I read John Sinnott's DVD review of Ghost in the Shell Special Edition at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=14249 and...
I have to admit im pretty pissed. I mean, I held off for like two years on buying the original DVD release because I knew a Special Edition would eventually be released. And now, after ten years, the DVD is basically the same, only with a tad better quality picture and some weak extras on Disc 2. I might just save the extra $10 and purchase the regular version. Anyone else? What are your thoughts?

It looks neat, sounds good, has upgraded menus, and some OK inserts. The special features is where the new version is a bit of a let-down...Manga should have gone gung-ho, done a "Ghost in the Shell Phenomenon" feature, dumped tons of GITS world info on it, talk to directors who were influenced by the movie, etc. Instead, a lot of space is reserved for all the foreign language tracks (which is great if you have a German-speaking friend who never saw GITS).

If you don't have the first one, then the second version is a worthwhile buy, but it's likely not a double-dip, unless you really like DTS. Or speak Italian.

How do you plan on saving $10? The SE is $21 from DDD and the previous release is $19 from Digital Eyes.

I sold my previous release some time ago so I could purchase this superior version. I am glad to have this one in DTS with slightly upgraded video. No complaints here.

I bought the SE just to get the Japanese track in 5.1, but I am annoyed that they wasted so much disc space with the 15,000 different space-hogging audio options. No studio should ever attempt to cram 2 separate DTS tracks onto the same disc. It's never a good thing.

The fold-out poster with the naked image of the Major is nice, though!

naked!!!!!!!!!!!! r u serious? anyone got an image?

p.s. - yeh im a perv but is she seriously naked or is it the regular image enlarged?

Check out THIS POST I made in a thread in the main forum. Look at the bottom pic... I think this is what he's talking about.

ok, so i bit the bullet and purchased the SE.

Now, first off I would like to talk about the packaging. As you can see from the pictures posted by TomOpus, its beautiful. I think this is one of the sickest, most kick-ass packages I've ever seen. It goes like this: a clear plastic, side-loading slip cover with the original movie poster, the GitS: Special Edition logo on the front, two little blurbs on top and below the image, and the GitS logo written on the top and bottom bindings. As for the DigiPack, on one side when stretched out it gives you the top portion of the slipcase image, with a naked Kasunagi wielding a pistol stretched across all three peices of cardboard. On the back peice, there are numerous blurbs from Enterainment Weekly and such about GitS, and your average summary + information about what's on the disc. On the other side of the DigiPack, we get the usual clear disc holders placed over an image of kasunagi from the breasts down. We get a nice big two-sided poster, a card with a sexy image of kasunagi laying on top of a large, bomb-like machine, and a little catalouge of other Manga releases. To be blunt, its pure sex.

Now, as for what's on the discs, that's something else. As other's have stated, there ain't much; the first disc has the original movie with almost no digital remastering (as stated on the cover), which is presented in so many languages i can't even remember. As for the second disc, there is a funky-looking "Production Report", which looks like some 80's high school sex - ed video, "Digital Works" which is even more boring and uninteresting, trailers, and plenty of crappy text information. If this were really a true Special Edition, there would be loads of featurettes, probably about the impact of the movie and blah blah blah. However, Manga's release is seriously a joke that, despite the packaging, really isn't much better then the first release.

There's my two cents, what about yours?

I finally had a chance to compare the SE directly to the old edition. The Japanese DTS track is leaps and bounds better than the crummy 2.0 version on the old disc, which was bad even for 2.0. The video, as far as I can tell, is exactly the same. The old disc looked decent for a 1998 release but has not aged well. It looks very dupey and video-ish. I'm not impressed with that at all. This title needed a genuine remastering, and they should have left off all the space-hogging extraneous audio options.