Discussion Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Episode 15 was good. Another Tachikoma focused episode, which is always interesting. So basically, they've been gaining individuality, and are getting smarter and asking more questions about things, which is viewed as bad/dangerous due to potential impacts with the work done with them. The Tachikoma even pretend to go back to being more robotic to trick Motoko as they recognise their current state and potentially their existence is in danger. In the end, it's ordered for their use to be halted and sent back to the lab, which is a bit rough on Batou.

 

Episode 16 was good. Batou-focused episode this time with the target being Pavlo Zaitsev a suspected spy, and Batou did used to be a big fan of him. So there was a boxer he was a fan of that lost a match that seemed unbelievable.

Batou went in and attended the gym/boxing place that he was at, and witnessed Zaitsev take out some other cocky guy. Batou then challenged him and did well, but ultimately was knocked out by a fabled moved of Saitsev, the prosthetic blind spot.

Batou ended up becoming friendly with Zaitsev and even went back to his house to discuss a bit of his past, including how the last match seemed to end his career, and more specifically the prosthetic blind spot. This is when Zaitsev seemed to get strangely agitated when his wife offered a beverage of Medovukha made by fermenting honey. Zaitsev got a call sent Batou away after. Batou also dropped about having a wife and kids, which I don't think is the case

Batou was almost caught pulling intel from Zaitsev's office, but managed to hide in a vent. Batou was invited out again for a drink, and took up the offer. Zaitsev intentionally spilt some drink and had Batou go ask to get it cleaned up to check out the family, which was put together with Motoko as the wife. In the end, Batou confronted the dealings between Zaitsev and the others dealing with the data, which really did anger Batou. Batou defeated Zaitsev in a fight, having faked being knocked out by the prosthetic blind spot originally. It was a bit sad seeing the wife who seemed none-the-wiser asking Batou if he'd seen Zaitsev.

 

Episode 17 was good. This one focused on the Director taking a visit to the UK where he caught up with an old friend working as a wine fund broker an asset management class where people buy wine and store it as an asset. Motoko also tagged along with him, but stayed alone.

The friend Seymour asked the Director if he could look into some suspicious activity, in this case it was suspected there was money laundering with the mafia involved along with a third party, due to some hidden files. The director declined due to his position and that it would be abuse of power.

Things took a turn when some people that abandoned the mob came in to rob the place and took both the director and Seymour hostage. The police were dispatched, and the higher up involved with the money laundering order the retrieval of the ledger and the hostages would be casualties to cover it up.

In the end, the director made a deal with the people to all get away so none died, which involved rigging a bomb at the door. Motoko picked up on the incident, and infiltrated by taking the spot of an officer she knocked out.

In the end, she figured out they hid in a hidden wine cellar which was used in the dealings. The director let the perpetrators free while exposing the main culprit. It seems that there may have been a romance of sorts between the director and Seymour.

 

Episode 18 was good. This case involved a death threat against vice minister of foreign affairs Jin. The director visited Tsujisaki, an old friend's, memorial. Interesting he had cyber brain sclerosis. The director ran into Saori, Tsujisaki's daughter. It seems the mother died before the father two, leaving the kids alone. Saori asks for help as her brother Yu has been more resembling their father, but in a bad way, like accessing military information, or their father's books. He even referred to Saori in a way their father would.

The director declined to help due to it being a personal conflict. As they did some digging into the assassination plot, the director saw the photo of the suspect, which was Yu. What seemed to have occurred was a mix of the father and brother "merging" spurring on the wish to get revenge for the mother's death.

It seemed that the attempt was foiled by Motoko appearing at the last moment stopping the stabbing, but then Yu pulled out a bomb which went off. It seems that Yu was the only person injured, and their solution is a false memory that the attempt was successful. It's in the air if he will remain the same person though, but Saori was happy.

 

Episode 19 was good. This case revolved around a string of girls being kidnapped and the suspect is "Blindfold Ivan". But, there's a bit of a problem in the latest case, the daughter of former Prime Minister Kanzaki who has denied the existence of such a group was abducted, shooting themselves in the foot.

