Age and Parenthood: Why Waiting Might Not Be Worth It

 

Photo by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-little-girl-coloring-with-her-grandparents-8307604/

I never thought that I would write an article on this topic but here it goes. I understand that it's perfectly normal to want kids, some might even keep trying to have a kid, or more kids later on in life, when there 50, 70 years old. But at a certain point, you have to put your foot down and tell yourself that enough is enough. Don't worry, I'll explain why.

I can't speak for everyone else, but from my own experience growing up, looking back, I can tell you it wasn't all perfect growing up, with elderly parents, or in my case, mainly one parent. You see, my birth mom died when I was a baby, and I never knew my birth dad. Afterward, my mom's sister, my aunt took me in with her husband, then around the time I was 7, my aunt's husband passed away from cancer. 

It honestly was not fun growing up, watching people in your family pass away left and right, all because your mom had you later in life, well more so, that my aunt took me in when she was in her 60s, and her husband was around 75 at the time. Yes, I'm very grateful that they took me in, but it was very lonely in many ways growing up. 

To start off with, I was an only child, with no siblings, I didn't realize this till I started looking back on my life, after my aunt passed away, who to me was my mom because she raised me, but because of the fact that she was in her 60's when she took me in, and then by the time she passed away, she was 83, by the time I was in my teens, and going into my 20's, her patience was either very little or non at all, when it came to a lot of problems I had growing up. So the only people I had to lean on for emotional support were friends I had in high school, or people I met in my 20s at my jobs, or people who I talked to online, or people I dated, but I basically got the message in my 20's, that I couldn't go to her and cry about things I was feeling or going through at the time. Of course, I got the whole speech, of I should be grateful, because I had a house, car, and a fair amount of money, looking back, in my opinion, people who say that, are basically saying, that they don't care, and don't want to hear it. All of the materialistic stuff doesn't compensate for the emotional support I didn't get from my mom growing up.

What's my point to all of this? If you're going to try to have kids when your 50, 60, or even 70, in my honest opinion, don't. You had plenty of time when you were younger, and if you couldn't have kids of your own biology, you could have adopted, or just accepted it, and found something else to give your life purpose. To me, trying to have kids, when your are that old, is honestly selfish as hell, especially when your 60, 70 years old, that kid will have to grow up, knowing full well, that you may not be there on the day they graduate high school, or even on their wedding day. Yes, my mom, (aunt), was there when I graduated high school, but when I finally got married, by then she passed away. My point? Do you really want to put your child through that? Growing up, and basically watching you die? But because you gave them stuff, they should be grateful? Your basically invalidating their pain. 

On top of the fact, that my entire 20's practically, it was spent taking care of my mom, because of her getting older, having health problems, taking her to the doctor. If I had a child, I wouldn't want to put them through that, them having to take care of me, and basically waste their youth away, their prime years taking care of me. In my opinion, it's selfish, to expect your child to take care of you. 

So please, reconsider having kids later, or putting it off till very late in life, for the child sake. 

Forever Young: Nurturing Your Inner Child for a Life of Joy

 When I was growing up, I used to think, that when you become an adult, that's it, it's all over, that you magically know everything, and it all ends, I mean everyone says, by the time you are an adult, your childhood is officially over. But I'm starting to think I was wrong.  What if your childhood doesn't have to end, what if the little child inside all of us, is still there, just waiting for us to remember the wanderlust we had for life. What if, it all doesn't have to end, what if we actually do have a choice, as to whether or not we grow up, what if, the little child inside all of us, never went away, we simply forgot it was there all along. 

Maybe in the grand scheme of things, it's up to us to embrace the inner child that we have hidden deep inside, to remember all the things that we once loved from our childhood, instead of choosing to forget them, all for the sake of growing up. Perhaps the phrase, " be a kid at heart", had more truth to it, then we let ourselves believe, because now I'm starting to think it holds a lot of truth to it. In my opinion, letting our inner child go, what be a great disgrace to ourselves, not truly embracing the inner child we have, the childlike wonder for life, wanting to learn, discover, experience as many new things as possible. Being complacent can kill childlike wonder, maybe not all at once, but slowly over time it sure can. 

Complacency naturally happens over time the older we all get, from going to college, studies long hours, taking exams, to working long hours and coming home and just wanting to be left alone, to being busy cooking and cleaning and taking care of the kids at home. But in my opinion, letting yourself fall into complacency, is unknowingly setting yourself up for failure in the long run. So my advice, is to try to reignite the spark inside of you, remember your inner child, the childlike wonder you had for life, that pushed yo to try new things, learn more, experience new things everyday.

