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Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 01 (Special Edition) | 
 enlarge | Actor: Artist Not Provided
Studio: Manga Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $44.98
Buy New: $17.69
You Save: $27.29 (61%)
New (19) Used (10) Collectible (1) from $12.95
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 34089
Format: Animated, Box Set, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.7 x 2.3
MPN: 25227
UPC: 669198252273
EAN: 0669198252273
ASIN: B000A0GPG8
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Release Date: September 20, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Similar Items:
| • | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 02 (Episodes 5-8) | | • | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 03 (Episodes 9-12) | | • | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 04 (Episodes 13-16) | | • | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 05 (Episodes 17-20) | | • | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 06 (Episodes 21-23) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Major Kusanagi and the other agents of Public Security Section 9 hit the ground running as the second season of the Ghost in the Shell broadcast series begins. The new storylines have a more overtly political tone than the previous sci-fi adventures about the Laughing Man and the scandals surrounding cures for "cyberbrain sclerosis." Chief Aramaki gets his funding restored when he resolves a hostage situation for the new Prime Minister. This terrorist incident is linked to the poor treatment of Asian refugees and their role in the economy of the world following World War IV. When military helicopters go haywire above a refugee compound, the government faces a potential uprising, while evidence suggests that an even bigger plot may be unfolding. In the unusually sardonic episode 3, Aramaki, Kusanagi, Batou et al. set up a hi-tech sting operation to trap a corrupt industrial mogul. The newly cognizant Tachikoma robots join the crew as "recruits." (Rated 13 and older: violence, violence against women, sexual situations, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 GitS: SAC Gets Visually Astounding Facelift May 20, 2009
lain4ever (Los Angeles, CA)
"Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" looked good in its first season, but its second season is astounding beautiful.
While the first season of GitS: SAC featured aesthically bright, colorful parks and utopian metropolitan images, 2nd Gig is a heavily dystopian vision. Despite the grim imagery, this series is strikingly detailed, with crumbling buildings, luxurious government interiors and dark prostitution joints.
Of course, the plot is a much more complex beast in itself. With producer Mamoru Oshii at the helm, the series explores far more unique avenues other than the freedom of the self in the isolated electronic world. Episode one sets the stage--after a governmental scandal, Japan's new prime minister is left with the tedious decision whether or not to keep Section 9 operational.
Even worse, however, is the state of Japan. The Asian refugees imported to Japan as cheap labor are starting to gain identities of their own. In fact, they follow a new ideology--individualism. They call themselves the Individual Eleven, and they're engaging in terrorism to manipulate the government.
This new tone for the series makes for some compelling stand alone episodes. Episode two, set in the perspective of a former war veteran, captures the true hysteria of the middle class people who are unable to change the state of their own environment. Right when anime viewers think that this guy is a maniacal terrorist, we discover it's just a dream. And when the lines of dream and reality are blurred in this episode, we're trapped in the man's agorophobic world, with only Motoko and her crew left to discover what makes him tick.
Other episodes in this series explore even more adventurous avenues. Episode three was almost entirely inspired by Oceans Eleven. Episode four is so far the closest that Section 9 has ever gotten to brutal military warfare, this time against helicopters with anti-tank ammunition.
The series has grown even more suspenseful and emotional in season two. With Mamoru Oshii at the helm and Kenji Kamiyama still directing, the series can only get better and better.
The disc also includes insightful interviews with director Kamiyama and the art directors of the series.
Newcomers may get lost in the first few episodes if they didn't watch season one. So if anyone STILL hasn't jumped on the GitS: SAC bandwagon yet, watch season one immediately. This is one of the coolest, most intellectual and most adrenaline-packed anime series ever made.
What you would expect! February 8, 2008
Tom E. Thompson (California)
This is what you would expect from the team that makes this awsome film and series! Visuals are as always, Top notch in the anime world, with thought provoking story lines, that make it so you can't wait to watch the next episode in the series. If you like you anime like i do with realistic looking charaters, and just alaround good damn movie. you have to have this in your collection, along with the whole series!
A warning about cheap versions of this series August 18, 2007
Sabad One
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I own both the Ghost in the Shell movies, and both complete series. They are very intelligent and very well scripted stories. The first movie, especially, is a masterpiece. If you are into linear, simple action ANIME, you may not like these, because (especially in the two GIGs) the story is very complicated.
I purchased the 2nd GIG from eBay, where I ordered a very inexpensive box which included the complete series. I am writing this review mostly to warn you against doing this, or at least so that you know what you are likely to purchase if you do as I did. The box is, I believe, a copyrighted original, which is much cheaper than the products sold by Amazon because the box is an Asian import. The video quality is good, as well as the sound. There is no dubbing, so all the dialogues are in Japanese, but I don't care about this, and actually I think the Japanese versions are much better than the English versions anyway, because the Japanase actors involved in this sort of production are much better professional than the 2nd or 3rd rate folks who dub the US versions.
