UTR 3 Ghost in the Shell +

What's up!?



I recently watched anime film called Ghost in The Shell. Yes, it is an old movie and I am a little bit behind but wow, was this film crazy. I thought Akira's symbolisms and themes were already out of the ball park but Ghost in The Shell takes it to another level!


"Humans gain their individuality from the memories they carry."

This is the movie that inspired The Matrix to a certain extent and upon watching this animated film, I see a lot of similarities. The story follows up on this enhanced cyborg or machine called Motoko in the futuristic world of Earth working as a government agent. I usually would do a review of what I found good and bad or disappointing about a certain movie but I cannot for Ghost in The Shell mainly towards the fact that I would need to watch it a couple of more times. Really, this movie, to me at least is seen more as a philosophical work than a form of entertainment media. The idea of the movie is questioning a soul or one's self within a computerized body or a systematic brain within a machine, the Ghost in the Shell literally in this case. Can a computer really generate a soul or create a ghost? If a computer has memories, which really represents a huge part of human life, is it then possible to create a "self?" Those are the questions found throughout this movie.

Now as for the directing of the movie, I honestly didn't know it ended when it did. There is some conclusions throughout the problem of the story but yea I was still scratching my head. Much like Akira and older anime movies, it is hard to follow up with the pacing of the movie because it is a lot slower than the works of today's modern media where fast is everything. The transitions are particularly hard as the scenes and the background music would fade out telling you the part of the scene is done.

Ghost in The Shell represented to me a different part of anime that had been created. It doesn't go with the flow. There is hardly any comedic relief, no love interests, transgresses gender boundaries, and in some cases, it is monotonous because it is more of a vision and a suggestion rather than for the entertainment of the viewer. Hopefully there's more to invest in within the movie's sequel and the prequel episodic series to this jarring futuristic concept.

In other news!



A more lighthearted ghost in this case, Ghost Trick for the DS!

From the makers of Ace Attorney, comes Ghost Trick. I've one played a couple of episodes within this game but it's definitely different from your average game, and its awesome! In it's more basic form it is a puzzle game but there are so many other mechanics to this murder mystery than meets the eye! Cause it's a ghost! The animations are great and story is already intriguing from the start! I'll discuss more as I progress.



Also, the NBA Season is back in action with Pre-Season!Yes, this blog is going all over the place!

I won't talk too much about the pre-season since it's... pre-season. But yes, The Lakers is my team but the prospect for this season is not too high. In contrast to their 2012-2013 season, Howard has left the Lakers with Kobe tending to a serious injury. On top of that, their next go to players, Gasol and Nash are getting older by the minute. Also, Mike D'Antoni is still the Lakers coach.. In any case, Lakers have a lot of fresh and young legs this season in the form of Nick Young, Wesley Johnson, and a healthy Jordan Hill among others, which also means inexperience. Nevertheless I'll watch as much games as I can because it is the Lakers! Stay tuned!
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