There's a difference between living and existing. The choice is yours. 

Disney, What happened? Where did the magic go?

 

DISNEY: What Happened?

Since around 2011-2013, things basically started to slowly change with the movies Disney produced, and not for the better, around that time, 3D animation was becoming very popular, and 2D hand-drawn animation was slowly becoming a thing of the past. On top of the fact, that around 2019-2022, Disney started bumping out live-action remakes left and right. People could tell after a while, that they were only making all these live-action remakes, for a quick cash grab, and no longer for the audience as a whole. 

Now, with the new film coming out, "WISH", already on TikTok, people already are complaining, saying that it doesn't even look that good. It's ironic, since it's Disney's 100th anniversary, but I'm sorry to say this, the spirit, the "Disney magic" that was in the old films, it's not in the new films that they are making now. Before, growing up, it felt like they actually cared about the people who watched their films, now it just feels like they no longer care about the audience who is watching the films that they are producing, now they're just making anything to get money into their pockets. Ironic, because by no longer caring about what they're producing, or the audience, the people who watch their films, they will be losing money in the long run. 

In my opinion, unless Disney makes some major changes, things will only continue to get worse, instead of better, and I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. If I had to choose between 2D animation and 3D animation, I'd pick the old school, 2D hand-drawn animation style that Disney used to do, what they were known for. With the hand-drawn style, you could feel the Disney magic, when you watch the films, now it all just feels like a cash grab, with no Disney magic in it anymore. 

Fatal Frame: Unraveling the Haunting Legacy - Analyzing the Evolution of Fear and Why the Fourth and Fifth Installments Miss the Mark

 

FATAL FRAME 1,2,& 3

The Fatal Frame series is one of my favorite videogame horror series ever made. My personal favorites are the first three, I honestly feel like, after the third one, they could have just ended the series there, not making two more games years later. On top of the fact, that the other two games were on completely different consoles when the first three where on the XBOX and the PlayStation, then when the fourth one came out, it was made exclusively for the WII, on top of the fact, that at the time, the internet speeds where not as fast, so people couldn't just binge watch gameplay of games they couldn't afford to buy. I remember people were complaining about how the fourth one was on a completely different console, when I finally got to watch the gameplay of the fourth one, I was very disappointed, it didn't feel like the Fatal Frame series that I grew up with at all. It felt like, a completely different game, and they just slapped on the title, "Fatal Frame" just for a quick cash grab. Then the fifth one came out, and I was just done with it, why they made a fifth one, I still don't know. 

To me, the series was fine, the way it was, with just the first three games, there was no need to make two more games, yes the graphics were just crystal clear, and realistic, but the stories were great, and the characters were interesting, and the voice acting wasn't horrible. Add onto the fact, that they were actually scary, without forcing it in your face, it felt organic, with the fourth one, I could already tell it was all just forced, for a quick buck in someone's wallet.

Out of the first three, my personal favorites, are the second and third game. But altogether, I love all three. In my opinion what they managed to do with Fatal Frame when it first came out, is something rare, it had interesting stories, good characters, scary, thought-provoking, and the game mechanics, made you feel like you were a part of the game itself, living the stories, alongside of the characters. Instead of you feeling like you're seeing it all from the sidelines, with Fatal Frame, you were right there, with the camera, fighting off the ghosts. As much as I love, the game Haunting Ground, I rarely felt that immersed within the game, I felt like I was just watching the whole thing from the sidelines. I think what they managed to create with Fatal Frame, was something special and unique, but putting out two more, was completely unnecessary.

Shattered Bonds: Friendship and Tragedy in Jennifer's Body

 

I remember when I first saw the movie, Jennifer's Body, the first impression I got from it after the credits rolled, was about a girl who came back and got revenge, killing boys. Basically "girl empowerment", and the advertisements for the movie didn't help, it basically gave the impression that it was eye candy for boys and men, with sexual tones. Sure I've rewatched it a few times, but I finally rewatched it a month ago, after a decade later, and now my feelings on it have completely changed but for the better. 

