Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex Episode 26 Discussion

Each time I rewatch this series I like it less. It gestures half-heartedly toward potentially interesting ideas without ever committing to fully integrating them into the story, most of the standalone episode plotlines are laughably undercooked, every character besides the tachikomas is utterly dull and unsympathetic, and the main storyline amounts to nothing more than some autist's grievance with a pharmaceutical company followed by a descent into bland shoot-outs driven by mundane political concerns. As an examination of mass-social phenomena with no clear origin, Paranoia Agent is far superior. As a thrilling sci-fi series imbued with daring sociopolitical concepts, Psycho-Pass is far superior. As an episodic series whose individual storylines feed into an underlying thematic bedrock that enriches the overarching narrative, Cowboy Bebop is far superior. And of course, it goes without saying that it doesn't come close to the 1995 movie in any respect.

To be clear, despite all these complaints, it isn't a bad show, and in certain episodes such as 11 and 15 it comes close to living up to the GITS name, but there's so much mediocrity weighing it down. Like why is it that in 9 hours of runtime, we don't get a single scene of detective work which is even a tenth as cool as the bit in the original film where they figure out that cloaked soldiers have infiltrated Section 9 by checking the floor pressure sensors? Why didn't we get a single action scene which used the concepts of the setting to do something unique? Why didn't any of the main cast have a single conversation that humanized them in any way, allowing you to feel even remotely invested when they get hunted down at the end? The original movie is 80 minutes long and delivers all of this and more in spades.

I will never understand why people rave about Kamiyama, he simply isn't one of the greats. If this series isn't proof enough of that then look no further than Eden of The East, which justifiably ended his career as a director of tentpole anime series.

@OneMoreFinal

You could simply say you are a GITS movie elitist and Oshii fanboy

Good job missing all the things what maskes the show great and the other stuff that are supposedly missing from the show according to your limited understanding