Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society

A.D. 2034. It has been two years since Motoko Kusanagi left Section 9. Togusa is now the new leader of the team, that has considerably increased its appointed personnel. The expanded new Section 9 confronts a rash of complicated incidents, and investigations reveal that an ultra-wizard hacker named the Puppeteer is behind the entire series of events.

In the midst of all, Batou, who was stalking the case on a separate track, encounters Motoko. She goes away after saying, "Stay away from the Solid State Society." Batou is left with a doubt in his mind. Could Motoko be the Puppeteer?

The series of intriguing incidents that Section 9 faces gradually link together almost artistically. Who is the Puppeteer? What will happen to Batou's relationship with Motoko? What is the full truth behind this carefully planned perfect crime? And what will the outcome be? Mysteries surround the Solid State Society...

(Source: Production I.G.)

Kusanagi, Motoko Main

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Batou Main

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Togusa Main

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Aramaki, Daisuke Main

Saka, Osamu Japanese

Tachikoma Supporting

Tamagawa, Sakiko Japanese

Saito Supporting

Ookawa, Tooru Japanese

Ishikawa Supporting

Nakano, Yutaka Japanese

Pazu Supporting

Onozuka, Takashi Japanese

Borma Supporting

Yamaguchi, Tarou Japanese

Kayabuki, Youko Supporting

Sakakibara, Yoshiko Japanese

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Sasaki, Shirou Producer

Kunisaki, Hisanori Producer

Nishimura, Tomoyasu Producer

Reviews

Dec 18, 2017

LegionWrex

Recommended

Ghost in the Shell has gone under different iterations and versions over the years, and probably one of the most popular versions is Stand Alone Complex. Unlike the Oshii films, this version focuses less on philosophy and existentialism and more on the political and social implications that come from cyberization and technology. The two seasons that aired are probably some of the best in the entire franchise - they're smart, sophisticated, and highly engaging sci-fi that rank among the best of the genre.

And this is where Solid State Society comes in. And while it doesn't reach the heights of it's TV show, it's still damn ... good and presents interesting moral dilemmas and questions that carry over from said show. It's very much an extension of this universe.

Set in 2034, two years after the events of the second season, The Major (Atsuko Tanaka/Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) has left Section 9 and Togusa (Koichi Yamadera/Crispin Freeman) is the new head. After a string of suicides related to Siak agents, they come across the mystery of the Puppeteer, a master hacker who connections to the mysterious Solid State Society.

The storyline of the film is very reminiscent of the original film, and even takes elements from it's sequel Innocence - hell, in some ways it might even be attempting to remake these films as part of the Stand Alone Complex continuity. The constant references are hit or miss, while sometimes they work, like in the case of the final conversation between The Major and the Puppeteer, some feel incredibly forced, especially the final line of the film, which is lifted straight from the original but lacks the same weight.

Thankfully, the film doesn't dwell on that stuff too long and instead focuses on what the series did well - politics and technobabble. The story is dense, and immensely fascinating, weaving an intricate web of deception, corruption, and mystery that fit in the world of Ghost in the Shell extremely well. It's very much more of a police procedural then a cyberpunk noir, which actually benefits it in creating it's own mood as opposed to copying more from the original.

As Solid State Society is a TV movie, the animation here is slightly of a lesser quality then a lot of theatrical releases, however for something on TV it's incredibly impressive and one of the strongest aspects of the film. From it's well integrated CG that never feels out of place to it's fluid and well lit action sequences, the film looks great throughout. The only real complaint is the lack of movement during dialogue sequences, although this can be excused due to the fact that it's a TV movie.

Voice acting is fantastic in both languages, across the board. Richard Epcar as Batou in particular gives a reserved, almost cold performance, very much an extension of the development his character went through back in the show. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is the definitive Major, and shows her wide acting chops here. Overall, damn good English dub along with a great Japanese voice track was well.

