In the slowly rebuilding ruins of Tokyo, Motoko and the
rest of Section 9 engage in their final face off with Takashi Shimamura and the
Post Humans. Even with added assistance
from a resurrected Purin and Standard, the team finds themselves in a seemingly
hopeless battle against a foe who can use their tech, weapons and wills against
them. On the verge of a new nuclear war,
Motoko must push herself like never before to stop Takashi and discover just
what N has set out to do from the beginning.
It’s all or nothing and it could just be Section 9’s final mission.
Well I cant believe I’m saying this but…I hated this
ending, I freaking hated it.
Up til now,
SAC_2045 has been a fair but disappointing follow up to two stellar seasons of
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
And you’d think that with two extra years of production time due to
several factors including the COVID-19 Pandemic would allow Kenji Kamiyama to
iron out the finer details of the mystery of the Post Humans and their
mysterious Nation of “N”, tightening the story to make up for the mixed bag CG
work.
But no, the mystery of N collapses
on its inevitable conclusion…that it was never going to get a proper
explanation and instead we’re left with a finale that wants us to believe the
stakes are the highest they’ve ever been and that the team might not be coming
back from this mission.
But the
ambiguity of what ultimately goes down only leaves me actually angry,
borderline on the level of my wrath for the Live Action Ghost in the Shell
Movie.
Truth be told, I’m not even sure
I can properly convey what went down in this finale but I’m gonna try anyway,
even if I even up ranting my entire way through it.
First the good stuff.
Purin has been the stand out character of the season.
Heck I feel like a lot of it has been more
her story than Motoko’s or Section 9’s.
With her sudden resurrection, she was bound to reunite with the team
eventually and it was probably the best moment of the finale.
It was emotional and fraught with confusion
and surprise, especially when Motoko revealed she manipulated the Tachikoma’s
into salvaging her memories and putting them in a new body.
Ethics aside, it rare for Motoko to show this
level of care for a subordinate but more on that in a second.
The real tears came when Purin had her
breakdown with Batou when they both recognize who they are to each other and
share a nice hug.
You don’t see a lot of
this kind of feeling between teammates with Section 9 and Purin has shaken that
dynamic up nicely.
As for the Major,
hats off to Mary Elizabeth McGlynn for selling the turmoil Motoko is put
through during this whole ordeal.
In the
second to last episode, Mokoto is shocked over and over again as her teammates
each fall to Takashi’s “Master Plan”, Purin’s betrayal and the alleged death of
Aramaki (don’t worry, he’s fine).
McGlynn has been voicing this character for two decades now and has
never gotten to infuse Motoko with this kind of level of heartache and despair
at the possibility that she and her team have actually failed.
Too bad all of this is part of a mess of an
ending that doesn’t merit such commitment from its voice actors.
Alright, onto the ranting.
What was Takashi Shimamura’s endgame?
That is…an excellent question that never gets
a straight answer.
Neither does the much
anticipated response to what the hell is an N.
Purin attempts to explain it several ways to Motoko but even she thinks
its crap.
At one point, the entire Tokyo
area is under threat of both a Nuclear strike and a bio weapons attack and
we’re to believe both were averted.
But
also some N’s live in the reality that one or the other happened theyre living
out the fantasy of each outcome?
Ghost
in the Shell has had reality questioning stories before but they’ve always had
clear cut resolutions.
Think back to
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence when Batou and Togusa find themselves trapped
in a maze.
Thanks to Motoko’s warnings,
Batou is able to figure out the trap and save him and Togusa and assure us, the
viewers, that we’re not seeing anymore illusions.
SAC_2045 offers no such comforting
reassurance and seems both lazy and content to leave the entire ending of the
series up in the air.
Oh but there’s one really big stinker I need to talk
about: the final choice.
In 2012, Mass
Effect 3 was released to near universal acclaim as it capped off Bioware game
changing trilogy.
There was one particular
criticism everyone had: the ending.
After three games of universe changing decisions, the final choice of
what to do about The Reapers boiled down to three separate choices that could
change the course of all life in the galaxy…three choices.
Call me crazy but that seems like a bit of a
cop out after three games of build up (and I’m one of the few that just chooses
the Destroy ending and calls it a day).
Motoko finds herself faced with a similar choice by Takashi: leave him
plugged into his machine and have him evolve Humanity into N’s so they can
combine into one Singularity…or pull the plug and return the world to
normal.
Honestly after all the
impossible crap this kid put the world through, is it even a difficult
choice?
Apparently SAC_2045 would have
you believe that as we see Motoko about to pull the plug…and then an Inception
level move is pulled when the screen cuts to black.
Yeah…no, no, no, no.
Oh but the fun doesn’t end there.
As if we needed one more insult the wrap up
sees freaking Stan of all people joining up with Section 9 after being totally
useless for the entire season.
And then,
Purin returns but it looks like everyones memory of her has been wiped by
Motoko so that they don’t neglect her for her actions during this
incident.
But it looks like Batou might
still be aware so what the heck does this mean?
Oh and Motoko just decides to leave for seemingly no reason and she and
Batou have a ”homage” to their parting in the 1995 Oshii film, only with “1A84”
as their secret password instead of “2501”.
So unlike the first two seasons of Stand Alone Complex, nothing is truly
resolved and everything is left a total mystery as to what happens next?
How about, and hear me out, we have a proper
Third Season of Stand Alone Complex that completely ignores the events of this
shoddy CG project?
Final thoughts time.
Even my love for Ghost in the Shell cant hide my disappointment for
SAC_2045.
There are some actual good
episodes, two of which might be in my Top 5 all time Stand Alone Complex
episodes, and Purin is a great character who I want to see more of (maybe in
her own spin off?).
The idea of the
Sustainable War could have been a solid basis for a season long story but
instead we get a half assed story about Superhuman Cyborgs with God Mode Cheats
and Edge Lord personas who claim to have the ultimate plan…but really are just
posers trying to look cool without an actual plan at all.
The animation was mixed: Motoko and Purin
always looked great but overall the style never worked unless it was the
Tachikoma’s in battle, same goes for the action as a whole.
I don’t doubt Shinji Aramaki’s craft with CG
Anime and heck he and Kamiyama did a much better job adapting this style to
Blade Runner: Black Lotus.
But while
Ghost in the Shell has utilized 3D and CG elements in the past, it’s 2D hand
drawn animation is still what keeps it such an iconic trendsetter.
All in all, the first half was ok but the
last 8 or so episodes was when everything collapsed in on itself and left me
frustrated and unsatisfied.
Ghost in the
Shell is supposed to really challenge and intrigue me as to how cybernetics and
humanity can coexist in an ever changing world of the future.
The Net may be “vast and infinite” as Motoko
Kusinagi says.
And in that regard, I
think that SAC_2045 is best lost to the deepest depths of it.
Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 gets a 4.5/10
Now that that’s done, it’s time for some online Gunpla
fighting action.
Our two part Extended
Summer Series Review for July 2023 kicks off on Monday with the premiere of
Gundam
Build Divers right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment