Ghost in the Shell SAC Complete cheap?

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klew

CAGiversary!
I think I saw the complete first season of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex for about $65 at some website, but I'd rather get it in store or from a more reputable site. Anyone seen any deals on this collection? (It currently retails for $100.)
 
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[quote name='Drensch']I have them all and the DDD 20% sale is generally the best pricing.[/QUOTE]

Is the discount you're thinking of already applied to the $60 (more than 30% off!) price, or might it be discounted another 20% on sale?? (Thanks for the website tip, btw. Oh, and how do you like the series? Not really seen it, but love the film.)
 
[quote name='klew']Is the discount you're thinking of already applied to the $60 (more than 30% off!) price, or might it be discounted another 20% on sale?? (Thanks for the website tip, btw. Oh, and how do you like the series? Not really seen it, but love the film.)[/quote]
DDD's 20% off sales are applied to their already low price. I picked up the GITS complete boxset for $48 during their last sale.
 
By the way, the series kicks ASS. Anime fan or not, this is a great detective show with an epic storyline and sweet action. The show uses the characters and concept of the movie, but does not take into account the events of the movie. The first season's plot combines moral questions about the advancement of technology (specifically the internet) and its implications on society. Generic, I know, but never have I seen a vision of the future so real as that depicted by Ghost in the Shell: SAC. The second season is proving to be just as strong (I have yet to finish it), albeit less provocative. That's not saying much, though; the story of the Laughing Man from the first series is mind-blowing.
 
The show uses the characters and concept of the movie, but does not take into account the events of the movie.
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Ghost in the Shell began as a manga (Japanese comic) series, with a surprising amount of goofy humor. The movie was the first animated incarnation of the series, but was much more serious and it was serious all the time. SAC is actually closer to the source material than the movie was in terms of tone but there are still many changes.
The second season is proving to be just as strong (I have yet to finish it), albeit less provocative.
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2nd GiG had some great backstory episodes, but overall it wasn't anywhere near the level of the first season.

I recently saw the SAC movie, Solid State Society, it's decent but at this point when I watch SAC, I want to watch 26 episodes, not a teeny movie. However, I did hear the production team had high hopes to continue the SAC world, hopefully in another season, but possibly another movie or OAVs.
 
I prefer the show to the movie. The first movie is alright and the second movie is worth seeing just because of the visuals.

The show is way better than both imho, it has more depth and lets you get into the characters more.
 
I agree, the movie was so much better. Series is ok, the packing for the box set sucks. Its in a box. Right stuff had it over the holidays around 50 - 55 bucks. It shipped about 3 weeks ago.
 
I like SAC season 1 better, though season 2 had its moments. Season 2 just got way too confusing...like "how many obscure government agencies can we talk about in one sentence that are remotely related to the plot but not really relevant at all and only mentioned to make it sound like so much more is going on instead of just showing it." :lol:

The laughing man is just classic though...
 
[quote name='Apossum']I like SAC season 1 better, though season 2 had its moments. Season 2 just got way too confusing...like "how many obscure government agencies can we talk about in one sentence that are remotely related to the plot but not really relevant at all and only mentioned to make it sound like so much more is going on instead of just showing it." :lol:

The laughing man is just classic though...[/QUOTE]

I liked season 2 better... hmm... maybe I just liked that it seemed darker. I still have to finish the last 2 discs though...

Well anyway, both seasons are excellent. Personally, the first movie is my favorite GITS thing of all... fucking loved that.
 
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I have a related question that you guys can hopefully help me with.

So they have the regular box sets of Season 1, which are just the regular volumes. Do they have a box set of all of the Special Edition volumes? This is what I've really been waiting for, but I have yet to hear about it.

They have these two box sets on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Shell-Stand-Alone-Complex/dp/B000A5TETI/sr=1-13/qid=1170946116/ref=sr_1_13/002-5192861-4357651?ie=UTF8&s=dvd
http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Shell-SAC-Complete-Season/dp/B000HIVQAS/sr=1-1/qid=1170946199/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-5192861-4357651?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

But neither one of those appears to be Special Edition at all. Not to mention that the special editions came with a shitload of extras.


