Koukaku Kidoutai: SAC_2045 Season 2

First of all, just to operate with full disclosure here, I’d like to address the fact that, at this point, my brain is just complete mush. I’m at the point now where I can physically feel how much more difficult it’s become, in merely the last five or six weeks, for my fingers to functionally type out my thoughts, jumbled as they already are. I’m not even sure I’m intellectually capable of critically analyzing an anime such as this anymore. I mean—fuck me backwards—some would say I was never intellectually capable of critically analyzing anything. “Thank god you quit reviewing, your reviews were borderline headache ... inducing and a blight on any anime review section. You act like this is a full time job and it's sad, go outside. It's okay you can maybe review the sky or the grass instead of anime :)” So now? All bets are fucking off. Even reading through my own past reviews is difficult, with me subtly slurring my words and tripping over my tongue. I’m literally, not-a-joke fucking dying. This isn’t even mentioning how my short term memory nowadays is completely zero. I still remember my life, and I remember who I am, and why I am who I am. I remember things and the world. But as far as events that happened recently, or what I said recently, or anything recently? That is all fucking dead, zero, nothing. Tiny little minutes will pass where, blink, I’ll just forget everything and all thoughts will have permanently evacuated my fucking skull. Randomly, in the middle of the day. Most of my reviews are drafted, written, and edited weeks—even months in advance, but I watched all twenty four episodes of SAC_2045 in the last two days and wrote this review in the exact same time frame…hopefully, at least, it isn’t as bad as I think it is. I suppose you, my sweetheart reader, will be the ultimate judge, jury, and executioner on this trail. [laughs nervously] Please just try to be lenient. I’m SO sad and lonely. Hug me, please; don’t hate me. Squeeze hard. I’m small and thin and fragile, but I promise you won’t break me. So squeeze, like you mean it. I’m ready.

So…the sequel no one wanted to the series no one asked for. What an enviable position to be in? I’m speaking as if there are separate seasons of this and not just one, twenty-four episode show that Netflix cut in half and budgeted separately, but whatever. Point is, we’re back, and the curtains have closed properly. At the end of the day, I would say SAC_2045 was essentially consistent. In my review for season one, I think I remembered ending with the CG talk, but, this time, I think I’m going to start with it. Most people seem to be approaching it from the perspective of, “Oh, wtf lol. This is shit. These faggots are incompetent.” But they unfortunately aren’t. They’re some of the best in the industry. This look? This was intentional. It may not look good to you (or fucking me), but THIS is what they were aiming for. So please realize that. This wasn’t a technical failure. It was an audience failure. They didn’t fail to animate what they set out to animate; rather, they failed to look at their audience and agree on what the end goal and end product should’ve been. Berserk 2016 was a failure; Ex-Arm was a failure; Hand Shakers was a failure; all the other CG trainwrecks you’re thinking of were failures. This was not a failure; this was a miscalculation. I mean, if we’re at the point now where Scott Matthew is coming back and participating in Ghost in the Shell productions, who are we to continue crying that this project was an unnecessary bastardization of anything? This is all original creative staff, with the original cast, and everyone’s original spark. The balance is just slightly trifled with by the sometimes excessive Shinji Aramaki visual action. So, Max, you’re right. Atsuko Tanaka’s performance as the Major really was commanding enough to overcome Ilya Kuvshinov’s sex doll female character designs. It’s not that our cyberbrains are infected with the nostalgia virus. It’s that we’re simply watching a well-written, well-acted show, and no amount of “muh CG” is going to change that, especially when the CG’s shortcomings are exclusively stylistic.

The visual post-processing in the second half is much more shiny and the definition on the models is much more, for lack of a better term, “bright” and defined, and the colors are infinitely superior, but the actual animation techniques and the energy which results on screen is identical to the first. Whether you like the designs they use or not, Sola Digital Arts has perfected their mocap animation style. Every step of every character looks technically flawless. The mocap approach to animation results in natural, weighty, anatomical movement, and after taking into account whatever engine they use to render the shadow placements and whatever program they use to apply so much body definition, you’re left with the perfect CG anime, assuming we’re still talking exclusively about anime that we want to “look like anime” (think GANTZ:O). Again, I don’t think I’ll ever truly welcome the change entirely, especially in the first half which wasn’t nearly as polished as the second [insert Ilya Kuvshinov’s self-insert backflipping naked up the stairs], but I suppose I’m just trying to be as objective as possible here. There’s this one retrohead who writes pretty good reviews about retrohead anime, but he tried writing one for Hathaway’s Flash, and it just came across as completely out of touch. According to MAL guidelines, you cannot comment on other people’s reviews, so I can’t tell you the user’s name or link the review itself without putting this review in jeopardy, but his argument was essentially, “As we all know, old thing good, new thing bad. And this new thing doesn’t resemble old thing enough, so it’s bad.” The only tangible complaint in the whole review was the movie looked too modern, as if that wasn’t only a bad thing according to his personal opinion. I think I’m just scared of coming across like that, especially when it was far from SAC_2045’s CG which turned me off to its visual presentation. I mean, “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” doesn’t exactly jump to mind when I see a wacky waifu with pink hair exclaiming, “EEEEEHHHHHHHH?!!?!?!”

However, speaking of the nostalgia virus and what I personally see as being tonally appropriate to include within a season of Stand Alone Complex, I must say that when I see a Tachikoma laying in pieces on the ground, expressing its excitement to finally see Togusa again, with Sakiko Tamagawa’s ever-adorable voice, and I feel something, is that all nostalgia, or is it that these are still engaging and endearing characters? Does it matter? I, personally, am increasingly doubtful it does, because these twenty four episodes—comparisons to anything aside for a moment—are really fucking well written. When I’m watching an episode about Japanese pensioners robbing a bank, because they don’t understand anything about how the financial system has evolved and how it’s not terribly possible to really even quote-unquote “rob” a so-called “bank” anymore, and they’re doing so because 1) two of them had their retirement funds lost to a global banking default that they don’t understand 2) because one of them was an employee at said bank who was trying to get revenge against his much younger manager, who manipulated him into putting up his pension as seed money for crypto investments, only for it to all be lost to the markets, and 3) because one of them came to the bank to withdraw all her savings, fly to a country like Switzerland where euthanasia is legal, and literally pay to die, only to learn that all her savings were in an outdated currency which, when converted to current yen-dollar bills, wasn’t enough to enact her plans, I don’t sit back and think, “This episode is nothing but an imitation of my precious Koukaku Kidoutai! Look at that CG! Fucking GAY LMAO!” I think, “Wow, Kenji Kamiyama has done it again.” His ability to get so technical yet keep it so grounded is astonishing. That, combined with Shotaro Suga’s character writing and Masayuki Yoshihara’s visual direction, is what made Stand Alone Complex the masterpiece it was. However, as I described at great length in my review for part one, SAC_2045 is sorely missing two of those three factors.

