My Thoughts of "Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045"

 

 

(This is the poster for Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045.)

 

 

I just finished watching Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, the sequel series to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. I just got through rewatching the second season of that show recently, about a month ago. I haven't seen Solid State Society, since the Blu-Ray goes for $100 these days on Amazon, likely because it's out of print. Why should I spend that much money 💵 on something that's probably just barebones and doesn't have any special features? So, if I ever do decide to watch Solid State Society, I'll probably have to watch it on YouTube with their pay-to-watch service. I decided to give SAC_2045 a watch since it's on Netflix, and I had Netflix, and I had nothing else to watch. So, once I had my internet restored, I decided to give it a watch. And it turned out to be a letdown. But, the fact that it turned out this way shouldn't all that surprising to anyone. 

 

(This is a wallpaper image of the 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie directed by Mamoru Oshii.)

The fact is that Ghost in the Shell as a franchise is very hit or miss. You know, it's often considered to be one of the quintessential cyberpunk multimedia franchises, second only to Blade Runner, but the quality varies a lot between the different entries in the franchise. Of course, some of this does come down to personal taste, you know, entertainment is subjective. But still, the quality does vary and I find myself at least liking some entries more than others. 

 

(This is a textless poster of the Ghost in the Shell PS1 game released in 1997.)

I didn't much like the 1995 movie by Mamoru Oshii, despite the fact that most people consider it to be a masterpiece that helped popularize anime outside Japan 🇯🇵, particularly in the West, and to be the true foundation of Ghost in the Shell as a multimedia franchise beyond just the manga. I never played the original 1997 PS1 game that was more directly based on the manga and in its own separate continuity from the movie, but I did enjoy it from watching the longplay of it on YouTube. The story of that game was weak, but it seemed like a pretty fun game gameplay wise, and for what it's worth, the cutscenes were well animated, and the music was awesome.

 

 

(This is the front and back cover of the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex PS2 game released in 2004.)

 

Likewise the PS2 game based on Stand Alone Complex. The story of that game really was nothing to write home about either, but it was a bit better than the PS1 game's story. The game's plot is revolved entirely around tainted rice 🍚, rice 🍚 that these terrorists were cultivating inside this secret facility inside of this secret autonomous region inside of Japan 🇯🇵 that had micro-machines inside of them or something like that.

The autonomous region and the facility within was used for military purposes, which is why it was secret, and the terrorists just took it over, and started growing this tainted rice 🌾 inside of it. Some of the terrorists were even former military personnel who were disillusioned with the government, and that's why they decided to rebel against it and secede from the country, if I'm remembering it correctly. And the terrorists wanted to use this tainted rice 🍚 to secede from Japan 🇯🇵 and create their own independent state out of this autonomous region, or something along those lines.

I think they wanted to use the rice 🍚 to fund their insurrection and ultimate secession 💴, or they wanted to use to extort the Japanese government 🇯🇵 and blackmail them into giving them independence; you know, essentially Kuze and the refugees' plan with Dejima in 2nd GiG. So, Section 9 and the bad guys are essentially fighting over rice 🍚. The music wasn't memorable, and the graphics and cutscene animations were passable for a game released in 2004, but not great; Batou looked kind of weird in that game. 

 

 

(This is a textless poster image for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.)

But, it still seemed like a fun game from a purely gameplay perspective. At least, you get to play as Major Kusanagi and Batou in that game, whereas you play as an unnamed or unseen silent player character who pilots a Fuchikoma the whole time in the PS1 game. Of course, I really liked the Stand Alone Complex series itself. I like it a whole a lot more than the 1995 movie, and it is probably my favorite iteration of Ghost in the Shell. I even wrote a review of it on DeviantART a couple of years ago, that I'll probably post to this site later on down the line.

That being said, I do prefer the second season, 2nd GiG, over the first season. I just like the "Individual Eleven" arc way more than "The Laughing Man" arc. It was just a way more interesting story, especially with all the geopolitical stuff. Gōda was also a way better villain than whoever the villain in the first season was. The Laughing Man isn't the actual villain of Season 1, just like how Kuze isn't the actual villain of Season 2. I don't remember who the actual villain in the first season was, I think it was the Prime Minister, or some corporate guy or a government bureaucrat. The fact that I can't remember who the villain of Season 1 was should tell you how good he really is, which is not at all.

Despite how much people dislike the 2017 live action Ghost in the Shell movie with Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi, I didn't hate it. That film was my actual proper introduction to the franchise, and I enjoyed it since I didn't have any other reference for what Ghost in the Shell is or should be. But, upon my most recent rewatch, I liked it a lot less. It isn't as bad as a lot of people make it out to be, but it still isn't great. Maybe, it's just because I have watched the 95 movie and seen Stand Alone Complex, but the movie was missing something. It all the elements of the franchise, all of the characters and imagery on the surface superficially, but substance wise, it was missing something. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it was. 

 

There was one thing that I did pick up on my most recent viewing that I didn't pick up on my previous views. The secondary villain of this movie is in fact Kuze. Yes, the same Kuze from Stand Alone Complex: 2nd GiG. Because I had originally seen the 2017 movie before I had seen any other Ghost in the Shell media, I didn't immediately pick up on this. I did not know that Kuze was a character existed within the Ghost in the Shell franchise and lore for a while.

But, since I had actually watched Stand Alone Complex since watching the movie for the first and second time, I immediately recognized that this character was Kuze, or is supposed to be Kuze. They kind of changed the character a lot from the anime and manga (since I do think that Kuze was from the manga too) to the point where's he not really the same character. The only similarity between the anime version of Kuze and the live action version is that they're both morally ambiguous and they have connections to Motoko.

 

 

(This is an English poster for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, directed by Mamoru Oshii, and sort of a sequel to the 1995 movie which he also directed.)

I haven't seen Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence nor have I seen Ghost in the Shell: Arise, so I can't give you my thoughts on them. But, I have heard a lot more mixed things about both than I have either the 95 movie or the original Stand Alone Complex series or the Solid State Society OVA. I don't really know that much about Arise other than it's a prequel series set before the events of Stand Alone Complex, and have never really heard people's reasons for not liking it.

 

 

 

(This is a textless poster for Ghost in the Shell: Arise, the prequel series to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. This poster was used as the Blu-Ray cover 💿 for the series released by Funimation, before it was bought out and absorbed by Crunchyroll. The lady ♀︎ in the red outfit with the blue hair is Motoko Kusanagi. So, yeah, not a fan of her design in this show, and a lot of other people didn't like her design either, and usually name it as one of the reasons why they don't like Arise.)

 

My only guesses as to why people don't like Arise, and think it's inferior to Stand Alone Complex is that they think the story is bad, and they think the character designs suck, especially the Major's. I'm certainly not a fan of how the Major looks in that show. She looks nothing like how she did in Stand Alone Complex, and that blue hair just doesn't do it for me. Motoko looks way better with purple hair than blue hair. At least, the music in the show is good, or some of the music is good; I have the entire soundtrack album. But, I have heard a lot of people say that they like Arise a lot more than SAC_2045, and even though they're both bad shows, of the two, Arise is the least bad.

I'm certainly skeptical about Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence because everything that I've heard about it, and everything that I know about it personally, makes it seem pretty insufferable. I mean, I understand that Ghost in the Shell is supposed to be philosophical, or at least, that's what all these Ghost in the Shell fanboys seem to think. But, it sounds like Innocence just overdoes it with the philosophy.