Yoko Kanno composed the music for the film and, well, it's Yoko Kanno. She's an absolute genius, and this film only cements that fact. It's an intense, captivating score that fits the film to a tee. It's also nice to see that the film, while using some songs from the original show, is mostly using newly composed music that retains the feel of the original, something that is extremely hard to pull off.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society is a damn good film, although it may be inaccessible to those unfamiliar with the franchise. Nevertheless, it is a engaging, well animated tale of political deception that will surely engross those who pay attention.

I give Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society an 8 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 6, 2017

LaLeLuLiLo

Recommended

Solid State society is a continuation of the Stand Alone complex series after second Gig. Although it has the runtime of an average movie,it’s actually a special that serves as a sequel or epilogue to the Stand alone complex series.

The story takes place 2 years after the events of second gig, with Motoko leaving section 9 during that time. Since then togusa has become Motoko's replacement, and section 9 as a whole has grown substantially, with more personnel working for them. Section 9 still continues to do its work, and this time it’s investigating a string of suicides from people of a foreign country. This ... of course leads to a larger scheme about child abduction to be unveiled, and section 9 crosses pass with Motoko who is somehow involved in all of this.

The story really does start off quickly, with the special assuming that you already have watched the last two seasons. It plays itself like if it were the complex part of the show, starting off rather “small” with a case and going through procedures, clues, hints, and leads to figure out how it all comes together. However since the special is rather cut for time, it tries to rush things along with its story. it becomes rather fast paced with a lot to take in as there are 2 separate storylines while they are connected, they don’t really come together until about halfway through. The show also has quite a bit more exposition and heavy monologue which is sometimes important to the story, and missing one sentence may make you not understand what's going on.
There’s also this odd bridge when the case leads from the string of suicides; to the massive kidnappings that have been occurring. The connection is clearly there, but because it wasn’t executed that well, it just doesn’t make that clear jump from one part of the case to another.
Another thing worth pointing out was the subject of the stand alone complex that is a subject within the SAC series. Since a stand alone complex within the show are when unrelated, but similar actions by individuals create a seemingly connected effort. This was true in the first season with many copycats of the laughing man, but with none of them having any affiliation with each other. Also to a lesser extent with Second Gig, with people doing terrorist activities under the guise of one organization even if they have no ties with each other. However with SSS i don’t really see the Stand Alone Complex since everything is related to each other within the grander scheme of things, with one person heavy handedly manipulating the situation.
However the special does pretty well with telling stories with each of the scenes, and many of them have become instant favorites within the franchise. It’s just as a whole it doesn’t really hold up that well to the other two. I believe it would have done better if it went through the same treatment as the last two, as it would have given it more time to clear things out.

Just like the story, the special assumes that you have already the previous two seasons before delving into this one. The characters remain mostly the same as before. Togusa is the new field commander and has become more of a hardass because of it, but he still retains many of the core aspects that he had before. Everyone else feels remotely the same as before, but that might be because some of them didn’t have enough screen time. Even though there are more members in section 9 now, none of them are ever introduced, but i guess there was no point on focusing on them. There’s very little to no character development, but just like the previous shows the characters are established enough to not need it. I believe that there was supposed to be an antagonist in the special, but since his introduction and demise is so abrupt i’m just left wondering what was the point of him. Also togusa’s daughter has screen time, and it’s the most adorable thing.

The quality of animation/art is still kind of on par with the other two shows. The character designs still looks as good, and there have been changes to some of them although it’s mostly subtle. The background designs still look as good. The animation is still as fluid as before, and with some good directing makes it look really good. However there seems to be a small downgrade with the Cgi when it comes to the more mechanical designs of the cars and spider tanks, as they don’t really blend in with the show as they use to.

the voice acting is still as good as before, and there’s not much i can say about it. The soundtrack has a mix of soundtracks from the previous two shows with maybe some new ones of their own. Although used rather sparsely throughout the film, they are rather effective within their respective scenes. However very few were able to invoke the atmosphere or tension that the previous seasons were able to so, but they still are able to do a good job trying and somewhat succeeding.