Half the episodes in each season of Stand Alone Complex were “complex,” which is to say, they were connected to the main overarching narrative, and the rest were “standalone,” yet at no point was the series repetitive or dry of ideas. It was always fresh, innovative, and thought-provoking. It was also never dry of imagination or emotion. It was always surprising, dazzling, and emotive. This entire twenty-four episode series, however, has I think two truly stand alone episodes to flesh-out the updated world, and, while those two were admittedly fantastic, the fact remains that much of the runtime is devoted to action scenes and prolonging physical conflicts without actually using any of this time to deepen the ideas, merely to have fun realizing the visual action potential they’ve made for themselves. This is fine, I suppose. I mean, it isn’t like it’s plagued with particularly poor execution, especially throughout the second half, but this was never the original appeal of Stand Alone Complex. Stand Alone Complex had action, and those action set pieces remain fucking brilliantly stunning to this day, but there were never long stretches of episodes which were JUST action scenes. SAC_2045, on the other hand, can sometimes be JUST an action scene, followed by someone explaining something with enigmatic technobabble, then another cliffhanger action scene leading into the following episode, which then begins with the previous cliffhanger and subsequent continuation of the very same action scene you just saw. I hate contributing to the “muh Netflix” shit-flinging which we love so much around here, but I must also admit that the Netflix model really didn’t help out here, because Netflix autoskipping the ED and not giving you that breathing room between episode breaks really highlighted how the series was just going from meaningless cliffhanger to meaningless cliffhanger when it was focusing more on action, less on…well, what all this was actually supposed to be about. Luckily these fucking roaches didn’t autoskip the OP, or I’d be pissed.

Wait…hold on. That was supposed to be the positive paragraph. How’d I fuck that up so much? Okay, so I was talking about how this show feels like OG SAC in how smartly written it is, and then I got sidetracked with bitching about how the emotional genius of Shotaro Suga and the directorial genius of Masayuki Yoshihara on the original “Kamiyama Team” was replaced by Shinji Arakami’s CG action overload, and how that ultimately ruined SAC_2045…which it did. Wait…okay, I guess we’re not going to have a positive paragraph then, because yes. That’s the problem. Kamiyama’s ideas are never constrained or balanced by his old coworkers who kept his genius creativity in check, and this is made worse by Aramaki exacerbating his love for physical, technical concepts expanding outward into these super-cyber-techno-whatever action spectacles. The old Stand Alone Complex always had, one might say, a point. It was always grounded within the boundaries of the technology, without ever diving into anything like spirituality. The Oshii films did, but that’s because their overall message and themes were profound enough to warrant such moments, and their particular directorial atmosphere was so compelling and different than the technical and “simply realistic” presentation of Stand Alone Complex. In SAC_2045 (and fucking Ubukata’s Arise series, now that I think about it), the technology is no longer the limit. Indeed, someone much funnier than I may refer to it as the “limit break.” I’m just bitching about the ending everyone’s already bitched about at this point, so, before this gets away from me, let me assure you, all SAC_2045 really has to dissuade heavy praise is CG, excessive action, and an ending that made episodes one through twenty-two feel like The Matrix (1999), episode twenty-three feel like The Matrix Reloaded (2003), and episode twenty-four feel like The Matrix Revolutions (2003). The rest is a technically and narratively ambitious comeback by the original creator himself, who made I think the best thing he still could’ve.

The metaphors simply got out of hand. References are one thing, but when I’m at the point where the show I’m watching is so obsessed with codifying all its concepts so strictly in line with George Orwell’s 1984 that I have to pause the episode, stand up, walk into the other room, get 1984 off the shelf, and start flipping through it again, then I think the writer has bitten off a little more than they could chew. In Innocence, for example, characters practically spoke to each other in quotes. Batou has two conversations, one with Togusa and one with Chief Aramaki, where literally the entire back and forth is conducted via quotes. But these quotes were not simply references to larger works which the film required you to intimately comprehend. Rather, they were quotes that were themselves self-contained parables, or allegories, or whatever. They could say it, and you, a thinking adult, could say, “Okay, well, the source escapes me on that one, but I still get the point he made, because I’m literate and can understand words.” I wrote MULTIPLE papers on Orwell’s work in college, and I’ve read 1984 specifically at least five times, yet even I have to sit here and think, “Wait…how is the Miniluv (Ministry of Love) giving you the Room 101 (phycological torture chamber for political dissidents) going to further your goals, when you yourselves use the Thinkpol (Thought Police) to enact justice already and start Sustainable Wars? Sustainable Wars are just societies where the ruling class has allowed for inequality to grow to the point of social collapse, so they can profit off the ensuing riots and violence fueled by weapons they manufacture. Is this sort of chaos not the exact opposite of the regimented Stalinist nightmare depicted in 1984? Is this partisan split within society not the exact thing Big Brother and the Thought Police would want to suppress? Where radicals run around with AK-47s, screaming about who’s N and N-Po, and railing against the one percent???” We’re so many allegories deep by the end of the series, I honestly forgot the original point being made, if there ever was one.

