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If you only watched the rather recent movie: know that they spun the story around 180°. The original is more of a love letter to technology [SPOILER] and ends

If you only watched the rather recent movie: know that they spun the story around 180°. The original is more of a love letter to technology [SPOILER] and ends with the first merge of human and AI in to something new [/SPOILER] (it's not about technophobic humans policing the bad runaway machines).

kerkeslager 7y ago
Gosh that movie was awful. American live action Death Note was the same: I was hopeful since they cast Willem Dafoe and he's usually in good stuff, but no, it was also pretty bad. It seems like American film companies are just trying to capitalize on the popularity of anime without grokking what made the best anime great.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Do you think they really don't grok it, or (as seems most likely to me) do those in control just not care about anything other than the monetary return?
  - kerkeslager 7y ago
    Well, obviously they only care about monetary return, but generally not alienating fans of the source material and not making terrible content are much better ways to make money. Both films mentioned were commercial successes, but I think in the long run they burned audiences for this sort of film. I won't see any more American remakes of anime for some time.
    - simonh 7y ago
      Battle Angel Alita. Cost $170m, Box Office $404m. Don't bet on it. Also the live action Akira is currently on hold, but Taika still seems keen to do it.
      - kerkeslager 7y ago
        I actually saw Battle Angel Alita. I thought it was okay, but I hadn't seen the original source material to compare. Other commenters here are saying it was more loyal to the source material. The other American live-action remakes mentioned were profitable, but by much more narrow margins. If what people are saying about it being truer to the source material is true, then it seems that producing better remakes does in fact produce greater profits. We only have a narrow data set to look at for this, though. I really don't know what a live action Akira would look like. The body horror scenes are going to have to be CGI, which could go really badly.
  - simonh 7y ago
    I think the problem is too many of them only care about how the film looks. The story is incidental, cobbled together using a lit crit course story construction kit formula. J. J. Abrams is the living embodiment of this approach, which is why his Star Trek and Star Wars movies look gorgeous and individual scenes are awe inspiring, and the overarching story arcs are all fantastic on paper, but the world building and and actual in-world logic of the setting or character decisions in it just don't make any sense whatsoever. Zack Snyder is just as bad.
    - Loughla 7y ago
      Nailed it. This is why the most recent Star Trek movies don't count as actual Star Trek to me. We had the 'pretty' and 'explosiony' action sci-fi movies in the form of Star Wars. Star Trek was supposed to wrestle with just a little bit deeper themes. But now they've devolved into beautiful looking action movies which exist just for the sake of action, with the story being secondary.
      - MereInterest 7y ago
        The major thing that I miss in NuTrek is the optimism. We have enough shows that are gritty, dark, and depressing. My favorite part of Star Trek was how is showed that optimism about the future is not naive.
    - jimbokun 7y ago
      Abrams approach to creating new content for existing universes seems to just remake a previous beloved movie from the canon except much worse than the original (Wrath of Khan > Into Darkness, Return of the Jedi > Rise of Skywalker).
- bitwize 7y ago
  The American Battle Angel was pretty damn good -- but it helps that they stayed faithful to the manga, only changing a few minor details. (Zalem is in South America rather than North, Alita is named for Ido's dead daughter rather than his cat.) I consider it a Hollywood take on a Japanese story -- done right.
Pigo 7y ago
The original Ghost in the Shell has been one of my favorite films since the first time I seen it. To be honest, there's no other anime I've seen that I actually enjoyed apart from the Cowboy Bebop movie. So I don't consider myself a anime fan. The original GITS is a brilliant film that is beyond a specific genre.
- catalogia 7y ago
  You might like the Patlabor series/movies, directed by GITS's director Mamoru Oshii. Particularly the first two movies, which have a more serious tone than the rest of it. And imho the animation and aesthetics of the first two Patlabor movies is right up there with GITS.
  - malvosenior 7y ago
    Honestly I wouldn’t recommend Patlabor to someone who only likes the GITS movie and Cowboy Bebop. It’s going to feel too slow and cheezy (in a way many anime fans including myself enjoy). I’d probably suggest Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) or Gundam Zeta instead. They have interesting themes, are more adult and have amazing art.
    - catalogia 7y ago
      I think the aesthetic/pacing/art of particularly the first two Patlabor movies would probably be appreciated by somebody who's a fan of the first GITS movie specifically. There is a common cyberpunk thread running through both those Patlabor movies and GITS. Patlabor 1 has a plot that easily could have been a GITS plot and spends a lot of time dwelling on the ways apparent progress leaves many people feeling abandoned and worthless. The Patlabor TV show is definitely much lighter material, a lot more accessible to children.
      - Pigo 7y ago
        Thanks for the suggestions, I'll definitely check them out. Maybe it's my age, but a lot of what I have seen like Deathnote or even the GITS SAC didn't click with me. Cowboy Bebop was just fun, and I forgot I was watching an anime. I think maybe it's the high-concept, almost frightening, aspects of GITS that resonated with me. But I understand why it's not popular with most people.

