Movie Review
Stunningly stylized anime raises tantalizing questions

By Jeff Shannon
Special to The Seattle Times

Mamoru Oshii's long-awaited sequel to his anime classic takes place in an Asian megalopolis in 2032.

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It's been nearly a decade since Mamoru Oshii's "Ghost in the Shell" set a milestone in the advancement of Japanese animation, and it still ranks highly on the short list of anime classics. The "Matrix" trilogy was directly influenced by Oshii's breath-

taking hybrid of graphic action and philosophical musings on the merging of flesh and cyber-technology. Set in the year 2029, "Ghost" asked provocative questions and left plenty of room for a sequel.

Oshii's a master stylist for whom narrative is a secondary priority, and his hotly anticipated "Ghost" sequel, ironically titled "Innocence," asks more questions than it answers. While that may frustrate anyone looking for straightforward plotting, it's manga from heaven for sci-fi and anime fans, who will surely benefit (as I did) from more than one viewing. Information and imagery are equally dense in Oshii's bleak near-future landscape, born of "Blade Runner" and cyberpunk writer William Gibson and infused with Oshii's self-admitted misanthropy. It envisions a near future (in this case, 2032) in which cyborgs dominate, purely mechanical "dolls" provide sexual pleasure and other basic needs, and humanity (the "ghost" in robotic shells) clings to its vestigial existence.

Movie review Showtimes and trailer *** "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence," with the voices of Akio Otsuka and Atsuko Tanaka. Directed by Mamoru Oshii, from a screenplay by Oshii and Shirow Masamune, based on the manga series by Masamune. 99 minutes. In Japanese with English subtitles. PG-13 for violence, mature content, some profanity. Neptune, Uptown.

In an unnamed Asian megalopolis, Batou, the mostly cybernetic "Section 9" anti-terrorism security officer from "Ghost in the Shell," is joined by his mostly human partner as he investigates a murder case involving sex dolls gone berserk. The reasons for the dolls' lethal behavior, and the course of Batou's convoluted investigation, leads to a reunion of sorts with "Major" Motoko Kusanagi, the female lead from "Ghost," now so fully integrated into a "Matrix"-like network as to be virtually omnipresent.

There's a definite logic to the sprawling, hyper-mechanized underworld of Shirow Masamune's original manga book series (also the basis for an interim "Ghost in the Shell" TV series, "Stand-Alone Complex"), but while Oshii serves up plenty of violent action and edgy sarcasm (his studio provided the delirious anime sequence in "Kill Bill, Vol. 1"), he clearly favors thematic excursions over conventional storytelling. While echoing Spielberg's "A.I." with such thought-provoking notions as a neglected underclass of outmoded robots, or a criminal mastermind who boasts about transcending human limitations, "Innocence" ponders the future from a nonhuman perspective that looks puzzling now but may well seem prescient in the long run.

Despite its teen demographic and domestic distribution under DreamWorks' "Go Fish" anime banner, "Innocence" is hardly innocent kid-stuff. Confucius, Milton, Descartes and the Bible are liberally quoted to support Oshii's quest for meaning in a computer-driven world. And with a state-of-the-art combination of traditional and digital animation techniques, Oshii isn't afraid to deliver art for art's sake (an epic-scale parade provides the film's visual highlight yet serves no narrative purpose) or disorient the viewer with a tantalizing triplet of hypothetical scenarios disguised as reality.

Oshii claims to be uneasy with technology, and so "Innocence" is an uneasy film, with only Batou's friendly basset hound to ease the world-weary atmosphere. Its intentions aren't as clear as they should be, but it's clearly the work of a deep-thinking artist with a fearful concern for a future in which the nature of humanity is entirely uncertain.

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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