At some point during the first few episodes of the show, we get this exchange between Chief Aramaki and this American official who he knows to try and use her as a connection to get some leverage on the mission Section 9 had gotten itself wrapped up in, and at the end of the exchange she looks at him longingly and says, “I envy this woman you need so badly.” I was just like, “I’m sorry, WHAT?! Who was that?! What’s their history together?!??! Give me that sweet, juicy gossip!!!” But, looking back, that’s how Stand Alone Complex always was. Stand Alone Complex, Guardian of the Sacred Spirit, Eden of the East, etc. They featured humans, more than they did characters. SAC_2045 proceeded after that exchange to shower me with blissful character moments and dialogues which perfectly recaptured the chemistry of Section 9 as it always had been. Meanwhile, all these plot-relevant ideas for the main narrative build and hint in the background, and as the characters became interested and invested, so did you, because that’s what good stories do to you, and this continued until the final few episodes revealed them all to have been one giant nothing burger that was a complete waste of the minds and technical talent which brought it to screen. It’s not that it’s bad or particularly nonsensical. It’s just unsatisfying and, emotionally, predictable. Max, I see what you mean when you call it a “character assassination,” but the final episode’s script was so fucking bewildering that I can't really examine Motoko's decisions as if I was actually watching the well-established character, "Motoko Kusanagi." It’s not that she’s okay with the entire world living in a simulation, because they aren’t. When you typed, “Doublethink, N, and Shimamura’s grand plan are utterly lost on me. (On second thought, they're all just synonymous with each other, aren't they?)” I just giggled, said, “yes, they are,” and swiftly continued reading. There was no pot of gold you failed to appreciate at the end of this rainbow. It was just, “Oh, ghost hack. That didn’t really happen. Understandable, have a great day.”

Thank you for reading.

In my initial review of the first twelve episodes of this season, I lamented over how so many franchises were being brought back tailored for new audiences that completely miss the point of the original show. At the time, I didn’t think I’d ever see a legacy franchise successfully resurrected with the way entertainment is being handled lately.

But then Top Gun: Maverick came out. So, it is possible. With the right writing. Any idea can work with good writing, really. But the people who did this show? I wouldn't trust them to do a nursery rhyme.

As before, I will limit myself to five points. Spoilers ... ahead.

Use what worked before. That’s fine. But don’t depend on it. The first season dealt with someone who took a book too seriously. The second season dealt with a dude who attempted to get his hands on a nuclear weapon to get his point across. Let’s use them again! The new idea is post-humans, which had the potential to be interesting on its own, but they just go ahead and do what the Laughing Man and Kuze did because nobody will notice. Leaning too heavily on what worked before is a subtle way of your plot not being strong enough to stand on its own.

It had previously been my understanding that the members of Section 9 were the best of the best, mainly by their own merit. And then Batou admits to an AI helping all of them aim. Great. This is as bad as the Major downloading how to box. Our heroine and her heroes are not the best of the best. They have the right bodies to handle enhancements that make them superhuman.

Saito’s augmentation makes sense. He had to have his eye ruined before he was able to use his little gizmo. A sacrifice was necessary. That’s compelling and adds to his character. Well, now we can all be Saito! And we don’t have to have the Major poke our eye out! Just so long as we have the right prosthetic body.

Why should I care about characters whose talents are not unique? I guess all one must do to be special here is download a Wikipedia article and find an AI to fill in the blanks. How does one get to be a member of Section 9? I mean, they let Purin in. It can’t be that hard to join them.

Accepting the finality of death demonstrates a mature perspective of life. Of all characters, I would have been willing to bet the Major would understand this. But she is not interested in the ethical implications of her decision, despite how philosophical she can otherwise be. They needed Purin’s brain. Because nobody else in Section 9 is talented enough to hack the Pentagon. Uh-huh. Here’s a thought. Did the writers really have to kill Purin in the first place? Evidently, because they wanted to use this trope, and they made the Major look like an absolute idiot while doing so.

Having said that, it will come as no shock that I found the ending to be on par with how Neon Genesis Evangelion concluded. Rebuild included. Everyone’s consciousness is in “heaven” because the world is in the throes of nuclear war. The Major is given the chance to pull the plug, but relents. Yet she can’t live in a fantasy world, so she decides to retreat into the net. To essentially live in a fantasy world.

Yet it is not all negative. As before, I applaud the dub. Everybody did fantastic. I got mad respect for Cherami Leigh's portrayal of Purin. This is one of the few shows I prefer to watch in English, but the dub was not ready at the time this first came out due to the pandemic. I wasn't enthused enough to watch the first twelve episodes a second time despite how much I like the English voice cast for this show, so I missed Leigh's performance. Until this season. As much as I do not like Mary Sue---oh, excuse me. Purin! As much as I do not like Purin, Leigh made her tolerable.

Where do they go from here? It would take a miracle to come back from this. Oh, wait! A Rebuild. That’s right, it would take a Rebuild to come back from this. Maybe when they get to 2045 a second time around 2055, they’ll get it right. But I doubt it.

As a huge fan of Stand Alone Complex, and GITS in general, I find myself to be very, very, very, very, very, very, very conflicted over this season, and understandably so, as this iteration of GITS came the closest to reimagining the genius of Kamiyama Kenji's first outing with the franchise, but, as you'll soon find out, somehow managed to crash and burn gloriously in the final lap and right before the finish line. I have a lot of scattered, disjointed and eager thoughts I feel I need to dispel, but I don’t really know how to organise them into anything resembling a legitimate review ... of this show, so, this write-up will be mostly stream of consciousness. With specific regards to any mention of the visuals, this "review" will, more or less, cover both seasons, as they are ostensibly the exact same. And do be wary. I’m going to drop random spoilers whenever I feel like it.

In hindsight, I probably should have rewatched season 1, despite 2020, and the release of said season, only feeling like it happened a couple of months ago. But, I guess it’s been long enough that upon starting up episode 1, I had initially completely forgotten all this series’ specific jargon. No matter though, because unlike the original Stand Alone Complex, this series isn’t too reliant on it, plus I have google on my side. And it’s only now dawning on me that this exact reason is probably why the compilation movie exists, but, well, I wanted my fix of GITS, so I guess you could say I got what I wanted.

