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Comment by Pigo | Hacker News Reader

The original Ghost in the Shell has been one of my favorite films since the first time I seen it. To be honest, there's no other anime I've seen that I actually enjoyed apart from the Cowboy Bebop movie. So I don't consider myself a anime fan. The original GITS is a brilliant film that is beyond a specific genre.

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You might like the Patlabor series/movies, directed by GITS's director Mamoru Oshii. Particularly the first two movies, which have a more serious tone than the rest of it. And imho the animation and aesthetics of the first two Patlabor movies is right up there with GITS.

Honestly I wouldn’t recommend Patlabor to someone who only likes the GITS movie and Cowboy Bebop. It’s going to feel too slow and cheezy (in a way many anime fans including myself enjoy).

I’d probably suggest Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) or Gundam Zeta instead. They have interesting themes, are more adult and have amazing art.

I think the aesthetic/pacing/art of particularly the first two Patlabor movies would probably be appreciated by somebody who's a fan of the first GITS movie specifically. There is a common cyberpunk thread running through both those Patlabor movies and GITS. Patlabor 1 has a plot that easily could have been a GITS plot and spends a lot of time dwelling on the ways apparent progress leaves many people feeling abandoned and worthless.

The Patlabor TV show is definitely much lighter material, a lot more accessible to children.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll definitely check them out. Maybe it's my age, but a lot of what I have seen like Deathnote or even the GITS SAC didn't click with me. Cowboy Bebop was just fun, and I forgot I was watching an anime.

I think maybe it's the high-concept, almost frightening, aspects of GITS that resonated with me. But I understand why it's not popular with most people.

There's also the Patlabor OVA series that came before the show and movies, and takes place in the same universe as the movies. I feel it's tone is in between the movies and TV show.

Obligatory Patlabor 2 opening title sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsMTpSDAGxM

>It’s going to feel too slow and cheezy

Patlabor is slow, sure, and purposefully so (it has and deserves the reputation as being the "boring" mecha show), but cheezy? I haven't seen the TV show which I hear is a lot more comic, but I wouldn't call the original OVA/first 2 movies cheezy.

I'd humbly recommend you Kon Sathoshi's "Paranoia Agent".

Wikipedia link (warning: spoilers ahoy): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_Agent

How about Akira or Neon Genesis Evangelion?

Akira is not as iconoclastic in its philosophy as it was in its technical and artistic attributes at the time. It was also heavily influenced by and can be seen as a modern-day retelling/rewarning of the hiroshima/nagasaki incidents.

NGE can be philosophically heavy at times but is too diluted by its action sequences and fan service moments.

The first GITS movie is a philosophical tour de force and a piece of art that transcends time. A masterpiece.

Yeah, I'm definitely not trying to begrudge what other people like. Some people might not like a movie that is mostly cerebral. The art and action of GITS is almost secondary to the concept it's exploring. I've seen quite a lot of anime that looked fun and interesting, it just wasn't something I could get into.

It may also be that a lot of anime are series, and require a time investment.

I agree with you. I've watched a lot of anime but the first Mamoru Oshii GITS movie is definitely a singularity. It doesn't even "feel" like anime.

The only other (comparable) anime that jumps to mind and something I can definitely recommend to you, is Serial Experiments Lain.

It's less a retelling and more an expression of a culmination of factors in post-war Japan. Japanese media in that era really had a lot of fear about the post-war state, especially the loss of culture, baked in.

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