Koukaku Kidoutai: SAC_2045

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2045 is not Ghost in the Shell, neither standalone, and nor is it complex. This new “installment” mirrors more the drama level of their recent ULTRAMAN anime than it does the cyberpunk classic that established itself in the past. All that is left of the original series is diluted concepts and themes to placate the infamous “Netflix audience.” Such concepts as new beings literally called “post-humans” (real creative), blatant taking of Orwell in it’s backstory of a “sustainable war” along with pertaining to modern sensibilities in referencing “one-percenters.” Everything here is a silly recreation of what the average ... Netflix user would think Ghost in the Shell was about.

It is unfortunate that it seems Shinji Aramaki's vision takes precedence over Kenji Kamiyama on this one, corrupting part of their legacy with this series. I was generally apprehensive about their previous forays in to 3DCG things of the like, and although with this the 3DCG doesn’t look that bad on the Netflix budget and can actually look quite impressive, the show still becomes lifeless both writing-wise and in action. The fight with a naked Patrick Huge, the self-insert of the character designer Ilya Kushinov along with his anime girl maid harem that look like every image he has ever drawn, is laughable on many levels. I had already guessed the whole twist that unravels in that episode in the second episode anyway, since the writing in this is action Sci-Fi and not heady cyberpunk. Ilya Kushinov the known plagiarizer, and even without that bit, is a generally average artist that attracted too much praise given his worth and simply does not have an art style that reliably translates into GitS, especially seen in Motoko among other female characters.

Getting in to the new attachments to this show, we have the introduction of a new character, Stan, nicknamed Clown. His design looks like a Fortnite character and perfectly exemplifies what it seems the creators expect from the exposure to a Netflix audience. He is brash, says the most obvious statements, and serves absolutely no purpose. Pazu and Borma are gone for the first half, the Netflix audience wouldn’t remember them anyway, and instead we have Stan. Most of the first half of the show coincidentally also takes place in America, which has apparently been united under the Empire instead of balkanized with the previous Russo-American Alliance.

This whole sustainable war point simply isn’t interesting and feels like it came out of How to Design a Futuristic World 101, first take some 1984 and then make the concepts more "modern" hmm yes perfect. We already got a close-to-cyberpunk media that did the whole war industry thing better it's called Metal Gear Solid, and the person who did the soundtrack for some of the games on that is the composer for this show as well. A war industry has never been a new concept, and here it is surface level as hell. It even makes itself really obvious what the whole political implications are in the first scene of the show. You’ve got the new GHOST merc group under Motoko and Batou getting chased by “sustainable war victims” in dingy trucks and it just serves as a mindless car chase action scene that gives the little info dump about how The World Be. Then, across the next 3 episodes you will be treated to more car chase scenes which take up the main attraction of the episodes. They really cash in on this mainstream audience they’ll be getting by abandoning what made SAC actually interesting and turning it into stupid action backed up by a hackneyed mystery about “post-humans” (doesn’t even make that much sense given the existence of cyberbrains already inhabiting that concept and all that but who cares amirite) who are just cyborgs that downloaded aimbot and they decide to center the whole show around investigating these people.

There’s this part in one of the episodes where we get the whole virtual chatroom bit, Togusa is watching four disguised guys talk about GHOST so he can get info on them and one of the guys leaves the chatroom, Togusa intercepts him and FLYING PUNCHES him in the VIRTUAL WORLD to STEAL HIS DISGUISE. You cannot make this stupid shit up, none of this shit feels like the Cyberpunk world of the original series despite this supposed to be taking place EVEN MORE into the future. In the end one can’t help but wonder, what is there for anyone to get out of this except for those who have never seen Ghost in the Shell, that being the Netflix Audience? There is nothing, and even if you have not seen Ghost in the Shell, just watch the movies (not Arise not Arise not Arise not Arise), and the SAC show.

And I swear to Allah If I have to see that stupid ass pink haired woman and her moe anime girl idiotic mannerisms one more time alongside her generic dime a dozen kushinov face fuck you ilya kushinov you absolute hack draw a new face for once

(end rant)

I felt the need to write a review of this show to warn fellow fans of what they should expect.

If you are not a GITS enthusiast, I strongly suggest to watch this show ONLY if you are a nostalgic of CGI pioneers. In fact, the characters design and animation in my opinion are on a level which could be accepted decades ago. It seemed to me a lot like "Appleseed", for example, just way too late.

If you ARE a GITS enthusiast, please consider it a super-cheap (was it really inexpensive to make?) spin-off show. Watch it only if, like me, you want to fathom the ... abyss of poor quality where a franchise can fall, even after masterpieces that defined its genre.

I regret some of the original creators accepted to get involved with such a low quality show; I hope they got a good lot of cash from a certain company which has a lot of money and very few ideas (often bad), because I'm sure they lost the respect of many enthusiasts including myself.

As an anime fan in general, I felt offended by the extremely poor quality of this show, and I only stood the pain of watching it in order to update my definition of "poor".

Enjoy (perhaps some other show)

Can CGI ruin a show? Yes. Does it here? Thank goodness no, at least not for me.

Ghost in the Shell is a lengthy franchise spanning over decades with at least four different art styles. However, while all of the previous art styles until now were in 2D animation, they decided that they should try a CGI approach. Many will skip over this season because of it, but if that is the only reason, then it is a huge mistake. Despite the animation, all of the characters remain the same and the story feels very similar to SAC previous seasons. So how does it match ... up?

SAC (stand alone complex) is what these seasons do: There are stand alone episodes and there are complex (like an arc) episodes. The complex episodes progress the story while the stand alone episodes progress the characters development. This season starts with a complex arc of six episodes about the emergence of post-humans (super smart and strong humans) and the majors (Mokoto Kusanagi) team being forced to take him down by the American government. Then, there are a couple of stand alone episodes when they return to Japan that showcase the characters of Batou, Togusa, and the new character Purin Ezaki individually. Then there is another complex three episode arc involving another post-human case in Japan but slightly different. Then it stops at a massive cliffhanger which will be resolved in the next season.

While the episodes were all great, I am not a fan of the seasons being split up like this, but I take what I can get.

To talk about the elephant in the room: the art. This will severely prevent a multitude of people of enjoying this season, but that is only because they won't give it a chance. The CGI is very well done for Japan TV standards. It isn't as good as something like Frozen but it is still decent enough to not be too distracting. The character models are great and very closely resemble the original models. The fight choreography is outstanding and the backgrounds, while not the best, are still serviceable. My main problem with the art was the faces of characters. A lot of times that there should have been emotion on faces, there just wasn't. It is hard to accomplish it in CGI but nevertheless they didn't accomplish it. But the art for the OP was phenomenal.

The music was okay...or at least when there was music. While the OP was decent and the ED slightly better, there was rarely any music in the actual show. In the first episode there was a great jazzy instrumentally track which got my hopes up, but after that there was barely any BGM at all. It is sad especially considering that Yoko Kanno did the original SAC OST and it is still known to be one of the best soundtracks of all time. The voice acting was all good. I would have preferred the English dub, especially since the original dub cast returned to reprise thir roles, but unfortunately the dub release was delayed due to Covid19.