Nevertheless, I can safely say that, for most of its run, I enjoyed what this season, and SAC_2045 as a whole, had to offer. It almost felt like a well-needed return to form, but at the same time, something new altogether. However, despite that, the show still finds itself with a fair share of issues, some more glaring than others. So, I’ll get one of the most contentious aspects of this show out the way first: the character designs. I think Ilya’s art is nice enough to look at in isolation; I can very much appreciate that. But, for whatever reason, I find his designs have always had this air of pretentiousness to them, which is especially true for these redesigns, particularly the female ones. See, unlike their Arise counterparts, the Section 9 of SAC_2045 sounds, acts and emotes like their usual, badass, slick 'n cool selves, however, due to Ilya's radically different take on the cast, and the new 3DCG look, there's this insufferable dissonance going on between the writing and the visuals, and that goes double for the Major. Thankfully, the woman is so astoundingly charismatic, that at times, I'm tricked into thinking Ilya's redesign doesn't suck. So, even though she looks like a—as SingleH so flatteringly puts it—sex doll, she continues to, without falter, command attention with her mere presence every time she graces the screen, which I think is a testament to how powerful Atsuko Tanaka’s performance is, despite how unauthorative the new design looks. As for the rest of Section 9, everyone looks objectively (if I can use that word here) passable, even if I find Togusa’s rework to be absolutely awful in terms of representation. The design is just so, 2020, for a lack of a better way to describe it. Strangely, it’s not even really Ilya’s fault either. Episode 5 restores Togusa’s glorious mullet, but it’s just that the CG engine is incapable of truly capturing its glory the way I.G did so masterfully two decades ago. Speaking of the CG, it looks—and I don’t care what anybody has to say about this—fucking amazing! Sola and I.G finessed the absolute shit out of what they were given to work with. Everything looks incredibly polished across the board—it really grows on you over time, although, still nowhere near as breathtaking as Kise's Arise. As I said in regards to Vampire in the Garden, there are many ways to say something looks great, and SAC_2045 season 2. Looks. Great. I couldn't really tell if anything was upgraded, visually, since season 1, but I’d like to believe it looks different, somehow—maybe it's smoother? Anyway, this segues into my main issue with how the CG, despite its evident polish, negatively affects the show on a scene-to-scene basis in comparison with the original SAC. So let’s move down a paragraph.

SAC_2045’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness, that being the mode by which its story is conveyed: the virtual environment. Don’t get me wrong, the way it’s used here is genuinely great, so great in fact, that I’d argue SAC_2045 might be the best-looking CG TV/ONA series I’ve ever seen. It’s quite enthralling to see the characters traverse the environment as well as interact with props, and one another, in fully realized, aesthetically pleasing renders, masterfully brought to life by I.G and Sola. It's that same filmic movement Kamiyama sought to capture in animation during the original SAC, now given the tools to flat-out do so. For instance, Purin climbing over the hotel bed to get to the robot charging port kinda blew me away. It’s a fairly small, inconsequential scene in the scope of the entire series, and there are definitely better examples I could have used, but you don’t often see characters move through a "set" like that. I was fully expecting her to walk around the bed, but the staff took full advantage of the liberty that the 3DCG allowed them and had her traverse through the z-axis with the camera in tow. I hope any of what I’m explaining doesn’t sound too mundane, but getting back on topic, my point is, that while the virtual environment stuff is great, the freedom it gives the staff hinders their ability to really frame a scene impactfully—if you get what I mean. A lot of really big scenes seemed to fall flat because of the focus on intractability and life-like movement. I feel a more traditional approach to presentation, like in Arise, for instance, would have forced the staff to think long and hard about how to storyboard specific segments, upping the visual impact that I think SAC_2045 was sorely lacking. The trade-off for this, I suppose, was the big-budget action feel a lot of others noted and attributed to Aramaki Shinji, however, I feel this is just as in line with the type of media Kamiyama enjoys consuming (and I guess creating), as he’s stuck his neck out on several occasions to profess his love for well-oiled, Hollywood action, popcorn flicks. As a matter of fact, we've been seeing more and more of this style from Kamiyama as of late—well, relatively—starting with Hirune Hime, or maybe even Re:Cyborg. Of course, that isn't to diminish Aramaki's role on this project, but SAC_2045 just seems more mutually collaborative than most make it out to be. But hey, I know literally nothing about animation, and I have no idea what I’m talking about.

However, I do know what I’m talking about, especially when it comes to things that I know what I’m talking... about, and the ending falls into that category. The ending of SAC_2045 was absolutely atrocious—or was it? I really don’t know whether or not I absolutely despise this ending, but what I do know, is that it left me incredibly disappointed and wholly unsatisfied. It's for sure going to be the most polarizing component of SAC_2045’s narrative. Like, what the fuck were they thinking? At first, I thought ‘N’ was a relatively cool idea, though nothing as ingenious, inventive, intelligent, imaginative, innovative, incredible, intuitive, impeccable, impressive, indispensable, or inspired as the Individual 11 nor The Laughing Man, but still, relatively cool all the same. But the idea just kept growing and growing until the stakes were at a global level, and here I thought Gouda’s nationalist renaissance was big money. Boy, was I wrong. This ‘N’ bullshit just kept getting more and more contrived the further it went, until it eventually imploded in on itself like it was the end of some cookie-cutter, milquetoast, bag-cereal, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety, top-ramen, dollar store, teen-fiction, dystopian novel, where there are seemingly no consequences for the character's actions. But who knows, this might just be another case of, “I’m too stupid to understand the nuance, and with time, I’ll accept this as some legendary subversion, or extension, of GITS as an intellectual property.” I hope the fuck not, though. The concepts got so big and ill-defined that even the characters couldn’t explain them. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was where Satou Dai’s authorial hand came into the picture. I love the man’s work, but this is right in line with the big-concept stupidity he often indulges in. LIKE, WHAT IS THIS? THE MATRIX? THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE STAND. ALONE. COMPLEX! DOUBLE-THINK IS JUST PURE TECHNOMANCY BULLSHIT! I don’t even remember any of this being established in season 1, apart from the aptly named “nostalgia virus,” though its connection to double-think, N and Shimamura’s grand plan is utterly lost on me (on second thought, they're all just synonymous with each other, aren't they?). Like, I understand what the plan is, and how it works, but isn't it just a little juvenile, especially for SAC, given its reputation for grounded, hard sci-fi? Also, that ending scene was absolutely masturbatory—undoubtedly the worst version of the backdrop (or whatever you want to call it) to date. And man, what were they thinking with Shimamura’s final design anywho? He’s decked out in a school-shooter trench coat on top of already looking like a cross-bred Joker and Minato Arisato. That’s just a recipe for disaster. And a disaster it was, as I attribute everything wrong with SAC_2045’s rushed, frankly baffling conclusion, to him. Now, in the same vein as Shimamura, Purin is a character I SHOULD hate, but surprisingly, don’t. I don’t know what to tell you: she just grew on me. All that Ilya pretentiousness I was talking about earlier melted away thanks to Megumi Han's (huh, wait a minute, I was just explaining a couple of days ago how I thought she carried Vampire in the Garden’s emotional crux, go figure) brilliantly emotive performance. And hey (I bet you just love how I keep using "and hey" to nonchalantly add some stupid, obvious tidbit), they even decked her out in a plug suit, so I guess Eva really did alter anime eternally. Anyways, I thought that was real cool and—to use a smark term—it got a pretty huge pop from me. But you know what also got a pretty huge pop from me? Scott “basically god” Matthew, that’s what. When was the last time you heard an Australian singer in an anime? That’s a rhetorical question of course, and yes, this is ironic lampshading. So anyway, on top of receiving an insert song from the man I’m going to dub, "the voice of SAC," we also got an insert song from EMI FUCKING EVANS of all people! Those two additions to the soundtrack fixed what I thought was lacking from season 1’s OST—an emotional punchline that underscores those big scenes, which are supposed to make us, as viewers, care. It’s what Kanno’s score did so flawlessly on the original SAC, and, to an extent, it’s replicated to decent effect here (wow, this paragraph is huge).

