HMV ran a 20% discount across their entire Blu-ray catalog and anime was included. While I attended the last day of the weekend, I figured I would pick up some more Ghost in the Shell titles that I had yet to watch or own.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society (Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society) is a 2006 feature-length anime film directed by Kenji Kamiyama, animated by studio Production I.G, and published by Bandai Visual. Solid State Society is a continuation of the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex television series and the franchise as a whole is based on Masamune Shirow’s manga Ghost in the Shell.
Solid State Society has been around in English territories for a long while now. Manga Entertainment has released the film in the UK on both Blu-ray and DVD and it’s still in print in contrast to the North American release which was distributed by Bandai Entertainment. In recent years, Manga Entertainment re-released the film as well as the Stand Alone Complex compilation films (Individual Eleven and Laughing Man) with new artwork and a new slipcover to go alongside it. Solid State Society’s re-release came out on 20th March 2017 and thus, this is the version that I have for the collection.
This release by Manga Entertainment is a regular package that covers the film on a single Blu-ray disc with a slipcover and reversible cover art so that you can switch between the new artwork and the older artwork. The Blu-ray disc offers both the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and the Bandai Entertainment English dub using the Bandai Entertainment author. The disc is region locked to B and the subtitles are unlockable during playback.
You can order the standard edition UK Blu-ray release on Amazon UK.
Blu-ray Specs:
Languages: English, Japanese
Audio: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Video: 1080p High Definition Native format with 16:9 ratio
Region: B
Subtitles: English
Locked Subtitles: No
Discs: 1
Plot Synopsis (via Manga Entertainment):
“The year is 2034, and the face of terrorism has changed. No longer restricted to the limits of the physical world, the war on terror has exploded onto the net. In an attempt to confront this new threat, an elite counter-terrorism and anti-crime unit was formed: Public Security Section 9.
Two years have since passed when the team’s commander: Major Motoko Kusanagi, resigned from her post. After a rash of mysterious suicides Secion 9 is forced to confront the ‘Puppeteer’, a dangerous hacker with unsurpassed skills. As their investigation of this terrorist threat takes them deeper into the bowels of a potential government conspiracy, Section 9 once again crosses paths with the Major, but is her sudden reappearance more than a coincidence, or is she somehow connected to the ‘Puppeteer’?”
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Work World File
Making of Tachikoma Robot
Anime + Car Design – Designing the Future Car
English Production Interview
Mitsuhisa Ishikawa (Production IG) Interview
Uchikomatic Days
English Trailer
Japanese Trailer
Trailers
Blu-ray Credits
English End Feature Credits
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society is available on Blu-ray from Manga Entertainment.
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment