Comment on Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2026, Week 38]
ReluctantlyZen@ani.social 10 hours agoExperiencing it in the late 80’s/early 90’s might have left a very different impression.
I mean, a lot of the animation is still impressive today. And I guess it’s probably been a big influence for the cyberpunk aesthetic in anime and manga (if we ignore Bladerunner). But in terms of story-telling? I’m not sure what unique thing it was doing at the time. I see many reviews still praising its story and its message.
catalyst@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I have similar albeit conflicted feelings towards Ghost in the Shell (2026) which just concluded it’s run. Now to be clear I greatly enjoyed this adaptation and have zero regrets experiencing it. I could gush about the raw style and animation for an hour.
Buuuuuut, if I’m being honest, I do get the impression that GitS and it’s original source material is more interested in showing us cool set pieces and presenting philosophical arguments than it is about telling a particularly coherent story or character arc.
Again, I’m trying to find a middle ground here cause I liked it a lot. But it also ends super abruptly and made it abundantly clear that it had no interest in wrapping up any of the plots it had started, or even giving us a particularly strong in-character reason for why Motoko made the choice she made, other than “hey isn’t this neat?”
ReluctantlyZen@ani.social 53 minutes ago
Having only watched the 1st movie, I get that.
However, I’d say Akira only has the setpieces.