GHOST IN THE SHELL 4K + BD + DGTL [Blu-ray]

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Black levels are strong - not flawless, but often impressively strong nonetheless, and this is a head-and-shoulders upgrade over the preceding Blu-ray, making the 25 year old movie look better than ever, and, but for the animation style, oftentimes almost brand new, and all of that accomplished without any of the nonsense revisionist work that fans rolled their eyes at for the Ghost in the Shell 2. This is a landmark anime, a stunning piece of visual animation, and an imaginative work of science fiction/cyberpunk that seems to become more relevant with every year. With recent record-breaking, breakout hits like Your Name, Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- the Movie: Mugen Train and the building hype around the upcoming international release of Mamoru Hosoda’s BELLE, perhaps it might be fair to say that we’re living in a golden age of anime films hitting the mainstream. But these anime inspired other Western works in turn, including The Wachowski’s Matrix films (1999-2003). The story, somewhat soberingly only set nine years in the future now, has the world dominated by cybernetic augmentation, and brains augmented by technology allowing instant access to the 'net.

Low-frequency effects remain terribly lacking and almost nonexistent even though there is just enough bass to provide explosions and gunfire with some weight and presence.Frankly, this is the best translation I’ve seen yet, one that seems to preserve more of the original Japanese cultural context. Mamoru Oshii's classic 1995 adaptation of Shirow Masamune's seminal manga Ghost in the Shell gets a native 4K upgrade complete with Dolby Vision. Really, Ghost in the Shell has always been quite a subdued offering, in terms of colour palette, positing a dour, rain-drenched environment, which only really comes alive with the neon highlights of its Blade Runner (and Blade Runner 2049) cityscape. Wer sich also gerne im Genre des Cyberpunk bewegt und obendrein noch Faible für Mangas hat, kommt an dieser Edition nicht vorbei.

is limited to an unspecified number of units, ideally 1000 but since this is a big anime film the chances are it’s likely to be in the 2000-3000 range instead. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). Now a decade later, the 4K Ultra HD format has slowly been getting more traction and eventually anime joined the mix, though a majority won’t get the treatment due to the way they were animated and the costs involved. Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (adapted from the 1989 manga by Masamune Shirow) is a particularly interesting case, not only because of its hybrid animation style, which blends traditional 2D animation with early CG, and bullets-flying action, but also for its thoughtful examination of Humanity’s place in a highly technological, near-future world. Along with the video, existential questions have also been upgraded to a pair of fantastic, highly engaging Dolby Atmos soundtracks in English and Japanese.I unfortunately don’t have the equipment or know-how to get into the nitty gritty of the new 4K presentation, but I can say that it breathes new life into the film’s gorgeous cinematography, bringing out all of the detail delicately crammed into Oshii’s lived-in frames, and the contrast of light and darkness, like an earlier shot where Motoko Kusanagi is silhouetted by the light coming through her apartment window. The shading and lighting used results in a soft glowing aesthetic that gives the video variable depth which can be scene dependent, but never detracts from the quality of the presentation. The US release was in September 2020 and it took Manga Entertainment UK a whole year to bring it over to the UK, and is one of the last titles to use the Manga logo before the distributor rebranded as Funimation UK. everything is perfect but the movie its self is unwatchable outside the uk and didn’t say anything about it being region locked either. The great news is, the film not only includes English “dubtitles” that match the English audio track, when you select either of the Japanese audio options the English subs are a proper English translation of the Japanese language.

The various action-based set pieces are lots of fun as flying debris, atmospherics, and near field objects rotate around the soundstage from both above and at ear level. However, where this version still feels similar and comparable to its lossless predecessors is in the low-end. Digital animation tends to look quite good in high definition, however the style of this film isn’t lent to bright, glossy, razor sharp images, so I kept expectations in check.

It’s no surprise then that they’re among the most accessible anime titles for new American fans of the genre. Seamlessly merging traditional animation with the latest computer graphic imagery, this stunning sci-fi spectacle challenged the boundaries of mainstream animation with detailed artistic expression and a uniquely intelligent story line. The first, Accessing Section 9 – 25 Years Into the Future is a retrospective looking back on the legacy and influence of the film, that also takes a brief look into the localisation process, such as how challenging Mary Claypool found cramming Ghost in the Shell’s dense script into the characters’ mouths. Updated daily and in real-time, we track all high-def disc news and release dates, and review the latest disc titles. Manga Entertainment at this point were finally delving more into the collector’s edition packaging that Anime Limited and Funimation usually provide with rigid boxes and other physical goodies.