The characters are all the same as previous seasons with the addition of Kenjiro Tsuda, an American agent in the first arc but who then leaves (he might be relevant in the second season) and Purin Ezaki in the second arc who was the comic relief and an enjoyably cute and silly character. Togusa goes through some development as well. The Tachikomas are amazing as usual but they have slightly less screen time than they did in the previous seasons. There isn't yet a main villain that we have met yet, but the puzzle pieces are building up and hopefully can actually pull off a great reveal in the next season. The major is a boss, like usual.

I enjoyed this season a lot, and I would recommend it even to people who haven't seen previous seasons or movies. The pacing is fantastic and thrilling while the story keeps building mystery and great development.

My main issue with the season, not including art or sound, is that this season plays it safe. Ghost in the Shell is known for utilizing thought provoking themes which helped it stand out throughout the decades, but this season hasn't really done that yet. The last arc was close, but didn't fully succeed to hit the usual franchise marks.
It went for a more Hollywood style, lots of fights, but very rarely any serious internal conflicts or thought provoking ideas.

Overall, this season was great. Better than what I expected. Hopefully the second season is as good or better and can properly tie up all of the loose threads that were leftover after this season.

Score: 9 (Very good and rewatchable, but not good enough to do so very often).

I'm an avid fan of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, having absolutely loved the original Ghost in the Shell movies, as well as adoring the original Stand Alone Complex anime (enough to have that show in my top 10 anime of all time). Arise was a massive misstep though but it's in a different timeline from the other ones so I can avoid talking much about this though.

So whilst I saw a lot of negative reception towards the trailers for this new edition of Stand Alone Complex or SAC_2045, it didn't really hinder my excitement too much. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece but still ... excited just to get more solid quality Ghost in the Shell content.

Now that I've officially finished the first season of SAC_2045, I can say that this show truly was a mediocre and forgettable showing overall and was clearly designed for mainly the newer Western audiences in terms of the direction of the storyline and even the visuals themselves as a sort of a cash grab from the looks of things. It somehow fell below my low expectations for it.

The story for the most part without spoiling anything was pretty underwhelming for Ghost in the Shell standards, but okay for the most part. It's not really thematically fascinating but at least has enough action and twists to make some of the portions seem exciting for me. The narrative wasn't too interesting but it was paced fairly well and had solid buildup progressively, with a big cliffhanger by the end that left enough meat on the bone for me to have some intrigue left for its next season.

Regarding the characters, I felt this was the aspect that disappointed me the most from what I expected.

Motoko Kusanagi is one of my favorite characters of all time so seeing her be treated like more of a side character for the most part in this season was pretty disheartening. Her inner thoughts and narratives always fascinated me when seeing the previous shows so the lack of that definitely was a turn off for me. Besides, whenever she was on-screen, she was underwhelming to watch here and never really was compelling or interesting to watch unlike other editions of her (besides Arise since she was annoying there). The other main characters though in the show were solid, especially Togusa in this show. And the tachikomas were fun as usual.

However, the other characters weren't too compelling at all, and haven't really added anything to the show so far at least for this season.

Now, the visuals. I've seen a LOT of people discredit the visuals for being fully CG, and looking like an old video game from the PS2/PSP days; and to be honest, I'm not particularly against that for a franchise like GitS on paper.

The visuals for the action is a bit awkward with its CG nature but it easily could have been much worse than it turned out to be. Battles while PS2 game-like, were smooth enough while not being too janky and rough to watch. The characters looked pretty rough though (Motoko looks way too young, and some others look like wax figures). Some of the animation even outside action sequences were pretty bad to look at and inconsistent/awkward too (like when characters are walking or drinking).

I will say Kushivnov has good art in general, but it's hard to translate his art amazingly into CG. And whilst its not bad overall, you can notice some of the obvious consequences for the awkward transition for the most part.

For people that were turned off by the visuals in the trailers, this full show won't change their minds. Especially considering how phenomenal the original edition looked from character designs, to action and everything else about it,

The sound was probably the worst part of the show for me. The opening and ending songs just don't fit Ghost in the Shell whatsoever (especially the opening for being way too jazzy and upbeat in an environment that's supposed to be more intense and subtle). We went from having some of the best opening songs of all time in Inner Universe from season 1 and Rise from season 2 (rest in peace Origa), to this really annoying song by millenium parade that should be absolutely nowhere near a franchise like this. Disappointing as hell.

This also correlates to some of the soundtracks as they just feel out of place in this environment. At least the voice acting was still okay but far from the top-tier standards that the original GitS set for sure.

This definitely isn't a great showing from Production IG and Sola Digital Arts as the show came off more as a cash grab like I mentioned than a proper sequel to one of the best anime of all time. Some aspects felt incredibly phoned in, and the visuals are a turn off for many, many people that it ruins the opportunities for this show to succeed with a majority of the audience, including other big Ghost in the Shell fans. This could have been great, but it'll remain a show that just looks massively inferior to the original rather than stand out on its own.

At least it's still better than Arise.

Minor spoiler warning ahead!
If you're reading this you've been warned!

Look I like the Ghost In The Shell series and I really wanna try appreciate everything about it but the Stand Alone Complex's run of the franchise just doesn't cut it from me...

I apreciate this one being a single current line of story with very little fillers but i do have to ask: W H Y the 3D!?

Some animations seem crappy, characters are too glossy sometimes and have slopy walking animations (you can see it right in the beggining with the major in like episode 1 and it continues through the whole series if you're carefull ... enough to notice, not to mention the lip sync which is so bad they can't barely move their lips sometimes, the cars don't seem to go into the decor, they seem to be not too well rendered into the landscape, especially in the LA course tailgating scene and if i had to say, the best 3D scenes in this series are the ones without any characters on them, just with the backgrounds and they can still fucking ruin them with the low resolution characters that they add on them to make them feel more "lively"!

Like come on guys, you have a wonderful artist here doing some great character designs. (Ilya I'm sorry to say this but if this was one of your ideas it was not the brightest...) I defenitely would love to see it in 2D or even 2.5D even with some of the details that bother me (especially Batou/Borma eyes), and you managed to do something this bad? I mean, for real? You had for sure a fucking big budget to make a huge series and you prefered to use it in motion capture and fucking 3D? No i don't accept that, just no. This could have been a good saver for the Stand Alone Complex Run that I didn't like from the begining with the "sub-episodic" episodes they had with the over exagerated ammount of fillers, but this can be even worst than that in my opinion!

If you ask me the best scene is the fucking ending and it's still was able to be not so good! (Don't make me talk about the opening that's another can of worms to be open)

And that's only the tip of the Iceberg about the stuff I have to say about this series!

