Japan, 2029.World wide computer networks stretch to all corners of the globe and no one is not touched by its influence. Having your body cybernetically enhanced is not uncommon. New threats have appeared, like brain hacking. Major Motoko Kusanagi, a member of section 9, an elite special security force, must track down and capture a notorious computer criminal know as "The Puppet Master". Having to deal political machinations and an existential crisis, this is not an easy task, even for a state-of-the-art cyborg like Kusanagi. Especially since her target is not quite what it was expected to be.

I had read many comments about people thinking of this movie as the best anime they had seen. That got me a bit curious. I had seen it many times in a few video store, but never rented it. I decided that now was the time. Of course, I was a bit afraid of the fact that it was dubbed (yes, I admit it, sometimes I have doubts about dubs), but since I live in Quebec, that's something I already had to deal with countless times. You get used to it and actually learn to like it (there are times it's actually better then the original stuff). So, I rented it.

It wasn't bad. Not good enough though, in my opinion, to be called "best anime I've ever seen". Unfortunately, as I expected, the dubbing was terrible, but I stopped noticing after the first half hour. In some ways, the story reminded me of Akira. I felt somewhat as if it was incomplete. Pieces where missing. That's probably normal, since it's a 80 minutes adaptation of I don't know how many mangas. But still, the story was interesting. It raised questions, mainly about what exactly is humanity. And, I don't know if it was aimed that way, but I believe it's a good warning against some eventual use of the never ending progress of technology. Frankly, I've found that the way some of the characters fingers stretched to use their keyboards was kinda scary. Even scarier is the idea of having your brain plugged on a computer or some kind of huge net. When you take the time to think about it, if you could go and get data this way with a single thought, then the opposite would very likely be possible: someone could get in your brain and mess with it. The thoughts, knowledge and experience of a person are what makes him a unique individual. These are the building blocks of your personality and these are the only things that are truly yours and cannot be stolen (except maybe if your of some interest for some US governmental secret agency). If these become informations that can be accessed through a computer network, then the very concept of individuality may just be at risk. One thing is sure. If it can be avoided, I'll never have my brain plugged on a computer, or have some technological chunk put in my skull (hard to believe I'm a computer analyst isn't it?).

Without being extraordinary, the soundtrack is nice and did it's work: it provided a musical background to the story. I don't quite know what to think of the artwork. The setting of the action is great. There's a fantastic attention to details. I especially liked the scenes where you could see body parts being blown to pieces. But I have a problem with the characters. I really don't like the way there drawn. Never in this movie I would look at the characters and say at least once "kawaii!". I really don't like the way the faces are drawn, it's something really important for me, and I had sometimes problems with the way the characters moved.

I liked the movie, but... It just didn't filled the expectations I had of a "best anime I've ever seen". It's the same feeling I had when I've seen the third Alien movie after having seen James Cameron's extraordinary "Aliens" maybe 30 or 40 times. It was good... but I expected more, much MORE...

In any case, my suggestion is this: you should get it, would it be only for the questions it raised (another suggestion, get the sub one).

Updated July 20th 1998