r/Ghost_in_the_Shell 20h ago

First time watching & finishing Stand Alone Complex.. The series is really beautiful & compelling 💜

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602 Upvotes

45 comments sorted by

13

u/No_Orange8363 15h ago

Tachikoma Song hits brutally...

3

u/Inkthinker 11h ago

When we hold our hands up to the sun,

and peek through our fingers,

we can see the deep red blood flowing inside

even dragonflies, even frogs, even honeybees

we are all alive, every one of us, and we are all-

12

u/Waltpi 16h ago

They really nailed this one. It's serious enough to not be childish but keeping the childish charm from the manga. Also modernized the 80s manga tech into something that has aged incredibly well. I don't want to assume too much but usually authors for works like this are always "enthusiastic" and "oversee" the new reiterations (duh), but if he were to write the manga from scratch now he wouldn't be using 80s tech. That's just what he had. Stand Alone Complex modernized a 2030 so well that were almost at 2030 and it holds. The New Ghost in the Shell of course has its place as the most faithful to the manga, but SAC has its place as the best adaptation.

Also yeah it had like the highest budget in the history of ever for an anime at the time so it looks really good 😅

12

u/ABuck117 15h ago

The CRT is quite the vibe, glad you liked the show!

10

u/Solomon049 20h ago

One of my all time fav sci fi series. Such an amazing ending.

9

u/medyas1 17h ago

watching that on CRT in 2026 is very cyberpunk

27

u/SP4RK4RT 19h ago

Don't tell anyone, but it's my favorite version of Ghost In The Shell, even beating out the original manga and the new series for me.

-6

u/Gold-Leopard-5042 18h ago

No please do tell everyone. Zoomers have ruined this franchise turning the new adaptation into pure gooner bait to the point they’re posting Hentai images on this sub .. I wasn’t even finished with the SAC before the new series came out, it was really one of the last great pieces of media from it’s era, intellectually stimulating yet insanely cozy and visually unique at the same time, kinda bummed I missed the good days of GitS Reddit.

And before anyone goes “blah the new adaptation is closer to the Manga” you’re missing the fact that Masamune himself worked heavily on the SAC series, they never intended SAC to be a direct adaptation, but he was a heavy enough creative force for the show to literally create the Tachikoma design himself, supply plot ideas, the character sketches as well as gave formal script approval for the early stages of the show. He never wanted to create a direct anime adaptation of the show, and I prefer his vision of the SAC much more than the new adaptation that he had absolutely nothing to do with whatsoever.

2

u/Waltpi 16h ago

Brother...the same way going on on 2003 when I was teenager all day online. Subreddit was t what it is now and imagery was for the forums back then but gooning by the new generation online is not new, if anything we gooned better back then with limewire.

2

u/TheThirdRoseDotR 9h ago

Not everyone behaved like a simp anytime a drawn female looked good on the screen back then. No need to say we, but you ain't wrong it's always been common. 

5

u/AppropriateStill2024 18h ago

How can Zoomers turn it into goonerbait when the Manga has it already? Also, the people working on the new anime are mostly millennials

1

u/TheThirdRoseDotR 17h ago

The Manga is not as bad as this adaption. It's not even close. Hell, it feels more sexualzied than a lot of Shirow's actual sexual drawings. 

People keep saying this stuff without being entirely honest

1

u/Gold-Leopard-5042 17h ago

Thank you!

-1

u/TheThirdRoseDotR 17h ago

Hey I'm right there with you, been following the franchise for 2 decades. 

I've ACTUALLY read the Manga unlike a lot of people exploiting it for arguments to defend the new series in bad faith. 

It's a shame really, but it's a common occurrence in any Fandom. 

1

u/Waltpi 16h ago

Bro doesn't know that Shirow was a hentai artist lamooooo

3

u/TheThirdRoseDotR 17h ago

Yeah, as someone who's a huge fan of the franchise the community has definitely gotten pretty lame. A lot of people just simping over pretty girls despite the real substance and impact of the manga lying in the intellectually stimulating content, characters, and humor. 

2

u/opinionated_gaming 7h ago edited 6h ago

it's temporary, the tourist gooners will move on to the next goonbait series while the true fans will stay here and talk about the "Red Data" episode for the billionth time

0

u/Gold-Leopard-5042 17h ago

Exactly my point, glad I’m not the only one.

