Ghost in the Shell Forum

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I want to get into Ghost in the Shell, but I'm not sure where to start. As I understand it, the first movie came out in 1995. Then there was a remake, which was basically the same but with some added cgi? And then there is Stand Alone Complex, which is a 2-season anime series adaptation of the same story? Which of these would I be best served starting off with?

With situations like this, I always try to go in order of the actual creation of all the stuff itself, even if the story chronology is different. That way, you can see the progression of how the newer things are interpreting what's come before. Of course, that's all assuming you want to see every possible piece of this stuff, which is a big dedication.

(Hmm, that wasn't really helpful at all. Oh well.)

Good Luck!

like gangly said i'd start with the movie and than the show. I think the updated version is streaming on Netflix.

Where Stand Alone Complex is canonically i am not sure I kinda think of it as a Star Trek alt timeline with some certain similarities.

@MrMazz said:

like gangly said i'd start with the movie and than the show. I think the updated version is streaming on Netflix.

Where Stand Alone Complex is canonically i am not sure I kinda think of it as a Star Trek alt timeline with some certain similarities.

Is it worth watching the updated version rather than the original then? Because if they're generally pretty similar, I'm probably only going to watch one of the movies.

@ashogo: id watch the updated version but whichever one is just streaming on Netflix is pretty awesome

@MrMazz: Seems like both versions are up on netflix. Decisions, decisions.

@ashogo: I suggest that you should start with the original movie and after finishing it, you can watch the remake of it, and then watch Stand Alone Complex, since the series was released after those movies.

But if you only want to watch one of the movies, I'd suggest the updated version. Good luck with this! :)

@ashogo: I personally haven't seen the 2.0 remake, so I can't verify its quality. Apparently, they didn't just add a few bits of CGI, but actually rerecorded all the dialogue and music as well. It may be worth watching for that alone. But as with everything, I would recommend seeing the original first. The sequel to the original, Innocence, is actually pretty decent as well. It's incredibly gorgeous to look at and the story is compelling if a bit convoluted. See both of those before digging into Stand Alone Complex, as that basically amounts to an entirely new adaptation of the original manga with its own separate continuity. Following the two seasons of SAC is the movie Solid State Society, which carries over a lot of themes from the original 1995 movie into SAC's established continuity. I always wished Production IG would pick up where Solid State Society ended, because there's certainly room for more stories in the GitS universe, but nothing else is likely to materialize at this point.

As to whether you should watch it all in Japanese with subtitles, or dubbed in English, that's a matter of personal preference. I've seen the original movie both ways, and I prefer the English version. But I always watch SAC in Japanese because I honestly dread what the Tachikomas would sound like in English.

@vonDread: Cool, that clears things up quite a bit. Looking at reviews for 2.0, there seems to be mixed reactions on how well the new cg meshes with the rest of the movie, so maybe I should check out the original version after all.

@ashogo: Ya, that's why I haven't bothered to watch it yet. I wish they would've just redid the sound without adding any CGI, much like they did with the updated release of Akira.