Summary
This second season will do little to convert any naysayers, but it offers more of the same while upping the dramatic stakes.
The first season of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 was recently re-released on Netflix in the form of a feature-length supercut called Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War, as unwieldy a title as it’s possible to get, though fitting for such an unwieldy show. The purpose of this, one supposes, was to build hype for this 12-part second season, which continues the storyline of the first very directly.
That film was an investment of design and marketing resources that seems ill-advised, frankly, since anyone who watched and enjoyed the first season would presumably be tuning in for the second anyway, and anyone who didn’t won’t care – and rightly so, since the follow-up does absolutely nothing to win over those who were put off by the ropey CG animation, questionable character designs, and verbose storytelling in the first place.
A refresher, then. Set in the Stand Alone Complex universe, an alternate continuity not shared by Masamune Shirow’s original manga or Mamoru Oshii’s landmark 1995 anime film, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 transplants Major Motoko Kusanagi and the rest of Public Security Section 9 to a post-apocalyptic future where a global economic meltdown referred to as the Synchronized Global Default has led the G4 nations to perpetuate a so-called “Sustainable War” to keep their respective economies moving. The first season saw the Major and co. – including old favorites Batou, Ishikawa, and Saito – working as private security contractors for the “one-percenters”, but they were eventually brought back into the fold by Chief Aramaki in order to combat a new threat known as “post-humans”.
And that’s where we pick things up here in Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Season 2.. The nature and purpose of the post-human conspiracy forms the bulk of the narrative across these 12 new episodes, and it allows for a fair helping of weirdness, some twists and turns, a plethora of action sequences, and a couple of surprisingly poignant character moments, with Batou and Purin proving to be the heart and conscience of a story that often forgets to make time for such things.
The visuals remain… questionable, at best. The fake-looking CG is marred by a clay-like texture that is only exacerbated by stiff, weightless action, very limited facial expression, and self-defeating editing. A game voice cast really tries to do most of the heavy lifting, and their efforts should be respected, but their on-screen representations simply can’t hope to communicate the same depth of feeling that they’re clearly trying to convey. It’s nice to see the long-time actors still being committed to the franchise, but it often serves as a reminder of how much the franchise itself seems to be oddly uncommitted to the franchise.
This season at least raises the narrative stakes a little, building to some surprising developments towards the end that reframe well-known characters and earnestly try to espouse a complex moral conundrum, asking some big questions and trusting – mostly – the audience to come up with answers for themselves. That’ll be satisfying for those who have stuck with the series, but the naysayers will find few compelling counter-arguments from a season that is mostly content to deliver more of the same.
You can stream Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Season 2 exclusively on Netflix.
