Ghost in the Shell (1996)

Directed by renowned filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away is about a girl named Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi/Daveigh Chase) on a journey to rescue her parents who have been turned into pigs. Her family had mistakenly wandered into the spirit world, and it’s up for Chihiro to get them all out.

Despite being only 10 years old, Chihiro is a strong and well rounded protagonist. She does whatever it takes to save her parents, including working at a bathhouse run by a witch named Yubaba (Mari Natsuk, Suzanne Pleshette).

This is a beautifully animated film that not only won many awards, but won for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy. Funny enough, I actually didn’t like the film when I first saw it — I was eight and dumb. But years later, I gave the film another watch and it became one of my favorite films. Maybe I didn’t like it at first because it was just so strange and different compared to other films I’ve seen. It was the first foreign film I watched and it got me interested in Japanese animation.

With the coronavirus pandemic cancelling virtually everything, including movie releases, I had to scout Netflix for something to review. Fortunately, it wasn’t a difficult feat, as Netflix always has new releases, but sometimes those new releases aren’t too great…

Altered Carbon: Resleeved is a Japanese animated film which is based off a TV show, which is based off a book. Unlike the movie, the TV show — Altered Carbon — is actually an American live action series. It’s quite a change, but it’s an interesting way to give the story more representation. If only said story left a lasting impression, but we’ll get to that.

The movie takes place in between seasons one and two, but stands on its own as it expands on the story’s universe. Though it felt like I needed to have seen season one to understand our protagonist in order to care for him.

…I didn’t really care for him.

Our protagonist is Takeshi Kovacs, a former solider turned investigator who has to protect a girl from danger, while at the same time, investigate the murder of a yakuza boss. The premise is set in the distant future where consciousness can be transferred into a different body, essentially making anyone immortal until the stack — a chip embedded into their spine that carries their consciousness — is destroyed.