Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045

[UN Spacy]

 

Netflix continues to drop the big news for their upcoming slate of anime titles, from the return of Neon Genesis Evangelion to the likes of 7SEEDS. But now the streaming service have announced another big series from a well-known franchise.

In a collaboration between studios Production I.G and SOLA DIGITAL ARTS, they have announced plans for a new Ghost in the Shell project, currently titled Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045 which is set for worldwide distribution in 2020. Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) & Shinji Araki (Appleseed) are confirmed to be working on the project. No other news has been revealed as of yet.

 

[505thAirborne]

Best news I've heard all day! Fingers crossed it's good! 

[kajnrig]

Is that key art included with the announcement, or just a random picture the authors googled? It could be indicative of the direction they want to take the art. Either way, after just recently coming onto the franchise, I'm excited.

[Major Focker]

i hope Appleseed gets some love too.

2020 can't come soon enough

[AN/ALQ128]

Hopefully it'll be better than the dumpster fire that was GiTS 2017.

 

[kajnrig]

6 hours ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

Hopefully it'll be better than the dumpster fire that was GiTS 2017.

"We made you a new body. A synthetic SHELL. But your mind, your soul, your GHOST  - it's still in there."

DO YOU GET IT? DID THEY GET IT? I DON'T THINK THEY GOT IT. LET'S REPEAT IT TWENTY MORE TIMES. BUT Y'KNOW, BE SUBTLE ABOUT IT.

but to answer my own question yes that seems to be key art from the new production, not repurposed fanart or the like.

[Sildani]

If so, the Major looks a bit... whimsical. Hm. I can buy Kusanagi as angry, driven, philosophical, contemplative, encouraging, distant, and, yes, happy, even laughing. 

But whimsy isn’t a word I’d ever associate with her. Might be the pink light. 

[JetJockey]

I was going to post about this but with these guys working on both the Blade Runner anime and this, who knows which one will be first.

[UN Spacy]

 

[electric indigo]

Aramaki still holds on to the CGI approach that didn't work too well in Appleseed, only with cheaper models? I was hoping this would lean more towards Production I.G.'s "Black Out 2022".

[peter]

The voice didn't seem to match the face.  I pictured that voice to go with someone who appeared a bit older.  Yeah, I know, not her real body, but that 5 seconds took me right out of it.  Not knocking the voice, but would have preferred her to appear older.  

Maybe I just prefer cougars.

[M'Kyuun]

As trailers go, a bit lackluster, both in terms of the CG appearance, but also the action. I don't think anything will ever eclipse the iconic scene of her falling backwards off of the building in the original, but I think they could have come up with something a little more exciting than just stopping a dune buggy on a deserted road in some tropical location. Yawn. As far as the voice, the 'youthful' quality doesn't really bother me, as I'm unfamiliar with the original Japanese VA's voice (I generally choose dubbed anime, as I don't speak Japanese, and I'd rather spend time looking at all the visuals than reading. I realize that's anathema to some, but to each his own). Regardless, I thought Mary McGlynn was a good choice for the character, as there's a maturity to her voice that I found fitting. Anyway, the character is a cyborg, and so the pitch of her voice can likely be changed at a whim depending on the Major's sensibilities. In the original, after Batou transfers her ghost into the young girl cyborg body, she begins speaking in the young girl's voice but eventually modulates it to her adult voice. So as long as the voice sounds somewhere between 18 -30ish, I think it's fine.  I think the cheap CG look is more of an issue, but I can understand budgets and such. I don't think this is perhaps the best piece of footage to judge the show by.  

IMHO, the SAC series is a hard one to beat in terms of storytelling, art, the characterization, the whole shebang, if you will. It was an excellent series, and a tough one to better. I hope the new series can at least rival it on equal terms, in at least the writing, if no where else.

[TangledThorns]

I really hate CGI in anime as it looks like crap or ages badly. Some cel shaded anime works but only if done right.

[505thAirborne]

I still like the original movie & this scene. 

[jenius]

11 hours ago, UN Spacy said:

 

It's a teaser, so it doesn't impact my intention to watch it... but wow that was awful.

[Bolt]

Pretty Meh..the golden age of anime is behind us..

[Gerli]

Let's see if the Story is good... the visuals alone don't tell me much. 

[vladykins]

If they dub, hopefully MGlynn does it.

[kajnrig]

That is some prime SFM r34 material, though.

[TangledThorns]

Re-watched the teaser, would it kill their budget to add some tire smoke when the vehicle skidded to a stop? Cheap cheap!!

[Dynaman]

Watching a car coming to a stop - an Ed Wood masterpiece!  The CGI still looks bad, when actually animated it looks fine though.

[hachi]

CG doesn't look that good for me. I'm vastly lowering expectations for this especially the visuals, and I fear for the story/actual content.

[M'Kyuun]

I think it's a bit early to flush the show down the proverbial toilet without at least having seen a finished episode whereby to gauge the animation, writing, voice acting, etc. They've got Kamiyama and Aramaki on board, and production IG is involved, so I wouldn't write it off just yet. As trailers go, this one is pretty poor, especially for this universe, but I'm hoping something a little more in line with what we've seen in the past will emerge to really whet the appetite for the series.

On 10/23/2019 at 10:06 AM, 505thAirborne said:

I still like the original movie & this scene. 

Totally agree- great scene. I always loved the scene in the middle where they show all the reflections in the bus windows- it blew me away the first time I watched the original movie, as that was some of the most amazing animation I'd ever seen up to that point. Kenji Kawai's haunting music throughout that scene still gives me goosebumps. The original film is a classic for good reason.