Like, every character in that movie talks like they're giving a philosophy lecture. It just makes the movie seem pretentious, which is an issue with all of Mamoru Oshii's work in the Ghost in the Shell franchise as a whole. Oshii's Ghost in the Shell movies try too hard to be deep, or profound, and just fall short, and leave you with an empty feeling. I tried watching the 95 movie multiple times, and it just did nothing for me on all viewings. I just couldn't see what all the fuse was about. Even though I haven't seen Innocence, but I have a feeling that it probably wouldn't change my mind about the Mamoru Oshii stuff.

His Ghost in the Shell stuff is kind of an acquired taste, you either like it or you don't. Stand Alone Complex (the original at least) by comparison has a much wider appeal, and isn't bogged down by philosophical pretension. I know less about Arise, but I have no real desire to wanting to watch it, despite it being in the Stand Alone Complex continuity, and being a prequel series. Any feeling of wanting to watch it is just a feeling of completionist obligation to watch everything in the Stand Alone Complex continuity. But, after watching this series, SAC_2045, I no longer have that feeling of obligation to watch everything that's in that continuity.

Which finally brings me to how I feel about this series. I didn't hate it at first. I was actually on board with it through most of it. Sure, the animation and art style kind of threw me off because I didn't know that it was 3D animated going into it. I was under the impression that it was 2D animated because the artist they got to do the character designs, Ilya Kuvshinov does digital 2D artwork, and all the artwork he posted from his time on this project was in a 2D style. So, I expected that, but that wasn't what this was. The show is entirely 3D CG animated. The only things that aren't the photographs. Every time you see a photograph in this show, it's in Ilya's usual 2D style, and it looks before than the rest of the show. 

 

 

(This is another poster for Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, only this one was illustrated by Ilya Kuvshinov, the lead character designer on the show. This is sort of what I expected the show to look, instead of the 3D CGI animation it ended up having. If the show looked this, it was 2D, and it was fully in Ilya's style, no body would have complained.)

 

 

The animation really isn't all that appealing, in fact, it's kind of bad. It looks very video game-ish at times. Like, it sort of looks like those Persona games, like Persona 5, or like that free-to-play MMO that everyone was obsessed with a few years ago, Genshin Impact. It sort of had that look and feel to it. Other times, it looked like Team Fortress II, as some critics or wannabe critics have said. But, the characters usually looked pretty plastic-y, and other types they looked like they were cel-shaded, like they were trying to make it look 2D even though it's 3D by having the characters have black outlines.

This was more so in Season 2 than in Season 1. And as some have pointed out, the characters lack weight when they move, they feel a bit floaty at times, and other times, their movements are very stiff, and their facial expressions aren't very good, like they can't emote properly at times. In all honesty, the animation makes this show look and feel more like a fan made project rather than an official Ghost in the Shell project that Production IG was involved in. You can definitely tell that this show was low budget, and not a ton of money 💵💴 was poured into it. So yeah, the animation is pretty bad, and if I had to choose between this or 2D animation, I would pick 2D animation.

That's not to say a CGI Ghost in the Shell show or movie can't work, it can. The intro for the first season of Stand Alone Complex was CG, and it looked pretty good. No body complained about it then. And while it is a bit dated by today's standards, it still works for what it is: an intro to an anime. If only they had they guys who do those animated Resident Evil movies do the animation for this show. Then it would've been really good.

That all being said though, the animation wasn't an immediate turn off for me. There were a lot of people who immediately dismissed this or passed on it because it was 3D animated, like they just gave up it right away or they just refused to watch. But, I wasn't like that. I was willing to look past the subpar animation, and give this show a chance so long as the story was good. And how was the story?

Well, it was interesting, like it kept me intrigued. The show takes place 11 years after the original Stand Alone Complex series, which ended with the OVA, Solid State Society, which I have not seen. But, it's okay because you don't need to have watched Solid State Society to understand SAC_2045 because none of the events of Solid State Society are carried over and mentioned in this show. Other than the bit at the end of the second season where Motoko leaves Section 9. You just need to have watched the main Stand Alone Complex series (both seasons), just to get a feel and an understanding for this particular continuity that this show is set in.

The story does take a while to actually get going though. Other critics and Ghost in the Shell fans have already said this, but the main story doesn't begin in earnest until the fifth or sixth episode of the first season. The first season up until that point is quite aimless, and doesn't really have a clear path of where it's going. The first half of the first season sort of like feels like Call of Duty but with Ghost in the Shell characters, or it feels like Battlefield with Ghost in the Shell characters, one of those two military shooters. 

 

Which is kind of funny because there is a Call of Duty game called Call of Duty: Ghosts which is centered around a similar around a vaguely similar concept of an elite group of soldiers that work within the shadows just like Section 9 and GHOST do; more on that in a moment. The elite spec ops soldiers in Call of Duty: Ghosts were even called Ghosts. That game is also considered to be the laughing stock and black sleep of the Call of Duty franchise just like this show is to the Ghost in the Shell franchise.

It even kind of feels like Overwatch or Apex Legends or Valorant because of the new character, Standard. He kind of looks like an Overwatch character or an Apex Legends character or a Valorant character. And that's because it deals with the exploits of Motoko, and the other core members of Section 9 as they work as mercenaries for this company called Obsidian, which is based in Los Angeles, and is run by a guy who wears black sunglasses and a cowboy hat 🤠 and is voiced by Steve Blum (the guy who voiced Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop).

Motoko's team, her unit is referred to as GHOST (really subtle there), and from what it seems like, they mostly do odd jobs, random assignments for Obsidian. The reason why they're mercenaries now is that during that 11 year time gap in-between Solid State Society and this show, Section 9 was disbanded again. How many times has Section 9 been disbanded in this continuity? Two or three times? It always seems like Section 9 is always walking on thin ice, and is always on the verge of being disbanded, they just can't catch a break.

When we're reintroduced to them, they're literally trying to collect beer 🍺, like they smuggle beer 🍺 for themselves to drink, that's where that infamous shot of Motoko drinking a cold one comes from. And then they get into a car chase with these Raiders who want to fight the 1% or something. The reason why they target GHOST specifically is that they see them as stooges or lackeys for the top 1%.

Speaking about the Raiders for a moment, some of them wear football gear 🏈 because some of them used to be football players 🏈. I watched some reviews of this show, and some of the reviewers said that this was unrealistic and stupid, but I didn't agree with that at all. It is possible that you could have militia men ♂︎, or guerrilla fighters, or raiders in this case, that wear crazy, and even stupid looking outfits.

I mean, if you know anything about the Liberian Civil Wars 🇱🇷, you'll know that a lot of the fighters on both sides of those wars wear all kinds of weird and stupid-looking outfits. A lot of them dressed in casual clothing, a lot of them wore ropes, some of them wore Halloween masks, some of them wore mesh shirts, some of them wore sports clothing, some of them wore wigs, some of them even wore shower caps, and some were even shirtless.

Very few of the Liberian rebels 🇱🇷 on either side of both civil wars wore anything resembling military uniforms, except for the Liberian military 🇱🇷, which was under the control of Samuel Doe, then under the control of an interim government, and then under the control of Charles Taylor, who was a rebel leader prior to winning the First Liberian Civil War 🇱🇷, and taking control of the entire country; the Second Liberian Civil War 🇱🇷 was a war between Taylor's regime and a bunch of rebel groups that were opposed to his tyrannical rule. They were all strange looking, and not at all what you would imagine rebels or guerrilla fighters fighting a civil war would actually look like.

