
Animation is top notch, the plots are complex and detailed, the voice acting dubbed and subbed are superb and the show is just so addictive.
The only flaw is that the is a sound glitch on episode 10 on the opening sequence where certain channels will fade in and out.
All things considered, this is and outstanding series and I can't wait for more.
Ok, for those who haven't seen any of this show, the first 2 disks are a must watch because this show can get very deep and confusing when you don't know what happened in earlier episodes. For those who are caught up it this show already, these are 3 more great episodes and 1 so/so (2 "laughing man" related and 2 side stories). One of which I'm not sure sure will wind up on Adult Swim because of content (Think "Silence of the Lambs"), which was my favorite ep of this crop because it just creeps me out.
Animation is top notch, the plots are complex and detailed, the voice acting dubbed and subbed are superb and the show is just so addictive.
The only flaw is that the is a sound glitch on episode 10 on the opening sequence where certain channels will fade in and out.
All things considered, this is and outstanding series and I can't wait for more.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
This is a tremendous series.
The entire series is first-rate. I like the side stories that help flesh out some of the main character's past. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Hal
see it
buy it,see it,love it
if you have seen the others you know what your getting
well worth it
if you have seen the others you know what your getting
well worth it
Published on October 28, 2009 by kilu
What you would expect!
This is what you would expect from the team that makes this awsome film and series! Visuals are as always, Top notch in the anime world, with thought provoking story lines, that... Read more
Published on February 8, 2008 by Tom E. Thompson
Where the line between humans and machines is blurred
I'll admit to you that I love to watch Adult Swim, and I'll also admit that I like certain types of anime. Read more
Published on November 25, 2005 by Mark Schaefer
Flawless
I was hesitant to start collecting Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex because I had watched the first 8 episodes and was not totally convinced to buy it. Read more
Published on March 5, 2005 by Luke Keppler
GITS: Stand Alone Complex Vol. 3: A Little Uninteresting
This set contains episodes nine through twelve of the first series/season from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Read more
Published on January 28, 2005 by Alan V. Dunkin
Subtle clues in the talking...
The chapters on this DVD have more a detective investigation taste than the usual kick-bang-punch kind of action, which is not absent, BTW. Read more
Published on January 26, 2005 by C.R.Cavazos
You can't judge a book by its cover, in this case: an Anime
Lots of people are saying that Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone complex VOLUME 3 is inferior to the first two releases, this is flat out a FALACY. It is part of the bigger picture. Read more
Published on January 13, 2005 by Subayaitori
Think! Think! Think!
Someone said vol.3 is little bit boring than last two sets. Yes, episode 9-12 doesn't contain many actions as other stories. Read more
Published on December 15, 2004 by S.F.
A LITTLE SLIP IN THE SHELL
While I found the first two volumes of this new series visionary and masterpiece aspiring, Volume 3 of Stand Alone Complex is disappointing. Read more
Published on November 26, 2004 by Sesho
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