Now when I think of the movie, it's not just about a girl getting revenge, it's deeper then that, it's a story about two girls, who were best friends, over time start drifting apart from each other. By the time the movie starts, it shows, Needy starting to drift away from Jennifer, and getting closer to her boyfriend, all while showing Jennifer unhappy with Needy drifting apart from her, and tries throughout the movie to reconnect with her. Asking Needy to go with her to the bar to see the band that it's town, then later on, tries to reconnect with Needy by kissing her like they used to do, trying to rekindle their friendship.

Not only does it show the two girls drifting apart from each other, it also shows them as victims as well. With Jennifer,  it shows her being a victim right from the very beginning, with boys and men using and abusing her, to where the only friend and person she could trust was Needy. So from Jennifer's perspective, it makes sense as to why she didn't want to lose Needy as a friend.

As for Needy, she didn't become a victim till the end of the film, when she lost both, her boyfriend and her best friend Jennifer. Jennifer and Needy where both victims of life, just in different ways. I don't think people realize how deep the movie actually is, till they rewatch it a few good times, and think deep about the movie as a whole. It's an excellent film, one that I think is as important now, as it was when it first came out. 

It's more than a horror movie, mixed with comedy or sexual undertones, it's about two friends that ended up drifting apart, and also being victims of life itself. 

Wise Women of Fiction: Embracing the Legacy of Old Iconic Characters

 

Strong female characters, this is something I never thought I'd have to write about, but here we are. You might be asking yourself why, and I'll tell you, I feel like in the past decade, the concept or a lot of constructs of what makes up a strong female character has been lost or warped. What I'm about to say, might wruffle some feathers, but so be it, within the past decade, the whole feminism movement has become a thing, and I honestly have no problem with it, but you would think that with this becoming a thing, that female characters would be written better, but it seems like it's been the opposite, at least from were I'm standing.  

To start this off, when I was growing up, the female characters that I grew up with, that I considered strong, a lot of them, didn't have to sacrifice their feminity in order to be strong or independent. They were still able to be feminine, and at the same time, being strong, holding their own, without sacrificing their morals or what they believe in. They were written in a way, where anyone could relate to them, girls, boys, men, and women,, they weren't shoehorned into a cookie-cutter box, only being limited to one thing. 

I grew up with so many female characters that I admired and looked up to, for a multitude of reasons, they were multifaceted, with strong morals, Sailor Moon, for example, stood by her friends and family, and her lover Tuxedo Mask, she didn't choose, she valued them all. Faith Conners from the game, Mirrors Edge, her main priority was protecting her sister Kate. Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, she loved traveling, exploring Tombs, and gathering artifacts, and she did it all on her own, well I mean she had her assistants that helped her remotely, but she stayed single throughout all of the games, she didn't need a man, she stood her ground, and handled herself, her problems on her own, without backing down without a fight. 

Motoko Kusanagi from the anime, Ghost in The Shell, she was the team leader of unit Section 9, and all the men on the team listened to her, respected her, didn't question her, dismiss her, or talk back to her, yes she dressed sexy, but people took her seriously, she was intelligent, kicked ass, and handled herself, and at the same time, worked with the team, not against it. Buffy from the show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she protected her friends, valued the men she loved, was always willing to go against the vampires, and at the same time, she dressed well in style and had fun when she could. Faye Valentine from the anime, Cowboy Bebop, she dressed sexy as hell, traveled, could handle a gun with no problem, and didn't fear fighting against anyone who got in her way. Rayne, from the Videogame, Blood Rayne, she was half human, half vampire, fought against vampires, and other monsters, didn't hurt humans, and didn't sacrifice her morals. Lain, from the anime, Serial Experiments Lain, even though she was a child, she had a lot of maturity for her age, she mainly wanted to learn as much as possible, wasn't afraid of learning more, always asking questions, to as many people as she could, and at the same time, questioning the reality that she knew. Clare from the anime, Claymore, her she always did her job, fulfilling her duty, protecting the young boy she meets along the way, Rocky, while extracting revenge for her friend Teresa who was murdered.

Seems like now, a majority of female characters are cookie-cutter characters, boxed into one little thing, either a damsel in distress, always relying on the guy, the dumb blonde, mom, wife, or some other stereotype, it honestly feels like nowadays, there isn't as much freedom when it comes to writing female characters anymore. Which is sad, because there used to be so much room for writing the female characters in a multitude of ways, but now they are limited now more than ever, which makes it a lot harder to relate to them. I can only hope that one day, that female characters will be given more room to breathe, and not boxed into one thing. 

