Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045

The story unfolds in 2045, some years after a financial collapse called the Synchronized Global Default. Runaway progress in artificial intelligence has since dragged the planet into a condition labeled Sustainable War, a permanent low-grade conflict whose true danger to humanity remains hidden from ordinary citizens.

Once senior figures inside Public Security Section 9, the full-body cyborg Kusanagi and her deputy Batou now sell their skills as guns for hire, roaming a scorched and battered stretch of the American west coast. The region offers steady work for a crew that still leans on the enhanced cyberbrains and tactics honed during their government years.

Everything shifts when a new kind of adversary appears. Individuals dubbed post-humans surface with staggering intellect and physical capability, and the threat is severe enough to draw the scattered Section 9 veterans back together.

The full run spans 24 episodes, delivered in two halves. Netflix put out the opening dozen on April 23, 2020 in Japanese, with Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama sharing directorial duties. An English dub of that first batch slipped to May 3, 2020 because the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted production schedules.

The concluding twelve installments landed on May 23, 2022, this time with an English track available at the same moment as the Japanese. A feature film continuation, subtitled The Last Human, opened in Japanese theaters on November 23, 2023.

This entry marked the series' debut as a project rendered entirely in 3D CGI, with motion capture folded in to lend the graphics a photo-realistic feel. Character designs came from Russian illustrator Ilya Kuvshinov.

The numeral in the title points to futurist Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity Is Near, which forecasts that the technological singularity will arrive in 2045. The same directors, composer, and production house were also behind Netflix's ULTRAMAN.