Here's an Amazon review that was really helpful if you are looking at Special Editions:

[quote name='User Comment on Amazon']I would rate the show as 5 stars, this is a review of the extras and features of the Special Edition issue.
I recently bought all the Special Edition releases of "Stand Alone Complex" after trying to research what I was going to get as extras not included in the regular edition. I found the listings on Amazon's product details to be a little confusing and incomplete on some of the volumes so I decided to write this guide for others trying to decide. I'm not going to review the "Ghost in the Shell" episodes or the series in general because there are so many excellent reviews already on this site, and most of you probably know about this great anime TV series already. There are various other reviews that say that some of the DVD's and CD's have errors on them and Bandai will replace them with corrected discs if you send them in for exchange. I have not ran into problems yet, although I haven't gone through the whole series either. And I will also state that I love the TV series as well as both movies, but I would recommend the Imported Region 2 version of GITS2:Innocence if you have a region free DVD player. Dreamworks really messed up that release omiting the English dub and putting Hard of Hearing subtitles instead of regular ones on the early issues of that movie. Most people find them very distracting and annoying.

First off the discs themselves, you get two DVD discs in each volume with the same episodes on both discs. Volumes 1-5 have 4 episodes each, 6 and 7 have 3 episodes each making 26 episodes total in the series. Both discs are Anamorphic wide screen encoded directly from the High-Definition Masters. Both Discs also have English subtitles. Each set also has two interviews with voice cast or someone associated with the production of the anime, and a printed DVD insert pamphlet or booklet with different interviews and such for each volume. All discs are Region 1.

Disc one has Dolby Digital 5.1 in Japanese and English, and Dolby Digital 2.0 in English and Japanese.

Disc two has DTS 5.1 in English and Japanese and a Dolby Digital 2.0 English track.

Volumes 1 and 2 include soundtrack CD's of the music of Yoko Kanno, the most excellent and versatile composer of the music in the TV series. Anime lovers know her work from the many fine soundtracks that she's done for countless other anime movies and TV series.

Volume 3 has a Black XL Fruit of the Loom Tee-Shirt with the section 9 logo on the front and a Major Kusanagi graphic on the back. Nice shirt!

Volumes 4 and 5 have a collectable I.D. cards for a section 9 member.

Volume 6 has a Black XL Fruit of the Loom Tee-Shirt with the section 9 logo on the front and a Batou graphic on the back, and another I.D. card. Nice shirt again!

Volume 7 has another Tee-Shirt! This time it's a White XL with the section 9 logo on the front, and the Laughing Man logo on the back! Once again nice shirt! It also comes with a tin box that's supposed to hold all 7 volumes of the DVD set. I was excited about getting the box but when it arrived I was disappointed with the design. It's kind of like the rectangular lunch box that you used to take to school as a kid, without the handle and latch. Its also of a thinner metal that dents easily. It has marketing type of printing on the backside that pertains to vol. 7 only, and the DVD cases stack inside one on top of the other. The spines of the cases are not visible when you open the box, only the front of the last case you put in. So you have to take all the cases out of the tin to get to a specific volume. There's also not room for the cardboard sleves that the DVD's were in when you got the individual volumes, and no room for the soundtrack CD's either. All said, I was disappointed with the box. Because of it's odd dimensions it doesn't stack in well with my DVD library. I would have much preferred the normal five sided box that usually comes with DVD sets.

Overall I'd say it's worth it to buy volumes 3, 6 and 7 new to get the shirts if they interest you and pick up the others used if you can to save some money on the series. That is if you're interested in the DTS soundtrack options. I much prefer the DTS mixes to Dolby Digital and wanted the soundtrack CD's as well. Also the cardboard boxes that come with volumes 3 and 6 are better than the tin box to store your set in when you complete the series, if you stack them on shelves one row of DVD's on top of another row, and you can fit the movies into those boxes as well to fill them the rest of the way.
[/quote]


I'll probably just try to start collecting the separate Special Editions instead of waiting for a Special Edition Box Set that contains all of that extra stuff, that will probably never happen.
 
[quote name='GuyWithGun']I'll probably just try to start collecting the separate Special Editions instead of waiting for a Special Edition Box Set that contains all of that extra stuff, that will probably never happen.[/quote]

I think the biggest addition was the DTS Audio. It was awesome.
 
[quote name='Mookyjooky']I think the biggest addition was the DTS Audio. It was awesome.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, it definitely was the biggest additon. It really sounds a lot better than the DD 5.1.
 
[quote name='GuyWithGun']I have a related question that you guys can hopefully help me with.