Unveiling the Digital Legacy: How .hack//SIGN Forged a Multiverse of Virtual Adventure and Beyond

 

I know that there are probably not a lot of people who know of this rare gem called, ".hack//SIGN", instead, most people will probably know of Sword Art Online, and a few might have heard of Log Horizon. I'm only mentioning Sword Art Online, and Log Horizon, because they have the same idea as, hack//SIGN, a bunch of people playing an online game, and being stuck inside the game. 

With .hack//SIGN, it's pretty much the same idea, but instead of all the players stuck inside the game, there's only one person who is stuck inside of the game, one thing, it's a slower-paced show, whereas, Sword Art Online is faster paced, I only saw the first few episodes of Log Horizon, but it felt fairly fast-paced. 

Even though there are some gripes with .hack//SIGN, and the pacing of the show, without that show, the spin-off anime shows, video games, and manga's wouldn't have been a thing at all. In my opinion, it's rare to see, an anime show, be the start of a huge franchise. 

One thing that I loved about .hack//SIGN, is, even though it's slow-paced, it gives you time to breathe and actually get to know all the characters and a little bit of their lives outside of the game. For me at least, it made the show feel more grounded and realistic and actually helped me get attached to the characters in the show, so by the end, it felt like I went on the journey with them.

.hack//SIGN was only 26 episodes, but to me, it wrapped everything up very nicely, and since it was the start of the rest of the franchise, it left a lot left for the rest of the games, anime, and manga to explore. Some of the games, had easter eggs in them, from .hack//SIGN, basically, they all connected to each other in some way. Yet at the same time, it's also possible to play the games out of order and still have fun, and enjoy the story.

The Games

Following the anime, there were two-game series, that were spin off's of the original anime show, basically continuing the story, of where the anime left off. It is possible, like I said before, to play the games, without any knowledge of .hack//SIGN, but it does help to have some knowledge of what's going on, and how the game, " The World" actually works, at least for me, it made things go a lot more smoothly then just going in completely blind. With the first game series, with each game disc, came with it, an OVA, a stand-alone anime episode, showing what was happening in the real world, while you were playing the game, it adds more to the story and kinda explains more from an outside perspective. Something that I haven't seen any other type of videogame do.

As for the videogames, they explained the story, the farther you went, but at the same time, they didn't hold your hand, you had to put the work in yourself, grinding, leveling up your characters, getting stronger weapons, and more useful items, and even walking around talking to other characters, (npc's) to get more information on what's going on. The games even had a message board for you to get more information from other players in the game, and to read and reply to your emails, helping you get more information that way as well. It was very well put together, so you felt very immersed in the games and the story. 

Now, onto Sword Art Online for a quick second. I watched three seasons of it, and honestly by the third season, I was done with it, for a multitude of reasons. To start off, the story went everywhere, it started as a mystery, horror, where all the characters were stuck inside the game, to harem, then it went from harem to damsel in distress, on top of the fact that the were was no direction of the show, you barely got to know the side characters that well, and the only ones they focused on, were Kirito and Asuna. Everyone acted like, Sword Art Online was the first anime ever to tackle the concept of being stuck inside a virtual game, when it wasn't the first anime to do this, it's just that, Sword Art Online became popular, because of all the advertisements that they were doing, so by the time the show aired, everyone knew what it was. 

With the first set of .hack games that were split into four parts, each game came with it, an OVA episode, that was showing what was going on in the real world while you were playing the game. The OVA was called, .hack//Liminality, and in my opinion, it was very well written, showing more of the lore, and history of the story, the creator of the game "The World", helped you understand more of what was going on, so you weren't completely lost while you were playing the games. 

In the anime .hack//SIGN, one of the main characters is Tsukasa, a male Wavemaster in the game, by the end of the show, it's revealed that Tsukasa's real identity in the real world, is actually a girl named, An Shoji. In my honest opinion, the handled the character Tsukasa very well, it explored the concept of self-identity, gender, sexuality, learning to trust others, and ultimately what it means to be human. One thing I always loved about Tsukasa (in the game "The World") was that he wasn't perfect, he had fears and insecurities, and it took him a long to open up and trust others. When you learn later on, that in the real world, An Shoji, basically was emotionally, verbally, and physically abused by her father, it makes perfect sense as to why she didn't trust anyone. By the end of the show, one of the players, Bear, in real life his name Ryo Sakuma, he ends up becoming a legal guardian of An Shoji, supporting her while she attends boarding school. 

