Since the Ghost in the Shell movie and TV series became available on Jaman, I have been watching as much of it as possible. I was a huge anime fan in high school and am thrilled to see all this great content available in one place. There is a great blog post on the company blog that explains in great detail how to watch the Ghost in the Shell collection: Ghost in the Shell, and how to watch it.

Yes I'm excited about this availability. The feature film was excellent: savvy music and top-notch drawings.

GitS is a damn creepy look at the future, and I love it to pieces. I'm devouring it. All of it.

I've finished watching the first season and am now about 1/2 thru the second season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Along Complex. I think the first season is much better than the 2nd season. The first season seemed to have alot more of the philosphical discussions around the idea of a cyborg society. The 2nd season reminds me a little of Matrix 2 -- the show seems to loose its way a bit, and there are a few episodes that aren't really full episodes (like there is no story, other than continuing the over arching plot). This is fine when you can just start the next episode, but if I had to wait a week, I'd be really unhappy.

Also, can someone explain the little Tachkoma vignettes at the end of GIS:SAC 2nd Gig? I've watched every one of them so far -- and I guess I just don't get it.

In any case, I highly recommend both seasons. Even with some of the problems, its still fun to watch and ponder what it means to be a human if the only thing you have are your memories and the rest of you is a machine.

The Tachkoma episodes are just for fun really and sometimes they sort of comment on and/or add something to the show.

I have been absolutely in love with all things of the shell for a long time now and bought both seasons in the beginning of the year. I've seen each episode a few times and can't get enough. For me it delves into some very real truths about society, possibly because a lot of the inspiration draws from things that happened in Japan many years ago. So here is my take on the t.v. series. First of all the writers and director said they wanted this series to operate more like a detective show set in the universe of Ghost In The Shell completely separate from the first movie Ghost In The Shell. (Which took place in Hong Kong anyway) The show itself is enjoyable if you know nothing of the movie or manga because the writers do a phenomenal job of taking an inordinate amount of information and making it easy to understand and follow with progressive character development throughout this and the second season, S.A.C. 2nd gig. In one of the extras the director explains some of the real life inspiration for the events of the show. The first season itself operates as sort of a thesis paper seeking to define and explain exactly what is and the effects of a stand alone complex. As the season culminates it ties up all it's loose ends and finally justifies almost every episode, even the possibly annoying Tachikoma ones, (I loved those too ^_^) as supporting the final conclusion that this season lands upon. 2nd gig takes the knowledge gained from the first season to establish it's potential from a true global and national prospective. Overall a thoroughly entertaining and fulfilling show which sheds light on how people function in society in the same way the original film helped to clarify how we view humanity itself.

Just finished watching the 1st movie. Though it looked dated compared to the SAC 1st season it took me a little while to realize I was watching animation rather than CGI. Once I figured this out (duh!) I was then taken aback by the detail in perspective that was applied to the movie. If you kind of ignore the characters and look at the backgrounds you'll be amazed at the effort that went into it. Now I don't know whether to watch 2nd gig or the next two movies! What a quandry :-) Also it would be nice if I could just add all of a season to my download queue rather than having to search for them.

Watch GitS2: Innocence. That movie is too pretty for its own good, not to mention thought-provoking.