Koukaku Kidoutai/The Ghost in the Shell is a long-storied franchise. With this new entry serving as its 4th continuity. For this review I will be more focused on that new installment. GitS has been a franchise with many adaptations. The ’95 was the first adaptation which used a lot of the manga that this new anime adapted, but the tone and characters personality was very different. Meanwhile SAC and Arise despite technically adapting the manga were anime original stories.
With the Science Saru version you are getting the most faithful adaptation for this series. As the characters and their personalities have a more expressive and silly tone. But it knows when to be serious and when it is fine to be silly. If you are expecting tone from the other entries of GitS you might find it jarring, but it should be easy to get used. Writing, world building and characterization are still classic GitS, so if you are a fan of the series you will get this here.
Science Saru really animating this adaptation so well. Everything about this anime is a standout on their end. Just like with Tenmaku no Jaadugar, Science Saru aims to be super faithful with the art style of the original manga. The fact it maintains that and gives it the production values it has is outstanding. As they’re showing up as one of the best studios right now.
I will admit this might not be the optimal first experience with the franchise as I would argue SAC, despite being an anime original story is better at easing you. Like the ’95 movie this anime might seem overwhelming at first for new fans. But if you come back to watch it again you will get to notice and understand things you didn’t on your first time through.
One negative I will say is how the story can feel disjointed. Especially when compared to the movie or SAC. Even if SAC had episodic episodes, those episodes either resolved themselves in their episodes or they carried over into future episodes. While the ’95 move very much adapted a specific part of the manga.
No doubt this adaptation does adapt the interesting parts of GitS very well. Individual episodes are outstanding, like they are almost a short film with how great the production. It’s when you take all the episodes together is where it becomes weird. It makes the series even more confusing than the other anime continuities of GitS. Granted considering this was promoted as a manga-faithful adaptation most are fine with that. It’s for those that are experiencing the series for the first time where this can throw them off.
At the end of the day I think the majority of people will really enjoy this. As the top-tier production values and with such an interesting immersive setting is great. There are just some issues with the storytelling when you sum all the episodes is where things get weird and confusing. Even some episodes by themselves are more confusing than the other anime continuities. Which is why I would suggest SAC as the ideal place to start with GitS.