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)

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

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.

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.

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.

I don’t normally leave reviews since some members of the audience react impulsively to low scores of their favorite thing, but I promised myself I wouldn’t stay quiet if the third season of Stand Alone Complex came up lacking.

I could talk about this for hours, so I’ll limit myself to six points. I’ll start with the bad news.

Spoilers ahead. Turn back now if you haven’t been with this show since the first season.

***

- I initially wasn’t concerned about the decision to do this season using CG because I figured that might mean there would be more action sequences. This is a situation fit for a ... monkey’s paw. The fights with Huge and Harts were acceptable. Everything else was a bit excessive. The previous seasons in this series relied more on winding tension and building intrigue. When Section 9 had to start shooting, it was quick and clean. The soundtrack Yoko Kanno composed fit that aspect of the show perfectly and helped tell the story in a way that words and images could not. Without Kanno and with CG, the mood of this show has changed completely.

- Section 9 always gets disbanded. That’s fine. I can groove to that. After all, they spend most of their time bringing justice to those who believe they are above the law. This show begins with them already being disbanded. No problem. But wait. Something is amiss. They are working for a foreign PMC on foreign soil. What? In the past, they worked closely with the Japanese government. And they just get let go, but not before they smuggle three Tachikoma’s out with them? This is a weak part of the plot that needed more of an explanation. And them being very expensive is not a good one.

- Purin. I initially didn’t have an issue with Purin until I realized what she was. I used to read a lot of fan fiction. I even wrote it. Purin is a Mary Sue. She might even be a self-insert, although I base that on nothing more than suspicion. She would not be half as bad if she didn’t have a crush on Batou and if the Major made it a little more difficult for her to get in good graces with the team.

I don’t know why they used her when they could have just as easily used Maven or Kuro from First Assault. I guess they just had to get the moe audience.

- The single most offensive scene in the first twelve episodes occurs when the Major has to protect the Prime Minister against the post-human who digs boxing. First of all, wouldn’t it have been a good idea to use Batou here? He can box. There was a whole episode about it in the first season of this show. To brush up on her skills, the Major is seen downloading a program that turns her into Mike Tyson and George Foreman. With a Doritos promotion.

No.

Absolutely not.

You can’t convince me that someone as experienced in combat as the Major wouldn’t have been able to lay that clown out flat without downloading a community fan patch from GitHub. This cheapens her character. Why? Because if anybody in this universe can do that, then anyone can be the Major so long as they have the right kind of prosthetic body and the necessary clearance to access such files.

+ The episode where Batou helps a bunch of old people rob a bank and the one where the Major devises a test for Togusa so he will feel more confident about rejoining Section 9 were great. They’ve got that old-school Stand Alone Complex flavor. I was also pleased to see that the Major still has problems fighting anyone who’s wearing one of those pesky armored suits. She’s got to have some kind of weakness. Might as well be that.

Maybe she can download something off the App Store to help her with it.

+ The Major is my favorite fictional character. Across all mediums. Doesn’t matter what it is, she’s got it under control. I dig that. I wish I could be that kind of person. I found her portrayal in Arise to be lacking and was tickled pink when this show did her right. Atsuko Tanaka doesn’t sound like she took a single day off from the role and I adore her for it. I can say the same thing for Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, especially since this is one of a handful of shows that I prefer to watch in English.

I was thrilled that they got Michael McCarty back as Ishikawa. I must admit, when I heard his voice, I had to cheer. They even got Dave Wittenberg back as Saito. Just about all of the American voice actors reprise their roles. It’s so good. I almost can’t. It makes me want to squeal in delight every time I think about it. Too bad Sherry Lynn and Jimmy Neutron didn’t get to come back as a Tachikomas, though. That’s okay. Oh, and Megumi Hayashibara was in this? Wow! This show has some serious star power.

***

In addition to all the above, I can’t say I cared much for the main plot, but it wouldn’t be fair to say anything about it without seeing the rest of the episodes first. I’ll do that later. I do not believe they will be able to turn this boat around before it collides with the iceberg in front of it, but I suppose there’s always a chance. Though I did not like this show, it was fun getting to see the Major and all her buddies again. I’ll just have to forget this show ever happened when I’m rewatching 2nd Gig.

It has been 13 years since Solid State Society. Man. I guess it’s called getting old. Everything you like gets remade for a new audience that you aren’t a part of. The same thing will happen to you as well, dear reader. It’s only a matter of time.

I guess Netflix has done wonders again..They took a beloved franchise and turned it into the most hideous mess that brings me memories of another beloved franchise that got the "fuckitintheass" treatment...Namely Berserk.

Netflix it seems wants badly a piece of the anime money and decided it would be nice to get some exclusives..That's all nice and dandy but if you think about it..There are already way too many options for legal streaming..But it's ok cause more competition means more options, right?

