Japan 2030 and female cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi operates
as a key agent of Section 9 of internal security under Chief
Aramaki. Together with her support crew she must tackle the
numerous threats facing Japan...
This
release contains the final three episodes in the Ghost
in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series.
In
Annihilation, the government orders Section 9 to be
disbanded; Aramaki is taken away and Togusa is arrested. Motoko
assembles the remaining team at headquarters for one final
mission. They prepare for a full-scale assault while the Elite
troopers and Armed Suits descend on Section 9 Headquarters;
events are about to take a deadly turn for the worse!
Barrage:
Following the raid on their headquarters, the remaining members
of Section 9 are rounded up one by one by the government forces.
The last two survivors, Batou and Motoko are separated. Batou
goes in search of the Major and heads to her apartment even
though he's sure it's under surveillance. Once inside, he
realises he has fallen into a trap. Is this the end for Batou
or will help arrive in the nick of time?
Stand Alone Complex: All hope is lost. Following the
aftermath of the Section 9 purge, Togusa is released from
jail, but his badge and gun are confiscated and he is given
papers confirming the dissolution of Section 9. Out of work
and depressed, he tries to find information on the others,
but turns up nothing. Grief stricken and thinking that he
has nothing left to lose, he attempts to seek vengeance on
those he believes are responsible for the deaths of his friends.
What has happened to Section 9 and where is the Major?
Extras
include a 16 minute interview with director Kenji Kamiyama
(I say interview, but it also features interesting clips of
production meetings), 13 minute interview with Paul Nicholson,
designer of the Laughing Man logon and an interactive quiz
which is incredibly difficult (er... I managed to get three
out of ten right on my first go). But I'm sure the really
observant will easily beat that pathetic attempt.
I've
moaned before, but I'm going to moan again. I'm at a loss
as to why this DVD (as all other releases in this series)
is put out as a 2-disc set. The episodes are repeated on both
discs. Disc one has both Japanese and English stereo and 5.1
soundtracks, and disc two has a Japanese and English DTS mix.
With only one hour of actual episode time I can't work out
why this needs to be spread across two discs. They managed
to include the same number of audio tracks (including DTS)
as well as a 40 minute 'making of' featurette on the recent
release of Millennium
Actress, so why couldn't they manage to do
the same here?
Ghost
in the Shell fans won't be disappointed, but if you're
new to this series you'd be off your head to start here. I
say "won't be disappointed" but Manga is also releasing
a box set that contains all seven volumes for less than the
price of buying two single releases. While this collection
won't feature DTS sound, I think fans who have spent £140
to collect this series will be a little annoyed that they
could have waited and picked it up for £40.
Ray
Thompson
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