Monday, August 17, 2015

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex-Solid State Society


Two years have passed since the Individual Eleven incident.  Section 9 is now commanded by Togusa in the wake of Major Motoko Kusinagi departing the team.  The now expanded Section 9 finds itself on the trail of a mysterious hacker known as the Puppeteer.  With little to go on, simply a trail of dead bodies and a road paved with lost yet unconnected children, Togusa, Batou and their teammates find themselves in a race against time to prevent more murders.  And it only becomes a matter of time before their investigation brings them face to face with Motoko once again.

At long last, after two seasons of reviews we come to the (for now anyway) final chapter of the Stand Alone Complex saga.  So how does this TV Movie stack up to the levels of greatness of the TV series?

Well to start off I did like the two year leap in time.  The difference in this new Section 9 was a great move to make.  The Major is gone, Togusa is now team leader and Batou is off sulking when not getting into trouble.  It’s cool to see how the team manages without Motoko and with Togusa at the helm it seems like they’re doing surprisingly ok.  It’s true testament to how far Togusa has come since season one.  He’s no longer the rookie of the team trying to keep up, now he’s the lead and a gifted one at that.  It does make you wonder if Motoko pictured this from the start, making Togusa, an almost all natural human, leader of a cyberized division that specializes in cyber warfare.  That being said, you know Motoko, who is working through her own unexplained issues, would probably pop up at some point cause let’s face it, she cant stay away from her old team forever and at the end of the day, her talents are, like always, essential to getting the job done.  We don’t get to see too much of the new Section 9 and even some of their character problems for the series still pop up from time to time, a sign that some things will never change.  I did have to laugh for a second when Togusa basically hands off the rookies to Pazu and Borma during the opening scene…im sure you can guess why if you know full well my thoughts on those two characters.  The only other character from the past who is given any kind of extra material is Azuma, a rookie from 2nd Gig, who has become Togusa’s field partner but even he gets sidelined pretty quickly once the focus returns to the original seven man team.

The story of Solid State Society can be pretty confusing at times, even for writer Kenji Kamiyama standards.  Heck even though 2nd Gig got mouthy with it’s ideology and themes, the goals of Kuze and Gohda were all pretty clearly explained by the end of their plot lines.  SSS tends to juggle too much with elements from all over the place being thrown on the table to piece together a puzzle that only the writer could see in full and leaves everyone else to catch up without being clear but also not giving enough to go on.  There is some good commentary about the role of the elderly in society in the world of tomorrow but personally I was constantly scratching my head as to how all of the pieces fit together for this case. 

I do, however, feel that Solid State Society is strongest with its core characters.  Most of the cast is in a far different place than where we left them at the end of 2nd Gig.  Even Aramaki is beginning to think long and hard about where he’d like Section 9 to be in the future.  It’s kind of scary to hear the Chief talk about a day when he wont be around to oversee Section 9 but it’s an inevitability he accepts…like the boss he is.  And though some relationships are strained between team members, some like Batou and Togusa are never broken.  Possibly the best scene in the movie is when Batou nearly loses Togusa right before his eyes.  The look on Batou’s face, the way he falls to his knees with hands behind his head in disbelief, plus Yoko Kanno’s perfectly tense and toned accompanying score, tell you everything you need feel with great success.

While the production quality of the feature never really rises above the animation from the series, we still get a bit of age added to the character designs, especially Togusa and Aramaki, but beyond that the animation is nothing we haven’t seen before.  And when the story becomes a bit too mind numbingly confusing, we still get some great Ghost in the Shell action with guns, tanks and even Saito gets a scene stealing sniper dual towards the middle of the film.  And while several of her tunes make a return, Yoko Kanno still churns out some awesome brand new tracks, including the piece I mentioned above for a pivotal Batou and Togusa scene and the opening “Player” which easily joins “Inner Universe” and “Rise” as some of the best Anime intros ever.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex-Solid State Society, never really rises above the grand masterpiece drama of SAC 2nd Gig.  The time jump is fine and the evolution of some of the core characters is top notch.  But its story feels a bit too crunched together for a just under two hour feature.  It probably could have been explored better in a more expanded third season, even an shorter one of like 12 episodes if need be.  And it ends the saga on a note of sort of finality but also maybe a hint of possible continuation.  As I said, for now this is the last chapter of the saga with all the focus now on the reboot/prequel series Ghost in the Shell: Arise.  So as a possible finale, I think 2nd Gig was a better note to add on.  But if you want a little more time with the Section 9 crew and a mystery with an interesting twist ending, it’s still Stand Alone Complex and it’s still enjoyable.

Will this be the last time we see this iteration of Motoko Kusinagi and Section 9?  Who know but as Motoko is fond of saying when a big case ends, “The net truly is vast and infinite.”  In other words, who knows.

7/10

One more film to go in this little set of films based on shows ive covered in the past.  And we’re going to end it with a Christopher Nolan esque take on an otherwise sunnier (sort of) Anime.  Well lets just say this isn’t your Daddy’s Escaflowne. See ya next week.

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