Alright! I’m going to end this “review” by mentioning a few things I thought were interesting.

So, first of all, you have no idea how happy it made me to see Batou in his original SAC design during that Purin flashback, as blatantly fanservice-y as it was. It made me so happy, in fact, that the unfortunate co-occurrence of it, and a retcon to the stand-alone Marco Amereti episode, didn’t even matter, although it probably should have. Secondly, it really seemed like someone on the team lifted the whole soldiers crying, laughing etc thing right from Guns of the Patriots, anyone else? Thirdly, when the fuck did “3D printing a cow” become a thing in SAC? What is this, Star Trek? I half expected to see Data come out of that thing instead of Mizukane, lol. And lastly, as hard as that one rock track is trying—and failing—to be Run Rabbit Junk, it surprisingly, like Purin, grew on me, to the point whereby the last couple of episodes, I was doing air guitar every time it played. Yeah, isn't that cool?

So, while SAC_2045 had some really, really interesting ideas pertaining to the American empire, a sustainable war, post-human cyborgs, and crazy world-building events like the synchronized global default, it also had some really, really rushed, horrible ideas that only served to muddy what could have been a legitimately good sequel to one of my favourite anime of all time. Though, despite its lopsided shortcomings, watching the Section 9 gang get back together at full force warmed my cold, black heart. I expect to revisit this “review” to add or fix some things, seeing as it’s 6:22 AM, and I’ve spent the entire night watching this show and writing this garbage, so I can only imagine it’s riddled with spelling errors and inconsistencies. Hopefully, someone more adept at writing can produce a review that clarifies what the actual fuck was going on with those last two episodes plot-wise, so they can explain to me, in clear terms, why the ending didn't suck. Well, the net is vast and infinite, so I imagine that's not a big ask.

Thanks for reading.

The second season was good ; in my opinion it envision a point in time and space where humans no matter how greedy and powerful they get ; they will always seek to destroy themselves for more power and hunger ; creating a critical point in time and space where they stop thinking of what they can become and evolve and they turn into what they can gain by dominating others with will of force ; its a fine line of morale that it shows and a good lesson ; was a good series close to the real one but i would say it improved ... in some aspects where the story takes crazy twists and turns that turn the story 360 and can shift into any direction until the end its hard to figure a lot of stuff but every piece is a puzzle in this season and they all add up to one big amazing picture

Came closer to what GITS should be [based on the original movie and series'] than the first season, and hinted at deeper threads in areas. But utterly flubbed in tying anything together into any form of a satisfying and or cohesive ending.

I was able to just dismiss the first season as meh tier cash grab, but this was more frustrating as it showed some promise at times.

Scoring this is difficult due to the hints of promise; the only thing that never specifically bothered me was the sound / music so it gets nominal marks - the rest just get my overall score.

Edit: grammar

Stand Alone Complex is my favorite science fiction series.

I was disappointed by the first half of 2045. The reintroduction of Section 9 didn't hit as well as I would have liked. The animation wasn't what I'd hoped for, and the writing was decent but not as visionary with the exception of the boxer and bank episodes. Season 2 retreads what made 2nd Gig great. The camaraderie between Section 9 and brief glimpses into their past. A sympathetic antagonist with a grandiose plan. Perhaps most importantly, a stark depiction of the future we're headed towards that lingers with you after the credits roll. I'm looking forward ... the film edit as I think they focused a tad too much on the "fight" to take down the big bad which messed with the pacing.

Short Review (Spoiler-free):

One word for this season and SAC_2045 as a whole: Wow.

I know, I know, there are so many valid criticisms one could level at SAC_2045 (2045 for short from here on). It still looks like bad PS4 game graphics (occasionally with ray tracing or other next-gen features turned on). Characters still look like polished plastic dolls, and Mokoto Kusanagi still looks like a super legal loli or something. With the first season taking hours to get to the important story and compelling mystery, my expectation for Season 2 was a 7 or 8 out of 10 at best. But wow, how wrong ... I was. Alas, we do not live in a perfect world where the best anime screenplays always get the best animation team. By that, I mean the story of 2045 completely blew my expectations out of water, and it deserves much better budget for the creators to realize their vision. In my anime philosophy, I stated that image quality/visual fidelity of an anime is not high on my priorities, and as long as the animation/visuals adequately convey the intended story in a consistent way, I would be fine with it. With that said, 2045 is about 85% there, with most important sequences rendered properly and sometimes even beautifully. Yes there are a few poorly rendered sequences where the 3DCG quality drops to PS3 standard but they don't totally ruin the show for me (unlike Togusa's over-the-top Bruce-Lee impressions in Season 1 which was painfully scorched into my brain), but most of the time I was pretty immersed into the story.

