Andy and Larry Wachowski said they were very much inspired by the cyberpunk animation movie Ghost in the Shell. Actually, we can see its influence in The Matrix. Here is an interesting comparison site between Ghost in the Shell and The Matrix.
Ghost in the Shell originated as the manga "Kokaku Kidotai" by Shirow Masamune and a TV animation of "Kokaku.." is airing on CS or CATV in Japan. Here is the the official site of "Kokaku". I heard foreign people have a preconception that "animation is kids' entertainment". Are Japanese different? No. I can tell many people feel the same, but gradually it is changing. Actually high quality, cool animation like Kokaku is interesting enough for adults and maybe impossible for kids to understand. On September 26, a DVD of Kokaku Kidotai second GIG will be released. Here is the trailer(ram). And this is the first season(ram). This is the soundtrack movie click(ram). You will be able to see that this is completely different from kid's animation. Do you like it? If so this is the long trailer (ram). (5minutes).
I heard Ghost in the shell2 "Innocence" will be relased in the U.S soon. Well well if you like the first, you should NOT see it. Mamoru Oshii ruins everything this time. That is my impression.
Stand Alone Complex (first season) is being aired in the US on Cartoon Network.
Since I like to watch series in the original language (I don't mind subtitles), I'm buying the DVDs as they come out. So far, 3 DVDs have been released with 4 episodes on each.
One series I really liked was Last Exile. I just received the last DVD in the set and finished the series. Nice.
Posted by: abraxis | Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 05:48 PM
I watched GitS2 and I really enjoyed it. I think it's just as good, if not better than the first one.
Posted by: Peach | Saturday, September 18, 2004 at 12:00 PM
There are a lot of foreign fans of Japanese animation. For some reason, Japan seems to be the only country where animated movies for adults are created. Wierd, hmm?
Posted by: Julian Morrison | Friday, September 17, 2004 at 06:20 PM
really interesting comparison...I was not aware of so many similarities...
Posted by: | Friday, September 17, 2004 at 04:38 PM
Hi Mar. This link
http://www.geocities.com/tacobelll/matrixgits/
is unreachable.
I liked trailers, cool! Definitely not kids stuff.
ありがとう！じゃあ、またね！
Posted by: | Friday, September 17, 2004 at 12:15 AM