First, background story is completely fucked here. I don't know about all of you but I like to have some backstory about what happend before the events that are taking place here (Even though I know that the premises of Ghost In The Shell is to be a little unkown, it really made me enjoy the Arise run of the franchise even more than the original movie!):
It was suprising to see fucking Togusa out of fucking nowhere divorcing, getting a new haircut, not to mention that we know that in Solid State Society he got prostethics that we don't know what they are and the fucking kung lee karate moves at the almost fucking end of the series?! Where did he learn them, WHY did he learn them, WHY THE FUCK DID HE DIVORCED AND WHAT JOB DID HE TAKE FOR 2 FUCKING YEARS? He is one of THE essential characters to move the plot of the Stand Alone Complex series and you weren't able to give us some information about what happend about him? I can't allow that!

Furthermore, why the other fucking gang going out of japan and going to work for a private security company in the US from all places alongside some newcomer that you're gonna ditch after 4 eps, NOT TO MENTION THE EVENTS OF SOLID STATE SOCIETY? WHAT HAPPEND AFTER IT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IT LET US ON A CLIFFHANGER! It's just not deep enough for me to give a shit!

Also, what the fuck happend to borma and Paz? Hello? Don't they exist here? At least in Arise they gave em a little of a spotlight, they almost didn't get the change to talk in the whole series here (I'm pretty sure Paz didn't talk and Borma talked like 2 lines of dialogue max)! What did they do in these two years? What's with the new eyes of borma? Why paz changed haircut? IT'S TOO FUCKING INCOHERENT!

Now, don't even have me fucking talk about Purine or whatever her fucking name is. I DON'T WANT A FUCKING IDOL ON MY FUCKING STOIC SERIES JUST TO BE THERE TO FUCK BATOU AND GIVE A LITTLE HELP ON THE CASE, IT BREAKS THE STOICISM OF THE SERIES! She just doesn't have her place here!

I could also mention the Hell that is the Tachikoma problem alongside the question of where the uchikoma's went but it would be too fucking long to write it so i'll just say that I'm not happy with that and just move on to the end of the Character review part here...

Side Characters are below average and everything else alongside is it too. I don't wanna get into details or this fucking comentary is gonna be fucking long just dont make me talk about it (I swear to god if i have to talk about that nude 3D fucking scene i swear to god I'll have an heart attack of how shitty it was and it's purpose here)

Music is ok in my opinion (ok maybe not that opening i don't get the Ghost In The Shell vibe i would like) but the ed is pretty GITS, also those loud music noises that we can here in the middle of some scenes is prob a bit too loud

Yeah I don't think I have nothing else to say about this. (I do have a little rant about that rape scene that I actually can't be over with, to mention or see...
Considering this was a netflix series idea I don't think it's a very open scene to everyone globally, let alone the fact that It had to be approved by a massive team of people, I mean, are you serious? Please don't make more of them) If you don't have anything to do and want to netflix and chill go for it just watch it to pass your day watching something

If you're into this kinda stuff, I would consider watching the rest of the Stand Alone Complex franchise. Maybe you wanna have somewhat of a background to every character in order to try enjoying this but appart that I think you would be able to see Arise (The Original movies aren't the best to use to watch this afterwards) then watch this if you'd like to, Arise is only a couple of movies and two real anime episodes it's pretty quick actually.

Would *I* Recommend watching this? No not at all I don't like it, the story is meh for me but i'm only watching it to see all GITS related series.

Guys, just try not to make a fucking bad season 2 and uhhhh try to make a fucking good ending for this run of GITS for crying out loud it's a good franchise that i wan't to treasure and enjoy and please make it end after season 2 don't make a follow up movie or i'll fucking throw up

Of all the anime I’ve seen, over four thousand and counting, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is my unequivocal favorite. With that said, I’m not the kind of delicate elitist who holds great reverence for their favorites and their position as such. The idea of a new installment coming along over a decade since its last and suddenly outclassing all which came before it is not something I particularly begrudge or fear. Projects the likes of FLCL Alternative where the original creators are publicly decrying the grossly corporatist nature of the production are one thing, but in the case of SAC_2045, the original staff ... is still thoroughly involved with the creative process and still very passionate about the work they’re doing, even if said work is wildly different than the original content in both style and substance. I would never dream of taking a cynical eye to something just to eliminate it as a competitor and preserve my favorites, nor, however, would I let these particular geniuses’ old masterpieces cloud my critical judgement and forget the fact those works were good because they were good, not because I wanted them to be good.

If there’s one thing this review needs to make crystal clear, it’s the stark reality Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 is not in any noticeable way directed by Kenji Kamiyama, and is instead directed by Shinji Aramaki. Shinji Aramaki, CCO and Director of Operations at Sola Digital Arts, the Production IG subsidiary studio which handled the animation production of SAC_2045, is a legendary mecha designer who’s reputation needs no introduction and who’s been at the forefront of CG animation direction since before the turn of the century. While this all may sound like the beginnings of high praise, I personally think Aramaki is better suited a visual artist than a director. The action direction of SAC_2045 is almost exactly that of Aramaki’s Starship Troopers films, which are little more than shoot’em-up Hollywood action flicks, and while this may seem like a nitpick of relative unimportance given the fact Stand Alone Complex was never really about the action itself—despite housing the most technically proficient police procedural and military action animation you can find in TV anime—this iteration of the story very much is, and this stands regardless of the fact Kamiyama reprised his role as writer. In an interview with Newtype USA in 2007, Kamiyama had said he believes himself to work best in the art of filling out the details of a work structured by someone else as opposed to creating a work from scratch and having to write the rules himself. If we’re to ignore the masterful work he was to do in the future with Eden of the East and take this cute little piece of self-deprecation at face value, we can really appreciate why a world and setting as deeply profound with ideas yet so utterly under-explored by its original creator as Ghost in the Shell would end up being a perfect fit for his craft, because he can take this tiny eleven chapter manga rife with conceptual gold it didn’t give itself the time to fully unpack and unpack it as beautifully and brilliantly as he possibly could, seeing as the groundwork was already in place to support his visionary expansion. And it's this perfect balance which he himself seems to recognize which leaves me so baffled by the direction he took SAC_2045. Artificial Intelligence, or “Post-Humans” as they are called, are the focus of SAC_2045, because even though Stand Alone Complex and 2nd GIG seemed to suggest the original idea of the cyberbrain itself to yield infinite facets of thematic and conceptual exploration, apparently this was not the case after all, and a new central concept was necessary to continue the story. Assuming I think the story even needed to be continued at all—which I do not—why he would choose something so cliche and overused to science fiction as rampant AI, I have no living idea. The Post Human plot line and its borderline post-apocalyptic setting can be more cheesy than a series this adult-oriented ever had any business getting and ultimately serves as little more than a stage for increasingly tensionless action sequences of Section 9 squaring off against largely uncharismatic villains.

