Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) [Anime Review]

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence; or, A Cop and His Dog

     Don’t forget, Batou. Whenever you get online, I will be with you.

9 years after the original movie, Mamoru Oshii returns to the world of Ghost in the Shell with the sequel, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. The film was given the title of the best sci-fi movie at the 2004 Nihon SF Taisho Awards and it also was in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Does the sequel live up to the standards set by the first movie? Let’s find out together.

Release Info

Directed by: Mamoru Oshii Voice actors: Akio Otsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Koichi Yamadera, Tamio Oki

Language: Japanese Original Title: イノセンス Inosensu Runtime: 98 min

 

Synopsis

Roughly 3 years after Major Motoko Kusanagi disappeared in the Net, Batou and Togusa, members of Public Security Section 9, investigate a series of gruesome murders committed by gynoids, sex robots with doll-like features. After examining the gynoids’ remains and even “questioning” the Yakuza, the partners determine that every gynoid had an “illegal ghost” contained in their brains. After confronting a master hacker, Batou attempts to infiltrate the headquarters of Locus Solus, a company responsible for the production of faulty gynoids. He discovers that the consciousnesses of the dolls were duplicated from the ghosts of real people…

 

Scientific Love

Between 2002 and 2005, Ghost in the Shell exploded in popularity due to its two-season anime series Stand Alone Complex. Possibly, this might have served as some encouragement for Oshii to come back to the project. With a multi-company production and a budget of 2 billion yen, the director had more creative freedom in crafting a new story set in this universe. Even though Oshii himself claimed that Innocence is not entirely a sequel, the film clearly addresses the events from the first film.

 

Because Major Kusanagi disappeared at the end of Ghost in the Shell (1995), the main protagonists are actually Batou and Togusa. These are the characters with whom we spend most of the time. They engage into a nifty police procedural in the first half of the movie. However, the story takes a U-turn in the middle in order to become a hallucinatory psychological thriller with a bit of action elements. Is it a bad thing? On the contrary, Innocence benefits greatly from well-written protagonists and storyline shifts.

 

In addition, the animation work done on this film is really great (the Basset Hound is adorable!). Unfortunately, it does not match the 2D greatness of the first film because of a lot of CGI sequences. Some of these look really good (the parade scene) and some not so much (flying birds or the opening shot). However, even so-so CGI did not distract me from enjoying my viewing experience. Shoving CGI on force into the re-release of the first movie, on the other hand, is a real crime.

 

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence has an interesting script and engaging three acts. Nevertheless, what makes it inferior in comparison to the first movie are loads of philosophical quotations uttered by nearly every single character in this film. While the same thing was done more gently in the first part, here you just can’t escape the philosophical ponderings which are thrown at you from every side. I do not want to say that this is a bad thing. It is Oshii’s style of story-telling and I accept it, but some of the dialogue could have been less heavy-handed. As a result, you really have to dig through the citations in order to understand what is going on with the story.

 

Still again, I appreciate the script that actually builds upon what was done in the first film. The animation is very good for mid-2000s standards and I appreciate what the animators wanted to achieve. In addition, the voice acting is top notch. Akio Otsuka and Atsuko Tanaka will always be Batou and Major, respectively. I also loved the small parts done by Yoshiko Sakakibara and Naoto Takenaka. I will recognise their voices everywhere! The music score by Kenji Kawaii is just as awesome as in the first film.

 

Recommendations

To sum up, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is just a little bit weaker from its predecessor, but it is still an enjoyable sequel. Give it a try if you have a chance. Make sure to grab a proper release, though, because there have been a lot of licensing drama going on around this film. I personally recommend the Funmation release from 2017. When time allows, I should be able to review the Stand Alone Complex show. Ghost in the Shell enjoys recent resurgence in popularity due to the upcoming (and already controversial) Netflix show. Thankfully, there are always Oshii’s films to rely on.

Overall score: 7/10