I was a huge fan of the original SAC and to say it took me a while to warm up to SAC_2045 is putting it mildly. However, even before the series got decent in the later episodes, I found the art style strangely charming. I find it’s an interesting blend between stylized realism in the environments and quasi shell shaded human characters… It’s also nice to see PBR applied well, even though the assets seem a bit “uniform”
Overall, I get the vibe they did a great job withing the confines of a TV series.
I’m no fanboy though, just looking at the facial animations makes me wanna play Half-Life 2 just to see something better, and that’s over 15 years old.
I think GITS needs something a lot more grungier and varied when it comes to material definition than what was portrayed in 2045. I need to try again but I really couldn’t get past the first 15 minutes of the first episode.
The series just demands a lot more than what it got.
I think Netflix dropped the balls with this.
They hired Shinji Aramaki who should just stay away from a franchise like this.
His style consists of blaring loud (and bad) techno music in action scenes and using 3D without much sense. No idea why he was needed to be part of the production - he isn’t a good director.
The classic look Production IG has used for all of its GiTS anime’s was great and still is.
The original movie beats the shit out of this new series in terms of visuals and that movie is 24 years old and probably has a lower budget than the series.
The CGI in the intro of the 18 year old Stand Alone Complex Series has more style than anything in this new series.
Its just bad and uninspired.
And don’t get me started on the story - while not really bad, Its been barely a couple of months and I already forgot EVERYTHING.
I am terribly disappointed and I say this a somebody who loves GiTS more than any other franchise.
They should just have done it like any other GitS anime before, doing it in 2D with some 3D elements (vehicles and robots).
It isn’t bad, but its subpar and the worst GitS adaption to date.
I blame Netflix 100% on this - Production IG wouldn’t have had switched to full CGI without the interference of Netflix and they probably would never hire Aramaki who i absolutely detest (he ruined my other favourite Anime adaption from Masamune Shirow - Appleseed. )
Amen to that, brother. A sci-fi/cyberpunk masterpiece. One of the best ever made.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve watched the original, but I have a lot more to go. It is a classic and will never feel dated because it’s pretty much perfect in every way.
Some thing never be obsolete… No one can say that Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, etc. are obsolete these days in age of CG . So old, 2D animations are not beaten… they just are different style, media. Unfortunately 2D animation, stop motion are intentionally neglected these days. Sometime we get 3D gimmick, which often look false… pathetic.
Bah… majority of people do not care, only artists and true fans sometime nagging in places like this.
I feel like the 2017 Hollywood adaption killed all interest in the franchise, at least for the general population. The latest attempt from Production IG, GiTS Arise didn’t do so well either (many fans rejected it).
One of my biggest gripe with these latest adaptions is the music.
Ghost in the Shell without Kenji Kawai or Yoko Kanno isn’t really GiTS.
The original Soundtrack is one of the best EVER IMHO.
This is a live version, If you haven’t seen/heard it, give it a try. The drums are insane in this (long) version.
Long, long time ago… in time when Disney axe his 2D animation studio, one my friends which work as architect in US tell me interesting story. His work can be described as “concept architecture”… he has small team of artist which ( every day ) make toons of architectural concepts which are used by “real” architects… something like that. So, Disney trash his 2D animation studio and bunch of top artist become jobless. They spread across US to find new job. His studio was good opportunity for artist. They literally beg for job… any job and bring some of his work for presentation. Unfortunately he was unable to hire them, anyway get many artwork as gift. I see this artworks, “analog” illustrations, top quality. After all this years I can not forget this. This people was insane, can’t describe how good this look in real. And all this people are trashed because someone push 3D animation. Same is with French comic industry where overnight hand painted color are replaced with trashy digital color.
To be clear, I are not against progress, digital have many advantages, but abolishing “analog” have not sense to me. Same is with music, instead of carefully crafted music we often get lazy, generic mediocre electronic garbage… not to mention hip-hop-rap “music”…
Sorry for long rant
I used to drive by the Walt disney studio in Burbank. I remember seeing rows of 2d artists work stations, or animation desks sitting in the back parking lot. They were throwing them away.
