Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society - RePost

Ghost in the Shell:Solid State Society follows the story line from both seasons of the Stand Alone Complex TV series. It takes place 2 years after the 2nd Gig ended, with Section 9's ranks swelling and the Major retired. Their investigation starts with members of an ousted despots body guards committing suicide one after another. It starts off with a hostage incident at an airport. One of the ousted generalissimos men is the culprit. When Section 9 shows up to end the situation the suspect starts mumbling about someone called The Puppeteer, then commits suicide. The team begins to find the so-called Puppeteer leading them down a perilous and convoluted path. Through physical and cybernetic dangers, political secrets and a large amount of forced orphans they track down the culprit(s) and try to put an end to it with as little loss as possible. The investigation has them crossing paths with Motoko, who is doing an investigation on the Puppeteer as well.

    The art is like the TV series' if only slightly better. The music is the usual fair and the story is well done, with plenty of guessing and a conclusion that still leaves a few unanswered questions. The one thing I have always been bothered by the Ghost in the Shell series is how quickly and conveniently the cases end. The bulk of the story is the characters being lead around by the nose, sometimes chasing paper tigers, yet becoming aware of the situation a little too neatly in the end. Each resolution seems to be forced without really being an airtight case…not that I really care…but I have watched so many damn crime drama's that I need a little more circumstantial evidence in convictions. The series always seems to bring the investigation right up till the vary end of the story then quickly solve the case they have been working so hard on…the third movie is no exception. All of a sudden they know who the culprit is, yet there was little in the way of clues for the viewer to pick up on and build their own answers with. I think that's my one problem…you watch mysteries to try and figure out 'who dun it' but it always seems this series doesn't really provide the viewer with that ability.

    Togusa replaces the Major as the head of the investigation and the rest of the original members play the roles they have always played. The new recruits are little more than bodies filling in the background. It is always the original team members up in the front lines doing everything…hell the newer members weren't even involved in the climax of the story. What would be nice is to take this into a third TV series and develop some of the recruits, truly expand the world of the series. What might be another cool idea would be to do more in-depth stories on the characters histories. That's another thing that cyberpunk always seems to lack, fleshing out the traumatic past. In a lot of cyberpunk worlds there is always a great devastating cybernetic war that takes place…usually making hardened, experience merc characters which end up becoming main characters in the stories. GITS is no exception, they did do one episode in 2nd Gig, showing some of the members when they were in a special forces unit. It would be nice to do more of that. Hell, Image comics came out with the series Team 7 to explain the military history of many of it's main super hero characters. Something more like that for GITS would be welcome and would provide a change of pace from the usual story lines in the series.

    In conclusion, I have always been a big fan of the franchise and the 3rd movie is no exception. So if you have enjoyed the TV series' check this…we can all hope for a 3rd installment of the TV series, followed by more movies.