So, where is the problem? The SUBTITLES... In the cheap complete box I purchased the subtitles of many (fortunately not all) episodes are so bad that you often literally CANNOT understand what the characters are talking about. Sometimes you can clearly infer that the characters are saying the OPPOSITE of what the subtitle suggests. Grammar and syntax are all over the place, and there are sometimes words which are just made up. It is clear that the translation was done by a Japanese with a VERY poor knowledge of the English language, and no one English-speaking professional was consulted. I was surprised by this, because I purchased an equally cheap complete box of the first GIG, and in that case the translation was spotless. But you truly have to consider that if you buy a cheap box for the 2nd GIG chances are you will end up with a hardly comprehensible series, and given the complexity of the storyline, this will seriously affect your ability to enjoy your purchase.
This said, AS FAR AS I COULD UNDERSTAND, the 2nd GIG is excellent, even if I have the feeling that the first had better artwork. Anyway, it's still a very stimulating ANIME story, but just make sure you know what you are buying if you decide to go ahead with the purchase.
Cutting edge Cartoon, not for children January 16, 2007
James A Bott (Winter Park, FL United States)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a fan of the Matrix, Stargate, and other Sci-Fi type films, I was given as vol. 5 of 2nd Gig, as a gift by a well intentioned, but uniformed family member. I think the person thought it was the entire season, so did I when I opened it, but as you know, or learn, there are 3 episodes per volume.
Review of the story, the concept is not new, but very inventive in the twist on the Bionic Man (6 million dollar man) story from the US series in the 70's, staring Lee Majors. Additionally, with the fame of secret service, government intelligence drama, (Tom Clancy's CIA, Broccoli's 007, the many KGB stories, Israeli Mossad, Japan has entered the mix with its own fictional (or is it) "Section 9" of the Public Safety Ministry. Like their Anglo counter parts, this supper secret agency answer only to the Japanese Prime minister, has lots of high tech gadgetry, even more heavy duty fire power, and more importantly, a very keen nose for high level government corruption and conspiracy.
One of the more notable plot devices used by the author is the "tochcoma" which is not a fancy car, not an invisible submarine, nor a super plane or helicopter, though Section 9 does possess all those things, what a tochcoma is, only the Japanese could think this up, a "think tank," in the literal since of the phrase. It is a tank, which can think, talk, solve problems, follow you around like a 20 ton puppy, and of course, save the day with a 88mm howitzer when everything else in your bag seems to fail. The tochcoma does provide both a sub plot of its own, and at the same time, becomes a vehicle to move the main along with the story begins to drag. The author, similar to Tom Clancy, likes to have lots of elaborate complex dialog essentially to explain, "why are we here?" The author does take a serious look a possible future of the world and technology in the same vein Blade Runner. If you like Blade Runner, you will probably enjoy this too. The only criticism I can offer is, the author, in an effort to explore the plight of the refugees, does not explain in more detail, the plight of the refugees. The refugee protagonist, is not in fact a refugee, but a mysterious enigma of nobility who was part of the original research in prosthetics, same as the Major, the female good guy protagonist. There are some other minor plot flaws that we could discuss, but not necessarily debilitating to the story. Besides, it is the flaws in literature, that makes it worth discussion. Overall, this is an excellent piece of work for television, home theater that is worth watching, often more than once. Take note of the opening theme, which the lyrics are in Latin, English and Russian, with subtitles, this is novel, and quite interesting.
The Best Contemporary Work of Science Fiction June 8, 2006
The Dilettante
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell- in all of its incarnations- is an exceptionally literate and stimulating franchise. But the best of these incarnations is the second season of Stand Alone Complex, directed by Mamoru Oshii. Even at the most superficial level, the visual and sound design of the series are pathbreaking. But Shirow's vision for the manga was deeply informed by artificial intelligence theory and philosophy of mind. This series continues to explore these themes, even as Oshii has added on layers of international politics, speculative history, diplomacy, systems theory, law, bureacratic infighting, Japanese culture. The final product is even richer intellectual and dramatic material than its closest rival, the new Battlestar Galactica. Unlike the Matrix, this series gets better with each installment, with a bit more of the puzzle revealed in each installment. This is because - also unlike the Matrix- there is a POINT. This is not an endless symposium on the dualing natures of technology and humanity, it is thesis-driven and these questions are ultimately RESOLVED. The stories are so complex and the pace of the series is so quick that many viewers complain that it is impossible to follow. But this is merely an invitation to multiple viewings, and they repay the effort with interest.
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