Ghost In The Shell: The Laughing Man

1st thing you should do is watch season 1 of this series. All of the episodes are outstanding in my opinion. Anyway this is a condensed retelling of the Laughing Man saga. Some of the cuts made to the story didn't make that much sense to me. But overall the condensed version of the story works fine. One thing that really threw me off was not only are the voice actors different from the TV series but their acting left a lot to be desired in my opinion. Were the TV actors bring the differing emotions to each character these guys sounded like they were just reading a script. If you have watched the 1st or even the 2nd season you know what I am talking about. This could have been a spectacular albeit long movie but alas that wasn't meant to be. Do yourself a favor and check out season 1, you will not be disappointed.

This is a 2005 OVA movie that is a distilled edit of the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series. It takes place in the year 2030. It features a slightly different "Laughing Man" story than the TV series. It reuses the TV series' animation but it has different voice actors. It also has some additional animation and dialogue to facilitate the abbreviated story. Skip the OVA movie and watch the series instead.

Good movie but I would recommend watching the TV series of both the laughing man and the individual eleven over watching the movies, would rate TV series 5/5 compared to the movies