Finally watched through this since the dub got completed (as I've always watched Stand Alone Complex with the English VAs).
There definitely are some downsides to 3D animation, especially when it comes to precision violence. Stand Alone Complex always featured really detailed looks at cyborgs when they were getting shot or injured that helped to convey the difference between them and normal humans that this type of animation definitely doesn't lend itself to. That being said, there are a lot of scenes where the lighting and composition makes things feel properly real for some of the action especially when you're brain-diving into first person perspectives, so it's definitely a give-and-take relationship either way. I think that it worked well overall, and the challenge at the start of 3D is always making the assets, so maybe the second season and having some more time learning the flow will make some of those things better than the first season.
That being said – it feels like Stand Alone Complex through-and-through. The only thing missing this season was that Togusa didn't have a sudden epiphany/revelation while looking at himself in a mirror. There are definitely already some subtle seeds of things dropped early on, and like every Stand Alone Complex series, the "filler" bits all seem to be adding to context that will get pulled on later in the second season (since this story is being split into two 12 episode sets).
Very much looking forward to seeing where it goes.
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