Bah, damn ban happy people. Here's my post again (and, yes, answer any! =D):
Watched 1-12 of GitS: SAC over the last few days. Like when I tried to watch it in the past, I'm finding it difficult to get into.
My main problem so far is the lack of character development. We learn the characters names, their faces...then nothing else in the first half the series. I want to care about the characters but it's proving difficult when the focus has been 100% on random story episodes and 'The Laughing Man' episodes.
I've found the setting interesting, as you'd expect when people in the GitS world happily toss away their bodies and have them replaced with 'shells'. I love how one person can transfer into another 'shell' by removing their brain, or how one person can hack into the mind of another due to nearly everyone in the GitS universe having a cyberbrain, which I assume is still mostly made up of a real brain.
However, like with the characters, I've failed to really get into any of the short stories or the main story. The episodic episodes haven't really entertained, only the one that revealed a little about Baitou's past whilst he hunted a serial killer being above average. The Laughing Man story has been more headache inducing than fun; it's the sort for people who like putting the pieces together over the course of the series, with it constantly getting interrupted with random story episodes and being difficult to follow (if you have **** memory anyway).
I think my taste is also stopping me getting as much out of this as others. I'm not really the sci-fi type, futuristic settings pushing me away rather than pulling me in. I do like the philosophical ghost in a shell stuff, though.
Anyway. If anyone wants to be helpful, could you try to help me understand a few simple points:
1: Section 9 - Do they only handle high profile cyber crime cases? The episode where they hunted a standard serial killer (standard as in non-cyber) confused me about what exactly Section 9 do.
2: Since cyberbrains can be passed between bodies, does that make everyone with one immortal unless their brain dies?
3: The way the characters talk about ghosts (I assume they meant spirit) transferring is also confusing me a little. I can understand if they talk about the issue in a philosophical context, but the way they mention it as if it's a proven fact something spiritual can transfer between bodies...
4: What war are the characters referring to in the serial killer episode? It's been mentioned but nothing else has been revealed.