The story could have been a retread to all the familiar waters with the GITS franchise, and I would still have given the show a 7.5-8/10. They could have just pulled another Mokoto badassery final battle, with another Tachikoma heroic sacrifice which saves the day, or another 26-episode season riddled with philosophy and political exposition like the amazing SAC 2nd Gig. There are certainly familiar waters they treaded with this season, yes, but the final resolution and outcome are on another level. Had this season been in the hands of Wit Studio or Madhouse, it could have totally been a modern classic.

Baseline quality: 9/10 for me. Look past the awkward character models and you will find one of the best sci-fi stories in anime.

Recommended to: Viewers who prioritize story, thematic coherence and philosophy over visuals in anime. Fans of Philip K. Dick, fans of Deus Ex. GITS fans who loved analyzing sci-fi stuff.

Pros and Cons: (minor spoilers)

++ The writers took the risk to break the mold with the classic GITS story formula, and for me they hit the mark. I have never been a fan of transhumanism as a viable concept in reality, and have been critically appreciating the GITS franchise for more than a decade now. However, 2045 Season 2 was able to enlighten me in a different way and open my mind (a little more than before). One of the criticisms I had with Season 1 was how underwhelming the concept of "posthuman" gradually became towards the end of Season 1, as the more we got to know about them, the less original and horrifying they felt (in comparison to the first posthuman they encountered). Season 2 mostly overcame that issue and elevated the whole concept with its ending.
++ Great action sequences balanced with mystery and quite character moments. One of the common criticisms for Season 1 was how the initial episodes felt like an MCU movie rather than GITS. I am glad to say that Season 2 has both brain and brawls ready from EP1.
++ Consistently thoughtful and chewy. GITS as a franchise has been famous for the mind-bending, humanity-warping consequences and implications of technology (seeing the advancement of neural-computer interface in 2022, not too far from us). 2045 is no different, and in my opinion the most worthy sequel to the original movie and SAC series since 2004 in this regard.
++ Thrilling camera work and amazing editing. Say whatever you want with the 3D graphics, but one thing I cannot fault the direction of the show is camera work/editing which held the presentation together. Some sequences towards the end are as white-knuckled as the franchise has ever been.

- Character models and facial animations left a lot to be desired. Funny thing is there is something resembling a "cyborg zombie" in the show, as if lots of facial animations of human characters do not already remind people of zombies.
- There are no reasons (save for the limited budget) for certain sequences to be so cel-shaded or loaded with simplistic background geometry/textures, and those sequences can leave a bad aftertaste (Togusa's memory/dream sequence, for example). Again, like I said, for me it's not as bad as everyone said since 2045 Season 1.


Extra thoughts (heavy spoilers):

I have seen quite a few works in different media that tried to present transhumanism/technological singularity in a charitable light. Deus Ex 2 (if anyone still remembers the JC Denton human empowerment ending) and the movie Chappie are some of the examples. As fascinating as their depictions of this concept were, I never went like "yeah, that could totally happen" or "maybe it's not such a bad thing after all" until 2045 Season 2.

when they try to make a GITS plot and failed miserably

visualy appaling, no good melodies to listen again and again, i badly missed yoko kanno masterpiece on GITS SAC
the story was quite good in the first season but become a real bullshit of a plot at the end. a real good start wiith the post human thingy but no real intelligence to end it properly. so what ? they picked an ending randomly between the worst possible ever ?

the only thing who make that that serie a tiny bit enjoyable are the characters and the franchise at a whole. it's probably the worst ... title in all the GITS franchise.

GitS: SAC is one of my favorite anime. Period. Hell I even really enjoy the finale OVA film “Solid State Society” even if it hankered back way too much to the first GitS film. After finishing this new SAC anime though...I feel like a lot of its issues could easily be brushed of if it didn't share that “SAC” branding.

It's honestly the same feelings I had with all the “Arise” stuff; not particularly amazing but was willing to see what direction the show(s)/film(s) would go in because it was an entirely new thing. To me, my experiences with the SAC entries is that it is ... distinct from the main-line films, it is distinct from Arise. This new anime feels pretty close, in my opinion, to the core values and “feel” of Arise. Sure there are some instances that make me feel like it could be a SAC themed entry, but overall the aesthetic, pacing, and how the majority of the shots are composed really make me feel like I'm watching something more akin to the “feeling” of Arise rather than SAC. That's my main complaint; I really feel like calling this a SAC entry really does the anime a serious disservice.

To get the easy point out of the way, I honestly am mostly in favor with the new look of the show. In nighttime/dark scenes, the CG looks quite good. However in more sunny-lit scenes, it can range from good to amateurish. This seems to be indicative of CG in-general though many Western studios such as Disney and Pixar have seem to have nailed how to make super lit scenes look really well done. The art style looks great, the action scenes are super fluid, and in general, the characters don't really do anything to stand out in a negative way. There are for sure some moments that look worse than they should, but they are outliers. I am 100% ok with this new direction though of course as many others will agree, I do miss the more traditional looking animation (I think SAC was mostly 2D hand drawn but I know in that era of animation for Japan digital animation was starting to be tinkered with).

