2nd Gig.
Watching Ghost in the Shell 2nd GIG in English is really improving my understanding of the situation. I'm picking up on lots of subtleties that I wasn't privy to before. Still, some stuff seems to be lost in translation (hah!) even from the Laughing Man's subs. For instance, in the first episode with Kuze in it, Batou asks the Major why she has been so quiet about Section 9's being reduced to a bodyguard status. In the Adult Swim Ep, she says "Must be a hormonal thing." In the LMF translation, her subtitle says "I must be on my period". Personally, I think LMF's sub was much funnier. But I'll bet its due to the fact that the Japanese have some roundabout way of referring to menustration (even more roundabout then ours). This whole thing's wrapped up in the translator's perception of the Major's perception of herself. I wonder, does she consider herself less of a woman than the people she interacts with? We know Kusanagi's confidently feminist, but how feminine does she consider herself? After all, she doesn't have any hormones to speak of.
Anyway, what's also interesting (perhaps more so) is just how susceptible is Kuze to the Individual Eleven complex. I never realized watching the first time around how drastic his development as a character is. Badass. Also one of the things much more apparent in the English translation is the parallel to the actual military buildup of Japan during the '20s and '30s. It's so much more obvious now that Gouda is attempting to engineer almost the exact same thing and capitalizing on the same international pressures to build a militant Japan.
Anyway, what's also interesting (perhaps more so) is just how susceptible is Kuze to the Individual Eleven complex. I never realized watching the first time around how drastic his development as a character is. Badass. Also one of the things much more apparent in the English translation is the parallel to the actual military buildup of Japan during the '20s and '30s. It's so much more obvious now that Gouda is attempting to engineer almost the exact same thing and capitalizing on the same international pressures to build a militant Japan.