Reviews

The animation was impressive, when the movie began I almost though for a moment it was a live action adaptation. The combat scenes are very impressive, easily as good as anything else I have ever seen. The story arc reminded me a lot of some of the Ghost in the Shell movies, as they were complex and convoluted. This is not a movie where you can turn your brain off. I watched a dubbed version, so I could not tell if the issue was the translation or not, but I suspect the story arc was complex. The character arcs were in character and great. It was really good to see Shinya Kôgami back again, Kôgami and Akane are my favourite characters.

At one stage I though the movies had gone on too long, but that was only for a moment and when they launch he final assault it was intense. Apart from that small period of time, the entire 2 hours seems to fly past in no time. The movie ended in a manner which may me realise the rumours of what happens to Akane was correct and it made sense. I see what the next season of Psyco Pass will be about and I can hardly wait.

This anime was a real surprise to me. I only had minimal interest in watching it, but when I did I was surprised. The first few episodes were average, but by episode 3 I was hooked. Unlike most of my experiences with similar anime's, the episodes just got better and better.

Make sure you watch at least the first three episodes and make sure you watch it on a high quality format, preferably from HIDIVE. If you do you will not be disappointed. The biggest challenge you will have is to pace what you're watching, this series is very easy to binge.

One other advantage I found was the episodes were very re-watchable. I have watched it twice since I watched it originally and enjoyed each watch. I am Atomic!!!

I had low expectations but was surprised how good the first episodes were. I did expect it to drop in quality but I have to admit it's a great TV series right up to its 12th episode. It's not perfect as it's filled with plot holes, but by golly it's entertaining nonetheless.

I suspect one reason why its so good is there are three main story-arcs all compressed into 123 episodes. This means there is almost no fillers and the plot progresses in a brisk manner. You are never bored, although when you are in the last main story-arc you do expect it to be a repeat of the 1st, thus may have less enthusiasm, but they do a reasonable twist at the end.

The premise was great and I was really excited about watching this series, but when i started watching episode one it was so boring I barely managed to complete the first episode awake. I feel the issue is the story arc cannot sustain a multi-season tv-series. It forces the writers to drag out the story-arc by focusing on the character-arc to such a level of detail it becomes a pure feeling series.

I was more interested in what happened and was hoping NASA was going to undertake an investigation of the event, but after the first episode it was clear that was not the main focus of the writers.

I found DARK much better, even though it had a major focus on character-arc as well. If you want a really good time travel aircraft story try millennium, which was a low budget movie that was surprisingly good.

While it seems not much occurs in this episode, the last few minutes is staggering in its implications. This is one great story; I can't believe they can maintain it into a 4th seasons. More iseki stories than I care to remember run out of steam in the 1st season or at the latest in the 2nd season. However in this case we get 3 great seasons and the 4th looks just as good.

I really wish I could have seen this in a cinema as the Hollywood like format of this movie would of suited that medium perfectly. Great movie, great storey-arc, brilliant character-arc's and good execution. It does help if you have seen the TV-series, or at least read the light novel, but even if not you should find a lot to enjoy. The only negative is the story is drawn out at points, but not so extreme as to detract from the experience. Watch this on a big screen, you will not regret it.

Apart from not much occurring for most of the episode, the bulk of this was all magic box based. The problem with these last minute expectation subversions, if they come one after the other the audience engagement in the story disappears. What is the point of being concerning about a character, if you find out nothing matters, the dead come back to life and characters suddenly change their motivation.

The basic story arc in this episode could work, but not when you constantly flip from one character to another in an increased frenzy. The old SAC does this very well in the end of the 2nd season, but in that case it was the Kusanagi who after discussion with the protagonist discovers what is happening and decided to assist.

The pacing is poor, the story flips around so much you lose any engagement with what is happening and even with all these magic boxes opening, very little of the story-arc seems to progress anywhere. You could of cut 15 minutes from this episode without changing the story arc at all, which makes me this this is the result of massive padding.

The first 10 minutes is filled with virtually pointless action, continuing from the previous episode. I really thought it was going to be another nothing episode and then bang, we get into solid story arc progressing which gets your grey cells working. I am now, after 2-3 less than stellar episodes, interested in what will occur in the next episode. This 12 episode series looks like it should have been an 8 episode series with 4 standalone episodes. While better than season one, this season is a real mixed bag.

This episode has a lot of action, but its clearly being dragged out to the point where its becoming boring. You could merge this episode with the previous 2 episodes to get a single, well-paced, and impactful episode. Yet I suspect the next episode will be the same as even these three episodes don't end anywhere reasonable. If you like long periods of suspense and lots of action you will be happy, if you want story-arc progression you will not be happy.