Kanzaki requested the help of section 9 and Aramaki didn't dance around his stance on how he denied mass kidnappings. It's assumed they didn't realise they kidnapped Reiko, his daughter.

Batou and Togusa by chance came across three individuals conducting business involved in the kidnapping. It was misunderstood that Batou and Togusa were on the side of the other guy, so some shots were fired between them, with the other man dying. Batou then took out the other guy while warning Togusa that the woman Cruzkowa Bosyeltnov was coming his way.

Togusa opened the truck before having to fend off Cruzkowa. She fled after ditching her arm, but with the truck's back door open, some victims fell out. The arm was a bomb, which they barely survived thanks to Batou's quick reaction.

Aramaki had Kanzaki commit political suicide by admitting to the existence of Blindfold Iva, which did cut Cruzkowa off from getting any help, so she fled with only Reiko. Motoko caught up and they had a bit of a stand off, before Batou showed up.

 

Episode 20 was good. It looped back a little to The Laughing Man and more specifically the kid that Togusa had encountered, Aoi and Togusa believes he is the Laughing Man. Seems there's likely suspicious involvement by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as they orchestrated Nanao Ei witnesses have their memories overwritten. Togusa went on to investigate what they were really after and suspect it's something on paper records.

Looking through records, Togusa discovered the missing information, the patients list for the Murai Vaccine which was effective against cyber brain scoliosis. Most people in the Nippon Medical Association were pushing micromachine technology so viewed Dr Murai's vaccine as a step back and it was rejected fearing it might delay the micromachine treatment. Togusa was referred to the Sunflower Society for possible people who would have interest in the info.

A janitor was presumably hacked and took the patient list for the vaccine which then ended up with the Sunflower Society who wanted to expose it so more people could get treatment. Ironically, Hisashi Imakurusu who shut the vaccine down publicly, ended up relying on it when he later developed the illness. All the while any public info on the vaccine was supressed.

The DEA's Narcotics Suppression Squad raided the building intent on killing those inside and retrieving the Vaccine patient list. Togusa lied to Nogi to get him to start fleeting the premises while he locked the door to confront the DEA agents. Togusa took out one agent but was shot before fleeing. It seems like he might die here, or it's a fake out.

 

Episode 21 was good. Thankfully Togusa did survive, although was critically injured and rushed to hospital for surgery. Aramaki and Motoko asked the medical staff to extract the critical intel during the operation and they initially refused but relented. Section 9 was understandably pissed off about the DEA agents and their actions.

The Laughing Man confronted Imakurusu first, and exposed the fraud he was aware of to him including he himself being treated by the vaccine. Imakurusu's opposing the vaccine was envy due to not creating it. The Laughing Man just wanted Imakurusu to expose the truth and also confirmed that someone else profited off the terrorist attacks not him.

When Imakurusu made a call, section 9 tracked him down and took him into their custody. Unfortunately, the DEA agents were also dispatched along with Gayle operating an arms suit. Motoko was almost taken out but was saved and then she went ham on him just repeatedly shooting him in the suit and he couldn't breath.

Right as Imakurusu was about to be loaded into the truck and while Batou was slightly distracted he wondered across the road to talk to The Laughing Man. Right as Batou got near them, Imakurusu was assassinated. The Laughing Man hacked Batou's eyes and got away.

 

Episode 22 was good. Bureau chief Niimi was taken into custody by section 9 due the involvement with the raid on the Sunflower society and death of Imakurusu and the beans were spilled by Gayle. Aramaki was warned by Assemblyman Kanzaki to be careful with the connections that he had. He was thankful they helped his daughter

A reporter approached Aramaki and advised that his brother Yosuke was hospitalized from a drug overdose and was arrested on charges of drug trafficking. When Aramaki tried to visit, he was shut down, including from getting any information about Yosuke. He decided to go to what was a lawless zone where Yosuke seemed to have resided and helped bring order. Two "homeless" men provided evidence that his brother was wrongfully arrested in a set up, but they ended up being DEA agents and drugged Aramaki. Luckily Batou had been snooping nearby and was able to intervene and take out the agents and retrieve Aramaki before the police also falsely arrested him.

