GHOST IN THE SHELL: SAC - SSS
MOVIE REVIEW

My Books and Movies!

E.C. McMullen Jr.
RUMOR

RUMOR: People are dying to know the truth

PERPETUAL
BULLET

"'Some People' ... may be the standout story in the book."
- John Grant, Infinityplus

E.C. McMullen Jr.
WILLOW BLUE

"'Willow Blue' will burrow under your skin and stay there long after you've put the book down."
- Jeffrey Reddick, Creator of
FINAL DESTINATION

IN OTHER BOOKS
E.C. McMullen Jr.'s
short story
CEDO LOOKED LIKE PEOPLE
in the anthology
FEAR THE REAPER

"This Ray Bradbury-esque is one of the most memorable and one of the more original stories I've read in a long time."
- Steve Isaak,
Goodreads

HORROR 201:
The Silver Scream

Filmmaker's Guidebook
featuring
RAY BRADBURY,
JOHN CARPENTER,
WES CRAVEN,
TOM HOLLAND,
E.C. McMULLEN Jr.,
GEORGE A. ROMERO,
and many more.

Extensively quoted in

PHANTASM
EXHUMED
The Unauthorized Companion

SATAN'S 3-RING
CIRCUS OF HELL

Forward by
GAHAN WILSON &
FEO AMANTE.
With Comic Art by
ALEX PARDEE,
WILLIAM STOUT,
STEVE BISSETTE,
FRANK DIETZ,
JIM SMITH,
FRANK FORTE,
ERIC PIGORS,
MIKE SOSNOWSKI,
OMAHA PEREZ,
DAVID HARTMAN,
STEVEN MANNION,
JACOB HAIR,
and more!

And In
CINEMA
E.C. McMullen Jr.
Head Production Designer

MINE GAMES
(Starring:
JOSEPH CROSS,
BRIANA EVIGAN,
ALEX MERAZ,
ETHAN PECK)

Dept. head
Special Effects Make-Up
(SFX MUA)

A SIERRA NEVADA
GUNFIGHT
(MICHAEL MADSEN & JOHN SAVAGE).

Production Designer

UNIVERSAL DEAD
(DOUG JONES,
D.B. SWEENEY,
GARY GRAHAM)

Art Director

THE CRUSADER
(COLIN CUNNINGHAM,
GARY GRAHAM)

Review by
E.C. McMullen Jr.

GHOST IN THE SHELL
MOVIE REVIEW

GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE
MOVIE REVIEW

GHOST IN THE SHELL: SOLID STATE SOCIETY - S.A.C.

- 2006
USA Release: Nov. 23, 2012
Bandai Visual Company, Kodansha, Manga Video, Production I.G.
Rated: Argentina, Germany: 16 / Australia: M / Brazil: 14 / Canada: 14+ / Finland: K-11 / France: -12 / Italy: VM14 / Japan: PG-12 / Netherlands, South Korea, Switzerland: 12 / Singapore: M18 / Spain: 18 / Sweden, UK: 15

GHOST IN THE SHELL: SOLID STATE SOCIETY - S.A.C., finishes another story in Masamune Shirow's 1991 ground-breaking comic, KOUKAKU-KIDOUTAI aka GHOST IN THE SHELL.

Once again, Batô plays a hard-boiled type instead of the comedy relief character he was in the Manga. Batô in comic form had his dark side, but it was offset by his perpetual childish nature around the major, for whom he kept a secret crush.

In GHOST IN THE SHELL: INNOCENCE, the major came back from the 'Net, using robots as puppet bodies, to assist Batô in solving a crime. There was an acknowledgement of Batô's affection but it wasn't clear if the major was recognizing Batô's loyalty and friendship, or his deeper love for her.

For those who don't know, Batô is more cyborg than human. So much so that even he doesn't know how much of the real him is left. Humans who are this far gone in cyborg enhancements rely on their humanity via their "Ghost": their actual true mind and identity that was transfered - not copied - to their robot mind (reproducing a copy or copies of someone's Ghost is illegal).

In the original manga, Writer and artist Shirow went even farther than that. Even the robotic parts of enhanced humans are fabricated from the individual's own DNA. In this way the evolutionary identity of the individual is maintained and a successful hacker attack on one will not necessarily work on all - because all are slightly different.

Batô however, is discovering that he has more sensitivity to actual robots than any other enhanced human member of the force. Unlike the others, he cares if any robots come to harm during the course of the job.

GHOST IN THE SHELL: SOLID STATE SOCIETY - S.A.C is a careful edit of the many episodes from the TV series. Cobbled together to create a concise story out of the full season's arc, that played out over a whole lot of episodes, it works well. There are moments where the characters refer to something we haven't seen, but in any story, we would accept that the people we are watching have full lives of experiences.

While less moralizing and expositional than the original, SOLID STATE SOCIETY - S.A.C. also brings considerably less innovation. The original GHOST IN THE SHELL wowed us with all of the new tech and new ideas. GHOST IN THE SHELL: INNOCENCE, to a lesser extent, did the same. SOLID STATE SOCIETY - S.A.C., only has its characters live in that world.

Still, I enjoyed the return!