As it turns out no..Cause Netflix as it seems has the habit of taking already established titles and fucking them. And that is also true ... for new titles as well. In fact i think there are only 2 titles worth watching..The rest of them? Holy fucking balls of Satan...Speaking of whom Devilman Crybaby which was as impressive as it could get for a manga and anime adaptation as it could get for the time it was released. Now go forward some 30 odd years or so and Netflix bought the rights and produced what passes these days as "reimagination"...What that means of course is "we'll take a beloved series and turn it into shit just to anger the fans".

Don't believe me..Just go to Google and search the words He-Man and Kevin Smith..That's the whole mindset of these morons..But that's not where it all ends, is it? Cause being American morons means that politics HAVE to be inserted into this medium as well..Of course we had to endure SJW political agendas shoved down our throats in anime as well..

What does all that have to do with GITS?We'll come to that in a sec.

Firstly, we need to address the relentless attack on our pupils..The god damn animation whici i wish i could say gets better as the series progresses but that's not the case at all. Remember those demo games of old on PS3? Well this feels like a longer version of a demo with lifeless eyes, head movements similar to that of stiff corpses and lip syncing so lazy it beggars belief..Which of course in turn takes its' toll on the voice acting department cause when you have some damn good VA and the lips are working in geological time zones..Well let's say it's not gonna be a nice, comfy ride. And iff you add the difference between the backgrounds and the characters the result is as appaling as swimming in a pool of shit and sulfuric acid.

Speaking of shit, guess where GITS takes place...NOPE, you're quite wrong..It takes place iiiiiiiinnnn.......America! So low speed limits, huge burgers and even larger styrofoam cups full of Coke and people so fat you mistake them for interstate buses.

The very first things to hit the screen are images of America’s palm trees and blue skies which is a far cry from the cyberpunk streets we all know and love. But hey, at least you get Agent Smith clones and muscle cars and villains straight outta the football pitch.

As for the soundtracks...Lord deliver me from songs with "money make the world go round" lyrics in them..It's bad on another level.

As for the story itself..Nothing noteworthy here as well..What we get for our money is the investigation of robotics entrepreneur Patrick Huge and his connection to “post-human” engineering,which sounds interesting but it isn't..This economic dystopia is presented with the finesse and depth of...An American actually..This also being American and Bernie Sanders friendly we are presented with terms such as “1-percenter” and “global reset” and the worst offender of them all....Episodes like "EDGELORD-Revolution of the 14-Year-Olds"...Which is the direct result of SJW's marching into every medium and ruining everything for the normal people..It would be no surprise at all if in the next installment we see pink haired lesbians with pussy hats fighting patriarchy and targeting people on twitter for having the "wrong opinion".

So...Streched thin story with sjw politics, animation that can cause violent vomiting, characters i can no longer care about..Yeah..Don't you think it's time to stop beating the old horse and bury it? We have so many good entries let's leave it at that and let this franchise rest in peace already. As for the SJW crowd, don't you think it's time to think of something new rather than picking up already established names and fucking them up for all of the rest of the world?

its not what you want to see.big disappointment. everything up til now was good, except the arise series, which was at least fresh and didnt deviatye too much. it had it's own taste which was also good. though i didnt enjoy how it deviated. but THIS. the cg isnt even good. how could netflix let something so low budget on their platform?

the voice actors probably cringe in their sleep everynight that they got roped into being coerced into a contract for something so horrendous. the plot will make your brain into mush. typical sloppy cinematic plot writing as is signiature of american style direction and ... writing. its disgusting. it isnt artfully connected and built. there is no creativity or thoughtfully layered elements as is signiature in the japanese / original storytellign of ghost in the shell. that this was allowed to come to market is an embarrassment to the fan base.

its as if someone intentionally hijacked the series with this installment as a joke to smear the series. i do not recommend watching this to any ghost in the shell fans. not even out of blues of having finished everything else.

i need to go lick my wounds now and find something that is original to make up for this huge loss.

you'd think 10 year olds wrote this, and not the smart ones. talking about the brain dead american 10 year olds. football players wearing football uniforms and helmets while theyre battling? they didnt even have a reason to have the uniforms on. they were 'retired' playuers..and were doing nothing related to the sport during their active roles in the plot... wtf? militants , regardless of background, arent putting on that much of a show. it's like they were perhaps making a pass at american's intelligence / silly culture with that one? but it backfired if thats what they tried. perhaps im even giving them too much credit thinking it was a humorous pass at americans, which i was hoping it was at first. but it isnt. it was just a poor attempt at incorporating the cross culture theme of the plot. thats not the only example of that you will find either.

its hard to watch. i had to shut it off middle of episode 2. and i try my very best to give every anime 3 episodes. this is disgusting