While Aramaki is credited on both SAC_2045 and Ultraman (2019) with ample episode direction and storyboarding credits, Kamiyama isn’t on either, on either. The writing, on the other hand, actually does feel like his old handiwork, and keeping in mind this man wrote three of the greatest anime ever made, this is actually something of a problem. Everyone who’s ever worked with Kamiyama in the past has corroborated the fact he has always has been the man with the plan, literally, and Stand Alone Complex is the height of the Ghost in the Shell franchise thanks to his brilliant writing. Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 adaptation of Ghost in the Shell is the only iteration of the anime based on a hard source material, since Innocence was entirely written and conceptualized by Oshii, Arise was pitched by Kazuchika Kise and scripted by Tow Ubukata, and Stand Alone Complex was completely conceptualized by Kamiyama and written in cooperation with Shōtarō Suga. These renditions of the story reflecting the sensibilities of their authors so directly makes perfect sense too, seeing as Innocence is a sophisticated study in abstruse philosophy and Arise is an internally flawed mess which puts style over substance with every idea it has, but what doesn’t make so much sense is while Stand Alone Complex is most certainly an exploration of technology befitting the brain which birthed it, it’s also a consistently mature and unflinchingly realistic character drama which takes an originally goofy cast and molds them not into Oshii’s cold realists or Ubukata’s undefined enigmas, but into complex and resonant human beings. Therefore, it’s not unreasonable to think this nuanced yet intensely necessary facet of the series may or may not’ve been the work of Kamiyama himself, because among the many names I just unapologetically tossed your way is Shōtarō Suga. Shōtarō Suga was the co-writer for all three masterpieces the now-legendary Kamiyama Team made back in their glory days with the fullcore Production IG animation staff, and the more Kamiyama makes nowadays, the more I feel Suga to’ve been way more necessary to the beating heart behind his works than anyone could’ve ever imagined. After Kamiyama more or less disbanded the team, they actually reconvened at PA Works in 2013. Written by Suga and directed by co-director of all three of the Kamiyama classics, Masayuki Yoshihara, The Eccentric Family was masterpiece as clever as it was touching, and it was backed by the gorgeous backgrounds of Takeda Yūsuke, the team’s IG art director who followed them over. What I’m getting at here is Stand Alone Complex, Guardian of the Sacred Spirit, and Eden of the East were very clearly a team effort. Yoshihara brought the iconic cinema, Suga brought the deep human element, and Kamiyama brought the mountains of themes and concepts to make them all worthwhile, and now that he’s the only one on staff, it feels like the human pyramid of geniuses fell apart, and the potential masterpiece status of the show crumbled along with it.

Since there’s no getting around it, I guess it’s time to address the elephant in the room. Now, whether I take care of this elephant with a painless tranquilizer dart or as many shells from a sawed-off shotgun as it takes is simply a matter of bias, and seeing as I aim to generally adopt the neutral opinion, “good CG is good, and bad CG is bad,” I’ll try my hand at playing the Devil’s advocate. While SAC_2045 very much outclasses its team’s prior work with Ultraman (2019), it is by no means of a quality worthy of the Ghost in the Shell franchise which has set every bar of animation as high as it still is decades later. Ultimately, SAC_2045 is crafted with all the love, care, and attention to detail in the world, it’s just not done with the prettiest of visuals or the most faithful of art design. The set design is passable, but the foreground and background sometimes mesh together awkwardly because everything is 3D, and outside the realm of digital grunge effects, little texture is added to anything which makes this all the more noticeable. Such a drab overtone to the series in darker scenes does it little favors in the visual flair department since the cinematography left much to be desired, even with Aramaki’s endless frenetic action which itself is completely divorced from the realistic and highly researched action direction of SAC and 2nd GIG. The visual direction is just semi-random camera rotations and swivels with little to no dramatic timing to speak of, so if you’re looking for cyberpunk action, this show will deliver, but if you’re looking for the thematically laced, contemplatively formulated shots of brilliance you’d come to expect from the original series with only rare and down-to-earth action, you will find yourself disappointed. Physically speaking, the CG animation looks legitimately incredible, with precise shadow placement, anatomically weighty physics, and the most intricately shaded body definition in any CG TV anime I’ve ever seen, but graphically speaking the show is, at best, distractingly untextured with great depth of color only wherever you can find said color, and at worst, utterly outdated and with coloration as a mere afterthought to the director if not the colorists. And speaking of unevenly poppy coloration, the character designs are just about as hectic as you can get. The male designs are loosely okay, with only a few characters like poor old Togusa receiving unflattering transitions into the world of 3DCG, but the female designs are downright insulting. To be frank, they just look like anime sex dolls. As thoroughly sexualized as Motoko is in all but Oshii’s iterations, though, no anime adaptation of Ghost in the Shell has yet to reach even a fraction of the sex appeal and exploitation found in the original manga, so when all is said and done, you can only really complain about this point so much before sounding like an ignorant hypocrite. Still, one could only hope an icon of feminine badassery and empowerment would not’ve looked like she belonged on a dirty dakimakura.

Despite the fact I’ve done little but act like the obtusely picky bitch I am, I did, believe it or not, seriously enjoy SAC_2045, if not as deeply as I dreamed I would’ve. It’s so hard being as rotten as I am, because you’re always left with so much more criticism than praise no matter what you’re consuming, even if whatever it is gives you more than enough delight to gush over. I mean, I simply cannot put into words how happy it made me feel to see Kamiyama so perfectly recapture Batou’s dynamic with the Major; how proud I was to verify he still has a complete and total mastery of his intelligent dialogue which is incessantly relevant to his clever theming; how timely and smart of an idea the Sustainable War setup is, even if I dislike the over-the-top setting which it fostered; how the choppy direction is only really prevalent in martial combat sequences, and dialogue scenes are as engaging as they’ve ever been; how Shinji Aramaki—if nothing else—knows exactly how to use 3D animation to its fullest extent in every way; how gratifying it was to hear all the original voice actors and actresses reprise their roles as if not a day had passed since they’re last recording; how crisply produced and just downright cool the music is despite being no Yoko Kanno score and absolutely failing to recapture her atmosphere; or how much I absolutely die over every word out of Sakiko Tamagawa’s mouth. But ultimately, I’ll always distract myself with the gripes, be they utterly retarded quibbles or legitimate pieces of valuable criticism. I can complain about an anime I’ve given a nine point nine as much as I can complain about an anime I’ve given a one, and while this can be chalked up to frustration over the fact X would be perfect if not for Y aspect of it, the fact remains my potential for whining stands just as tall in either case. Sure, “high hopes, low expectations,” right? But there’s still no saving me from comparison. No matter how detached I force myself to be, the original series will always be there, and when that original series is my favorite anime of all time, that comparison will never find satisfaction. So ultimately, this review is going to conclude itself advising you not to take it to heart. What I’ve compiled in the previous paragraphs is a list of complaints found only on the barest surface levels and the most fastidiously deep levels, and nowhere in between. It’s a list which explains not why a show is bad, but why a show isn’t literally better than or as good as the best anime ever made. Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 is undeniably an unnecessary sequel at its core, its questionable appearance will offend and enrage fans more radical than I, and its position at the end of a franchise newcomers perceive to be impenetrably large will leave it likely unattractive to them as well, but it is—and this is true—good, and I recommend it to anyone able to stomach their preconceived notions of beautiful animation and biased comparisons to the godly work which came before.

