NETFLIX’S GHOST IN THE SHELL: SAC-2045 12 EPISODES) Ralph Mercer

NETFLIX’S GHOST IN THE SHELL: SAC-2045 (12 EPISODES)

A Film Review

By Ralph Mercer

NETFLIX’S anime series Ghost in the Shell: SAC-20451 deals primarily with the concepts of sustainable Wars and PostHumans in a futures world. The original Japanese manga series was written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow2, which resulted in several classic Ghost in the Shell movies and TV series.

The name is a nod to philosopher Arthur Koestler’s 1967 book The Ghost in the Machine, which explores the nature of consciousness and mind body-dualism. However, in Shirow’s work, this concept is seen through the lens of a post-cyberpunk possible future, where computer technology has advanced so that people can possess cyberbrains, which allows them to interface their biological brain with the internet and each other.

The Ghost in the Shell: SAC-2045 series presents a future world where nations (the USA and others) have collaborated to create a “sustainable war” as an industry to boost the global economy. The unintended secondary effects resulted in “the Global Simultaneous Default”, where all real or virtual currency became worthless. The international order fragmented into hostile regional groups, where terrorism is rampant, and the divide between the have and the have-nots becoming greater than ever. In this society, people mortgaged their organs and personal brain space for cyborg implants, complete with popup ads and commercials.

Against this backdrop, SAC-2045 introduces the premise of the post-human, invoking imagery of technological singularity where humanity’s fascination with artificial intelligence and transhumanism unintentionally merge to create an all-powerful being, complete with humanism’s disdain for lower life forms. The result is post-humans attempting to disrupt an already dystopian society for their own needs.

However, it is worth watching to see how different mediums and worldviews approach technology and human relations in an Anthropocene world. SAC-2045 is animated using 3D CG which is poorly done, with the characters becoming more action figures than anime, with limited facial expressions. Sadly there is little left from Shirow’s original illustrations that were vibrant, full of energy and mood to carry the anime to a cult status level. Nevertheless, Ghost in the Shell is an indelible exploration into how we think about our technologically mediated and interconnected lives. My advice if you wish to watch more of the Ghost in the Shell is to ignore the live character movie3 and look for the original anime versions, and I recommend starting with the ‘stand-alone complex’.

Contact at mercer.ralph@gmail.com

NOTES:

title/81030224 2 https://manga.fandom.com/wiki/Masamune_Shirow 3 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/