A week or so ago Netflix released the first season of Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045, originally created by Matsamune Shirow and while I don’t think he had anything to do with this iteration, for the most part it remains remains faithful to the themes explored in Shirow’s work (such as post-humanity and the intersection of man with machine).

Though this 12-episode season moves quickly enough it’s not quite as focused as many of the other series that I have seen, and the themes revolving around ‘sustainable war’ are virtually nonsensical though the idea of perpetual conflict in an effort to support the economy is a ripe one for exploitation (and something not unfamiliar to many industrialized nations).

Though the idea that any nation–even one that had two atomic bombs dropped on it like Japan–would essentially become a fiefdom of the United States so literally (in SAC_2045 the Prime Minister was born in the United States) is more fantastic than anything that happens revolving around the futurism the series trades in.

Though my biggest gripe is one that I have with most Netflix anime, namely the CGI doesn’t do faces particularly well (and sometimes bodies, particularly when prone) and everyone depicted for the most part look like mannequins.

And I get that faces are hard–remember Tron: Legacy?–to animate though most of the people in Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045 reside firmly in the Uncanny Valley.