Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society (Limited Edition)

If you're looking for more GITS:SAC, this isn't quite it. But it's definitely closer than the GITS2 movie, and well worth seeing as a fan of the characters, but if you've only seen the first movie I'd definitely watch the Stand Alone Complex series first.

So the Solid State storyline was another view of the aging population of Japan commentary I felt. There was another anime I saw back in the 90's that dealt with this in which the elderly were connected to a bed that basically fed and cared for them in general and was being instituted by the Japanese government to deal with the aging population of Japan and doing so in a cost effective manner. Instead the bed was created using a type of military tech and the resulting chaos of the situation was both comedic and somewhat horrifying as well. Quite similar here with the Solid State Society storyline as well. A system designed to care for an aging Japanese population of basically jacking elderly people into a virtual system and subsequently the kidnapping and reprogramming of cybernetically enhanced children be companions for these people was disturbing. Some of the children were jacked into a system meant to provide super computing capabilities for a make shift super computer and the system for the elderly was designed to make them feel useful and fulfilled with the children it provided them with due to their desires of having a future beyond themselves as well as a desire to not be alone was disturbing in and of itself. It felt to me that it was commenting on how the Japanese society is in a decline due to a massive aging population with a much reduced birth rate of new Japanese people which is leading to a crisis in Japan. At the same time many are not there for their aging family members and the government may not be able to properly provided for this demographic in the future if things continue the way they are.

Now add in Section 9 shadow government organization to all this taking place a few years after Laughing Man with no real explanation behind the teams current situation/make up and why it is like this and you have some moderate confusion with an attempt to generate talk and/or address the aging population of a country with declining birth rates. Confused, I was confused a little too as well. Then at the end you get a battered half hearted talk about why certain things were done and why decisions were made by a couple of key characters and a brief overview of why they did what they did and that is the end of the story. Not one of the better outings in my opinion for this series. Still enjoyable, just not spectacular.

I'm a hardcore Ghost In The Shell Fan. I already own the movie but given the high quality of animation I just had to watch it again on blu ray. The animation is noticeably better.
For anyone who hasn't seen the movie you definitely have to watch it. It has a great plot and amazing music composed by Yoko Kanno.