So, it's not impossible or completely unrealistic to have insurgents, or raiders in this case, dress in non-military outfits, and dress in outlandish ways, including in football gear 🏈. In fact, I have a feeling that if another civil war broke out in America 🇺🇸, a lot of the rebel fighters would probably be dressed in the same way as the rebels in Liberia 🇱🇷 and the Raiders in this show. Most of them probably would not have any prior military experience, and would likely dress in casual clothing, even if it made them more vulnerable to bullets. And it makes sense because Liberia 🇱🇷 was born out of America 🇺🇸, Liberia 🇱🇷 was America 🇺🇸's one and only African colony.

It was created before the American Civil War 🇺🇸 in 1822 to relocate freed slaves to because back then, a lot of abolitionists and anti-slavery individuals wanted to send the freed slaves back to Africa, because they saw it as their true homeland that they were forcefully taken away from by the Atlantic Slave Trade. So, they thought they were doing the freed slaves a favor by creating this colony in West Africa, and shipping them off to it.

It is a bit racist by today's standards, in fact it's very racist, but that was an actual anti-slavery and abolitionist position during the early-to-mid 19th century prior to the Civil War. And to be clear, it was not the US government 🇺🇸 that did this, it was private organization that did it called the American Colonization Society 🇺🇸, they were the ones who founded Liberia 🇱🇷 in its original colonialist form.

Then, in 1847, Liberia 🇱🇷 declared its independence, and the US 🇺🇸 begrudgingly accepted and recognized its independence, and the freed slaves that went there established their own government in this newly independent country; making Liberia 🇱🇷 the first African colony to gain its independence. They eventually developed their own unique identity, Americo-Liberians 🇱🇷, and they ultimately created a system that was very much like the antebellum south, where they were creating plantations and exploiting and enslaving the local indigenous African population there.

This created a huge resentment in the Liberian population 🇱🇷 towards their Americo-Liberian overlords 🇱🇷, which resulted in a military coup that brought Samuel Doe into power, laying the groundwork for the two Liberian Civil Wars 🇱🇷. So, long story short, there is obviously a lot of American cultural influence 🇺🇸 in Liberia 🇱🇷. This can be seen most clearly in their flag 🇱🇷, which looks like the American flag 🇺🇸 but with only one star instead of 50. I guess, none of these reviewers who deemed the football dressed Raiders 🏈 unrealistic were all that familiar with the Liberian Civil Wars 🇱🇷, otherwise they would know better.

This all culminates in a mission in Palm Springs that finally sets the main plot into motion...kind of. Chief Ayamaki sends Togusa to America 🇺🇸 to find the others because the new Prime Minister wants to reestablish Section 9. He does, in Palm Springs, while GHOST is in the middle of a special assignment thrusted upon them by the NSA after they were all kidnapped by the NSA, Ayamaki convinces the NSA to let them go, and then they all go back to Japan 🇯🇵 to join the new Section 9. Season 2 is really the meat of the story, Season 1 is just one long setup.

Speaking of Chief Ayamaki. When we're re-introduced to him, he's walking around with a cane. Makes sense right? He was already a pretty old guy in the original Stand Alone Complex (Batou always referred to him as "The Old Man" in that show and this show too) and this show takes place 11 years after, so he'd be even older. But, after that, he never walks around with a cane again. What was the point of that? Why have him walk around with a cane in the first or second episode of Season 1 when you're not even going to have him walk with a cane for the rest of the series?

There's even a moment where he says, "This could be my last job," kind of hinting at Ayamaki's death, or Ayamaki stepping down as chief of Section 9 and retiring. But, neither of those happens. Ayamaki is still alive and kicking, and he's still leading Section 9 by the end. There is this ridiculous fake-out death in the second-to-final episode, where you're led to believe that he was killed by a car bomb planted by one of the post-humans, only it turn out that he didn't get blown up, and it was all just a ruse to throw off the post-humans. Don't hint at Ayamaki dying if you're not actually going to kill him off, it's just a waste of time. This is probably the least consistent and least detail oriented Ghost in the Shell series that's ever been made so far.

 

Oh, and uh, Togusa's divorced. His wife left him and took their daughter with her in the 11 years in-between Solid State Society and this show. So, he's a divorcee, and a single man ♂︎ with no real responsibilities beyond his job anymore. I mean, I guess he has to pay child support now, but you know what I mean. He doesn't have to worry about going back home to a wife or kid anymore, or keeping them safe since he lives on his own now, and can just focus on his job.

But, despite how long the story actually took to actually get going, I was still with it. I was still intrigued enough to keep watching until the end, despite all the bumps in the road, and all eye-rolling moments 🙄. But man, that ending ruined everything for me. I just didn't like how everything was resolved at the end, it felt too neat and clean, like everyone lives happily ever after or something. And it felt as if the bad guys actually won, the main antagonists won.  

The entire show deals with these things called "post-humans," which are humans who somehow got infected, and became these super beings that aren't humans or cyborgs, but something else entirely. They're incredibly strong, and possess hacking abilities beyond anything a normal cyborg is capable of, well beyond the capabilities that Section 9 themselves are capable of.

So, they're pretty dangerous, and are pretty much unstoppable since Section 9 essentially fails at stopping them. Though they can be killed by bullets just like any human or cyborg, and they do manage to kill a few of them over the course of the series; it just takes several shots, and it takes several tries because they can dodge bullets like no body's business (almost like a Matrix Agent), and you often have to double tap to make sure they're really dead.

But, in the end, it hardly matters how many post-humans that Section 9 and the Imperial American military 🇺🇸 manage to kill. The post-humans succeed in creating a singularity in-which humans and cyborgs live in harmony and peace, or have evolved to the next-stage in evolution, I don't really know. The ending really didn't make any sense to me, it was really confusing, and seemed overly complicated for the sake of being overly complicated. It's almost like a TENET effect, it's supposed to make you feel dumb for not understanding it.

But, unlike TENET, I doubt any amount of rewatches would actually make the ending of this show make any sense at all. It's pretty unfulfilling, and doesn't feel earned, especially at the very end when Motoko Kusanagi decides to leave Section 9 (again), and parts ways with Batou, leaving like a little password for each other if in case they meet each other again. She even tells him that if they ever meet again, they might not recognize each other, and that's why they decide to have a little password to say to each other if they ever meet again.

It pretty much ends the same way that the 95 movie ends, and from I've read, the same way Solid State Society ends, where Motoko disappears into the Net on some journey of self-discovery I guess. I never understood her decision to do that in that movie, I don't really understand it here. The fact that she already did before in this continuity in particular is probably the reason why Batou asks her, "You're leaving again?" Is this just a thing that always happens in Ghost in the Shell no matter the continuity or iteration? Motoko becomes disillusioned with Section 9 and their core mission of stopping cyberterrorism, and decides to go on a journey of self-discovery inside the Net? Seems kind of played out at this point.

It especially doesn't feel earned in this show because we spent so little time with Motoko. She never got an episode all to herself besides the final episode. The show focuses more on Togusa and Batou than it does Motoko, like there are more episodes dedicated to those two than are Motoko, and she's supposed to be the main protagonist, she's the main character, the face of the entire franchise. And we never really know what her perspective on any of this is, beyond the fact that she loves her team, she hates terrorism, she doesn't trust the Americans 🇺🇸, and she doesn't want the world to end.

So, her decision to leave Section 9 again after everything she went through just kind of comes out of nowhere. I mean, this is the same woman that stuck with her same team and became mercenaries with them out in the Americas, after Section 9 was disbanded for a third time, and you're telling me that she just decides to up and leave her friends behind to disappear in the Net just because she talked to some 14 year old post-human boy who was obsessed with George Orwell's 1984, and made a "really convincing argument" about why he should be the one to decide when humans evolve to the next stage of evolution and how?

