For those who have seen the Neon Genesis series, you will likely know what this is. It is the entire series in a "compressed" form, where they have dropped some things and combined groups of episodes into smaller movie like releases that are around 2hrs. They also retouched some of the animation with digital enhancements making for a nice new look that doesn't detract from the way the original looked like Ghost in the Shell 2.0 did. For those not familiar with it, it has a very complex story and a large number of characters and this (these) films are sort of a distilled version, where you get key points but lose much of the fine detail that the series has. While you don't
need everything to get the idea, and the series is admittedly slow at times, there are some things that were left out that I felt added a lot to the overall appeal of the series. You also don't need to have seen the series previously to enjoy it, though it isn't for everyone. It still has the same feel, but it is a little more difficult to follow in this film, as the first 5 or so episodes of the series are laying down the characters and foundation before it gets up to speed and some of that is lost here - kind of like watching it on fast forward.
I Netflixed it because I wasn't sure if I would like it, but while I could tell much of what was missing, I still found myself drawn in again by the unique story so I am going to say that fans will want to check this one out for sure. For those who are maybe only casual anime fans, I'd still check it out and this will tell you if this series is for you or not
