It is officially Ghost in the Shell month, and though this short trailer has been out for a little while, I thought that it would be prudent to perhaps shine a bit of a light on the GITSchannel’s VR diver depicting the cobbling of the Major Motoko Kusanagi.
Akin to my previous overview for Josh Hassin’s ESCAPE CODE, the Ghost in the Shell VR diver is a difficult beast to analyse due to the brevity of its length, but from what is presented, there is a lot of love and effort put into this trailer. The trailer does deliver a nice rendering of the Arise variant of the Major (even though my Major-y preference lies with the S.A.C. rendition, I can’t help but enjoy this trailer) bestowing its viewers with the almost cliched, but lovely scene of the Major being pieced together, very similar to the shelling process towards the beginning of the 1995 film.
The diver slithers and wriggles around the cyborg body of the Major, the viewer having to contort their neck to follow the nicely paced animation. A nice, melancholic tune plays as the Major is pieced together, the metal clinks, and electronic zaps oddly satisfying to listen to whilst the omniscient narrator speaks mechanically. I found myself in awe while I was twisting my head watching, rewatching, pausing, unpausing, my eyes, smitten with the technology. For me, Ghost in the Shell is one of those special series’ that have inspired me greatly, and to immerse oneself in a VR simulation of the infamous shelling sequence was something magical to behold.
After the Major is fully pieced together, the driver cuts to various scenes of the sprawl only to then cut back to the Major brawling with a larger, clunkier robot, only for it to then cut back to the sprawl once more. While nice, I think the trailer would have benefitted from a slower paced session, perhaps even having the driver take the viewer on a journey of this gaudy, luminescent city on the back of the Major.
But that is a minor gripe.
Yes, this is a trailer for a far larger, grander piece, but this short is still awesome to watch with a VR headset (and even if you don’t have one, you can watch it in 2D on your rig). The film itself was slated for release late last year but seems to have been pushed back, perhaps to coincide with the Hollywood release. You can follow the channel here and here! Make sure to follow us for updates, too.
P.S: Remember, always drink a heavy dose of energy drink and gnaw on a candy bar before you jack into VR!
