Innocence: Ghost in the Shell 2 | in cinemas

last night chibi-r, Kal, Kate and i went out to the Kino Dendy cinemas in Collins Place to see Innocence on the big screen.

i must say that in light of all the meditating i’ve been doing on the Ghost in the Shell universe, and what it means to me, though i’d seen Innocence more than a couple of times before, this was my most emotional experience of it.

but first, the visuals.
there are some things that are just impossible to translate accurately to DVD from raw source files or reels. the insane level of texturing, reflection mapping and distortion mapping was unbelievably clear on the big screen. Lin’s palace blew me away the first time i saw it, and of-course i was overwhelmed by just how much was happening onscreen. sure the distortion mapping in the floor-reflections were very evident, but every detail jumps out on the 35mm cinema print. it truly was a delight to see, an absolute wonder for the eyes.
the float parade beforehand was also a brilliant scene – the physics modeling truly shining as again the big-screen allowed the smallest of details to be shown – tassels, prop movement – it really shone with brilliance.

what chibi-r and i noticed more this time though, was the hand-drawn animation. we loved the parade, palace, Batou’s tense encounter in the store and all its textured glory, the opening title and all of its textured glory, but what really impressed us on this viewing was just how detailed and smooth the characters were in those scenes, along with of-course the rest of the film. Batou’s Basset hound again impressed us the first time, but on the big-screen just looked all the more amazing.

the more i spend time reflecting upon Ghost in the Shell and all that it means to me, the more i warm to Innocence. i initially didn’t take to it, perhaps because i was slow to appreciate what it was saying, and how it was being said. i am so naturally caught-up in the character of Motoko Kusanagi and her emotional presentation, that i was most likely disoriented with the shift of attention to Batou, even-though throughout all of the other Ghost in the Shell works, his character is astoundingly deep also. still though, Motoko Kusanagi is there, and not only in the sense of her brief appearance in the film. the attention is well and truly on Batou, but his life is changing – his emotional and spiritual experiences are evolving, and Kusanagi will always be integral to that – a fact of which both characters are well aware of.
people don’t see a lot of love in Batou ‘s character i suspect, but even before Innocence, Kal and i have always loved him, have always seen into the core of his truly emotional character. given his past history and unique experiences, his current life-situtation and his relationships with all of the characters, there are very good and valid reasons for his behaviour to be the way it is.

Batou really is a deeply loving character though, and as much as his Basset hound and the continuing presentation of dolls in the film symbolise the fragility of innocence, the film is as much about the nature of Batou’s own innocence, and how he is changing now that life has changed so much around him.

Batou, like Kusanagi, has always been hailed by Kal and myself as a philosophical icon or mascot, and an emotional figure – the least of which being a paternal figure. Innocence i think goes a long way to making him much more – of-course in extremely subtle ways.

and it’s that subtlety in which these characters are portrayed, through richly detailed events, circumstances and actions, that places them among the most powerful characters ever created in art.