Thank you for reading.

What happens when you milk a franchise dry? This.

Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045 is yet another attempt to cash in on the ever so popular Ghost in the Shell franchise. Based on the 2002 Stand Alone Complex series, this installment is meant to be a continuation to 2nd gig, once again following the hardened, no-nonsense folks over at Section 9 as they attempt to uncover and resolve yet another crime. This time concerning the rise of posthumans, cybernetically engineered humans that are capable of possessing super strength and limbs that can explode heads with one single swing. When it was announced, the fanfare was tremendous. ... It would be produced by the same studio, Production IG, with CGI provided by Sola DigitalArts, the same guys behind the Ultraman anime. Kenji Kamiyama, the director for all the Stand Alone Complex installments, was also announced to return to the director’s chair, albeit being paired up with Ultraman director, Shinji Aramaki. It also brought back the original voice cast for the dub and was advertised as a true sequel to the SAC universe rather than just a reimagining. Needless to say, it had a lot to live up to as a sequel.

Now, let’s get down to the elephant in the room: the CGI. Holey Moley, it’s really subpar. Not Berserk 2016 levels of horrible, but it’s done poorly enough that you sort of feel your eyes starting to bleed, but not to the point where they’re constantly shedding that scarlet liquid of yours. Every single character looks rubbery like they’re more akin to toys than actual people. It feels almost as if Sola DigitalArts rendered the entire series through a ps2 rather than using their “cutting edge” CGI technology to make the aesthetic easy on the eyes at least. There’s a reason why CGI is so prominent in the anime industry: it’s cheap, efficient, able to animate large crowds or more complex models in a smoother and fluid momentum. And in a way, that’s not exactly a bad thing. Studio Orange, for instance, did a wonderful job animating Beastars, using a mixture of 2D and CG animation to enhance the movements and facial expressions of various anthropomorphic animals. It was a series that needed 3DCG because of how difficult and costly it was to animate such characters, and in a way, the Ghost in the Shell franchise has used CGI a lot in the past due to how prominent technology is in the series, so it isn’t exactly breaking new ground with it. But, in Ghost in the Shell 2045, they just feel awkward to look at. The fluidity is on point, but the models are so subpar it’s almost like you’re watching a video game cutscene from the early 2000s. I don’t understand why the series couldn’t use a mixture of 2D and 3D animation like they had done for the original 2002 anime. The CG in that still holds up relatively well to this day, so why not build on it? There’s been worse CGI anime out there, but that doesn’t mean that the one used in this show is exempt from any sort of criticism.

The actual story itself doesn’t fare any better either. At times, 2045 does feel like it has got a bit of the flair from the original with some of the later, more standalone episodes, though it appears scattered and somewhat confused as to what it wants to be. The first half of the series amounts to just some random series of action sequences like something straight out of a Michael Bay production, with government agents from America even making an appearance here and there. Then later on it just decides to be a politically focused, sci-fi series that explores certain themes and concepts in a cyberpunk world, kind of building on what the original Stand Alone Complex series initially started. In layman’s terms: it starts off wanting to be Metal Gear Solid, then decides it wants to continue the legacy of Ghost in the Shell. Even if it did, it just doesn’t feel the same. Ghost in the Shell has always been a series focused on the perils of technology, how it can be taken advantage of and how living in a world full of androids and cybernetic organisms actually kind of sucks. It’s a show where the worldbuilding is the center of attention, and aside from one episode (which is just so overly comedic and asinine that it doesn’t even feel connected to the world), none of this anime really feels at home with the universe it had set up. The idea of posthumans being created through some sort of tear gas is already ridiculous in it of itself, especially given the more realistic approach to a cyberpunk world that Ghost in the Shell has a huge reputation for, rather than the idealized and magical one that existed in something like Deus Ex. It’s also too political and not in any way philosophical, while the original series uses both to tell a well-realized story.

But I haven’t gotten to the worst bit yet. The characters, good god the characters. Every semblance of dignity and badassery of Section 9 has almost been stripped bare. Major Kusanagi now has hax magical abilities similar to Adam Jenson from the Deus Ex games and her role in the series feels a lot more underutilized. There was so much that the creators did with her in the original Stand Alone Complex series, showcasing all her various hacking capabilities and the ways she approaches certain missions. Here, she just shows up to bust some cyborg’s heads open in hand to hand combat, I mean cmon, there’s so much else you could have used this character for. Togusa is now a professional martial artist and apparently very addicted to Bruce Lee movies with the way he makes goofy Kung-Fu noises every time he fights. Also, he’s divorced here and is no longer a family man. Yup, you heard it right, the guy who based much of his work around protecting his wife and daughter is no longer with them. Gone is the most human character in the entire Ghost in the Shell cast. Pazu and Bulma pretty much take a backseat to the other characters, making me wonder why the heck they were even brought back in the first place. Pazu doesn’t even have any lines for Pete’s sake.

The show also brings in two new characters onboard. First on the list is Standard, a cocky, way-in-over-his-head soldier that tags along with the recently disbanded Section 9 during the earlier episodes. Ever so constantly, he’s proven to be useless, always getting himself tangled in a knot during firefights and always relying on Major and the team to get him out of dodge. To make matters even worse, halfway through the series, he just disappears. He says his goodbyes and never appears again. I’m baffled by the decision to even include this character if he’s just going to be out of the casting list for the latter half of the series. What a complete waste of a character. And his absence brings in another member of the team, a pink-haired, upbeat, waifu-bait by the name of Purin. And she gets on my nerves a lot. She’s basically what happens when you add a generic anime girl from one of those pesky light novel adaptations into the Ghost in the Shell universe, and it looks so out of place. Her poor attempts at comedy just come across as awkward and too over the top. Granted, she provides more usage to the plot than Standard, but her constant boy scout personality just undermines the serious and mature tone that the franchise has established. The show already has the tachikomas, we don’t need a human version of them in the mix. Oh, and as for the supporting cast, we even have a government agent named John Smith who even looks like a typical agent character with a black suit, shades, and a voice that just screams to you that he’s a villain. Man, for a show that was already ripped off by The Matrix, it certainly decided it wanted to copy Agent Smith from that franchise as well. What a turnaround.

Also, what’s with all the corniness? Seriously, 2045 feels like an outright parody of the entire Stand Alone Complex franchise with some of the decisions made. There’s a self-insert posthuman character that resembles the character artist, Ilya Kuvshinov, that spends a majority of his screentime stark naked and performing back handstands like he’s some sort of circus performer. It was so unintentionally hilarious that twitter melded it into a meme. There’re also other elements that just have no place in an anime that’s supposed to be a serious reflection of a dark, gritty, and politically charged cyberpunk society. In one episode, Purin comes face to face with an avatar that resembles a Nintendo mascot, with a CGI goldfish for a face, big lips, and an outfit that looks like it was stolen from King Dedede’s wardrobe. And that was after she got nearly assaulted by a partially naked fat guy. Not to mention, one of the masterminds behind the attacks is a child who spends half his time buried in video games. Given how surprisingly dark the show gets after the halfway mark, it’s astounding that such designs and choices even exist.