The ending just builds to this overwhelming crescendo, where everything's doomed, all is lost. The American Empire 🇺🇸 launches smart gas ☣️ at Tokyo, all the Ns push their nuke buttons ☢️ and launch nukes ☢️ from that commandeered American nuclear submarine 🇺🇸, and Section 9 all gets killed with Motoko was the only one left alive.

And then turns out, no, none of that actually happened, and if it did, it's all okay because the post-humans remade the world according to their vision, and now everyone's become apart of their singularity, and reached the next stage in human evolution that the post-humans wanted. So what I mean when I say that this ending is unsatisfying and unfulfilling? It feels like the "bad guys" got away with it, and our good guys lost, and there's nothing they can do about it.

This ending, and this whole arc borrows a lot of stuff from 2nd GiG and the ending of 2nd GiG specifically, right down to the fact that it involves refugees who are being mistreated by the government (the Japanese government 🇯🇵), and want to declare independence. They latch themselves onto a charismatic figure who's cybernetically enhanced in someway, and is super idealistic and has revolutionary aspirations.

They acquire nuclear weapons ☢️ (like the ones on the nuclear submarine ☢️ in this show), or the materials to make nuclear weapons ☢️ like the weapons grade plutonium in 2nd GiG (although they didn't actually have any and it was a trick set up by Gōda) to use as a bargaining chip against the Japanese government 🇯🇵, and/or secure their independence. Then, the American Empire 🇺🇸 gets involved, and threatens to launch WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) at Japan 🇯🇵, turning a potential civil war into an interstate war; in 2nd GiG, it's nukes ☢️, but in this show, it's smart gas ☣️.

But, everything's stopped in the knick of time, and everything goes back to normal. This ending does that same thing, except here, none of the bad stuff actually happens, and it was all just an illusion set up by the main antagonist, Takeshi, the lead post-human, to create his perfect singularity or whatever, and Motoko let him get away with it.

Besides the meat of the story, which is this post-human stuff, and Section 9's investigation of the post-human phenomenon, there are certain things about the story that aren't really fleshed out or explained very well. Like, the explanation for the post-humans is that they were created by this AI that the NSA created to start and perpetuate Sustainable War. But, the AI went rogue, and caused a global economic collapse called the Simultaneous Global Default, and then somehow infected a bunch of random people around the world and turned them into post-humans.

It's never really explained how exactly the AI turns people into post-humans, and the timeline in-which characters became post-humans at what time. The character, Purin Esaki (more on her later) is a good example of this. It's never specified when she became a post-human, and for how long. Did she become a post-human after she interrogated the AI? Or was she already a post-human by the time she joined Section 9? That's never really clarified. It's also never explained why she's able to maintain her same personality when the other post-humans weren't. What exactly makes her so special, other than that she's good at hacking, which isn't even a unique skill in the Ghost in the Shell universe?  And is even she still a post-human, even after being resurrected and given a full prosthetic body? That's never explained or clarified either.

Even, Takeshi, the main post-human, it's never explained how exactly he became infected by the AI and became a post-human. Most of the other people who became post-humans were military or government officials. So, how did this high school student come into contact with the AI, and get infected by it? That's a question that's never really answered despite how much of Takeshi's backstory they show us. That's really bad considering that he's the main antagonist, you know, other than the Americans 🇺🇸 🙄.

It's not even really explained what Ns are, and what N stands for. The only thing we know for sure about Ns is that once you become one, once Takeshi chooses to make you an N, you get a little virtual button on your hand that gives you the authority launch the nukes ☢️ on that nuclear submarine ☢️ that the other lead post-human, Mizukane stole from the Americans 🇺🇸 using that android version of herself that she literally 3D printed onto the sub and killed all the crew members.

Speaking of which, even the concept of Sustainable War isn't really explained all that well. The only thing we find out about Sustainable War is that it was a cynical attempt by the American Empire 🇺🇸 and the other Big 4 countries, China 🇨🇳, Russia 🇷🇺, and the European Union 🇪🇺 to boost their economies. It's like a for-profit perpetual war that's sustainable, I guess. Like the war doesn't incur that much collateral damage, and actually helps the economy rather than hurt it, or at least, it's suppose to. I don't know, it's not explained nearly well enough. And the show literally opens with text explaining it. But, that opening text does a poor job at explaining it. Which is funny because it's a fictional war, it was conceived entirely by the writers. So, if anyone should be able to understand it and explain it to an audience and explain it well, it's them. But they didn't.  

I understood Nuclear World War III and Non-nuclear World War IV (AKA the Second Vietnam War) a lot more than Sustainable War. And we don't even really find out the details about those wars in either season of the original Stand Alone Complex; about when they started, who started them, and why. Of the two world wars, we learn a lot more about World War IV, or Non-nuclear World War IV as they refer to it as most of the time. But, they also called it the Second Vietnam War, which implies that the war started in Vietnam 🇻🇳, or that a part of it took place in Vietnam 🇻🇳.

Kind of like how we call the Pacific theater of World War II, the Pacific War, or like how we call the Chinese part of the war 🇹🇼, the Second Sino-Japanese War 🇹🇼🇯🇵. But, in that case, we only make that distinction because the war in China 🇹🇼 started two years before World War II proper. Another good comparison would be the Franco-Thai War 🇹🇭🇫🇷, where Fascist Thailand 🇹🇭 invaded French Indochina 🇫🇷 and tried to annex parts of it despite French Indochina 🇫🇷 being under the control of Vichy France 🇫🇷, and both Fascist Thailand 🇹🇭 and Vichy France 🇫🇷 both obviously being apart of the Axis Powers.

Yes, that's right, Thailand 🇹🇭 was apart of the Axis in World War II. Peace talks were mediated between the two sides by Japan 🇯🇵 in an ultimate bit of irony, considering that Japan 🇯🇵 was also apart of the Axis, and was also the one who invaded French Indochina 🇫🇷 first. More accurately though, French Indochina 🇫🇷 was willingly gifted to the Japanese 🇯🇵 by the pro-Nazi Vichy government. Anyway, that war was apart of World War II, specifically, the Southeast Asian theater of the war, and yet, it's talked about as if it is a separate war.

A more well known example or comparison would be the Winter War ❄️ between Finland 🇫🇮 and the Soviet Union ☭, in-which the Soviet Union ☭ invaded Finland 🇫🇮, and the Finnish 🇫🇮 utterly humiliated the Soviets ☭ by besting them on the battlefield, and laying bare their poor strategy, tactics, and logistics. Kind of like Russia 🇷🇺 in the current war with Ukraine 🇺🇦. But, the Soviets ☭ ultimately came out of that war on top with a peace agreement which stipulated that Finland 🇫🇮 give up some of its territory in the south to the Soviets ☭, including all of Lake Ladoga. This made Finland 🇫🇮 want to join the Axis Powers, and actually take part in Operation Barbarossa because they wanted to take back the territory the Soviet Union ☭ took from them. It failed obviously, and Finland 🇫🇮 was neutrality from then on out. At least, until Russia 🇷🇺 invaded Ukraine 🇺🇦 in 2022, and made Finland 🇫🇮 end its neutrality, and join NATO. So, Finland 🇫🇮's apart of NATO now.

Russia 🇷🇺 still has control over that territory to this day BTW, in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast. The Winter War ❄️ was apart of World War II, but it's often talked about as if it's a separate war. So, that could easily be the case for World War IV as it's presented in the original Stand Alone Complex. A part of that war could've taken place in Vietnam 🇻🇳 and in Southeast Asia as a whole, which is why some characters in the show refer to it as "the Second Vietnam War." Which is funny in and of itself because the Vietnam War 🇻🇳 is also referred to as the Second Indochina War because it's the second major war to take place in the Indochina region of Southeast Asia. 

