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.