What on earth was Kenji Kamiyama thinking? He’s pretty much tarnished the reputation of Ghost in the Shell for good now. Aside from keeping Batou’s dignity intact, including more scenes with the adorable Tachikomas, and showcasing Ilya Kuvshinov’s talent as an artist (seriously, his design for the Major is simply perfect), nothing about 2045 works whatsoever. This was basically the final nail in the coffin. I don’t know who to put the blame on, him or Shinji Aramaki, but nevertheless, this is a terrible sequel that ruins everything that made Ghost in the Shell a masterpiece.

I never thought I would ever see a new installment of "Stand Alone Complex" in this life time, not with all the original cast and Kenji Kamiyama back on both the writing and the director's sit. Yet here it is.

Though there are still changes, both visual and the music.
The absent of Origa and Yoko Kanno really shows how much they played into the identity of SACs. But with the former sadly passed away a few yeas ago, and the latter basically retired from the anime industry by now, it really can't be help.

However, even knowing that, the music is still just underwhelming, especially ... the opening, which I find myself constantly skipping, it could just be me but the style kinda annoys me.

As to the visual, the 3D CGI and art style shift seem to be what worry most people, I must say I was worried too, the CGI is kinda weird looking at times, but it nails the action scenes perfectly, and it gets the job done when it comes to the character acting as well, which we should most likely thanks Shinji Aramaki.

Though, I am not a fan of Ilya Kuvshinov's character design, especially his depiction of the Major: She looks much younger and slimmer than her former self, it's especially jawing when Atsuko Tanaka's mature voice comes out of that face. But if we step into the forth wall for explanation, I guess it's logical that as you grow older, one would only want to look younger.

Another problem with his work is that all the young (looking) female characters look like they are made from a same mould, and it doesn't feel like it's intentional.

However, visual and the music are merely the surface, never really the core when one talk about the good of SAC. They could be overlooked if the plot and performance could hold up.

Fortunately they do.

Kenji Kamiyama didn't have much of a career after the original run of SAC, I was worried that he might have lost it before going in, especially after seeing his more recent film "Hirune Hime".

Now, 12 episodes in, and I am confident that he's still got it, so far the plot is very much in the same tone with the original run, with Kamiyama's signature political conspiracy thriller and familiar narrative techniques. Nothing can get more close to the original SAC than this after a 14 years gap. Hell! I'd say it has no right being so close after such a long gap.

If you still have doubts if this series got the SAC spirit, I'd say maybe try episode 7 first. The first 6 episodes are more like setting up the story. Episode 7 however, is returning to the old "Stand Alone" format of the original SAC run. There you can judge by yourself if Kamiyama still got it to run SAC.

How far the mighty have fallen.

The Ghost in the Shell franchise used to be pioneering. It created new visual iconography, new visual language and cyberpunk tropes. In SAC_2045 we witness a franchise flailing about in a last gasp attempt at being relevant. It's a show that has nothing to say about anything. I found the many references to the Wachowskis Matrix series during the 2 seasons of this show profoundly pathetic.

As mentioned above GitS used to create iconography that influenced cinema and animation, and now it has devolved into blatantly ripping off the Matrix, with no grace about it. Instead we just get straight ... homages to Agent Smith, the burly brawl, the highway chase, along with the obligatory and lazy homages to previous better GitS movies and shows (how many more times will we see a metal claw gripping Motoko's face as she dangles in the air?).

Similarly to the original SAC's Laughing Man subplot, SAC 2045 also has a literary homage which comes to the fore in the second season, but as you can tell by now, it's lazy and superficial. With characters seeking utopia sincerely quoting Orwell's 1984 like it's meant to mean something. It's like the writers have no idea that "War is peace. Freedom is slavery." is supposed to be IRONIC.

I thought GitS: Arise was utterly boring and unpleasant to look at, dropping it within two episodes. 2045 is better looking (despite the naysayers complaints), and watchable as simple entertainment. But as a Ghost in the Shell story, it's woeful, with the ludicrous character Purin behaving like a 12 year old (that we have to see naked for 'reasons'), its typical Japanese treatment of Black characters, and crucially relegating Motoko Kusanagi to a side character who barely gets any attention. We never see her by herself, she has no inner life or character arc. She has less screen time than Togusa and Batou, and is effectively nothing but an exposition device.

Some people will say season 2 is a vast improvement over 1, but take that with a grain of salt. It's simply more of the same.

Shame on Kenji Kamiyama. How the mighty have fallen.

What if cyborgs...became angry super cyborgs? This is the new premise presented to the Ghost in the Shell franchise with the intellectual deftness of a drunk Michael Bay. The cardboard cutout grade animation lends nothing to the Major's kawaii makeover backed by jazzy action sequences reminiscent of poorly pathed NPCs who are unable to recognize the existence of their own appendages.
It's musically inoffensive to the point of being relatively indistinguishable from a police procedural, though I caught myself being thankful for the absence of Zimmer braaams.

With an episode titled "Edgelord", this series provides the transgressive value of a chair.

Its greatest act of ... subversiveness is the addition of a loli character who's thirsty for Batou.

The Shell is different, but the Ghost remains the same.

After watching 12 episodes of first season on Netflix, I would simply put it: Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 stays true to its legacy, a legacy left uncharted since 2006.

15 yeas has passed, both in our world and the world of SAC, things must've change.

For starter, the staff could no longer create an anime TV series like they did 15 years ago. The industry, the internet, and the audience, are all changed. People change, as they always do.

This is arguably the reason why Kenji Kamiyama(神山健治) builds up this new series with a ... six-episodes-long and action-packed opening. It offers a opportunity for new audience to familiar with our old characters, and our old audience to familiar with the new setting.

After six episodes, the series return to its Stand Alone Episode mode, assure its audience that it's still the same SAC narrative. SAC_2045 clearly has its own interesting social observation to our gradually internet world. What's the impact of the economic crack-down to the aging society like Japan? How about the witch-hunting on the social media, the cyberbully from anonymous netizen, and the "NTH Room-like" scandal of the dark web?

It's not until the midpoint of the story(or nearly the end of the first seasons), does SAC_2045 reveals the core literature reference of this new series: George Orwell's 1984.

And that makes all the difference. We could now gradually grasps the reason of the new setting in SAC_2045, such as "sustainable war".

In retrospect, the original SAC series in 2002 also reveals its reference to J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye only after the mid-season. Therefore I would not be surprise if Kamiyama decided to do the same.

The story ends with a fantastic cliffhanger in its mid-season, and we have to wait til the end of 2020(at least) to figure out Kamiyama's whole plot of SAC_2045. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next season.

In a nutshell, SAC_2045 is a loyal expansion to the classic SAC series. There're a few downside nonetheless, OP and OST in particular, but the motif and characters are the same.