 

The only thing we really know about World War III, or Nuclear World War III as they refer to it as, is that the United States 🇺🇸 was defeated in that war, and it caused it to break up into three different countries. Despite that little bit of information, we still know more about it and have a better understanding of it than we do Sustainable War, and the show's main plot is literally centered around Sustainable War. The rogue AI that caused the Simultaneous Global Default and created the post-humans was literally created to fight Sustainable War.

I feel like the only reason they decided to base part of the plot around Sustainable War is that they wanted to use it as an allegory for George Orwell's 1984 and vis versa. If you know anything about 1984, you'll know that in that book 📖, the three super-states of the world, Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia fight a perpetual world war as a way of manipulating and controlling the masses, to keep them in a state of war to justify their totalitarian rule or something like that. What do you think Sustainable War is?

This allegory is a little bit too on the nose. Ghost in the Shell is usually a bit more subtle than this. Like I said, I've never seen Innocence, so I can't really comment on that film and how it handles its philosophical themes. But from what I've heard, that movie isn't all that subtle about its allegories and messages either. It's like the writers and directors of this show read 1984, and thought, "We should do that, but with Ghost in the Shell. We'll do a Ghost in the Shell version of 1984." A very clunky allegory lacking in any and all subtlety.

As you could probably imagine how I described my issues with Sustainable War, the geopolitical aspects of this show are pretty weak. Geopolitics was one of the best aspects of the original Stand Alone Complex, especially 2nd GiG. That's one of the main reasons why I preferred it to the 95 movie. So, it's baffling that SAC_2045 got it so wrong. The only real geopolitics we get in this show is the Sustainable War, and the competition and tensions between Japan 🇯🇵 and the American Empire 🇺🇸.

What really all comes down to is that the American Empire 🇺🇸 is duplicitous, and pretty much pure evil, while Japan 🇯🇵 is the victim trying to keep its head above water 💦, trying maintain its independence and sovereignty and not just be subservient to the American Empire 🇺🇸. The main reason why the Prime Minister in this show wanted to reestablish Section 9 was to put the Americans 🇺🇸 in Japan 🇯🇵's debt, rather than the Japanese 🇯🇵 being in America 🇺🇸's debt.

Of course, it should be clarified the American Empire 🇺🇸 is not the United States of America 🇺🇸 that we know. It's one of three successor states to the United States 🇺🇸 after the Third World War. You see, the United States 🇺🇸 suffered such a devastating and humiliating defeat in that war, that it literally collapsed as a unified country, and it broke up into three different countries; sort like what happens to the US 🇺🇸 in Kaiserreich, a popular alternate history mod of the strategy games, Darkest Hour and Hearts of Iron IV in-which the Central Powers won World War I. The breakaway countries are: the American Empire, the Russia-American Alliance, and the United States proper 🇺🇸.

The American Empire 🇺🇸 is comprised of most of the southern states, and inherited most of the United States 🇺🇸's state institutions like the White House, the Pentagon, the Congress, and agencies like the CIA and NSA, as well as overseas military bases and overseas territories like Guam 🇬🇺. The only overseas territories they don't have are Hawaii and Alaska, those are under the control of the Russia-American Alliance if I'm not mistaken. And of course, I would be remiss not to mention that the American Empire 🇺🇸 inherited the United States 🇺🇸's entire nuclear arsenal ☢️, just like how the Russian Federation 🇷🇺 inherited the Soviet Union ☭'s entire nuclear arsenal ☢️, or at least, what was left of it.

The only real difference between the American Empire 🇺🇸 and the United States 🇺🇸 as we know it is that the American Empire 🇺🇸 has a monarchy, and also a president, somehow. Shouldn't be a prime minister as well? I don't know, maybe that's just Americans for you, has be unconventional as always, they have to have a king and president, or at least, call their prime ministers presidents instead of prime ministers. And this is the South, former Confederate territory, so maybe that's the case.

The best way to think of the American Empire 🇺🇸 in the Stand Alone Complex continuity is that it's basically the Confederate States of America (CSA, or Confederacy), but if it had a king 👑 and nuclear weapons ☢️. I wonder if that means the American Empire 🇺🇸 tried to create a Golden Circle too, maybe that's what incursion into Mexico 🇲🇽 during the Fourth World War was all about.

But, the American Empire 🇺🇸 essentially took the United States 🇺🇸's place as a global superpower. But, not the absolute global hegemon like the United States 🇺🇸 currently is in our world, since the world in the Stand Alone Complex continuity is a more multipolar one, in-which control and influence is split between the four major powers, the American Empire 🇺🇸, the Russian Federation 🇷🇺, the People's Republic of China 🇨🇳, and the European Union 🇪🇺; I believe they do refer to them as the G4 in the series if I'm remembering it correctly, implying that the the G7 doesn't exist anymore by this point in the Stand Alone Complex continuity, and it's down to just the G4.

Surprisingly, India 🇮🇳 is not mentioned or included as one of the major world powers. So, sorry, India 🇮🇳, even in the Ghost in the Shell world, you still don't get to be a superpower. India 🇮🇳 is actually mentioned in the show one of the early episodes of Season 2, I believe it might be the first episode of Season 2 actually. There's this Russian national 🇷🇺 named Kukushkin who worked in Russian intelligence 🇷🇺, and learned the truth about the AI that's turning people into post-humans. He defects, and tries to seek asylum in India 🇮🇳. We see him talking to these Indian diplomats 🇮🇳, or these Indian intelligence agents 🇮🇳—India 🇮🇳's intelligence service is called R&AW—and tries to persuade them into granting him asylum in their country in exchange for the AI's code, which has stored inside of his cyberbrain.

In fact, he has the entire AI stored inside his cyberbrain, but they don't establish if it's the original or if it's a copy. I assume it's the original one because otherwise it wouldn't have been able to turn Purin into a post-human after she interrogated it. But, like I said, it's not firmly established either whether or not this was the point she became a post-human. There's just so many plot holes and unanswered questions in this show.

But anyway, that is the one and only time that India 🇮🇳 is ever mentioned in the entire Stand Alone Complex sub-franchise and sub-continuity. And I'm guessing that they had it be India 🇮🇳 because it's pretty well known at this point that Russia 🇷🇺 and India 🇮🇳 are pretty close. India 🇮🇳 was allied with the Soviet Union ☭ during the Cold War, even though it was officially apart of the Non-Aligned Movement. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union ☭ and the end of the Cold War, India 🇮🇳 was still remained close to Russia 🇷🇺 even to this day. Probably for military arms sales since a chunk of India 🇮🇳's military equipment was purchased from Russia 🇷🇺. India 🇮🇳 is one of the top countries that Russia 🇷🇺 exported military arms and equipment to. Oh, and oil 🛢️ too, India 🇮🇳 buys a lot of Russian oil 🇷🇺🛢️, in fact, it gets the majority of its oil supply 🛢️ from Russia 🇷🇺.

 

 

(This is a Soviet propaganda poster ☭ showing the "friendship" between India 🇮🇳 and the Soviet Union ☭. It's kind of funny how they made the Soviet guy ☭ in this poster look like the most Aryan-looking motherfucker ever. Like, pale skin, blonde hair, with blue eyes, come on. Like, change that hammer and sickle and star symbol ☭★ into a swastika and change that Russian text into German, and this could easily pass for Nazi propaganda. There's also the unintentional homoerotic undertones in this poster, with the Soviet ☭ and the Indian 🇮🇳 holding hands. There actually parodies or edits of this poster where they hilariously changed the Soviet flag ☭ and the Indian flag 🇮🇳 into LGBT rainbow flags 🏳️‍🌈 😂.)

