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ronald_zaneveld
Reviews
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022)
As a dystopian action anime without many hinges It remains solid.
1st: The anime cimes with a seizure warning. As a photosensitive epileptic I found this somewhat unnerving. I noticed some effects but bingewatched the series nevertheless.
-contains (indirect) spoilers-
The anime is a near future scifi anime.
Set in the second half of this century in Night Cit,y in the former US. The pace feels very fast and rushed, living with(out) fear or consequences.
It shows the utter unimportance of human life and the lack of sympathy in the world. The influence and triviality of human wish and options in a world directed top down by the corporations. Education on privatized corporated schools, selection, manipulation, cold and hot corporate wars, corporate military.
Medical services only interested in helping members, and everyone out for their own survival be it to exist or to thrive. It has a remarkable amount of open leads, which is also part of its pace and makes it feel ungraspable for the uninitiated. The concept of a streetdoc or ripperdoc, cyberware, cyberspace(matrix/hacking/deep dive) is not
or very thinly explained and almost not expanded upon. Things are.
As such it's a direct statement against megacorporations and the stupid power they leverage in the world.... This indirect protest remains but is very thin in this anime, but you'll see it, as it's a basic in cyberpunk lore.
The world and settings show noone can trust noone, loyalty lies with money, life is worth nothing, status is everything, and the non corporate world is rife with gore, nudity, madness and extremes and sacrifice. Its not about how they live, but how they die. If you are not a person employed by a corp, you are nothing.
I like the concept of it being a tragedy, showing the overal trend in cyberpunk settings a fact seen more in cyberpunk stories like blade, robocop, the matrix, ghost in the shell, akira, johhny mnemonic, total recall and other classics, where, while the main character is not necessarily bound to die, the overal feeling of the world and the common man having lost its struggles in the present and future remains.
This said: I like the flashy color choices feeling and the chosen figures, with references to some anime and cyberpunk classics (cyberpunk 2020,2027, shadowrun). But also notably seeing a character wearing an outfit resembling motoko kusanagi's, the use of matrix like deep dive ports, the (robocop/ terminator-like) cyberprosthetics, while all while being true to cyberpunk (~2077) lore, even though this anime clearly precedes it.
And yes, the anime also ridicules the cyberpunk world, with none of the characters able to show any restraint or wish of self-preservation, by making going out with a bang more important than their actual lifespan, dreams or future.
-NO FUTURE-
Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045 (2020)
There are many adaptations of Ghost in the Shell. Some better, some worse.
In the past 25 years many Ghost in the Shell adaptations arose from Shirow Masamune's original Manga series.
The first episode gave me more an Appleseed feeling. (also a cyberpunk manga, also from Shirow Masamune and it's movie adaptations are) (Appleseed, - Ex Machina, - Alpha) some things really felt pretty Deunan and Briarieos to me
Only later it was giving me any hint of Ghost in the Shell (GitS), mostly due to character recognition. While the computer graphics are not particular impressive compared to full CGI movies I saw before the images are well rounded and recognizable and even somewhat original within it's own context. The suspense and typical dark cyberpunk feel from the movies or the original stand alone complex is absent. It feels very light, and almost comic like, but the core feeling I had with the other movies is not here. It feels more like a sequel to the live action movie GitS then a successor of the original Anime.
However all Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex main characters return. And it's 12 episodes watching section 9 doing something somewhere and as such I'll watch it, even if it is only to trigger memories to the many series and movies I cherish.
It is enjoyable, and if you like a light adventure I'd certainly watch it, but it doesn't feel connected, which is becoming the rule in the GitS franchise. Video is good, The characters sound recognizable, Music is not what I expected.
I'm not a perfect judge, but I saw GitS, GitS 2.0, GitS 2 Innocence, GitS The New Movie, GitS Sac Solid State Society, GitS (live action) GitS SAC, Gits Sac 2nd Gig, GitS Arise.
And I saw the 3 Appleseed movies. And own and read the Ghost in the Shell, 1, 2 and 1.5 manga, and Appleseed 1,2,3,4...
Blame! (2017)
Interesting movie, actually made me read the manga
While I'm not extremely into Anime and Manga I am however invested heavily in animation in general, sci-fi (especially cyberpunk).And yes there are other great movies, but I found this very different.
I enjoyed the movie, it was amusing though a bit on the slow side sometimes, however it brought a feeling of size to the surroundings. The action is well drawn out, and I like the drawing style. Music was supportive of the plot.
Yes, it was generally a positive experience.
I followed up on it and got me the first 2 parts of the BLAME! Manga. It shows this was only a minute part of a huge world, and places the movie in perspective. I am really having fun reading the manga now and from what I see in the manga I can understand the feeling of the manga lovers regarding this anime adaptation partially adressing the Blame! universe. However both the anime and the manga are great.
I do think when you are new to Blame! the manga is nice to expand on the world and I do think if you have read all Blame! the manga it turns the movie in a tiny shard of the Blame manga, and while trying to give concept to the world it fails in completely showing the incredulous size of Blame!
I ended up actually buying all 6 parts of the manga's Master Edition. I find it a very nice experience, though this is way more a graphic novel then a text bound story. You can only understand the story if you connect the pictures carefully.
The scope of the movie is about a few chapters, roughly 8 or 9 chapters of a few books combined while there are dozens more chapters (total being 65 or so) when you're reading.