Here is a work in progress for a shot I have had in my mind of Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell. Its a depiction of one of my favorite moments in the film. I expanded upon it and took my own creative license with some of the consistencies but having fun with this one regardless.
To me these are my favorite times while I create. While its loose, and filled with energy. I enjoy the other stages but not nearly as much as this is almost when the art has a bit of innocence to it that reads and feels stronger then the final with out even trying.
Stay tuned!
Siskel & Ebert on Ghost in the Shell
I’ve gone back and read Ebert’s reviews for anime flicks I like in the past - mostly just for the novelty of it. Predictably a lot of them are from the 90s when anime was creeping into select theaters - and his Royal Space Force review is a pretty great snapshot of that period. His Roujin Z review focuses in on why I like that movie so much too - for the fact that it’s something completely unique to its medium, unable to exist anywhere else.
He’s also pretty famously a huge fan of Grave of the Fireflies, so, listen to him talk about that for 8 minutes if you’ve got the time.
Analysis of diagonals in composition from the 3-minute Music Scene from Ghost in the Shell.
I love this scene so much it might be my favorite scene from all movies, animated or not. It’s got that iconic singing in the background (Ghost city song on the soundtrack) and it just takes its time with slow paced shots of the city and its inhabitants. When rain starts falling by the end of the scene, my mind had completely melted. The predominant worm’s eye view makes you feel small and the buildings just as overwhelming as the nature of the future portrayed. It’s cold, technological, flawed and inevitable. Inevitably human.
Mamoru Oshii always has at least one of these music scenes in each his movies, and it’s always one of my favorite scenes.
The music scene in Patlabor 1 is really frickin’ cool too.
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
YOU’LL NEVER TRUST COMPUTERS AGAIN