Blog From The Bench

Bandai was kind enough to send us a preview disc of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2ND GIG, the second season of the incredible anime series based off the hit manga and feature films.

2nd GIG is a slight departure from the first season, more gritty and violent and less thought-provoking, but goes into a great deal of back story left absent from the enigmatic first season. The original series was sketched out by original creator Masamune Shirow, but the second season has been taken over by the series director Kenji Kamiyama, bringing a different visionary to the helm. The new series has a stronger emphasis on style and conflict, and takes a bit of getting used to, but I’d like to meet the person who finished Stand Alone Complex and doesn’t want to see 2nd GIG.

From the test disc, looks like Bandai will be giving the same excellent treatment to the second series as they did the first, with clean transfers, strong 5.1 audio channels and all kinds of goodness. I’ve seen part of 2nd GIG way back in the day as a fansub, and the intro is different than I remember – very interesting.

Unfortunately, all we got was a single episode, so it's hard to go into any more detail, but rest assured that fans of the first series will feel right at home here. The first installment of 2nd GIG streets today, and you’re going to want to check this out. Trust me.