The plot of the show is not necessarily bad; it's the pacing that really brings it down. I really feel like the first season meandered way too much then all of the sudden at the end, realized they needed to bring the important elements forward so that season 2 could finish things off. It felt honestly like a separate film separated from the second season which was more concise but messy with so many different ideas going on. I wouldn't be surprised if the show wasn't fully written and realized when they actually started making season 2. This show could have benefited, given if season 1 wasn't altered at all, a good 3 or more episodes to really flesh out the plot of the show. And that plot...in a lot of ways it feels like a re-hash of the “antagonist's” ideals from season 2 of SAC though with a couple important differences. Those differences though...don't matter much in the grand scheme of things; the thing that matters the most is that the overall pacing and order of key moments feels quite similar to the ending episodes of that second SAC season. Because of that, I felt a little apprehensive when watching the ending of this show. It just felt like a rehashing of so many previous ideas which really conflicts with the rest of the vibe of the show (whole new art style, animation, musical cues, ext). The ending itself is, for the most part, pretty open-ended to interpretation...but in my opinion not in a good way. It's open-ended because the show didn't do a great job setting up this ending. It's fine to let the audience interpret what they think happened but you need to not leave out so many important details in doing so. Films like “Inception” give you clues throughout the film that go hand-in-hand with an open-ended ending; giving much more context to it. This new SAC anime doesn't really give you any of these ideas leading into the ending; the ending just ends in such a way that you HAVE to decide on you own what happened. It just feels a little fragmented and not well handled.

My overall opinion of this new GitS anime is quite conflicted. If I just try to take a step back and have a more general overview of it, I do like it. There is a lot here to like. However, and again I apologize if this feels pedantic, but because this was touted as a “SAC” entry, I cannot help but feel disappointed. It doesn't at all in any way come close to the overall quality of the two SAC seasons or even the mixed reception of the SAC:SSS OVA film. This new SAC anime is worth watching, it's just severely lacking that “special sauce” that the previous SAC properties had.

Enjoyment: 6.6/10
Overall: 6.7/10

I never write reviews but I feel like most of the bad reviews are from either diehard fans who can't accept anything new or people who are just inherently biased against CGI. I will say this, the story is quite vague and it the effort to explain it isn't quite there compared to the original SAC series and there is a disconnect from its precursor movie Solid State Society. I can not justify this as it's been a while since I've watched any of it and I'm also just not as invested as those fans.

However, there are a lot of nuances that I think people ... failed to appreciate in line with the original concept of what it means to be a human (having a ghost or not) and the story they presented with this show was OK. Not amazing, not spectacular, but it wasn't a complete dumpster fire as some of these reviews might lead you to think. For most I think it was just a disappointment.

Art - Personally, I never really liked CGI, but this installment stuck out to me. Honestly, I really really enjoyed it. CGI is not everyone's cup of tea, but even so, you can still appreciate the animation and the visuals. I found the art to be really well done and it's actually really smooth. The opening animations were top notch, imo.

This series doesn’t get the justice it deserves!
Just like the first season it didn’t fail to hook me, Just couldn’t put it down. Also the graphics have improved massively compared to the first season. On that topic I will say that if you have a 1080p monitor or tv, you probably won’t enjoy the new graphics that much or look that much different. But I Watched it on a Macbook 2020 that has a good retina display, therefore; it looked really good on my end. 1080p just doesn’t give this show any credit it deserves as it doesn’t look great in 1080p.

Story:8/10
Really good, but ... it also was a little confusing near the end especially the last episode [episode 12] even the major was lost.

Art:10/10
Like I said at the start of this review, if you don’t have a good monitor over like 2k I reckon you will struggle with the quality of it but if you do have a nice monitor or tv then the art looks really good. Massive improvements to the first season with more details on characters and background.

CGI:7/10
Much improved from season 1, it felt more natural and more smooth. I really enjoyed the CGI on this one. It was just really beautiful along with the improved graphics along with it. Yes there were some weird CGI moments but nothing that couldn’t make you laugh.

Sound:7/10
Some of the sounds were a little odd but when you think about it it is cgi and it can be funny with syncing it all up, other than that; the sounds were all good.
The music was really good, I loved the music.
Only issues I would say are that the music would sometimes be quite sudden and scare the heck out of you.

Characters:8/10
Really good characters, they didn't change them that much compared to season 1. Designs much improved. More details on the hair and clothing which is really good.

Enjoyment: 10/10
Much enjoyment, couldn’t put the show down, I will admit I did put it down once, because I was sleepy. but other than that, I had it constantly on my mind during the day and just wanted to pick it back up.

Again better the monitor the more enjoyment you will get out of the series.


This is just my opinion of the show. You can agree or disagree with this review all you like.
Also I like more simple reviews as they are quick to read, hence why there are no spoilers and so short.
-CuteChaff

X

I had mixed feelings about s1, but after seeing promise in its developing plot—and maintaining an attachment to one of Japan’s most fascinating fictional worlds—I had to give s2 a look.

This half was… better I suppose. Some fairly interesting ideas, cool action, gripping tension and (somewhat) more compelling drama. I did like the final episode, with some reservations about its lack of detail and explanation. I now buy that this series was written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama; the man who gave us the classic Laughing Man and Individual Eleven arcs, as well as a disarmingly affective backstory for one of anime’s most enigmatic ... protagonists. Additionally, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and the rest of the English cast continued to do their damnedest with this material.

But… it’s a Netflix show, through and through. Everything happens so fast, and ultimately so little really ends up being of consequence. So much more could have been done with this story, especially following the events of Solid State Society… Some antagonistic players are more cartoons than ever. And perhaps, at last, Ghost in the Shell the property has become such a meme as a concept that its echoes of itself (and for that matter, of venerable sf works) have ceased to be cute and clever.

I can’t say I’d recommend it to longtime fans, or that I’d be down for a 4th/5th “gig”. Hell, I might be done with reboots period now, with the rarest of exceptions.

I forgot that a second season of this was in the making and then it came out. My initial feelings towards the first season were mixed. It had some great ideas and unique concepts to explore but it didn't deliver it as it promised. The artwork and music were some its stronger aspects. Though it couldn't be said about its storyline and new characters. I found some episodes average at best and some are just downright forgettable.

GITS is one of my all time favorite anime franchises to pre-phase something before going in a lil further. I was excited to see what S1 of SAC_2045 had ... to offer. At the end of it I found myself a lil disappointed by the end results.

S2 comes out, hoping that it would make things better but it felt like the same issues I had with S1. Throughout watching S2 I tried so hard to pay close attention to the plot I couldn't be engrossed into it either. The post-humans is an unique concept to explore and expanding upon the post-humans for what they're goals and purpose in life are is a great way to get my investment.