Overall it was a good enough special for the series that brought a lot of what made the shows great, but not enough time to do them quite right. Maybe it could have been better if it got the same treatment as the previous two, but it is still good as it is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 30, 2022

Civilwarfare101

Mixed Feelings

This has always been the point for me where Ghost in the Shell as a franchise started to go downhill. I enjoy the 1995 movie, I enjoy Innocence and both seasons of Stand Alone Complex, but every time I come to this movie, I always sturggle to make it through to the end.

There's a number of issues I have with this movie but let's start with the first. Solid State Society is basically a Ghost in the Shell "greatest hits" of sorts. The movie combines aspects of the 1995 movie, Innocence, and the first season of SAC. The 1995 movie in that the antagonist ... is called the "Puppeteer"(not Pupper Master) who seems to be an all knowing AI. Innocence with the kidnapped children and Motoko Kusanagi leaving Section 9. The first season of SAC in that the "Puppeteer" is a also a hacker along with sort of being an AI. It also has the visuals and music of SAC. My problem with this is that this movie doesn't really have any original ideas of it's own, and as a result feels like someone got a collection of past GITS concepts and rolled them into one movie. The live action movie would funnily enough make the same mistakes to a much greater degree but that is besides the point. I just find it strange that Kamiyama would even do something like this considering the fact that SAC S1 and 2nd Gig do a great job at breathing new life into GITS. Now it feels like he is apping off Oshii and himself.

Now the second issue, the fact that the movie timeskips two years after 2nd Gig and as a result, characters are changed in ways that don't feel natural or just feel like...and I hate using this term, "character rewrites". To name examples, Motoko becomes disillusioned with Section 9 and conducts her own investigations, Togusa is the leader of Section 9, the Fujikomas are incompetent, Aramaki is worried about Section 9's future, Togusa becomes cyberized, Batou only getting involved in cases that he finds interesting, Section 9 is greatly expanded on and Saito taking overseas ops. What do all these have in common? There is no smooth transition to any of these things, the only thing that links all these events together is nothing. By the end of 2nd Gig, it felt like Section 9 was still normal and nothing too bad has happened but get to this movie, and so much has happened inbetween the ending of 2nd Gig and this movie that I almost want an anime series or movie taking place during the timskip just to see how all this stuff managed to take place. This is why I strongly dislike timeskips in fiction and especially timeskips that gloss over major character development, and this movie did very little to change my mind on the idea. The scene where Aramaki and Batou might be one of the better scenes in the movie but the problem is that it's hard for me to care because I am not even what where all the events leading up to the conversation.

The third issue is that the villlains are completely underwhelming. Mune and the Puppeteer are both the main villains of the story and while both their motivations involving the kidnapped children, Japan's decling birth rate, frail old people, killing important people in Japan's political landscape and rewriting children's memories are interesting on paper, they are presented in a dry way where the characters only reveal any kind of character before they are about to die or a big dramatic moment. Before that, they don't do a whole lot of anything, and just feel like the only actions they did that mattered was right before they died or the major dramatic part. That and the "Puppeteer" might as well be an AI if the movie was going to resort to the resolution that it did regarding the identity of that character.

There are some things about the movie that do prevent it from being completely unwatchable. Yoko Kanno's music is great and hearing Run Rabbit Junk was great. The action is also pretty good and the final action sequence with the cyborg tanks is pretty good due to the music and action working in tandem together. The ending with Motoko and Batou with the slowed down version of "take a little hand" playing in the background along with the conversation the two characters have was a touching way to close off the series, it provides more closure than 2nd Gig's ending does, despite 2nd Gig being way better overall.

Overall, I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell SAC and the first two movies a lot but this movie I found to be really boring. Every time I watch it, I always struggle to finish it due to badly presented the villians are, the timeskip, and how the movie rarely has good ideas of it's own. If you are a SAC fan, I say watch it for the score and action but prepare to be underwhelmed, if you just watch this as just a movie, skip it because you are getting very little entertainment value out of watching this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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