A Complex Stand Alone

Last weekend, when I went uptown, there were people outside Forbidden Planet handing out flyers for Sci-Fi-London 6, which looked rather interesting. Of course, with it being over a series of week nights, and concluding today, there were a few things I'd have liked to see, but wasn't able to (Paprika being a prime example). What I did get to was the Production IG Special, featuring the UK Premier of (deep breath) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society.

It's a movie based on the TV series based on the movie, if you follow. Movie GitS and TV GitS never quite seemed to occupy the same reality - at least, I'd always thought that the events of series one were effectively running parallel to the original movie - but the guy who introduced the feature described the TV series as being a prequel to the original movie... Weird.

Originally, the movie was slated to start at 10pm but the schedule changed at some point this last week, and it was listed as starting at 8.45... Little did I know at this point that it was a Production IG Special, not just Solid State Society, that I'd be seeing. The full presentation showcased the studio to the full. Beginning with a (mercifully short) episode of Cromartie High School (described as Monty Python does Grange Hill, but really only funny if you take it as a pastiche of bad anime crowbarred into a high school setting) and the first episode of IG's newest TV series, Le Chevalier D'Eon (exactly what you'd expect if Alexandre Dumas collaborated with George A Romero - period France, fancy swordsmanship... and ZOMBIES!), along with several short clips from their other productions, to demonstrate the studio's incredible range.

Cromartie High School seemed like a demo reel for their special effects or for what they can do for videogame cut-scenes. It only had a plot in the loosest sense and, for a comedy, it really wasn't that funny (except for Freddie... Freddie was funny). It included elements of just about every bad anime show you could name (kids argued about who, among them, was the most 'badass', and the school had a gorilla and a cute robot in residence), so perhaps IG were simply taking the piss. The audience reaction was difficult to judge, but a couple of guys in front of me seemed to find it riotous... No accounting for taste... I found it rather dumb.

On the flipside, Le Chevalier D'Eon had quite an original and compelling story to it. In some ways, it was like a cross between The Rose of Versaille and Hellsing - supernatural violence, conspiracy... and what could be considered cross-dressing. Kinda. It follows the story of D'Eon, working in the secret police in the employ of King Louis XV, and his search for his sister's killers. Court politics must be observed at all times, and yet suspicion falls on the Duc D'Orleans... and things become even more complicated when the wandering ghost of D'Eon's sister takes possession of his body. I must admit that, while I was impressed enough to want to look up the series, while the setting is significantly different, and while the production values seem significantly higher, Chevalier did remind me of Hellsing all the way through.

The main feature of the evening, though, was Solid State Society. Kind of like an extended episode of the TV series (or, more accurately, a compressed version of the story arc of an entire series!), it follows the team at Section 9 (minus the Major, who's gone walkabout on the Net) in their investigation of a rash of suicides in a terrorist group, a series of child abductions, and something fishy going on with the healthcare system for the elderly. Of course, it turns out that all of these things are connected, but the denouement held another surprise - that of how it connected to Section 9 and, most specifically, to the Major. Strange as it was, just like the TV series, Solid State Society was much easier to follow that either of the original movies. The original wasn't overly bogged-down with philosophy, but the slow-burning sequel, Innocence, could be quite ponderous. SSS even manages to be very thought-provoking, once the true (intended) fate of the 'abducted' children is revealed... Was there truly a crime committed, or was a greater morality at work? If I had a complaint about this movie, it would be the extent to which music from the TV series was recycled - all the music, except for the opening and closing themes (both, if I remember correctly, sung largely in Russian by Origa) - had been used repeatedly before. As a member of the audience who has seen Stand Alone Complex and Second Gig, I found it easy to follow - though the characters seemed subtly different, suggesting that either there's a third series wedged in between Second Gig and SSS or, at least, that much time has passed since the Individual 11 case - but I could see many elements that might make it seem obscure to a newbie.

In other news, it seems I was quite timely in deciding to order my Iacon (non-attendees') Package for this year's BotCon... the boxed sets have now sold out, almost two full months before the convention! Interesting, considering the variable reaction this year's Seeker set has received. Last year's 'Pre-Beast Wars' set made it up onto the TFCC's store (albeit briefly), and the 2005 set is still there! Perhaps I should snag one of those... There are a couple of models I like, but the updated 'Deathsaurus' is pretty poor...

Hopefully, I'll be off to Collectormania in Milton Keynes tomorrow... and then Spider-man 3 on Monday... Bank Holidays are all well and good... but it's really going to mess with my deadlines next week.

The Boss has proposed that I come up with an 'Image Adjustment Masterclass', because I've been complaining so bitterly about the rubbish that's been getting into the magazines lately. It's nothing I didn't see coming, and will probably be quite useful for me as well as for the monkeys. I'm fed up with their shoddy work, and I'm fed up with their "we don't have time to learn the software (but we do have time to chat)" attitude, that has them running QuarkXPress 6.5 as if it was still version 3. The problem is, as I've always maintained, no matter how much training you give someone, it won't help if they're inherently lazy.

Speaking of lazy, I still haven't got anywhere with my website...