I watched the first episode of GITS: 2045 the anime series. I’m not sure if I’ll watch the rest of the first season, having just watched the movie edit, but I think I’ll stay around for season two. It is interesting picking up on what the film left out, like the scene in Palm Springs when Batou pats the Tachikoma on the head and basically calls it a ‘good boy’. I liked that (love them Tachikomas). Disappointingly, they’ve changed the end credit sequence, which used to feature some dynamic shots of the cast looking very spiffy, especially Togusa and Batou. Oh well.
I watched the second ep of GITS 2045. This featured the long and exciting sequence where Motoko and the gang try to stop a weaponized drone from destroying the house of a ‘one-percenter’ it has targeted. For all her heroics, Motoko fails to stop the drone through the ludicrous detail of not neutralizing its weapon system, which she seems to have forgotten about. It’s a rare clunky detail in an otherwise tight show. I’m going to skip over the rest of this season, which I saw in the edited film version recently, and dig into season two.
I watched the first episode of season 2 of Ghost in the Shell 22045 on Netflix. Major Motoko and Section 9 seek out a Russian national called Kukushkin who seems to know a lot about the post-humans introduced in season one. Their trail leads them to one such very dangerous post-human who wants the Russian, a woman called Suzuka. Purin features in this episode helping Batou track down the Russian. There’s a strange exchange between them where Purin seems to suggest they both ‘stay’ the night at the swish hotel they’re investigating and Batou accuses her of sexual harassment. C’mon, lighten up, big guy! Anyway, they find Kukushkin now hiding in the body of a robo servant called Ginger. At this point Suzuka appears and the fight is on for custody of Ginger. This was a fun episode highlighting some good detective work from Purin and setting us up for the rest of the series. The only negative I could see was the Tachikomas weren’t featured. The end credits now are the ones I remember with the cast looking spiffy. I thought they were used in the first season, but no, it’s the second season. Yay!
I watched the second ep of GITS 2045 season two. After Motoko and Section 9 throw their best at Suzuka, the post-human woman, she still gets away in spectacular fashion (calls down an airplane to attack Purin and the Tachikomas she’s enlisted to fight her).
I watched the third ep of Ghost In the Shell 2045. Purin was featured a bit in this one. Motoko revealed she suspected Purin was a post-human, an interesting development. There was a nice scene of Purin questioning the AI that had orchestrated the whole Sustainable War idea and from which came the post-humans. At the end of the ep Purin seems to get killed by the President’s bodyguards, which kinda sucks. I’m sure she returns, because I saw it the first time around, but I forget how this was achieved.
Watched the fourth ep of GITS 2045 season two. Following on from the last ep, it seems Purin’s actions in attacking the President’s security guy was to stop him from assassinating the President. So she dies a hero, of sorts. Later, some of the fabulous Tachikomas, upset at the death of their leader, do an investigation into her death and her past, and come up with a way to resurrect her.
I watched two more episodes of Ghost In the Shell 2045 season two. This was eps 6 and 7. Togusa has been found in a Tokyo under reconstruction and Batou, Saito and the Tachikomas join him there. A new influx of refugees and fanatics calling themselves ‘N’ seem to be converging there as well. Meanwhile, Purin has reawakened in a new body and spends half the episode completely naked as she works out what’s happening and comes to terms with the fact that she died.
Watched episode 8 of GITS 4045. Section 9 do a lot of reconnaissance around that new city and uncover some info about the posthumans, like they need 15 minutes of sleep each day. It’s leading up to something that reveals their nefarious plans, but I still don’t know or remember what. I don’t love the 1984 references.
Watched episode ten of GITS 2045. The action seems to be stuck in this one setting on a new highway building site. The boy posthuman Shimamura hands the trigger for a nuclear bomb to the thousands of protesters who make up N, which now includes Togusa and Batou. A volatile mix, indeed. But why? Most disturbing, one of the tachikomas is hacked by the posthuman and now follows his every command. It feels wrong.
Watched last two eps of GITS 2045. Both were very good, especially the second last one where all the threads came together. There’s a time shift with the last episode, where Kusanagi has a choice to change the reality of things and seems to do so. There seems to be some Matrix-like body capture happening here. Can’t say I understood all the threads going on, so won’t discuss it, only to say I really need to re-watch these last few eps. It ends where the original manga ended, with Motoko saying to Batou: ‘the web is vast’.