I've seen the first movie years ago, and recently (last year) i've read the manga, seen the complete Stand Slone Complex 1st gig, and 2nd gig until episode 16 (newest, aired in February in Japan), and also the movie GITS2: Innocence.
The series and 2nd movie aren't a sequel to the first movie, as anyone might think.
It's all a bunch of possible alternate realities, and have no plot connection whatsoever between them.
In 1st GIG, there are some episodes that are Stand Alone, they can be seen separately from every other and still make sense, and then there are the Complex episodes. They are apart from other complex episodes,
but they all have somewhat of a storyline inherent to them, a major plot, if you will.
*** (very little) SPOILERS ***
The 1st GIG main story is about a hacker that no one has ever seen or able to prove it (because you don't even know if it is a
he ou a
she) exists. It is a hunt to find him/her and understand an act of violence he/she has done in the past against an important man back then.
It is all I can say without spoiling anythig else.
The "Stand Alone/Complex" episode style is the same for 2nd GIG. This time is about "the refugees", who have been mad to the government, and misteriously start to organize themselves, supposedly due to a hacker that made them change their minds into forming some kind of army. This is the viewer's perspective when starting to watch the 2nd GIG. But it all thickens when we find out that most of "the refugees" don't even have cyber-brains. If so, how can the hacker change their minds, and more troubling, how can "the refugees" treat him like a leader and be willing to die for him?
I won't say more about this, anything more (even small) would spoil the pleasure of watching the 2nd GIG episodes.
As for the movie Innocence (GITS 2), it is fantastic. Is it the brilliant CG animation perfectly merged with the classic but extremely well drawn animation? Is it the landscapes that leave you with your jaw in the floor? is it the characters?
Maybe a bit of all, but the main thing is the plot: they been inserting a person's conscience in a machine for years. Cyber-brains and cyborgs. What if the machines don't want to have a conscience inside them? What if they start to act on their own? I'll say no more. Just watch it.
I hope this info hasn't spoiled anything for you, this is all aquired from viewing the first one or two episodes in the series, so lot's to be revealed yet, to your enjoyment.
Sorry for the long post, I couldn't help it.
.
. I think you will be quite welcome here.... 