Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
(I)
(2004)
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| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
(I)
(2004)
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| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
| Credited cast: | |||
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Akio Ôtsuka | ... |
Batô
(voice)
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Atsuko Tanaka | ... |
Major Motoko Kusanagi
(voice)
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Kôichi Yamadera | ... |
Togusa
(voice)
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Tamio Ôki | ... | |
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Yutaka Nakano | ... |
Ishikawa
(voice)
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| Naoto Takenaka | ... |
Kim
(voice)
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| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Gou Aoba | ... |
(voice) (as Go Aoba)
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Eisuke Asakura | ... |
(voice)
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| Robert Axelrod | ... |
Koga /
Lin
(voice)
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Richard Cansino | ... |
Man /
Security 1 /
Wakabayashi /
Yakuza 1
(voice)
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Joey D'Auria | ... |
Kim
(voice)
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| Erik Davies | ... |
Azuma
(voice)
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| Stoney Emshwiller | ... |
Guard /
Terrorist
(voice)
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| Richard Epcar | ... |
Batou
(voice)
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| Crispin Freeman | ... |
Togusa
(voice)
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Batô is a living cyborg. His whole body, even his arms and legs, are entirely man-made. What only remains are traces of his brain and the memories of a woman. In an era when the boundary between humans and machines has become infinitely vague, Humans have forgotten that they are humans. This is the debauchery of the lonesome ghost of a man, who nevertheless seeks to retain humanity. Innocence... Is what life is. Written by Anonymous
I agree with an earlier reviewer that both hardcore Oshii fans and narrow-minded American viewers are missing the point by not viewing this movie on its own terms. In many ways, it's more thoroughly conceived, and less action-justified (more thoughtful) than Ghost in the Shell. For me, it progressed naturally from its predecessor: Where Ghost in the Shell asks questions about the nature of human individuality, Innocence asks the next set of questions, about human existence. And it asks them in ways so much more directly pertinent to our own lives than utterly fantastic treatments like the Matrix films and silly diversions like The Butterfly Effect.
The ideas of the story are genuinely original, and thoroughly conceived. I don't think I've ever seen a science fiction film that was as true to the real spirit of the genre as this pair; Japan in general seems to take science fiction much more seriously than any western film-culture, and so out of Japan we get real, serious attempts to tell science-fictional stories, filled with real ideas and real characters, instead of the Bat-Durstonized monstrosities we get in the west.
For me, the integration of 2D and 3D elements was jarring; but the story stands on its ideas and the strength of its plot.