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The wartime setting creates ample room for the series to go heavy on the action sequences, with some that are impressive, lots that are passable, and one moment that is truly absurd. But even in its best moments the combat lacks the capacity for poignancy so vital to the original. For example, the original series’ second episode was about the entirety of Section 9 struggling to stop a scientist who put his brain in a mecha tank so he could kill the parents who denied him a better quality of life for religious reasons. Here, the Major and Batou are just punching and shooting the hell out of some football players, gynoid maids, and robot ninjas. It’s somewhat entertaining but visually and emotionally unstimulating.

Prior to release, SAC_2045 drew ire from fans for the switch from Stand Alone Complex’s hand-drawn style to the same 3DCG animation the co-directors used on Ultraman. I may be in the minority when I say that the computer graphics didn’t detract much from my viewing experience, or at least they stopped bothering me after about half an episode. Ilya Kuvshinov’s character designs do a serviceable job replicating the 2002 anime’s iconic style (although I will say the texture of Aramaki’s face betrays an unsettling smoothness not dissimilar to that of a VixSkin dildo). The series’ real visual shortcoming is in how placid and sparse each frame looks, and how the shots generally tend to lack any dynamism.

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SAC_2045 is very much a story about getting the figurative band back together, but that process unfortunately takes far too long, leaving little room for the frequent standalone episodes that made the original what it was. Pacing and tone are consistent issues for the series, with the main plot of the season—a mysterious new form of life known as “Post-Humans” have begun to appear around the world, and pose a great threat to mankind—taking half its runtime to be revealed, and the full reformation of Section 9 taking even longer.

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The show begins to touch on some interesting concepts (what if social media pile-ons were murder?) in the season’s last quarter, but ends abruptly on a cliffhanger that gives us little time to invest in its proposed stakes. By far, the best outing of the season is a singular one-off episode, focused solely on Batou, a group of wily senior citizens, and a bank robbery. That episode looks at the difficulties that come with aging in a technologically advanced society and explores them on a human level, an approach the season at large fails to adopt into its storytelling.

Where the season’s greatest success lies is in its characterization of Section 9. Kamiyama continues to know these characters’ voices and understands how they interact. While the transition to 3DCG softened the Major’s character design a bit, she’s still the bold leader, hacking genius, and hardass we love and respect. Batou still feels like the fun ass-kicking cyborg uncle, Togusa has grown into a more seasoned investigator, and the Tachikoma remain perfect six-legged robo-angels with missile-launcher tummies. Section 9 has vibrant personalities that are just fun to revisit in some new adventures, however mediocre their content might be.

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The philosophical through line of every Ghost in the Shell iteration is a question of finding and maintaining identity in a technologically advanced society. For a series fixated on the concept, SAC_2045 often forgets itself.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 is streaming on Netflix in Japanese and English. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is streaming for free on the Adult Swim app.

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Chingy Nea is a writer, comedian, and critically acclaimed ex-girlfriend based out of Oakland and Los Angeles.