Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Ghost in the Shell 2:  Innocence is a 2004 action, adventure, science fiction, psychological Japanese anime film. It was written and directed by Mamoru Oshii, musically composed by Kenji Kawai, cinematography by Miki Sakuma, edited by Sachiko Miki, Chishiro Nakano, and Junichi Uematsu, distributed by Toho, produced by Matsuhisa Ishikawa, Toshio Suzuki, and Studio Production I.G, and it starred Akio Otsuka and Atsuko Tanaka. It was based on a three volume manga series of the same name which was written by Masamune Shirow. It was a sequel to Ghost in the Shell (1995), and was later followed by a 52 episode anime series called Ghost in the Shell:  Stand Alone Complex, and then another movie called Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The English Dub in this movie is much better than in the original film.  They even brought in two of the best dub actors out there, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Major Makoto Kusanagi, (during the few scenes that she's actually in), and Crispin Freeman as Togusa.
 * 2) Excellent animation.
 * 3) The character Batou is really fleshed out in this movie a lot more than he was in the first, and is considerably more deep and interesting.
 * 4) Very appealing character designs.
 * 5) While this film is called Ghost in the Shell 2, it's more of a spinoff of Ghost in the Shell rather than a true sequel.  This means that you don't have to watch the first movie to enjoy this one.
 * 6) Good soundtrack.
 * 7) While there is still a lot of philosophical talk in this movie, the density of it was dialed back quite a bit, which makes it a lot more accessible for people to get into.
 * 8) Great voice acting.
 * 9) All of the other side characters are also more interesting in this movie than they were in the original, not just Batou.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The movie has a lot of unnecessary CGI in  places, which doesn't blend very well at all with the hand drawn animation.
 * 2) Major Makoto Kusanagi, the primary character of most of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, is absent throughout the entirety of this movie.

Reception
Ghost in the Shell 2:  Innocence has a 64% critic rating and a 80% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 3.6/5 on Letterboxd, a 7.6/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB), a 7.89/10 on MyAnimeList, a 78.23% community approval rating on Kitsu, and a 4/5 on AnimePlanet.

Videos
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