Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, known in Japan as just , is a 2004 Japanese animated cyberpunk film written and directed by Mamoru Oshii. The film serves as a standalone sequel to Ghost in the Shell (1995), and is based on the 1989-91 manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow, loosely adapting the manga chapter "Robot Rondo".
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence was released in Japan on March 6, 2004, by Toho. The film received the 2004 Nihon SF Taisho Award, and was nominated for four Annie Awards. It was also in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, making it the first and only anime in history to compete for the Palme d'Or. The soundtrack for the film was released under the name Innocence O.S.T. and a related novel called Ghost in the Shell: Innocence - After the Long Goodbye was released on February 29, 2004.
Plot In 2032, three years after Major Motoko Kusanagi disappeared, Public Security Section 9 cybernetic operative Batou is teamed with Togusa, an agent with very few cybernetic upgrades. Section 9 is asked to investigate a series of deaths due to malfunctioning gynoids (doll-like sex robots). Since the gynoids all malfunctioned without clear cause, the deaths are believed to be premeditated murders; Batou and Togusa are sent to investigate possible terrorist or political motives. Additionally, the most recent gynoid's remains show they all contained an illegal "ghost". Section 9 concludes human sentience is being artificially duplicated onto the dolls illegally, making the robots more lifelike, and possibly acting as a motive in the murders.
Called to a homicide scene, information warfare and technology specialist Ishikawa explains the victim is Jack Walkson, a consignment officer at gynoid company LOCUS SOLUS, who may have been killed by the yakuza. A previous yakuza boss was recently killed by a gynoid, so Ishikawa concludes Walkson was held responsible and killed in an act of revenge. Batou and Togusa enter a yakuza bar to question the current boss, only to be threatened by the bar occupants. Batou opens fire, killing and wounding numerous gang members, including the cyborg that murdered Walkson. The current boss then admits his predecessor was somehow involved in LOCUS SOLUS, but insists he does not know how.
Entering a store on his way home, Batou is then seemingly warned by the Major and shot in the arm by an unseen assailant. Caught in a firefight, Batou nearly kills the store owner in confusion, but is subdued when Ishikawa appears. While having his damaged arm replaced, Batou is informed by Ishikawa that his e-brain was hacked, causing him to shoot himself and attack the store occupants. Ishikawa explains that Batou was hacked in order to cause further scandal following his yakuza assault in an attempt to stop the Section 9 investigation.
Batou and Togusa then head for the former Etorofu Special Economic Zone, where the mansion of Kim, a former soldier-turned-hacker with an obsession with dolls, is located. Seemingly dead, Kim soon reveals he "lives" inside the shell of a human-sized marionette, and discusses philosophy with his visitors. Kim admits ties to LOCUS SOLUS, divulging that the company has secret headquarters in international waters. Warned again by the Major, Batou realizes that Kim has secretly hacked into his and Togusa's e-brains, and is currently trapping them in a false reality. Resetting Togusa's brain, Batou subdues Kim, stating he knows Kim hacked his brain in the store.
Resolved to gather material evidence, Batou infiltrates the LOCUS SOLUS headquarters ship while Togusa remotely hacks its security systems using an unaware Kim as a proxy. The ship's security becomes aware of the hacking and retaliates with a virus that fries Kim's cyberbrain. Simultaneously, a hidden virus loads a combat program into the production-line gynoids, causing them to attack everyone aboard, easily slaughtering the poorly armed and panicked security force. As Batou fights to the ship's center, the Major then appears by controlling a gynoid remotely, helping Batou fight the gynoids and hack the ship's security.
Taking control of the ship, the Major reveals to Batou the truth about the gynoids. Hiring the yakuza to traffic young girls, LOCUS SOLUS duplicated their consciousnesses into the gynoids, giving them human "ghosts" to make them more realistic. Batou rescues a young girl from a "ghost dubbing" machine, and she explains that Jack Walkson, having learned the truth about LOCUS SOLUS, promised to save the girls by tampering with the ghosting process. This caused the gynoids to murder their owners, allowing Walkson to attract police attention and indirectly kill the yakuza boss. Despite Walkson's actions saving the girls, Batou objects that he also victimized the gynoids as well, causing them severe distress by giving them damaged ghosts. Having solved the case, Batou asks the Major if she is happy now. She responds that she will always be beside him on the network, then disconnects from the gynoid.
