Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex Episode 26 Discussion

Each time I rewatch this series I like it less. It gestures half-heartedly toward potentially interesting ideas without ever committing to fully integrating them into the story, most of the standalone episode plotlines are laughably undercooked, every character besides the tachikomas is utterly dull and unsympathetic, and the main storyline amounts to nothing more than some autist's grievance with a pharmaceutical company followed by a descent into bland shoot-outs driven by mundane political concerns. As an examination of mass-social phenomena with no clear origin, Paranoia Agent is far superior. As a thrilling sci-fi series imbued with daring sociopolitical concepts, Psycho-Pass is far superior. As an episodic series whose individual storylines feed into an underlying thematic bedrock that enriches the overarching narrative, Cowboy Bebop is far superior. And of course, it goes without saying that it doesn't come close to the 1995 movie in any respect.

To be clear, despite all these complaints, it isn't a bad show, and in certain episodes such as 11 and 15 it comes close to living up to the GITS name, but there's so much mediocrity weighing it down. Like why is it that in 9 hours of runtime, we don't get a single scene of detective work which is even a tenth as cool as the bit in the original film where they figure out that cloaked soldiers have infiltrated Section 9 by checking the floor pressure sensors? Why didn't we get a single action scene which used the concepts of the setting to do something unique? Why didn't any of the main cast have a single conversation that humanized them in any way, allowing you to feel even remotely invested when they get hunted down at the end? The original movie is 80 minutes long and delivers all of this and more in spades.

I will never understand why people rave about Kamiyama, he simply isn't one of the greats. If this series isn't proof enough of that then look no further than Eden of The East, which justifiably ended his career as a director of tentpole anime series.

@OneMoreFinal

You could simply say you are a GITS movie elitist and Oshii fanboy

Good job missing all the things what maskes the show great and the other stuff that are supposedly missing from the show according to your limited understanding

Cringe anime for old people whose future never was. 5/10.

@DarkSageRK

If you were any edgier you would be a knife my boy

I've rewatched the show after many years and still don't understand the critical acclaim.

It is bogged down by many mediocre stand-alone episodes that brush over the exploration of ideas presented in favor of something more digestible sprinkled with action. That isn't necessarily a bad thing if only the characters we follow would actually be engaging and would do detective work in any sort of interesting way, which the show fails at often. The Tachikomas were the saving grace of the cast.

The anime would have greatly benefitted if it had multiple smaller arcs exploring the ideas presented in the show and its main cast; instead, it broke up plot-relevant episodes with stand-alone ones, which was quite jarring.

It also lacks a visual identity. I don't expect it to be as atmospheric and full of symbolism as the movie, but it doesn't strike me as much of a cyberpunk setting, leaning too much into the cyber and not enough into the punk. It's too clean, too polished, and too bright. I understand trying something different from the movie, but give me something that makes it stand apart from other shows aside from futuristic technology. Kamiyama's directing is too safe, and he was clearly in over his head with this show. Also, Makoto's character model is different every other episode; how hard can it be to get it consistent?

It's a decent anime with a few standout episodes, but it lacks artistic merit.

The show was really ahead of its time. The idea's are pretty well thought out and interesting especially now. Kind of amazing how much the idea's translate still to this day and how far AI has come.

I am very interested in how the next show that is in production will take, as it is said to be a different timeline. All for the better, as the ideas from this and s2, which I will watch have been gone over and the new show can start with a clean slate.