The Ghost returns, in the new Shell, and it is for our audience to decide, whether we determine a ghost base on its shell.

I don't typically take the time to write a review, but I think this anime is being judged unfairly. Many people are watching the first 12 episodes on Netflix and complaining about an unfinished story... well yea, it's only half the season. I think Netflix artificially cut the 24 episodes in half so they could have multiple releases. I really enjoyed the first 12 episodes (it really does feel like the older SAC seasons), but the story is not even close to being resolved. I would recommend waiting for the entire season to be released before you start watching.

I typically don't like when animes try ... the 3D look, but this one is so well done that it actually feels like you are thrown into the world. Some of the first-person-camera scenes are pretty cool. That being said, I think they made Motoko's demeanor a little too "cute", and I think I still prefer the 2D animation.

I'm not a fan of the intro music. The theme is wrong and it doesn't even come close to "Inner Universe."

Ive watched previous GITS shows and out of all the shows, this is probably the less philosophical one, which I liked. I never liked the philosophical monologues. I use my brain alot during working hours and I would just like to be entertained after a hard days work and turn off my brain and able to focus more on the story.
I also like the story. Very good pacing with probably 1 filler which I enjoyed very much.
I love the music, it is a nice change to the series, somewhat refreshing even, especially the OP song. I ... also liked the old one, which has that Bulgarian folk music vibe. But yeah, the change is welcome. The sound in the series is also nice, I like that waterdrop sound effect whenever the post human thing is brought into focus.
The only bad thing about this series is the CGI animation, but it is still palatable. Overall, I found the series enjoyable and wanting for more.

This isn't Stand Alone Complex.

it shouldn't be called a SAC series. There is a singular standalone episode... Like the point of SAC is that there are standalone episodes that focus on different characters and go towards world building which this season DESPERATELY needed. A SINGLE standalone episode that is still connected to the main plot doesn't really cut it. They should have just call it Ghost in the Shell 2045.

Visuals:
Straight up Motoko is the only character with any amount of effort put into making her look good. The rest of the team varies in terms of quality (What is with Aramaki's weird arms and ... hands?) with Ishikawa looking the worst. The backgrounds are all very flat and stark. at first I thought this was a purposeful choice with the harsh desert sun but then the lighting changed and I was just like "... Oh". The action scenes are visually confusing for the most part and every time there's gun fire the area gets weird and blurry and even if the gun doesn't move, the bullets scatter. You don't have a shotgun, your shots shouldn't do that... Any character that isn't relevant to the plot looks like a video game NPC and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they make a game using these models. Every character has weird 2D elements on their faces. Lines on their cheeks to indicate cheekbones and eyebrows. These objects are weirdly chunky and raised despite the lack of line variance elsewhere. Lastly, I'm not a fan of how they show a mix of beautiful 2D artwork mixed in with 3D stills as in-show pictures. It looks so weird.

Story:
After the first 3-5 episodes, when the actual plot kicks in, it actually isn't bad. The story definitely has promise and I like the idea of these Post-Humans. I'm really interested to see where it goes. There's not really much to say about it, it has much more in common with ARISE in terms of tone than it does with SAC.

Characters:
I'm going to start with the new characters coz... Oof...
Standard. Sucks. I have no idea why they thought he would be a good idea to include. He added nothing to any of the missions he was on. Also he just sort of... Left? Like they're going to bring him back (for some reason) but why even bother having him if he's just going to leave after a few eps?

Purin... Oh god Purin... first and foremost, she straight up looks like she's out of W - TAILS CAT! I like her design but goddamn the comparison is crazy. She doesn't fit this show at all. All her movements and sounds are over the top moe generic animu girl which doesn't fit with this world even if this series is already very different. She acts more like a child than a functioning adult as part of Section 9. Also... SHE'S NOT ON THE TEAM. I hate the way she just forces herself in there. She could have DIED when she went out looking for that perv from the crime scene. Easily died. Such a dumb, immature girl.

Smith is straight up a villain? like a cartoony villain with an evil laugh and everything. All 3 of these characters are VERY cartoony for some reason because no one else fits that tone.

The Post-Humans. So far we've seen (technically) 5 of 14. The only one of note so far has been Takashi who looks like an SMT character weirdly enough. I like his design and I'm interested to see what happens with him.

Everyone is slightly too out of character and none of the flesh buds have aged enough for the difference in time to work well. It's been a whole 11 years since we last saw these characters. Hell, Motoko would be in her 40s mentally by now yet she acts more like her ARISE counterpart than her SAC self. Batou is the same. Ishikawa is in the field fighting now for some reason and has the exact same haircut as Batou? And Togusa looks, if anything, 10 years younger. Borma at least looks like he's aged. Literally just pull an ARISE and vaguely place it without any connections. They're not needed.

Overall I think this half definitely got better as it went. a rocky weird start but a decent ending. I'm interested to see where the second half goes.

I liked it. Why not make a show about the future with future technologies like the 3DCG. But I wish there was a program that allows them to match the lip flaps from English to Japanese with the CG. Thought all the shading and textures were really cool. You can actually see the textures in the carpet. I have to admit I was confused the beginning and found it quite slow but once you start getting into the episodic episodes It was very interesting to find out what was gonna happen I hope the series continues for a long time.

I'm not exactly a 2D purist, but I think the creators are struggling with the move to full 3D. The faces hardly move, which is a problem when you want to convey emotion, and most of the other animation looks very wooden and lacks proper weight, which is a shame considering prior iterations had beautiful animation that helped convey each individual character.

The animation isn't the only place where the characters fail to express themselves, either. The paper-thin plot is constantly getting in the way of good storytelling, and the absence of the character vignettes that made SAC (particularly 2nd GIG) great is really noticeable. The ... worst part is that the plot uses grand themes mostly as set dressing for the action rather than trying to engage with them in any meaningful way, so it comes up completely hollow. The usage of 1984 as a heavy-handed but empty symbol is a particularly egregious example.

This iteration of the series has also expanded the roster a bit, and Purin Esaki is a particularly awful addition. Her fawning over Batou is annoying and the whole fan worship thing makes zero sense considering that the members of Section 9 were wiped from existence almost a decade ago when she was still a kid, albeit a technically gifted one.

The amount of negativity on this anime is downright disgusting, unreasonable, & unfair. So many 2D purists out there that rate it 1/10 just because the anime is 3D CGI style. The story & aesthetic actually great, one of the best CGI animation so far.

Story: 7
Art: 8
sound:8
character: 8
enjoyment: 8
overall: 8

In any case, this is recommended for GiTS fans or overall Cyberpunk fandom. The full CGI aesthetic might be something new, but it's not hard to get into like other anime & the animation actually pretty superb.
...
the story basically the continuation of GiTS SAC & Arise, with both series has its own easter eggs scenes if anyone look it hard enough. Major & friends basically now hired as a mercenary unit, the former members of Japan's elite Section 9 are faced with the sudden appearance of "Post-Human," a being with tremendous intelligence and physical capabilities. Plenty of intrigues in the new US territory.