Even after Russia 🇷🇺 invaded Ukraine 🇺🇦, and most Western countries and Western-aligned countries firmly turned against Russia 🇷🇺, India 🇮🇳 still maintained friendly relations with Russia 🇷🇺 and continued to do business with them, and has shown no signs that they're willing to give up relations with Russia 🇷🇺 now or in the future. Even though they're supported by their greatest rival, China 🇨🇳. All the while, they still insist that they're neutral, and still maintain good relations with Western countries like the United States 🇺🇸, who is an enemy of Russia 🇷🇺, a country that India 🇮🇳 is still friends with and is unknowingly or knowingly helping them by buying their oil 🛢️; two-timing bastards, they're double crossing us 😒; just kidding 😁, kind of... 😑.

It is clear to me that India 🇮🇳 really doesn't want to have to pick sides, and that it thinks it can have it both ways, but it can't. In this world, you can't have it both ways, and you will have to pick a side eventually. Neutrality is becoming just as fruitless of a position to have, as it was during the Cold War. And we are in a semi-Cold War with China 🇨🇳 and its allies/partners. Not quite Cold War II, but very close to being one. 

 

Let's hope India 🇮🇳 chooses our side, and not Russia 🇷🇺 and China 🇨🇳's side. I am a little bit optimistic about which side they'll ultimately choose, but hopefully Russia 🇷🇺 won't get in the way and won't influence India 🇮🇳 too much. After all, which country is more important to them and will benefit them more in the long run? Russia 🇷🇺 or the United States 🇺🇸? Anyway, back to SAC_2045.

It does make it sense that a Russian defector 🇷🇺 like Kukushkin would try to seek asylum in India 🇮🇳, given the two countries' perplexingly good relations, past and present. They'd probably have better luck getting asylum there than in the US 🇺🇸 in all honesty, or I guess, the American Empire 🇺🇸 in this case. Kukushkin probably wouldn't have been able to seek asylum in the American Empire 🇺🇸 given that it was their AI that he stole, and has information about. They'd probably just arrest him or kill him, which is pretty much what they end up trying to do. So, that part is accurate. 

 

Also, the fact that they had a Russian guy 🇷🇺 who lives in Japan 🇯🇵 do the character designs on the show also maybe the reason why they even included a Russian character 🇷🇺 in the show (even if he doesn't have Russian accent). But, they also had a Russian character 🇷🇺 in the first season of the original Stand Alone Complex, a female SVR RF agent ♀︎ with a full prosthetic body, so I don't know. Speaking of which, back to the American Empire 🇺🇸. Sorry about that tangent that I also went on another mini tangent about; it's a tangent within a tangent, it's tangent-ception.

It's America 🇺🇸, but with none of the good aspects, and all of the bad. That likely means the American Empire 🇺🇸 is an authoritarian police state, since the NSA essentially became the Empire's main national security and intelligence apparatus over the CIA, since the CIA has all of these restricted imposed on it by treaties after the world wars (mainly World War IV). So, the NSA is forced to do things that the CIA would normally do, and it probably acts like a secret police domestically, within its own borders. Essentially, the NSA became the American Empire 🇺🇸's version of the Okhrana, or the Cheka, or the Gestapo, or the Stasi, or the Kempeitai, or the KGB, or the FSB. That's my guess anyway.

Not much information is actually given about the two America successor states, the Russia-American Alliance and the United States 🇺🇸. To be clear, the Russia-American Alliance is not Russia 🇷🇺 itself. The Russian Federation 🇷🇺 still very much exists within the Stand Alone Complex continuity. It was one of the victors of World War III, and it's considered one of the Big 4 major powers in the world. It's just a funky name that they decided to give this new fictional country, one of the three successor states of the former United States of America 🇺🇸. It's kind of like Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦 or Trinidad and Tobago 🇹🇹, though not exactly since there really isn't anything Russian about the Russia-American Alliance.

I really don't know why the writers decided to call it that. Maybe because Alaska is controlled by the Russia-American Alliance, and Alaska used to apart of Russia 🇷🇺 (it was owned by the Russian Empire 🇷🇺 until they sold it to the US 🇺🇸 after their humiliating and financially devastating defeat in the Crimean War), and still has a very small Russian minority and some Russian cultural influences to this day. But, as far as I can tell, there really isn't anything Russian about the Russia-American Alliance. I wish we had more important to go on about the nature of this particular nation state.

In 2nd GiG, they refer to the country as the "Ameri-Soviet Union," but that's the only instance that I've heard it referred to as that. The real name is the Russia-American Alliance. The other successor state, the US 🇺🇸 isn't a true successor state, as it is still technically the same US 🇺🇸 that we're all familiar with. It's just that the US 🇺🇸 was basically reduced to being a small rump state with no real power or influence, while the American Empire 🇺🇸 took its place, and stole all its glory.  

The way the American Empire 🇺🇸 is often portrayed in the original Stand Alone Complex and in SAC_2045 is that's super duplicitous, aggressive, and imperialistic. They're always trying to start wars, or create new super weapons, or trying to turn countries against one another, or trying to influence other countries and have them be their puppets, which is essentially what they're always trying to do to Japan 🇯🇵 in both shows. They're like the British Empire 🇬🇧 at its worst, but even worse than that.

In 2nd GiG, they almost launch a nuke ☢️ at Dejima after the refugees there declared independence, and claimed they that had weapons grade plutonium ☢️, and in this show, they launch a chemical weapon ☣️ called smart gas at the post-apocalyptic Tokyo just to prevent the N from pressing their nuclear buttons ☢️ and starting a nuclear war ☢️. 

 

And of course, they're essentially directly or indirectly the cause of everything bad that happens in this show, including Sustainable War, the rogue AI, the Simultaneous Global Default, and of course, the post-humans themselves. And they essentially coerce the Japanese government 🇯🇵 into doing all their dirty work for them, by using Section 9 to deal with the post-human threat. You know, until they just decide to do it themselves, and send some Navy SEALs to kill the two lead post-humans, Takeshi and Mizukane.

Obviously, they just wanted to have an excuse to have Americans 🇺🇸 be the bad guys, and also to have an outlet to criticize real world American foreign policy 🇺🇸 at the time (i.e. the War on Terror), which is the main  reason why Americans 🇺🇸 would even be presented in a negative light. But they also didn't want it to be the US 🇺🇸 proper to alienate American audiences 🇺🇸 too much; I mean Americans 🇺🇸 are one of the biggest audiences for anime in the entire world after all, don't want to alienate or offend one of your biggest consumer bases, and end up losing that revenue 💵💴.

So, they just created this fictional country that essentially is the US 🇺🇸 in all but name, and is pretty much everything that anti-Americans 🚫🇺🇸 accuse of the US 🇺🇸 of being. That's what the American Empire 🇺🇸 is, that's its purpose in the show's narrative; both this show and the original. This is just another instance of a Japanese show or movie 🇯🇵 vilifying America 🇺🇸 because the creators involved are resentful of their country's close and strong ties with the US 🇺🇸. But, make no mistake, there are plenty of self-hating Americans 🇺🇸 out there who eat this kind of stuff up. I used to be one of them a few years ago.

