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What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)
What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.
If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!
OK, this isn't strictly anime, but my friends and I watched the live-action "Ghost in the Shell" movie with Scarlett Johanson the other night. We've been doing a GitS marathon, so it made sense to watch it.
Didn't have the highest of hopes, but it was OK. I think it did an alright job of pulling in parts and memorable moments from SAC and the original movies to make a new storyline. Which was an Arise-style origin-of-the-Major storyline.
That said, I think the portrayal of the Major wasn't the best and was a noticeable deficiency. Not because ScarJo is a bad actor or anything. I think they just made the Major here too...flat and stunted. Like she has no personality, barely any emotions.
The Major may be serious in the anime, but she has personality and emotions. She can joke around with her team, she can be sarcastic, she can be very angry (she's sometimes referred to as the "gorilla lady"), she cares deeply for the rest of Section 9 and shows it. She has compassion, but also a strong sense of justice. She may be 100% cyborg, but she's 100% human.
None of that came through in the live action movie. Which is a shame, since that's such a huge philosophical point of GitS. Retaining humanity while giving up the physical parts of humanity, sometimes even completely. That's essentially what a "Ghost" is: the human soul or mind.
Visually, the movie was cool. Very Cyberpunk 2077. I also made the connection that GitS is cyberpunk. I don't know why I never really realized that.
Idk, I give it a 6/10. I think we'll watch SAC_2045 next, which should complete the whole GitS universe for us.
I appreciate the broader view on it, all I remember is the outrage (justified imo) when she was announced.
Maybe this finally tips me over the edge to watch the original anime? I have seen some gifs and heard some very good things about it but haven't pulled the trigger yet
GitS is probably my favorite anime IP. It's certainly an anime for a more mature audience, with the various philosophical question it asks surrounding transhumanism, the effects of the Internet on society, government corruption and justice, and even a bits of pieces here and there about sexuality and gender, among other things.
But it also has plenty of action and big explosions. Plus the Major has big boobs. Which the plot sorta plays with at times. Not physically; get your mind out of the gutter! ;)
What I'm getting at is that I feel GitS has something for everyone.
If you were to pull the trigger (please do!), I'd suggest starting with "Stand Alone Complex" and "Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig." I think these are the most balanced between philosophy and action. And when people talk about GitS, this is usually the "default" version they're thinking of.
Separately, to your comment on the the casting of ScarJo, I wasn't as concerned. And I'm Asian American. The thought of whitewashing did cross my mind, and my friends (all white) and I did laugh about the Major all of a sudden being a white woman and having a non-Japanese name. But at least it was explained in the movie how it came to be that a Japanese woman became a seemingly American woman.
Additionally, the concept of race being immutable kinda doesn't exist in the GitS universe. It's not the only thing, either. Sex/gender, age, even what it looks like to be human, can all be changed with the advent of the cyberbrain and bodyswapping using "full-body prosthetics" in GitS. And there are characters and storylines that revolve around this quite frequently. As an example, this little cube-shaped robot with "arms" and "legs" is an actual person.
So in a larger sense, ScarJo being casted is almost "meta."
Now I know that's not why she was casted. She was chosen as a big recognizable name to better market the movie to an audience beyond weebs. So I'll acknowledge that it's whitewashing, but I personally didn't think it was that problematic.
So i took the end of the year off for a staycation. I've been binging Attack on Titan for the first time. I just finished season 3 and the OADs. I pretty much hated Eren up until the end of season 3. Now he's okay lol. Aside from him, I've really enjoyed the story. The mysteries, world building, and seriousness of death have been my favorite parts. I'm interested to see how it all resolves.
I binged Attack on Titan too this year, and I'm glad I finally did it, it gets so much more interesting later on. Now if I can remember to watch the three final movies eventually... Somehow hearing three movies feels like a bigger undertaking than binging ninety episodes lol
Aaand I just looked it up, I had no idea about those OAD special episodes, wow that's a lot
I had no idea about the movies. The OADs are pretty good. They're some other perspectives on events during the early season.
Eren is definitely hard to watch in the early seasons. So many times, I was like, "Can someone just dropkick this kid? Knock some sense into him please?"
As you've noted, he gets better, more mature (I think AoT does a great job of character development). Though at some point later on, you might grow tired of him again. That's only the slightest of spoilers.
I have a friend who tried to watch AoT, but he couldn't deal with Eren, so he gave it up after a few episodes and refuses to go back. Even though the show, and Eren, gets so much better. Sigh, oh well.
It wasn't until the revelation at the end of season 3 where he became bearable. So i can understand your friend there. It was kind of a sudden change imo, but I was okay with it. I'm in the last 10 episodes before the final specials. I'm actually digging this version Eren. I have an idea of how this story might resolve based on the new information it gave us. I wouldn't be a fan of it, but I'll hold my assumptions til I finish.
Overall though I'm enjoying the ride.