This review only covers the first 12 episodes that have been released so far. The rating may change when the remaining 12 episodes are released.

I'm going to preface this by saying that I was rooting for this series to be great. I love GiTS. Despite not being a fan of CG animation, I was excited about this show particularly because of Kenji Kamiyama's involvement and also because of the return of the original SAC VAs. I always put way more weight on story telling than I do on visuals so I was willing to tolerate the changes in animation style. Furthermore, I think it's an ... awful practice for people to be unfairly critical of an anime simply because it utilizes CG. Watch the show and then make up your mind. You can't watch a 1 minute trailer on Youtube and come to a fair conclusion that something is bad because it uses CG. That's idiotic. It's a bad habit. Stop it.

Anyway, I fall in the middle between liking and disliking this show... Although I guess I am mostly in the like it camp as I am happy it exists. There are elements of SAC_2045 that made me happy. Primarily it was the return of old characters that I love. I enjoyed seeing Section 9 together again. I enjoyed seeing the Tachikomas interact with them. Some of the action scenes in the first few episodes looked really good. The cyber warfare stuff was fun as usual. All that familiar stuff is good for the most part. It's definitely not anywhere near as godly as the other adaptations but there were enjoyable moments here that I was satisfied with. Where the show falls apart is that it pivots from the serious tone and complex storytelling of the earlier series to what is largely a straightforward action sci-fi show rife with comedy. I kinda think it made sense to go this route given the cartoon-like (and mostly god-awful) character designs. Would it really be sensible to tell a story as complex, political, and serious as the Individual Eleven with cartoon-like characters, many of which look like children? No. So, I was willing to accept a different take on GiTS. I figure that SAC_2045 being more viewer friendly and slightly different from past GiTS doesn't mean that GiTS fans won't ever get a follow up to SSS/Arise. There's no harm in experiencing a different spin on something familiar. That said, this is still a flawed show even with my expectations kept in check. Midway into the season they slowly abandon the action and comedy and start to include more horror and dialogue heavy scenes. The show falls flat on its face when it makes this change because the CG models can't adequately convey the emotion the show is trying to elicit. How am I suppose to feel sympathy for a grieving character when the words coming out of their mouth are not in sync with the mouth movements on their cartoon-like faces? Or when they're sobbing and it looks ridiculous? The horror elements at best look awkward when they're not comically bad. The cartoon-like designs detract from the mood that the show is trying to set in these later scenes.

Another issue with the show is that it takes too long to get interesting. Overall I enjoyed watching it, but it didn't get interesting until the final episode. Everything was too straightforward. There was no mystery to be found until episode 12. While watching GiTS I have always been accustomed to racking my brain trying to figure out where the story was going and trying to understand what I had finished watching after each episode. It can be convoluted and hard to follow at times, but there is fun in trying to make sense of it. SAC_2045 is too simple. All of the political intrigue, espionage, and chess that is common in GiTS is absent here. So this also means that important characters like Aramaki are tossed aside because he isn't given anything interesting to do. He was never given an opportunity outsmart anyone and get his crew out of a tough situation by using his giant brain.

Anyway, this review is getting to long. Some quick thoughts:

+ Nice CG for the most part... Mainly in action scenes.
+ Old VAs return
+ Couple of fun episodes
+ Nice to see section 9 again

- Awful OP animation and OP track
- Too much comedy. The majority of it falls flat.
- Takes too long for the story to get going
- Awful character designs... What the hell is Boma wearing? Purin looks ridiculous.
- New characters are unlikable.
- 12 episodes in and Aramaki has been treated like an afterthought.
- The CG is bad in dialogue heavy scenes and horror scenes.

So, after the show I've watched that directors interview that Netflix posted on their YT channel and at one point when they talked about how they used motion capture I thought, "so even when they use motion capture, they still can't make characters walk naturally, uh?"

And is because is so obvious how Motoko sways her hips more than a Victoria's Secret model in a fashion show or how Togusa looked like a walking cardboard box you can not miss this every time they are on screen and don't even make me start with that pink haired aberration taken straight out of the hand of the ... newest KyoAni's intern and her overly exaggerated cutesy gestures.

I'm not one who criticizes just because the animation, but this cheap crap (yes that is how it looks, cheap!) while not bad for your average kids anime, is really not good enough to even attempt on getting close to the previous SAC or old GitS movies. Sadly for this one, the previous works simply had set the bar too high. Again, CG are not a determining factor for me, after all I enjoyed Ajin even when it looked cheap as hell, I liked Appleseed even when cell shaded was a new thing and I still believe that Spirits Within was a technological feat in the industry even when it was made two fkn decades ago! So why couldn't they make something visually more akin to Spirits Within while using this watered down plot they used for 2045? Beats me, it could have been an easy 8.2 even among the hardest audience and it could have been CG still.

As usual there is no problem with the voice cast (JP), they were spot on; in the 12 episodes I've watched I just noticed of two times where the dialog sounded weird, one from Motoko and one from chief Aramaki but hey, anyone can err a line among hundreds. On the other hand, opening and background music were subpar at best, they do not fit the CG aesthetics, story mood or the wannabe pseudo-sociopolitical plot. Do you remember how the music gave you this foreshadowing goosebumps when an action scene was about to start in Stand Alone Complex? Well, you can be forgetting about them because that won't happen this time, even when action scenes is one of the few things they did well in 2045.

What baffles me the most is not that it came out like this even when Aramaki and Sola Digital Arts had plenty experience, no, of them alone when not expecting it, it would have not surprised me, the weird thing is that it came out like this even when working hand in hand with Production I.G. and Kamiyama. One could make a mistake and you would think, well surely the other one will notice and vice-versa, but nope that didn't happen and here we are.

About the story, this is a watered down GitS. Not much else I can say, they try to sound profound and deep when only mentioning stuff by name, the rest is action scenes and petty dialog, no internal monologue, not character development, no intriguing mysteries to solve. Take this agent Smith as an example, he could have been an interesting plot device but ended up being ridiculed and discarded in the same forced way it was introduced.

Overall 5 out of 10 points, while you can eat popcorn while watching this, there are many parts where the dull story will make you yawn (mostly at the start), it gets better towards chapter 9 or 10 when Smith becomes irrelevant but nothing outstanding. You totally can skip this show if you are a GitS fan, an anime connoisseur or a sci-fi fan, you can probably enjoy this release if you like Marvel movies tho.

Hey guys, big anime fan here ^u^

I rlly loved this show! It reminds me a lot of my favourite American TV shows like 'Family Guy' and also 'American Dad', who could forget Netflix's 'Big Mouth' too. I wish however there was maybe an extra sex scene or two? Something else to really stimulate the senses with powerful visuals and audio design. But alas, I'm sure Stewie Griffin (my favourite character hehehe~) would have something not so wonderful to say about this show so I will instead only review it a 6 out of 10 in his honour.

Thank u for reading my animeh review guys >.< ... <3