The next thing I want to discuss that I took issue with in this show, and that's the characters. Now, the main cast, for the most part, is fine, they're not the ones I had a problem with it. The only real issue I had with the main cast is that some of them barely got any screen time or anything to do. Pazu and Boma don't show up until the sixth episode. They didn't join Motoko's GHOST team in the Americas after Section 9 was disbanded (again), they stayed in Japan 🇯🇵 as cops I guess. We're never really told or shown what they were doing while the others were goofing off in North America and South America.  But, I assume that they did just continue being cops just like Togusa because unlike Motoko, Batou, Ishikawa, and Saito who all come from military backgrounds, they come from a law enforcement background just like Togusa.

When they do finally show up, they barely get anything to do. They're mostly get pushed to the side lines, in favor of Motoko, Batou, Togusa, Ishikawa, and Saito. I mean, I know Pazu and Boma weren't really one of the main guys, but come on, they aren't side characters. They are apart of the team, and just are indispensable as the rest of them. And they interesting characters in their own right, more so Pazu than Boma. Pazu is such an intriguing character, he's probably the most morally grey out of the whole team. You got the sense in the original series that he had done some pretty shady shit prior becoming a member of Section 9. They could've at least given them more to do.

On top of that, they both get killed off (sort of). Boma gets his cyberbrain torn out of his head by Purin, who was under the full influence of Takeshi and N, and then Pazu gets shot or stabbed, I'm not sure exactly. They both die gruesome deaths, or so we're led to believe. They didn't have to do them dirty like that. But, besides that, the main cast is fine. It's more so the new characters that they introduced specifically for this show, both protagonists and antagonists. We'll start with the new antagonist character they introduced in the first season, John Smith, or Agent Smith, get it? Just like Agent Smith from The Matrix? 😒 They really thought they were being clever with that one, didn't they?

They build Smith up like he's some major character, like it almost seems like he's going to be the main antagonist of the show, sort of like how Gōda was in 2nd GiG, the puppet master (no pun intended) who was pulling all the strings. But, they drop him like three or four episodes in the second season of this show, and he's cryogenically frozen 🥶 until the final episode. And when he is thawed out, he does nothing, except vomit 🤮, and be scared of Motoko. They had this villain character, who built up as if he was some sort of big deal, and then they reduced him to being nothing more than a joke.

The other two new main characters of note are two new protagonists to add to the main cast, Standard and Purin. Oh my god, these two characters...they were so annoying. I can't for the life me figure how they thought these two were good characters worthy of being in a Ghost in the Shell series. Standard is a uniquely pointless character. They introduce him in the first season as a rookie who just recently joined Motoko's mercenary group, GHOST, and he kind of sucks at his job, like he's a terrible aim, he's kind of a bumbling idiot with a lot of misplaced self-confidence and bravado, he's always the first one to get hacked or be incapacitated by the enemy, and they all make fun of him.

Like, they literally refer to him as Omoshiro, which I guess is the Japanese word for "clown." That's how incompetent he is. And then, he just leaves after fifth or sixth episode of Season 1, only for him to pop up again toward the end of Season 2, when he's apart of an NSA unit sent to gather intelligence on Mizukane. They're basically there to figure whether or not post-humans sleep or not. It turns out, they do, so they use that information to their advantage in dealing with the post-humans; because if post-humans sleep, then you can kill them or capture them more easily. And after he reunites with the gang, now apart of Section 9 proper, he does nothing except ride around on top of a Tachikoma, and then he ends up pinned down to the ground by one of those things the put on their neck plug things to detain somebody, never to get up again. But then, at the very end, he gets recruited into Section 9, and becomes a full member of the team.

I don't understand, why would they want to recruit Standard into Section 9 if he's so incompetent that they literally refer to him as a clown 🤡, and they kept leaving his ass behind during the final mission in Tokyo? It seems like he'd be a liability more than anything else. In fact, he pretty much is in the last few episodes of Season 2 set in Tokyo.

My guess for the rationale behind this character is that they wanted to have a new member of Section 9, first an honorary member and then a proper full member at the end, who was African-American 🇺🇸 since Ishikawa was played by an African-American actor 🇺🇸 in the 2017 live action film. But, if that's the case, why would they portray him as being the most incompetent, laughable, and pointless member of the group, and basically be dead weight who the other Section 9 are more than willing to just leave behind at a moment's notice? Standard was just a really awful character, and one the show would've been better off without.

Speaking of characters this show would've been better off without, Purin Esaki. She's easily the most controversial and most divisive new addition in this show, and in the entire franchise as a whole, and I can definitely see why. Because oh my god, she's annoying. She's one of the most annoying characters I've seen in a long time, and I've seen Gamera: Rebirth. I didn't like her mannerisms, the way she spoke, the way she moved, and the way she looked; that pink hair really bugged me. I didn't like this whole fangirl nonsense that they did with her where she's all obsessed with Batou, and is always trying to be near him, or be like him.

Doesn't sound that bad in concept, having a character who's a fan one of the main Section 9 crew, and tries to live up to their example. That's essentially Sherry Birkin's main character trait in Resident Evil 6. But it's terrible in execution. We do find out why she's so obsessed with Batou, after she's "killed," but learning about what happened to her and why she likes him so much doesn't make her interactions with him any better. Before we see her backstory, she kind of acts a bit creepy and stalker-ish towards him, like she's always trying to hit on him, even while they're at work. He even says, "That's sexual harassment," and she's all surprised and like, "Oh really?"

She just makes every situation awkward, and I just wanted her to get off screen, and go away. When they "killed her off" earlier on in Season 2, I was relieved, like "Oh, good, now we don't have to see her ever again." And then, when they brought her back in the second half of Season 2, I was like, "Damn, now we have to deal with her again." Even her "death scene" was pretty cringeworthy, like it's all melodramatic, Chief Ayamaki is getting all emotional, and crying 😭.

We've never seen him get this emotional over anyone, and he gets emotional over her?! Not Motoko, not Batou, not Togusa, not Ishikawa, or any of the other Section 9 crew, people he's worked with and known for far longer than Purin? And her "death" had no real impact, other than bringing a feeling of relief, because she just comes back anyway, bringing back a sense of dread 😩 because we had to see more of this irritating character. That's why I keep putting her "death" in quotes.
 
I found myself skipping as many of the scenes she was in, at least, all the ones I could skip without missing out on key plot points. I was surprised on how able to I was able to understand what was going on without all those Purin scenes. Kind of shows how pointless of a character she is. Or at least, she would be if they didn't make her so integral to the plot.

She's a huge part of the reason why the post-humans succeed in the end, as she's fully convinced that they have to do this, they have to create this singularity so that humans will evolve to next stage of evolution. And of course, the only reason she came back in the second half of Season 2 was because Motoko manipulated the Tachikomas into creating a synthetic clone of her with a prosthetic body. Damn you, Motoko! Why did you have to bring her back!?

I feel like the only reason they created this character, and insisted on her being in it was because they wanted to have a cute anime girl ♀︎ who could be awkward and have all the "cute" reactions, and be a source of comedy relief, and also be waifu material for some desperate weeaboo, and the Major just didn't cut it. But, they didn't need to make another comic relief character. That's what the Tachikomas are for. If that wasn't all bad enough, Purin is also a prodigy, who's all good at hacking, and gathering intel.

In fact, she was handpicked by Chief Ayamaki himself after some lady ♀︎ brought her to his attention because of her talents. And the reason why Motoko brought her back to life is that she wanted to use her talents to help with the post-human case, and didn't want those talents to go down the drain just because she got shot to death.

So, she's kind of a Mary Sue in a way. I know that's a term that's tossed a lot these days online, and it's mostly used by sexist entitled fanboys when they see a female character ♀︎ that they don't like in a franchise that they're a fan of; usually male dominated ones ♂︎ like Star Wars or Marvel. But, I am confident in describing Purin as a Mary Sue, at the very least, on the verge of being one. Such an unnecessary and unwanted addition she is.

