This entire season was a delayed response to 9-11. The Twin Towers became the Xindi (themselves surrogates of Osama Bin Laden) attack on Florida and Venezuela. As such, it feels like a snapshot of the American collective state of mind that prevailed during the early 2000's. "The Mission". Enemies everywhere. Compromises. Torture. The character crossed lines that no other crew had in Star Trek history, and that had a huge cost in viewership. Even after 10 years, it's hard to watch it without wondering... it was worth it?.
Obtaining a copy of this series, has been a total pain, but the tapes of knowledge were obtained (in VHS). The special effects are flawled, and the series itself suffers from being shot in video instead of 35mm. The first episode is great, but the quality of the scripts, acting and production only decreases as the series progresses. Campy at times, dead serious at others, probably could have been saved with a different producer, and better scripts.
The first season of GITS SAC 2045 is so uneven and poorly written, that you can skip the first 5 episodes without losing a single plot point. The whole story could be summarized in 60 seconds of dialogue. The remainder six episodes are uneven, but enjoyable, except the last one. Now, the CGI is VERY distracting and subpar, with only a few highlights here and there. The producers made a poor choice leaving behind their wonderful ARISE hand-drawn animation style just to settle with a PS2-era garden-variety CGI fare. The music is intrusive and bombastic in many episodes, but there are a few good pieces in the last episodes. As the next season will keep the same look and plot, it's a shame this opportunity for a true GITS series is lost.