So they have the regular box sets of Season 1, which are just the regular volumes. Do they have a box set of all of the Special Edition volumes? This is what I've really been waiting for, but I have yet to hear about it.

They have these two box sets on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Shell-Stand-Alone-Complex/dp/B000A5TETI/sr=1-13/qid=1170946116/ref=sr_1_13/002-5192861-4357651?ie=UTF8&s=dvd
http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Shell-SAC-Complete-Season/dp/B000HIVQAS/sr=1-1/qid=1170946199/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-5192861-4357651?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

But neither one of those appears to be Special Edition at all. Not to mention that the special editions came with a shitload of extras.


Here's an Amazon review that was really helpful if you are looking at Special Editions:




I'll probably just try to start collecting the separate Special Editions instead of waiting for a Special Edition Box Set that contains all of that extra stuff, that will probably never happen.[/quote] I would just start collecting the LE. The current DVDPlanet B1G1 Sale, which include select Ghost in the Shell titles may be a good starting point. I'm pretty sure Manga won't be releasing a boxset for the LE for either of the seasons. It's also unlikely that RightStuf will have a bundle sale like the Samurai 7 since they no longer sell Vol.7 (LE). The only possibility is if another site offers a special bundle sale, which at this point is very unlikely!
 
[quote name='GuyWithGun']I'll probably just try to start collecting the separate Special Editions instead of waiting for a Special Edition Box Set that contains all of that extra stuff, that will probably never happen.[/QUOTE]
That would be my advice too, since AFAIK they never released a complete SE box set and have no plans to do so. FYI, the SEs come with a second DVD which contains the DTS soundtrack and various tchochkes: 3 t-shirts and 2 soundtrack CDs, IIRC.

DVD Planet's current B1G1 Free sale has five of seven volumes available, so that's a good way to score them. Or if you're willing to settle for the regular box set (and can find another $60 set you want), you could get that instead.
 
[quote name='unbongwah']That would be my advice too, since AFAIK they never released a complete SE box set and have no plans to do so. FYI, the SEs come with a second DVD which contains the DTS soundtrack and various tchochkes: 3 t-shirts and 2 soundtrack CDs, IIRC.

DVD Planet's current B1G1 Free sale has five of seven volumes available, so that's a good way to score them. Or if you're willing to settle for the regular box set (and can find another $60 set you want), you could get that instead.[/quote]
Yeah, I really want the bonus dvds and the soundtracks and t-shirts and all that junk that probably wouldn't be included in a full season.

Thanks for all of the recommendations guys! I'm going to check out the DVD Planet deal right now for those.
 
Actually, at the DVDPlanet sale, you can get the Season boxset for about 60 dollars. They also have a bunch of the 2nd Gig LE's. So you can get an LE+Season for 60 bucks.
That's an excellent deal.
 
Does anyone have experience with DVDplanet's economy shipping? Do they use good packaging materials? It says it can take from 7-28 days, so I assume they use media mail.
 
Thanks for all the great responses! One more question: Is the first season self-contained, meaning does the story arc end with the last episode? OR is it a cliffhanger ending that continues into season 2??
 
Season one Laughing Man arc ends with season one.


I think DVD planet is related to ddd, and they're cool to order from.
 
Thanks! But what gives? I checked this morning and could get season 1 and anything else (was planning on official log 1) B1G1 but had to wait till this afternoon and now no deal (not even $10 off with Google) even though ad is still up and everything's shown as in stock!!! Oh, well, looks like they don't want my business this time ...
 
[quote name='Azumangaman']Just a heads up...
They cancelled GITS: Official Log 2, so you may want something different if you were considering the first log.[/quote]
Do you know why they aren't making a second one?
 
Thanks again, especially for checking on that DVD Planet offer. But I might have to wait till after Valentine's just in case (no idea how long the offer lasts).

Anyway, I did read that log 1 runs through about episode 19 (of 26?). Is that what would have differentiated the logs, i.e. how much of the season they covered? It still sounded pretty interesting.

Otherwise, I might have to get Crime Story season 2 unless anyone has any other suggestions (I'd rather have a complete story arc so no GITS season 2 vols.)

Hey, what about Neon Genesis Evangelion or Evil Dead 1 & 2? The name of the former is familiar but I know nothing about it, and the latter I've heard is supposed to be pretty good fun.
 