Voice cast CharacterJapanese English Epcar/Manga/Madman (2005) Animaze/Bandai (2009)BatouAkio Ōtsuka Richard EpcarMotoko KusanagiAtsuko TanakaMary Elizabeth McGlynn TogusaKōichi Yamadera Crispin FreemanDaisuke AramakiTamio ŌkiWilliam Frederick KnightIshikawaYutaka NakanoMichael McCartyAzumaMasaki Terasoma Erik DaviesKimNaoto TakenakaJoey D'AuriaTravis WillinghamHarawayYoshiko SakakibaraEllyn SternBarbara GoodsonKogaHiroaki Hirata Robert AxelrodFred SandersForensics ChiefKatsunosuke HoriTerrence Stone Loy EdgeLinSukekiyo KameyamaRobert AxelrodDoug StoneRescued GirlHisami MutoSherry LynnLaura BaileyKatsunari WakabayashiRyuji NakagiRichard CansinoSteve Kramer
Additional English voices Epcar/Manga/Madman cast
Richard Cansino as Man, Security 1, Yakuza 1 Steve Kramer as Detective, Security 4, Security 5 Sherry Lynn as Gynoid Terrence Stone as Pilot, Security 2, Shop Owner, Yakuza 3 Michael McConnohie as Forensics Staff, Section 9 Member, Security 3 Bob Papenbrook as Crab Man, Cyborg Doctor, Underwater Cyborg, Yakuza 2 Stephanie Sheh as Dispatcher, Togusa's Daughter Kevin Seymour (as Mr. X) as Yakuza 4
Animaze/Bandai cast
Karen Huie as Locus Solus Security System #1 (Cantonese) Jim Lau as Locus Solus Security System #2 (Cantonese) Joe Romersa as Crab Man, Undersea Cyborg John Snyder as Cyborg Arm Doctor David Vincent as SWAT Commander, Yakuza 1 Kyle Hebert as Detective Roger Craig Smith as Briefing Voice, Yamadori Transport Pilot Sandy Fox as Togusa's Daughter
Allusions and references Innocence contains many references to fantasy, philosophy and Zen, and addresses aesthetic and moral questions. For example, the film begins with a quotation from Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's Tomorrow's Eve from 1886: "If our Gods and our hopes are nothing but scientific phenomena, then let us admit it must be said that our love is scientific as well." Other numerous quotations in the film come from Buddha, Confucius, Descartes, the Old Testament, Meiji-era critic Saitō Ryokuu, Richard Dawkins, Max Weber, Jacob Grimm, Plato, John Milton, 14th-century playwright Zeami Motokiyo, the Tridentine Mass, and Julien Offray de La Mettrie, French Enlightenment philosopher and author of Man a Machine.
The characters and their names contain many allusions to other older works. For example, the "Hadaly" model robots refer to a human-like robot named Hadaly featured in Tomorrow's Eve, also the book that popularized the word android. The company LOCUS SOLUS is named for the 1914 novel by Raymond Roussel, which also shares certain thematic elements with the film, such as a mansion containing tableaux vivants. The police forensic specialist, Haraway, is most likely named for Donna Haraway, feminist author of A Cyborg Manifesto. Haraway's character is likely based on Susan Calvin from Asimov's Robot series. The Robot series is also referenced in the film's androids as they comply with a modified version of Asimov's Third Law of Robotics.
Dolls are also an important motif in Innocence; many have "spirits" of some sort, but at the same time are not quite human. They are based on the art of Hans Bellmer, a dollmaker famous for his disturbing, erotic ball-jointed female dolls.Monnet, Livia, 'Anatomy of Permutational Desire: Perversion in Hans Bellmer and Oshii Mamoru', Mechademia 5 (2010), 285-309
The parade sequence is based on a religious procession and a temple in Taiwan.
In the 2009 English dub, the murdered consignment inspector is called Jacques Vaucanson. His namesake was an 18th-century French inventor who created automata in the image of man and of animals.
Production Innocence had a production budget of approximately $20 million (approximately 2 billion yen). To raise the sum, Production I.G studio's president, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, asked Studio Ghibli's president, Toshio Suzuki, to co-produce. Polygon Pictures produced the 3DCG in the film.
Director's ideas On the origins of the movie, director Mamoru Oshii says he didn't envision it solely as a sequel to Ghost in the Shell. He said, "I had a dozen ideas, linked to my views on life, my philosophy, that I wanted to include in this film ... I attacked Innocence as a technical challenge; I wanted to go beyond typical animation limits, answer personal questions and at the same time appeal to filmgoers." During production, the first decision Oshii made was to not make Motoko Kusanagi the main character and instead make it a story about someone searching for her. Oshii chose to make the movie have a different tone and feel from the original.
Oshii traveled the world in order to find inspirations for the film. Oshii based the appearance on the dolls created by Hans Bellmer he saw at the International Center of Photography in New York. He credited Jean-Luc Godard for the idea of including quotes by other authors: "[The texts] ... give a certain richness to cinema because the visual is not all there is. Thanks to Godard, the spectator can concoct his own interpretation ... The image associated with the text is a unifying act that aims at renewing cinema, that it take to new dimensions."
Oshii noted his attention to detail might be particularly Japanese: "I get absorbed in the finer points – like what the back of a bottle label looks like when you see it through the glass [demonstrates with a bottle of mineral water]. That's very Japanese, I suppose. I want people to go back to the film again and again to pick up things they missed the first time." Describing the overall look, the director said, "The film is set in the future, but it's looking at present-day society. And as I said, there's an autobiographical element as well. I'm looking back at some of the things I liked as a child — the 1950s cars and so on. Basically, I wanted to create a different world — not a future world."
The dog Gabriel, looking once more like the only "real" being, makes a key appearance, as in many of Oshii's movies. A scene with Batou feeding his dog is echoed in Ash in Avalon (2001). He explained the reason why all his films feature a basset hound—his companion in real life: "This body you see before you is an empty shell. The dog represents my body. Human beings can be free only if they free themselves from their bodies. When I am playing around with my dog, I forget that I am a human being, and it's only then that I feel free."
As for the state of art and animation, Oshii had this to say:
I think that Hollywood is relying more and more on 3D imaging like that of Shrek. The strength behind Japanese animation is based in the designer's pencil. Even if he mixes 2D, 3D, and computer graphics, the foundation is still 2D. Only doing 3D does not interest me.