kerkeslager 7y ago

Gosh that movie was awful. American live action Death Note was the same: I was hopeful since they cast Willem Dafoe and he's usually in good stuff, but no, it was also pretty bad. It seems like American film companies are just trying to capitalize on the popularity of anime without grokking what made the best anime great.

pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Do you think they really don't grok it, or (as seems most likely to me) do those in control just not care about anything other than the monetary return?
- kerkeslager 7y ago
  Well, obviously they only care about monetary return, but generally not alienating fans of the source material and not making terrible content are much better ways to make money. Both films mentioned were commercial successes, but I think in the long run they burned audiences for this sort of film. I won't see any more American remakes of anime for some time.
  - simonh 7y ago
    Battle Angel Alita. Cost $170m, Box Office $404m. Don't bet on it. Also the live action Akira is currently on hold, but Taika still seems keen to do it.
    - kerkeslager 7y ago
      I actually saw Battle Angel Alita. I thought it was okay, but I hadn't seen the original source material to compare. Other commenters here are saying it was more loyal to the source material. The other American live-action remakes mentioned were profitable, but by much more narrow margins. If what people are saying about it being truer to the source material is true, then it seems that producing better remakes does in fact produce greater profits. We only have a narrow data set to look at for this, though. I really don't know what a live action Akira would look like. The body horror scenes are going to have to be CGI, which could go really badly.
- simonh 7y ago
  I think the problem is too many of them only care about how the film looks. The story is incidental, cobbled together using a lit crit course story construction kit formula. J. J. Abrams is the living embodiment of this approach, which is why his Star Trek and Star Wars movies look gorgeous and individual scenes are awe inspiring, and the overarching story arcs are all fantastic on paper, but the world building and and actual in-world logic of the setting or character decisions in it just don't make any sense whatsoever. Zack Snyder is just as bad.
  - Loughla 7y ago
    Nailed it. This is why the most recent Star Trek movies don't count as actual Star Trek to me. We had the 'pretty' and 'explosiony' action sci-fi movies in the form of Star Wars. Star Trek was supposed to wrestle with just a little bit deeper themes. But now they've devolved into beautiful looking action movies which exist just for the sake of action, with the story being secondary.
    - MereInterest 7y ago
      The major thing that I miss in NuTrek is the optimism. We have enough shows that are gritty, dark, and depressing. My favorite part of Star Trek was how is showed that optimism about the future is not naive.
  - jimbokun 7y ago
    Abrams approach to creating new content for existing universes seems to just remake a previous beloved movie from the canon except much worse than the original (Wrath of Khan > Into Darkness, Return of the Jedi > Rise of Skywalker).
bitwize 7y ago
The American Battle Angel was pretty damn good -- but it helps that they stayed faithful to the manga, only changing a few minor details. (Zalem is in South America rather than North, Alita is named for Ido's dead daughter rather than his cat.) I consider it a Hollywood take on a Japanese story -- done right.

Pigo 7y ago

The original Ghost in the Shell has been one of my favorite films since the first time I seen it. To be honest, there's no other anime I've seen that I actually enjoyed apart from the Cowboy Bebop movie. So I don't consider myself a anime fan. The original GITS is a brilliant film that is beyond a specific genre.

catalogia 7y ago
You might like the Patlabor series/movies, directed by GITS's director Mamoru Oshii. Particularly the first two movies, which have a more serious tone than the rest of it. And imho the animation and aesthetics of the first two Patlabor movies is right up there with GITS.
- malvosenior 7y ago
  Honestly I wouldn’t recommend Patlabor to someone who only likes the GITS movie and Cowboy Bebop. It’s going to feel too slow and cheezy (in a way many anime fans including myself enjoy). I’d probably suggest Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) or Gundam Zeta instead. They have interesting themes, are more adult and have amazing art.
  - catalogia 7y ago
    I think the aesthetic/pacing/art of particularly the first two Patlabor movies would probably be appreciated by somebody who's a fan of the first GITS movie specifically. There is a common cyberpunk thread running through both those Patlabor movies and GITS. Patlabor 1 has a plot that easily could have been a GITS plot and spends a lot of time dwelling on the ways apparent progress leaves many people feeling abandoned and worthless. The Patlabor TV show is definitely much lighter material, a lot more accessible to children.
    - Pigo 7y ago
      Thanks for the suggestions, I'll definitely check them out. Maybe it's my age, but a lot of what I have seen like Deathnote or even the GITS SAC didn't click with me. Cowboy Bebop was just fun, and I forgot I was watching an anime. I think maybe it's the high-concept, almost frightening, aspects of GITS that resonated with me. But I understand why it's not popular with most people.