What is it?
The 2020 Netflix action science fiction anime (animated) TV show Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045.
What is it about?
This is how Netflix describes this anime (animated) TV show:
In the year 2045, after global capitalism has defaulted, the world has entered a systematic “Sustainable War.”
Hired as a mercenary unit, the former members of Japan’s elite Section 9 are faced with the sudden appearance of “Post-Human,” a being with tremendous intelligence and physical capabilities; and Japan’s elite Section 9 begins conducting covert cyber operations.
My Thoughts
I found out that this was coming out this year by accident on Google News.
I clicked on that news article called Check Out Netflix’s Ghost In The Shell Trailer And Its Contentious Art Style by Ars Technica so fast.
Then, when I saw the screenshots for it with that computer generated animation, I was immediately disappointed and worried to watch the trailer and teaser for it.
In the beginning of the trailer the scenery looked pretty good, but the characters appearance and the art style overall was just not working for me, especially for the Ghost In The Shell franchise.
Which is one of my favorite anime (animated) TV shows / franchises of all-time, which has one of my favorite anime art styles of all-time.
So my reaction to the trailer combined with the first few episodes was a bit like:
I grew up with mostly old-school animation, so I was never a big fan of computer generated animation, usually unless it looked very realistic and not cartoony.
There are some exceptions when it does works for me though, but to change the style of an anime franchise like this does not seem like a good idea to me.
There is just something special about mostly hand drawn animation, and most of my favorites use that.
I typically do not like overly cartoony and childish-looking animation unless it makes sense and fits, this art style is way too common in American animation and increasingly in modern animation, and so I have not liked this trend.
The animation for this show is still bad to me, I do not like it at all except for the scenery, and it does not fit Ghost In The Shell at all to me; and so that alone ruins this show.
This is the most Americanized version of Ghost In The Shell since the live action movie, and not in a good way; and I did not like how they had most of the main characters acting unprofessional et cetera too often in the first half.
This show was the least philosophical in the Ghost In The Shell franchise.
Some basic things were not explained, leaving you having to guess and / or leaving you confused.
Some characters still have no backstory or much about them explained and barely got to talk, several characters were annoying, this had the worst music in the franchise, and more.
What is this show’s definition of sustainable war, and how are the various things that they describe as such considered sustainable war?
What is direct linking, I assume that it is: connecting by wire(s) to another person’s cyberbrain, and in what ways was it used during that unclear teacher student incident?
What did that one teacher really do to that one student during that unclear incident, was it physical and / or virtual, and how was that teacher getting away with doing that?
What is shutting down your cyberbrain, how do you shut down your cyberbrain, what are the consequences of doing so, and what forms of hacking will that prevent if any?
How did Section 9 (Public Security Section 9) get 10 times the budget yet still have less equipment, fewer personnel, et cetera than they ever have?
Why after all of these years across this franchise has Boma (Borma?) never had a backstory or episode or anything said about him other than one line in Ghost In The Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG.
Where he said about working with explosives back in his military days; that have never been talked about or even shown in flashbacks.
Why is he pretty much a none character?
Why does he rarely get to talk or do anything?
Why is he there, why did they not make him a female character since they need some more female members of the team?
Why did he only appear when the show was halfway over?
Why do they treat this man like that?
Why did new characters get more dialogue and screen time than him?
Why is he basically a larger, generic budget Batou who mostly stands around in the background silently like a cardboard cutout in the rare times that he is even shown? 😀
After watching this, I now feel that I was too harsh on the movies Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society and maybe Ghost In The Shell (2017).
I liked both of those better than this show until the second half of it, which is when it became watchable.
So this show is now the worst thing in the animated Ghost In The Shell franchise so far and maybe the second-worst thing or tied with Ghost In The Shell (2017) as the worst thing in the entire franchise.
They are ruining this franchise, please do not let them continue ruining this franchise, I am disappointed Netflix.
This was one of my favorite anime franchises, and so that makes it worse.
If you watch this show, you can probably skip the first 6 or 5 episodes, you will not be missing much.
The episodes after that are better and that is when this show became watchable.
This season ended abruptly, I assume that they will make a second season.
I will only watch it because I have seen everything else in the franchise.
This does not deserve to be in the franchise, and it definitely does not deserve to be considered part of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
This show only had one standalone episode, they should take the SAC out of the title, and rename it to Shell Of A Ghost: 2045 or Shell Of A Ghost: Murica 2045.
When this is all over, I will probably try to forget that it exists, and I will probably consider it non-canon.
I would rate this show a 1.5 – 2 out of 5 👎.
The end,
- John Jr
John Jr's Blog 