.hack//SIGN tackled a multitude of topics very gratefully with a lot of maturity to it, forcing the viewer to actually think, it didn't spoon-feed you everything, you actually had to pay attention to what the characters were saying, and what was going on, in order to understand the story.

It's ironic how popular Sword Art Online became, yet if you look back on the .hack franchise it became huge, from a single anime series to videogames, and manga's to light novels and soundtracks, including movies. Maybe I am bashing Sword Art Online, but I'm sorry, I didn't see Sword Art Online become as huge as the .hack franchise did. The only reason Sword Art Online became so popular, is because of the funding poured into it, for advertisement. With .hack, they didn't pour everything into advertisements, so they had to put more work into the writing of the stories and the characters overall. The graphics and colors may not be as bright and crisp as modern anime, but the story and characters made up for it. Just because an anime show like Sword Art Online is popular, doesn't mean that it's good or well written, sometimes the lesser-known anime shows are ten times better, and you don't feel like you wasted your time watching them.

I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts about the anime .hack//SIGN. Maybe you'll enjoy it as much as I did. 

Your Name: An Overhyped Fantasy

A few days ago, I watched the anime film "Your Name". I've heard about the movie on and off for the past few years, the way people talked about the movie was like it was the best movie that was ever made. Well, a few days ago I finally went ahead and watched the film, and honestly besides the visuals and music, which where fantastic, the overall story wasn't that impressive to me, and I'll try to explain why. 

The gist of the story was about a boy and girl who swap bodies, because of a meteor strike, and then later on it goes from them swaping bodies, to time travel, which felt like they just put it in, to make the movie more interesting towards the end.

Most of the movie, you learn about the girl and her life, where she live, her family, friends, and school, and then towards the end, it shows how her mom died, her dad leaving the family, and her and her little sister staying with her grandma. With the boy, besides him living with his dad, you don't learn much about him, besides the fact that he works at a restaurant. So when it came to learning about the two main characters, it honestly felt uneven. Besides the visuals and the music, I honestly don't know why the movie was hyped up so much. Because I'm sorry but I've seen much better movies when it came to themes of falling in love, and the struggles of being separated by distance. One movie that tackled both of those themes very well was one called, 5cm per second, it was a love story about a boy and girl, who grew up together, and after a few years, the girl had to move away, it showed them writing letters back and forth to each other, and showing their life struggles over the years, after they were separated. 

Going back to the film Your Name, it's just my opinion but to me, they didn't handle the theme of them being separated that well.. For one thing, they didn't even know about each other at all, and then all of a sudden they changed bodies with each other, I almost got confused at first while watching it, and sure they learned more about each other's lives, but in my opinion it didn't feel organic, them "falling in love". I say that because when they finally met up with each other, it felt like they barely knew each other. Another thing, the whole traveling back in time, besides for suspense, I didn't see a reason for it at all. I understand that love stories are popular, but at least try to make a decent movie, not hype it up so much, that when you finally see it, it feels like you wasted over 2 hours of your life watching it. The film Suzume did a much better job at love, not just romantic love, but family love and self-love too, when I was done watching the film Suzume, I honestly didn't feel like I wasted my time, yes the movie was long, but I enjoyed myself while watching it. With Your Name, I'm sorry, but I'll never watch that film again. 

Immersive and Intense: Unveiling the Brilliance of Cyberpunk Edgerunners

 

Photo by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-wearing-leather-jacket-8107817/

Just finished watching the anime, Cyberpunk Edgerunners. I literally watched it from beginning to end in one sitting, and it's one of my new favorite anime's that I have seen. It has everything, amazing color, graphics, special effects, music, all the characters were all unique in their own ways, and an amazing story, that just kept drawing you in with each episode.

The show is only ten episodes, but somehow they managed to pack everything that was needed within all ten episodes, in my opinion, it was paced very well, it wasn't too fast, or too slow, it wasn't too slow that you wouldn't get bored, and was fat paced enough to keep you on edge, with each episode, making you anticipate the next episode in a heartbeat. 

It's based on the videogame, Cyberpunk 2077, but the story is set up before the events in the game, so basically if you haven't played Cyberpunk 2077 yet like me, then your fine, you don't need to play the game, in order to understand what's going on in the anime, Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Which in my opinion, was a very smart move. 

I've heard of this anime on and off for a while, but at first I thought it was overhyped, and since I haven't played Cyberpunk 2077 yet, I figured I wouldn't be able to watch the anime, but after I kept seeing some clips of it on TikTok, I finally decided to give it a go. So I doubled checked weather you needed to understand the story of Cyberpunk2077, in order to understand the anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners, and once I knew they weren't directly linked with each other, I decided to give it a go and watch it.