[hachi]

I wasn't really impressed with the live-action movie so of course I wonder how this being made with Netflix will influence the final product. And then this trailer comes out that looks like a video game instead of anime (doesn't look cyberpunk to me). Right or wrong, my initial reaction would not be so positive. I'd like to be proven wrong, but the story has to be really good...

Speaking of Kenji Kawai, here's a mini-feature from tocotoco (now Archipel) Youtube channel. Advance apologies if this has been posted already.

 

[M'Kyuun]

Seems like a very down-to-earth guy, absolutely exuding Japanese humility. I find it interesting that, despite his success, he chooses to remain in his hometown. However, he seems like a bit of an introvert, and home is where he finds comfort. I'm very much a homebody, and I've found my bit of peace here in a small town in WA, so I can empathize. Very pleasant vid of a truly talented fellow.

The ondo voices and taiko combination from GitS  is now iconic- funny how they weren't sure about it during the production. But, then again, Spielberg was uncertain of a two-note bit in a score for a big toothy fish film he did back in the 70's. John Williams had to convince him, and the rest, as we say, is history. 

Man, I wish we had a yakatori stand like that here in my town- YUM!

[vladykins]

The only thing good to come out of the LAM version was seeing Kenji Kawai's live performance for the premier.

[M'Kyuun]

Like most, I felt the LAM was a bit disappointing. But, I don't think it was entirely horrible. I liked the callbacks to the original animated film, and I think the overall look of the film was pretty close.  

Some things that bugged me were:

 Using 'Major' as a name rather than a rank- made me cringe every time.

Changing her origin- I've grown attached to the back story they created for her in SAC, and I wish they'd stuck to that.

Her brain is organic- No, just no. Full cyborg with a cyberbrain that is also manufactured. As she said in the original, the govt pretty much owns her, and her other cyborg comrades, until they can pay off the hardware. I realize they were trying to humanize her for the film, but I think they should have stayed true to the original character in this regard.

Too much focus on the major and her journey of self-discovery. I think a bit of exposition to give the audience an idea of who these people are, either through dialog, or discoveries along the way through, gasp, storytelling, would have proved a better way of introduction into the world. Meanwhile, as in the original and SAC, we see Section 9 doing what they do as a special ops team. And throw in a Tachikoma for good measure.

As for whitewashing, the fact that she's a cyborg and her features aren't necessarily, like most anime, Asian, I'm not really bothered that they hired Scarlett. I think she did a decent job with what she was given.  What, again, took me out of the experience was having a single Japanese speaker among an otherwise all English speaking cast. I don't object at all to having a Japanese actor, but I think it's odd when one character speaks a different language from everyone else, and even odder when everyone understands him and he understands everyone else, but no one speaks to him, even a little, in his native tongue. There's a disconnect there that doesn't gel with me. Rooster Teeth did the same thing in their current show Gen-lock, where there's one Japanese speaker among an entirely English speaking cast, and yet everyone understands him and he understands everyone else. It's a bit far removed from my reality, so I struggle with it. Maybe in the future, we all become expert linguists.

Anyway, the LAM wasn't the film I or most hoped for, but I think it's far from the worst anime based film out there. there are enough callbacks from the original film that I like, but my list of bothersome things gets in the way of my really enjoying it. I think Battle Angel did a far better job, but then Cameron, and Rodriguez by default, were quite steeped in the manga to inform the story and look of the film, and I found it to be enjoyable and infinitely rewatchable. I hope it gets a sequel. As for the new toon, I hope they recapture what made the original film and the SAC series so good- Excellent writing with a dash of requisite philosophy thrown in, good VA's to bring out the humanity in these intriguing characters, and visuals that push boundaries in creating the world these people inhabit. The trailer fails in these regards, but again, it's only a trailer. I'll reserve judgement until we're  a few eps in.

Edited October 25, 2019 by M'Kyuun

[vladykins]

And hopefully it has Tachikomatic Days. The surreal humor after a serious episode was always awesome.

[UN Spacy]

Coming April 2020...OG Voice cast is back too. 
 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by UN Spacy

[camk4evr]

On 10/25/2019 at 10:40 AM, M'Kyuun said:

Her brain is organic- No, just no. Full cyborg with a cyberbrain that is also manufactured. As she said in the original, the govt pretty much owns her, and her other cyborg comrades, until they can pay off the hardware. I realize they were trying to humanize her for the film, but I think they should have stayed true to the original character in this regard.

 

Just thought I should point out that Kusanagi's brain was always organic. The cyberbrain is an implant that interfaces with her brain, cybernetics, the ports in her neck etc. Even the almost 100% organic human, Togusa has a cyberbrain (the cyberbrain and it's related connections and ports are his only cybernetics)

[hachi]

I have faith in the directors so I'll forgive the CGI as long as the story is good. The bodies feels like 1 or 2 steps above Gundam MS Igloo lol. That said, this makes the first 2 animated movies even more special if all we are getting from now on will be in CGI.

[anime52k8]

That would have been pretty cool if not for the crap CGI.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Yeah, this looks cruddy compared to the older SAC series.

[Dynaman]

I'll give it a watch.  The only problem I have is the ultra close-ups on the action sequences.  I'm getting old and I don't like them.  Just cause you can do a thing doesn't mean you should.

[kajnrig]

Eh. CGI looks fine. As a relatively new convert to the GitS, I'm down for more.