I dunno if its my attention span or its convoluted/disconnected plot. The plot tries to keep you invested into what's going on. Given how forgettable the first season was, I lost complete track to what was even going on half the time.

The new characters I still couldn't grow any attachment to. Esaki is the one that seems to have a more character arc going on in comparison to Clown and the main antagonists. Esaki was a character upon first viewing, I literally forgot her name because she was just sort of there in S1. She didn't really had a whole lot to her and she struck me as someone's fan-character who got into the show.

I wanted to like these new characters but they don't strike me as anything interesting nor worth grasping about. Clown I'll say is a character has been done so dirty. He doesn't comeback until the later episodes of the show which makes me think. Why the fuck bother with this guy if he has zero purpose to the storyline. Is he just there to be a burden?

Comic relief character's can have depth to them but this guy is such a footnote.

As for the main antagonist. I had absolutely no clue to what they wanted to do. Nothing felt fleshed out to me. I even forgot their names so I called the main one "P3 protagonist" and the other one "Hot milf assassin" (To be honest and fair with you she is real damn hot for a character with superhuman strength)

The old crew is always nice to see (including Paz and Borma) even if they don't have a whole lot to add. Even with the new and old, nothing seems characterized for both parties enough and gets to the more action/thrilling sequences that want you excited for then plot.

The animation in this is not half-bad compared to S1 but the criticism's feel the same. The backgrounds are great and the character designs by Illya Kuvshinov are very nice. But seeing the 2-D credits at the end makes me wish this was in traditional animation because I think their be more beauty to it. I've gotten quite used to the CGI animation while not super fluid but it does maintain a nice job within the action sequences of the show. One of the more stronger elements of this season would be its music.

The music in this show is incredible to hear with some nice synth tracks that reminded me a bit of Blade Runner 2049 at times. The voice-acting from the original cast is great to hear as per-usual.

I dunno if I have anything else to add given how lost I was. I don't wanna repeat myself but the criticism's I had with the first season remain the same with this one.

If you're a fan of GITS, I'd say watch S1 to see how you feel before jumping into this one (well duh its not only the first season but for more context though be warned you might get lost) If you're not a fan, my recommendation. Give SAC_2045 a pass. It's a very run of the mill experience to the end that'll have you moving onto something else and leaving with the feelings of 'meh'. While some action sequences might have you entertained but its not enough for its disjointed plotline and minimal character developments.

I'll stick Stand Alone Complex which I highly recommend over this.

I will preface everything by saying I absolutely detested the first season, and the rewatch I did in preparation of the second season coming out did nothing to change any part of my opinion of it. The bastardization of the characters, the absolute nonsense of the new world building elements, the seemingly arbitrary way the plot flowed around the characters rather than it being the normal push and pull of them and the factions they are fighting against, the muddying of the message regarding the nature of human relationship to technology and the implications it has to both our sense of self and our sense ... of a cohesive society, the annoying additions to the casts which seem to serve no purpose but to fulfill market preferences.

Again, I absolutely detested the first season. And I tell you this to say that I think this one is ok and might even retroactively increase my score of 3 to a 4 for the first season, maybe even a 5. Rather than being some weird addition to the canon interested in just making oethe characters status quo chance for the sake of being different, the second season, at least to me, seems at least a bit interested in cluing you in as to why all these changes which do not make sense with the latest interaction we had with these characters (the SAC universe, I mean, the argument SAC2045 is supposed to be a completely different one doesn't hold water with me because they keep referencing that previous series very heavily to the point that trying to separate the two is only needed because they messed up the first season so badly), and just in general focusing on showing Section 9 as competent people whose decisions are all part of a game where both sides are playing chess rather than playing tic-tac-toe while their enemies play Go.

Does the story reach the heights previous entries reached? No. Season 1 is a base of sand bricks which Season 2 tries to work on with mud ones, all in a failed attempted to resemble the stone temples that preceded it, but at the very least it doesn't feel that it's insulting the intelligence of the viewer while doing so. It's still probably the weakest part of the whole thing, but while the first season had me stopping after each episode to do just about anything else, I watched this season in three chunks not because I couldn't stand it, but because those felt like comfortable points to do so.

As for the rest, the visuals are amazing, even if I would prefer we had stuck to the old style, but then again I am a cell supremacist so I am just being an old curmudgeon about it. The fights do sometimes look very silly, however, with some sense of lack of weight to the movements or the impacts, although it was very inconsistent so I am not sure if it's just me or if I did something to mess with the image.

The music and the foley is ok. I still keep SAC's OST as part of my regular rotation of music. I don't think there was a single song here that I will remember by next week, but I didn't outright hate any of it. It worked, what else is there to say?

So yeah, this was ok, I wish that they had made the first season as good as this one so it wasn't a hate watch and this had a better foundation, but overrall... if they decided to continue this somehow, I wouldn't dismiss outright like I almost did for this one.

I have been a big fan of the original Ghost in the Shell shows and movies, It would have been REALLY hard to compete. I would describe this show as good. Which is not a bad thing, because (like many other Netflix reboot) could have been REALLY bad.

While they didn’t really build upon the characters we as fans have loved for a very long time, they never needed to. So much of the original series and movies already did a really good job at setting the world and also defining the characters really well too. Its hard to build off of that. What they can ... do is provide you with a new problem that the team would have to deal with, in this case I really liked the villain. In Ghost in the Shell style the villain is actualities beautifully. This Idea was really nicely executed and thought through very carefully. It really did feel like a proper Ghost in the Shell series.

While the show it self was really good, the purpose behind it felt forced. It felt like something that was fun to watch but was not necessary. Like I mentioned before, the original shows and movies already did everything that they could with the show, I don’t think there is anything else that anyone could have done to add to the lore or to the grand story. While I don’t think they added anything to the lore, I don’t think I would not want to watch this story line only because the villain was so interesting.

I do recommend that you check it out if you’re a fan, it was a fun series but nothing really new to be added to the grand story line, just another issue that section 9 has to deal with. On a side note, this has to be hands down the best reboot that Netflix has ever done (and probably will ever do from the looks of it).