Literally from the very first episode to the last episode, I was completely hooked, emersed in the story, wanting to know what was going to happen to all the characters with each episode that I watched. It was honestly so good, that I don't want to spoil the story at all, that's how good it is. But I will say this, this is one anime I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys, anime mixed with sci-fi, cyberpunk, and sweet flavor of mystery and romance.

The way that the story is written and set up, once you think you know what's going on, at one point it completely flips, leaving you hanging, second guessing of what's going to happen next. When the story flipped like that, that's when I knew, that the story was well written. Something that I haven't seen in a long time. With all the characters, you don't necessarily get a backstory with all of them, but you still get a sense of who they are in a way. Making you care about the characters, and what will happen to all of them. 

Once the last episode was over, I immediately checked to see if there would be a season 2, and sadly no there won't be. It's a stand alone anime. Even though it's one season, and only 10 episodes, I would still recommend Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Sometimes, the shorter the better, and when it came to this show, it was the case. This is one anime, that I definitely rewatch again soon, and I would put it on my list as one of my favorite anime shows that I have ever seen. 

Transcendent Reflections: Provoking Cybernetic Contemplations in Ghost in the Shell

 

Ghost in The Shell

I don’t even know where to begin or how to go about this, but I’ll try my best. To start this off, I first saw Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, the anime series, way back when I was 12 years old, from the opening to the rest of the show, it honestly blew me away, from the artwork to the soundtrack to the plot development, and characters.
Years later, I finally got myself to watch the original film directed by Mamoru Oshii , and that was just as amazing, if not more so, with all the philosophical aspects woven into it, pondering the meaning of life, what it means to be human, and how technology affects humanity as a whole, and even just for a individual.
Flash forward to 2015, I watched Ghost in the Shell ARISE, and it was a lot better than what I was expecting, it was a prequel to the original story, basically before Motoko Kusanagi joined Section 9.
The OVA, the Laughing Man, from Stand Alone Complex, season one, it was a nice take on the story, focusing soley on the, Laughing Man case, where as, in the first season, it had fillers, in between the main episodes, the main episodes where focusing on the Laughing Man, where the fillers, where basically cases that had nothing to do with the actual plot.
With the second season also known as, Ghost in the Shell: 2nd Gig, that one expands on the first season, the art style is much more detailed, and along with the first season, with the second season, there is an OVA called, Individual Eleven, that focuses just on the main case, and not the filler episodes.
As we all know, in 2020, Netflix released a new show of Ghost in the Shell called, Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045, if I'm going to be honest, I saw the first season, and it honestly didn't move me, the art style was completely different, it took me way too long to get into the show, I couldn't relate to the characters, or empathize or sympathize with any of them. I don't plan on watching the second season. That's just my opinion, everyone's is different, for people who liked SAC_2045, props to them.
After the first time I saw Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, I rewatched the original movie, and rewatched the OVA of the Laughing Man, the orignal film, and TV series, was one of the first things that got me into the sci-fi, cyberpunk genre, it actually got me thinking, deeply about life, possibilities of the future, now it's gotten me thinking about technology in a lot of aspects, and the possibilities of it for the future. I empathize, and sympathized with Motoko Kusanagi in the original film, then in the series they added onto her character more so. In the beginning, I only liked Motoko, but then over the years, I slowly started liking all the characters in Section 9.
I can honestly say that the film, and the series, the whole franchise, is something you need to rewatch multiple times, over the years, in order to understand a lot of aspects of the story. I can honestly say, without a doubt, that Ghost in The Shell was way ahead of it's time, in multiple ways.
Ghost in The Shell ARISE, did a great job as a prequel, showing Motoko, in the beginning stages of her career, even showing her growing into her skin, and growing into the character that we know today as the "Major". The series shows how, Section 9 team was originally formed, and how everyone first started working together. It was a nice twist to the story, and characters of Ghost in The Shell.
One thing I personally love, is whether it's the manga, the original film, or the TV series, they are all different interpretations of the universe which is Ghost in The Shell. There is something in the show for everyone, action, comedy, adventure, sci-fi, cyberpunk, mystery, philosophical ideas, sociology, psychology, humanity vs technology, how technology affects humanity.
To end this article off, as Motoko herself would say, "The net truly is vast and infinite."

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