Gits Arise Alternative Architecture
As a Gits fan (and Shirow fan in general), I should be pretty happy with the fact they made a new series of OVAs / season, but it never gets to nail the execution of a good Gits story. It gets close, it does the basics, at first it looks like quality gits stories, and given the state of current anime I should be thankful of having something without moe or ecchi or otakus, but in the end it fails to reach the quality of previous works.
First, the setup feels weird, awkward. They chose to do it a prequel, but by doing it it messes up a bit with the canon, and the excuse of them being some kind of unofficial intelligence “consulting group” that is hired by the government (as Section 9 still doesn’t exist) feels ridiculous, half of the stuff they make wouldn’t be really allowed. Some inclusions like the Logichomas are there just because people liked Tachikomas, and therefore with such weak reasons they feel bolted on here.
Second, it feels a remake of a remake. The previous series was already a covert remake, taking some storylines, characters, themes or just famous scenes or moments from the manga and the movies. This repeats the same: here we have again the major jumping from a building and using optical camo. Here we have again the major jumping on top of a tank opening the hatchet and damaging his arm in the process. Here we have again a moment where she is in the water looking upwards to the light. Here we have again a super hacker with mysterious motives that does obscure quotes. Here we have again the major using her admin-priviliges to punch a subordinate because she didn’t like a comment (she is really a bitch, if you think about it). Here we have again Batou and the Major in a boat talking and drinking. Here we have again military intelligence as the bad guys behind everything with the shadow of corruption in the government in the middle.
It feels too much a retread.
Third, it has an air of being convoluted for convolutedness sake. Mmm wait no, the plots aren’t so convoluted, it’s more a problem of not being properly explained. in several moments I had to rewind to follow properly the plot, and at this point I’m a veteran of this kind of sci-fi. The stories uses up two episodes each one, but sometimes they throw at you a number of names, factions, and confusing moments that a bit more of space and explanations to show what’s happening a bit more clearly would be a good thing.
In one of them they mention a past war you don’t know, some factions you don’t know, some character’s name you don’t even have a face to associate with, and it piles on and on.
Fourth, it starts to break the setting’s verisimilitude. How the hell would anyone upgrade to a cyberbrain if it’s so risky? In the original movie it made sense because in the end the hacker was not a human, but a new AI, not something that was usual. In MMI the same, there is some intense hacking going around but it’s a “battle of gods”, of AI vs AI. in SAC it happens but it’s more a single case.
Here? Everyone is hacked here. In one scene the bad guy controls one hundred people. They hack police, bodyguards. They hack diplomats, they control military personnel, they control military hardware. It’s like anyone can hack in, control a few tanks and provoke a international incident or a massacre in a city if they want. The major is hacked three times!
It feels like the writers abused of this narrative resource. They asked themselves, “what would be could to happen here? I know, let’s make this soldier to be hacked and then tries to kill this other guy!”
Fifth, the action is sometimes dumb. Including a chopper speeding down at the same pace of the Major in free fall, or a logichoma somehow knocking up a pair of missiles and them not exploding, or “spec ops soldiers” that behave more like gooks to be shot down. And if anything, dumbness is the last thing I want in Gits.