The episode is entertaining enough, but not much happens. We learn some new information at various points, but the actual story arc does not progress to any great extent. You could have merged this episode and the last together and achieved the same result. The actual story-arc is good and as detailed as any of the earlier SAC series, however there are no standalone episodes and each episode is not self-contained. I still like it, but I suspect it has been designed to binge watch and this shows.

We are back in the GITS groove with good consistent pacing which keeps us glued to the screen. During this episode a number of story threads are being threated together to achieve some form of conclusion which I am hoping will give us a big pay-off. This is a good episode; I am now really looking forward to the next episode.

This episode is certainly better than the previous, because the previous episode provided sufficient backstory to allow me to be engaged in this episode. It was sufficiently good to keep me interested from start to finish, however I am getting the impression that the story arc is being stretched out. The original SAC episodes, or even the Movie, were paced very well, with an engaging story progression throughout. This episode and the previous could have easily been packed into a single episode. The issue is not laziness, which is common in live action stories. With animation or even 3D each minute takes a lot of effort to create so this stretching is not being done for that reason. My gut feel is the story was stretched to fit the required 12 episodes, at least this episode and the last one. Perhaps a better strategy would be to insert a stand alone episode in the series, rather than stretch the story-arc.

I must admit I found this episode boring, but I suspect the main reason was it was in the wrong spot. This episode needs the viewer to be both engaged with the main character and in a state of wanting to know what happened to the main character. The last time this character was around was in season 1, so there was a massive gap for me. This means I barely remember what happened in season 1 and I was not engaged. The result was I ended up being bored. This is the issue when you have this structure. The original SAC never used this structure, except in rare duel episodes, thus never suffered this issue. When you end with a cliff hanger in a season you need to start the next season continuing the cliff hanger, not creating a new story-arc which ends with its own cliff hanger. If you have watched season 2 just after ending season 1 I suspect you will not have an issue.

This episode is pure Tachikoma and really reminds me of episode 12 Season 1 of SAC. Like that episode this was a real tear jerker. We have certainly hit peak GITS, I can't but help this cannot be maintained as even in SAC season 1 it was not maintained, but we can all hope.

This really felt like old GITS SAC, a good mix of mystery, problem solving, exposition and action. The end was like a kick in the guts and this surprised me as I did not even like the character when first introduced in in season 1. This hits the sweet spot, I think we have achieve true GITS.

From start to go you are bombarded with hard on action. This is not like old GITS and I think they went overboard, but I still found it a fantastic watch. I am beginning to hope this season may be better than just tolerable and could even go into the Good zone.

I did not have high expectations season 2 would be any better than season 1, which was at best tolerable. As a result I delayed watch the 1st episode for a few days and boy was I surprised. It was still not like old GITS, but it was a lot closer. The episodes ends on a great cliff hanger making me want to watch the next episode, something that never occurred with season 1.

This was a real surprise, mystery, danger and the amazing Lord El-Melloi II does what he does best, solve those very mysteries and Grey defends against the danger. This movie is all about lost memories and regret and is surprisingly moving as a result. All I can say is this is another magnificent feast of entertainment, may more adventures of Lord El-Melloi II come forth.

We discover part of the mystery, but not its ramifications. I would have preferred if this remained a mystery for longer, but clearly this series is going to pack of lot of story-arc into its season one and its moving along at a rapid pace. The character-arc is great as well and you really start engaging with several of the characters. In episode one it was Leon, as you would expect. IN episode two it was Olivia and in this episode its Angelica. They do it very well indeed and I can hardly wait to see what happens next.

The 2nd episode is in many ways even more interesting than the 2nd. I don't know how they did it but after one episode I am already invested in several of the characters and a real mystery is being presented which I am interested in.

I will have to be honest and I did not have much hope this would be any good, but I was rather surprised. This episode sets up an interesting situation and the end of the episode is rather satisfying. Unlike what I expected this was a surprisingly serious story.

While the solution to the murder has not progressed, we get a surprise character appear, once which has a special link to The Grail War. The conflict is resolved with brain power rather than brawn, which was a nice touch.

This is a multi-part story arc, so we cannot expect a satisfactory conclusion here but this is overall a good episode. Clearly taking some influence from Murder on the Orient Express we end with the mandatory crime and the 2nd episode in this series is set up very nicely.

This was a filler episode, or an episode which is not a major part of the progression to the rail zeppelin. Saying that is was very entertaining as we see Grey and the Lords sister, with a friend; use Lord El-Melloi's logic system to get themselves out of a trap. The end of the episode is part of the progression and we are informed the duo are off to the Rail Zeppelin.

This was a great episode, mystery, problem solving and a really impressive ending. Loved every minute of it and we get our first glimpse of the Rail Zeppelin, or at least a clue it exists.