[quote name='klew']Hey, what about Neon Genesis Evangelion or Evil Dead 1 & 2? The name of the former is familiar but I know nothing about it, and the latter I've heard is supposed to be pretty good fun.[/QUOTE]
Avoid the Eva movies unless you've seen the TV series. Actually, one of the movies is an extremely condensed summary of the series, but I can't imagine you'd be engaged with the characters after viewing only that.
 
[quote name='klew']Thanks again, especially for checking on that DVD Planet offer. But I might have to wait till after Valentine's just in case (no idea how long the offer lasts).

Anyway, I did read that log 1 runs through about episode 19 (of 26?). Is that what would have differentiated the logs, i.e. how much of the season they covered? It still sounded pretty interesting.

Otherwise, I might have to get Crime Story season 2 unless anyone has any other suggestions (I'd rather have a complete story arc so no GITS season 2 vols.)

Hey, what about Neon Genesis Evangelion or Evil Dead 1 & 2? The name of the former is familiar but I know nothing about it, and the latter I've heard is supposed to be pretty good fun.[/QUOTE]

I think Evil Dead 2 is the best movie ever, so my opinion on the matter would be slightly skewed.

I'd best not comment at all.
 
Anyway, I did read that log 1 runs through about episode 19 (of 26?). Is that what would have differentiated the logs, i.e. how much of the season they covered? It still sounded pretty interesting.
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Yeah. I'm not sure what eps exactly, and too lazy to go look, but its a little more than the first half. There, as of now, are no other US releases of the logs. There are 3 more Japanese logs, 1 for the remainder of season 1 and 2 for 2nd gig.
 
Yeah, I started to read more about the Eva movies and think I'll avoid them. Folks echoed your comment that unless you've seen the series it's best to avoid, so think I will.

My nephew is a big fan of Army of Darkness, which I saw bits of and enjoyed; just not sure how compares with Evil Dead. On other hand, I was a big fan of Crime Story when debuted (have season 1 but haven't watched again so not sure how holds up).

Too bad about GITS logs 2 etc. Log 1 sounds interesting for some background info though not essential from what I read. Wish they had more options than these (especially in anime). (Though can't complain considering basically getting one for free.)
 
Got my dvds today. A couple of the boxes were smashed, and I'll have to return a volume because the dvd was cracked.

I ordered on Sunday last week, they didn't process the order until Thursday of last week. They shipped it out that day. Got to a city an hour away at approx. 10:30am Friday and left that city for here at 11:30pm. UPS didn't scan it in until 3:30am this morning, which means it was sitting in a UPS truck in the freezing weather for 2 1/2 days. The box was packed poorly and it had puncture marks on the side so it was handled pretty roughly.

So not 100% pleased with DVDPlanet, but I got them B1G1, so I guess I get what I pay for.

I guess I'm fine because I finally freaking have most of the GITS episodes now. Just need to wait until DDD.com has a 20% off sale to get the remaining 3 volumes that I'm missing.
 
[quote name='GuyWithGun']Got my dvds today. A couple of the boxes were smashed, and I'll have to return a volume because the dvd was cracked.

I ordered on Sunday last week, they didn't process the order until Thursday of last week. They shipped it out that day. Got to a city an hour away at approx. 10:30am Friday and left that city for here at 11:30pm. UPS didn't scan it in until 3:30am this morning, which means it was sitting in a UPS truck in the freezing weather for 2 1/2 days. The box was packed poorly and it had puncture marks on the side so it was handled pretty roughly.

So not 100% pleased with DVDPlanet, but I got them B1G1, so I guess I get what I pay for.

I guess I'm fine because I finally freaking have most of the GITS episodes now. Just need to wait until DDD.com has a 20% off sale to get the remaining 3 volumes that I'm missing.[/quote]

A couple of the volumes I received were so badly damaged (crushed box/loose DVD) that I called and got them to send replacements. Those came today and are better, though for some reason the box for Season 2 - Vol. 1 has been crushed on both occasions. Luckily the second one wasn't as bad as the first. In the case of both shipments there was no apparent damage to the outer box, so the DVD boxes must have been in that condition prior to shipment. :whistle2:|
 
A few of the retailers ive been to have LE versions that have crushed boxes. I'm wondering if there was a problem with certain shipments from Bandai's distro company.
 
I've seen this in other threads about discounted DVDs, but a couple of mine also had one of those Best Buy stickers on them.
 
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