Contemporary anime seems to be struggling between its tradition, the new proposals, and the interest in giving life to franchises that have already given their best. happens with dragon ballfor example, also with other stories such as Knights of the Zodiac. They are narratives that, due to commercial interests, have mutated into productions that ridicule them or pervert their legacy. Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045available in Netflixtake that risk.
The examples mentioned are not the only ones. From a commercial perspective to the most addictive sense of readers and followers, it is understood that the stories that marked an era endure. There is a captive fan base, another that can be attracted and some material to exploit new aspects or drag out the ones that have already been covered. What appears to be a win-win ends up saturating those franchises, prisoners of their past and without the ability to reinvent themselves in a worthy way.
Ghost in the Shell is one of those franchises that for many years have managed to compose their own universe, expanded to different formats, with commercial success and in some cases critical acclaim. In this context, revisiting it is a temptation that, at least in the Netflix series, is not entirely successful; even, it is not ruled out that the most faithful followers are encouraged to question it harshly, until reaching a moving season finale rich in philosophical key.
depth of Ghost in the Shell
After Ghost in the Shell: Sustainable Warfarea compilation of the first season, including animation improvements, the second season of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 once again offers an evolution in terms of its staging. The anime continues to evoke the aesthetics of different console games, even relying on narrative resources from those formats to draw the viewer into the story during moments of action.
The success makes possible the composition of a dynamic story, with jumps between the different realities, something key in the story. Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 describes a reality in which human beings are in constant dialogue with artificial intelligence, to the point of being able to merge with her. The existence of posthumans can be interpreted as a nod to the future: in a few years, emotions will be controlled to such an extent that there will only be beings capable of executing and reasoning without paying attention to different issues.
Is this the essence of this anime? Can it be understood as a veiled critique of a digital reality that is increasingly latent within the consumption habits and relationships that humanity sustains? Seen from that perspective, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 remains faithful to the potential of its first contents. By holding female characters as the axes of his speech, it can also be understood as a nod to the present; when you remember that from its essence it was like that, you have to look at it from another point of view, one in which it could have led an avant-garde in terms of gender and representation.
Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045
Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 does not do justice to the tradition that this anime has, from the manga to other adaptations of the past. Its complexity is not fully exploited and its action scenes are not entirely convincing either. However, the second season of this story offers an ending with a philosophical and poetic power that alleviates several issues. The design and animation, relative to the first season, continues to improve. As below, it works.
Warning, spoilers ahead!
The tension between realities
and the poetic closing
Through twelve chapters, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 It advances steadily towards its final discovery: the exploitation of the double reality, that departure from the previous argument: humanity struggles between two planes, the one inside the mobile and the one on the sidewalk. Motoko Kusanagithe Major, the protagonist of the story, struggles with the different pulses that occur between one element and another.
A key detail within the second season of the anime is that a criticism of the United States, as master and lord of data and information gathering, is launched. In its own way, the story poses him as an enemy within this dual context. so is Purin Ezaki, a character who is presented as someone tender and noble and ends up perverted along the way, as part of that clash between realities that the story raises. The ending of her, acknowledging emotions and opening to cry, conjures part of the story of the series: behind every machine and reality, there is a mind that she felt.
As if this degree of poetics were not enough, there is the last dialogue of Motoko Kusanagi, who says: “Never forget that we exist in this age”. tells it to Batouwhile she jumps into the void. The friends of the story separate, without resentment, fearing that they will not recognize each other in another reality. But leaving the message clear: the important thing is not what has happened or what will come, but to be aware of the present moment.