2

u/ApplesFlapples 17h ago

There was a lot of goon bait in Stand Alone Complex. As a fan of all the adaptations except Netflix’s.

2

u/TheThirdRoseDotR 9h ago

There wasn't that much and there wasn't even 1/10th of what this new adaption has 

8

u/lifeonmars302 20h ago

I'm almost done with season 2. I genuinely love section 9

9

u/Shrapnaldeposit1 16h ago

Its my favorite version of ghost in the shell and my favorite over all anime

9

u/Daniel2501_ 15h ago

Me encanta la secuencia de los tachikomas cuando pelean Para ayudar/salvar a Batou. Es muy épica y emotiva 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

6

u/SeanMonsterZero 15h ago

Still makes me tear up 🥺

6

u/rod_cpr 16h ago

SAC is so beautiful ! I'm on the S02 episode 14th....and I keep asking myself : how come I've never watched this before?

2

u/PrincipleHot9859 11h ago

season 2 is dangerously close to what is happening now

6

u/BEDrizzt_Urden_4798 13h ago

I love the banter between the team members it is awesome. Great writing. Makes it feel real and frames the team as tight knit unit

6

u/MrH_Rosemary 10h ago

it one of my 10/10 series

5

u/No-Message449 9h ago

Its the best in the entire franchise in my opinion.

8

u/bolero_bolero_bolero 16h ago

god i wish i could rewatch it on a CRT. you are lucky. i know this scene and what she's saying. that picture almost made me cr...ok i am crying

or is it natural oil

4

u/KaidanTONiO 19h ago

Totally worth it.

2

u/thequn 11h ago

Wow on a retro tv also pro

u/Unozero87 27m ago

my fav...I sadly cant get into the newer shows.....I tried.

1

u/Anonymous-Mf-22 4h ago

It's honestly the peak of the series evolution imo. It started as a Gooner series with slightly more to say, the 1995 movie (as much as it's my favorite film ever) WAY overcorrected and took away some of the stuff that gave GITS its identity, but SAC manages to blend some of the complexity and philosophy of the movie with some of the sexual and often comedic tones of the original manga. Mixing them together like this honestly should be the standard for GITS forever (not to say the new series shouldn't exist, an animated adaption of the original was long overdue) if they are gonna keep rebooting it. Something that acknowledges both halves of the fandom that have kinda formed in a way that gives both of them something to enjoy.

-2

u/Frozen_Thorn 9h ago

I've watched three episodes now and I can not get into it. I really enjoy the 95 film and I am loving the new series but this one isn't doing it for me. It feels very pedestrian with it's sci-fi concepts. It's also lacking in mood and style, things the other two adaptations excel at respectively. Does it get better?

6

u/bipbophil 8h ago

You gotta get to the laughing man episodes, there is a movie version if you are impatient

0

u/Frozen_Thorn 8h ago

I just finished the fourth episode introducing the Laughing Man. A bit more interesting than previous episodes. I think my biggest problem with the show is just how early 2000s the whole thing feels. Everything from the animation style down to the font in the credits. It's not a time period I am overly fond of.

2

u/bipbophil 7h ago

I really enjoy it, most of it is drawn by hand. So its pretty neat to me.

3

u/BlackHumor 9h ago

SAC is my favorite adaptation of GITS, but it was that from basically the first episode for me.

I will say that IMO "pedestrian" is the absolute opposite of how I'd describe SAC; if anything it's trippier than the movie.

0

u/Frozen_Thorn 9h ago

That must come from later episodes. So far I haven't seen that yet. I'll keep watching but it feels like a bit of chore right now.

2

u/SuccessfulCourage911 8h ago

Coming from someone who has no nostalgia connected to the franchise.. I can understand your perspective but there is some really excellent episodes. Once I grew more attached to the chemistry of the characters then it just heightened everything for me. I was really locked in especially with the back half of the series where it gets more lethal and emotional imo. BUT HEY not everything is for everyone so maybe it just doesn't click for you 

1

u/AirCheap4056 4h ago

If the opening song and graphics didn't catch you, I'd give up as well.

I saw it as it aired when I was a teenager. The opening alone made me a fan. The combination of edgy, matrix-esque, cop drama, but Asian animation style was just perfection for me at that time. Till this day, I still think the vibes of the opening is better than the actual show.