I made a post before the new The Ghost in the Shell anime aired, that discussed these two scenes early in the manga:
The one where the major is talking to the runaway boy at the orphanage-
-and the scene where Batou is talking to the two captive girls at the robot factory
and I talked about how jarring it was to see how unsympathetic, dismissive and outright victim blamey they were towards literal children being enslaved and abused
Like that is some wildly shitty shit to say to a fucking WAR ORPHAN you watched being starved and tortured, btw, at a fucking government funded and sanctioned child labor sweat shop
and I suspect it had to be really hard to for Science Saru to try to tone down Makoto's callousness in this scene in order for her to still be seen as "a good guy", at least to our modern day sensibilities and morality. You can tell they really tried to make it light in tone as they fucking rushed to get it over with as quickly is possible:
notice how in the anime the kid doesn't talk back, doesn't argue with her, doesn't try to explain/defend himself like in the manga
This child (who lost his entire life in a war before he was brought here, no doubt, without any say in the matter) wants to get away from this horrible place, but what does our hero see when she looks at this kid?
She sees a foreigner who's gonna grow up to be a burden on the japanese people
that dialog sounds a lot to me like the racist ableist dad cult from Night in the Woods:
"No orphan boy, our country took you in and now you're gonna earn your fucking keep for that! If you were on the streets you'd just end up on welfare, watching bad tv all day and never work, just like all the other damn immigrants! So the misery factory you stay until the state decides otherwise!"
and Science Saru knew damn well that if they included that kid stumbling to explain that, "no lady please i just can't take it here anymore! its living hell! i'll do anything just not like this anymore please please just get me out of here" that the tone for the rest of the anime would be rancid
...cos what kind of "we're the good guys stopping all the crimes and crime mans that do the crimes to the civilians" protagonists can a modern audience accept when those main characters (that've been precented to us as non-corrupt law enforcement) turn around and throw children under the bus, all while openly resenting them as they do so?
(also i gotta stop and say: yes i know the manga makes the child factory a little less awful at the end with that last panel where it looks like the kids are more in charge of the factory, but it still looks like they don't get to just fucking leave)
Then theres today's episode's scene with Batou and the two girls:
"IT WAS VERY IRRESPONSIBLE OF YOU TO RESORT TO SABOTAGING THESE ROBOTS SO PEOPLE WOULD CHECK THEM AND FIND THE SOS WRITTEN INSIDE AND COME SAVE YOU FROM HAVING YOUR BRAINS SLOWLY ERASED"
oh man where do i begin with manga Batou here
i want you to take note of his speech bubble here while he yells at these fucking kids:
not soft and rounded, jaggy
look at his damn body language, he is shouting at them, he is not being gentle. he is pissed. he's berating these two desperate underage girls for doing what was probably the only thing they could possibly do to reach the outside world for help and he is not showing a single shred of pity or understanding
now lets look at what the anime did with Batou and the girls:
the entire tone of the scene is completely diffirent
first off, they visibly aged down the girls to look less like sexy teens...
...and more like middle schoolers, with childish mannerisms and childish sounding VAs to boot
and then theres Batou, notice how in the anime he cuts their ropes but in the manga they're the ones untying it while he stands back and just watches?
See how in the anime he kneels down so he can look them in the eyes as he speaks and also look less intimidating?
hear how he's speaking sternly but gently about what their SOS robot scheme has done to innocent (mostly) people? he sounds like a frustrated teacher reprimanding his students
kind, gentle, understanding but also upset about the situation that these two have caused
they (Science Saru) sanded this scene down so smooth and i gotta applaud them for it, cos when i first read the og manga for the first time and saw this scene after having read the part with the major and the orphan? it really put bleach in my enjoyment of the characters for the rest of the chapters, i still liked them and the story but it really drove home that they were in this for the thrills and the money, civilians be darned
If I had been in charge of this production I would have damn well done the same with these writing changes because this is first and foremost a fun action story with one toe in the comedy puddle and you don't want the vibes to be off with this sorta thang cos its not the 1995 movie or Stand Alone Complex where everyone is cold and distant and thus it would be more palatable to audiences if they behaved more callously
*edit* throwing in that yes, I know Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence exists, and that its entire plot revolves around the Robot Rondo chapter
for clarifications sake: I've watched both Mamoru Oshii films, watched all of Stand Alone Complex, and own the current definitive edition of the og manga, read Man-Machine Interface and Human-Error Processor (half paid attention to the newer animes but i can only watch them try to recapture the vibes of Stand Alone Complex or the 1995/2004 movies over and over again so many times, thats why the new adaptation is such a breath of fresh air)
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