As others have said, she just feels so out of place, like she came from another anime entirely, and it doesn't at all fit the tone or aesthetic of "Ghost in the Shell." "Ghost in the Shell" is supposed to be a serious cerebral anime for adults, not some shōnen anime trash for kids and teenagers. And Purin feels like a reject character from a shōnen anime that never got off the ground because it sucked.

As for the Prime Minister, Chris Otomo Tate, he's okay. He's the least bad new character in this show if you could believe it, so that's something, but he really isn't anything special, especially compared to the Prime Minister in 2nd GiG, Yoko Kayabuki, she was way more interesting and nuanced than him. It was cool that she was referenced. We see a portrait of her along with portraits of the other previous Prime Ministers in one of the early episodes of Season 1.

Honestly, the only things that kept me going in this show were the characters and the voice acting. I watched the English dub, as I usually do anime, and they actually brought back the same English voice cast as the original Stand Alone Complex. And they all just slipped back into those roles like it was nothing, like not a single day went by. Even if the material they were given wasn't anywhere near as good as the material they were given on the original Stand Alone Complex. My favorites are Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Motoko and Richard Epcar as Batou, they really embody those characters.

To me, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn IS Major Motoko Kusanagi, she is by far my favorite voice for that character. And it was nice hearing Roger Craig Smith. He's my favorite voice for Chris Redfield, and was a mainstay on Regular Show, even if that's a show that I gave up on after the fourth season. Even if his character in this show, John Smith ended up being completely useless and inconsequential. John Smith's only real purpose in this show is to help bring the Section 9 crew back together, and also introduce the main plot of the post-humans. Other than, he's useless, he's nothing; he's a nothing character.

The only thing that bothered me about the voice cast is that all the Tachikomas are voiced by one person, Melissa Fahn. In the original Stand Alone Complex, the Tachikomas all had different voices so that you could distinguish them and tell them apart somewhat. But here, they all have the same voice, so it's hard to tell which one's talking at which time, especially if you're just listening to the audio, and don't have any accompanying visuals.

The other thing that kept me going was the story, and the intrigue about what was going on, and what it was all leading to. But, unfortunately, it just couldn't stick the landing, and it ended up being a huge letdown in the end. Never underestimate how a bad ending can completely ruin a show, and render everything that came before null and void.

So yeah, this show wasn't very good, the animation wasn't good, and the characters besides the main cast weren't good. The music was forgettable with the exception of the first season's intro song, it really was missing that Yoko Kanno magic. She didn't return to do the music for this show, and her absence as lead composer shows, it's palpable; maybe she didn't come back because even she could see that this show was crap, and not worthy of her talents.

The story was interesting, until the ending came along and ruined everything. It had me, and then it lost me. I personally would not recommend it, but if you're curious enough, then I suppose you can go check it out. I can't tell you to do anything. You have to make that decision yourself to watch this or not, just like I did. I watched it, and I was disappointed by it in the end. I'll put it like this: people will still remember the original Stand Alone Complex years from now, but hardly anyone will remember this show. It wasn't as bad as Godzilla: Singular Point or Gamera: Rebirth, so there is that. At least, I was able to stick with this show to the end, I couldn't even get through Gamera: Rebirth, I just quit that show after the fifth episode.  

I will say that the best episode of the show ironically is one that doesn't really have anything to do with the main story. It's the bank robbery episode, where Batou goes to this bank to deposit some money 💵💴 into his account, and the bank is full of senior citizens, in fact, it's nothing but seniors; not a single person under the age of 60 is at this bank, besides Batou. He even remarks, "Since when did banks become nursing homes?" But, a few of the seniors at the bank decide to stage a robbery along with the security guard (who is also an old man), to get back the money 💴 that the manager of the bank stole from them. I guess the manager spent all their money 💴 on cryptocurrency, like he stole their money 💴 and used it to invest in crypto, because they start talking about cryptocurrency towards the end of the episode.

Seeing these seniors' plight, and seeing that this manager guy is very corrupt and criminalistic, Batou decides to secretly help the seniors get their money 💴 back, while pretending to be a hostage for the cops outside; the seniors also pretended to be hostages so that they wouldn't be caught. Can I just say that old lady was kind of hot ☺️? There's this old lady in that episode who Batou chats with at the beginning of the episode. She isn't apart of the robbery or anything, but she pulls out a gun, and threatens to shoot up the place when the robbery starts going down.

Then, she decides to play along with Batou and the robbers when Batou decides to help them get their money 💴 because her money 💴 was stolen too. She talks about how her husband died from a disease, and she also has a terminal illness (I believe it's cancer or something), and she decides to live out the rest of her days in Switzerland 🇨🇭, or she wants to vacation there before she dies. But, she couldn't because she she didn't have any money 💴 because that asshole bank manager stole all her money 💴 as well as the would-be robbers', and then flushed it all down the toilet by investing it all in the financial black hole known as crypto, a truly evil act.

And her story is the one that Batou sympathizes with the most, and is likely the reason why he decides to help them all, instead of turning them in. But anyway, they kind of made her look hot. Like, the way they designed her, and the way they did her character model, she actually looks pretty attractive 😍. Some times, animators tend to make old characters look ugly, but not here. They made this old lady look pretty hot 😍 actually. Good job animators 👍. The animation overall may be sub par, but you did a good job on that old lady.

 

It's a very nice episode, it reminded of what was at the heart of Stand Alone Complex. Sure, they could do big grandiose story arcs, and they did, but they could also these smaller, more personal stand alone stories (no pun intended) that don't really connect to anything. SAC_2045 decided to do one, and it actually paid off (again, no pun intended). They probably could've done more like that if they weren't held back by the Netflix model, and didn't have such short seasons with such a serialized plot. Each season has 12 episodes, adding up to 24 in total. That's about as long as one season of the original series. Both seasons of the original Stand Alone Complex had 26 episodes each, adding up to a total of 52 episodes. That's insane, you truly don't get that anymore in the age of streaming.

I do think that this show was hurt by Netflix's model, their style of making shows, and this show would've been better had it been made around the time the original series was made, like it was made in the late 2000s or early 2010s when traditional TV was still king, and shows like this could afford to have longer seasons and have more one-off episodic episodes. After, that's when Arise was made; that show started in 2013 and lasted until 2016. Had SAC_2045 been made in 2018 or 2019, and wasn't on Netflix, it perhaps might've turned out better than it did. But, for what it was worth, they did score at least one true win 👍.

But man, besides Komi Can't Communicate, Netflix isn't that good at doing anime, are they? Most of the anime offerings from them that I've been interested in and have seen have proven to be disappointing and pure garage in some cases. At the least, the song for the intro to the first season was good. It's a song called "Fly with me," and was done by a band called millennium parade. I don't know if they're an American band 🇺🇸 or Japanese band 🇯🇵, but a lot of their songs are in English, so they probably are American 🇺🇸.

When I first heard that song in the intro, I thought it was a bit odd for a Ghost in the Shell intro song, and I still kind of think it is. But, listening to it in isolation, it is actually a pretty good song.  I wouldn't mind buying it on iTunes the next time I get an iTunes card. Ironically, the music video for this song, actually has better animation than the show itself. If the show looked more like that music video, no body would be complaining about the animation or the art style.

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(This is the music video to millennium parade's song, "Fly with me.")

 

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Link to a companion piece to this review, explaining some things that needed further explanation: 

 

https://jedithescribe.blogspot.com/2023/11/my-thoughts-on-ghost-in-shell-sac2045.html