Motoko had to get a body replacement due to the damage sustained in the fight. The doctor was late before showing up, and in the end it was another DEA agent that almost killed her. Luckily The Laughing Man appeared and helped Motoko, asking for her help in return being certain that she will after giving her his memories. She then took out the agent.

Yosuke ended up cleared of all false charges, Aramaki is recovering in hospital and Motoko is fine.

 

Episode 23 was good. Section 9's target is Assemblyman Kaoru Yakushima who was The Minister of Health at the time of The Laughing Man incident and has connections to the JMSDF which is where that cyborg suit came from. Guy seems very suspicious when he was being investigated, the investigator wound up dead. Another interesting connection is that Serano's micromachine therapy was approved at the same time the Murai Vaccine was shut down, which is suspicious.

Serano was paid a visit by The Laughing Man, which he did assume was coming given the other few incidents. The Laughing Man took Serano with him in hops of having the promise from the incident six years prior fulfilled. Batou and the others arrived at Serano's residence too late, and Batou was the one to uncover The Laughing Man had hacked their eyes/cameras.

So the police pretend to keep Serano safe, but he's basically under house arrest to ensure he doesn't spill the truth on the original incident. The original request was for Serano to expose the ineffectiveness of the micromachine therapy against the illness along with how corrupt the medical industry was. The promise was for him to hold a press conference to talk about the ineffectiveness of the micromachine therapy, which he went back on, which is why he was held at gun point.

So it seems that the assemblyman Kaoru Yakushima was involved in the corruption and Serano's company was targeted for profit. They created the fake persona of The Laughing Man pretending to be the original to keep the ruse going. Bot the original and Serano plan to team up to take out Yakushima and expose him. Serano is taken into custody and it's revealed that The Laughing Man he was talking with was Motoko.

 

Episode 24 was good. Damn I didn't see that coming. The government ordered the disbanding of Section 9, and seems they were even prepared to use lethal force, sending in several exoskeletons. Aramaki's last words to Motoko were to survive. They set up an explosion to take out some fake cyber bodies allowing them to get away. Batou and Motoko got away and separated together. However, at least one was captured after making it to the bar Motoko usually goes to, but seems a note was passed onto the bar tender. In the end, the forces withdrew.

Togusa was taken into custody after trying to get away with Aramaki, and Aramaki was also taken, but Aramaki didn't explain anything to poor Togusa. Seems they are trying to pin The Laughing Man incidents on Section 9 after the image of Motoko disguised as him with Serano surfaced. I wonder if Tachikoma will help them, it seems like it almost points that way.

 

Episode 25 was good. Aramaki met with someone to see if they could use some information they had gathered to convince the committee to stop their actions, which was a maybe, but not the prime minister, so that was a dead end. In the end, Aramaki left the information with them.

Batou went to one of Motoko's places to retrieve her important possessions. He took out a number of the agents, along with one of the exoskeletons by hacking the pilot's eyes and then taking him out. Unfortunately, more were wating a Batou was badly injured and lost an arm. Right when he was being tortured, the three Tachikoma that had gathered appeared and saved him. One was taken out right away, but the other two both fought and got a chance use an explosive device only for it to be defective. They heard some words from Motoko, and in the end sacrificed themselves to save Batou, taking out the exoskeleton.

Batou and Motoko met up after Motoko appeared in another body and led Batou back to her safehouse. They seemed safe and concluded the rest were likely in custody. Right as Motoko was boarding the plane, they sniper her exploding her head. Damn. I assume she had some backup plan, but still.

 

Episode 26 felt very anticlimactic. Fast forwarding 3 months and Togusa is cleared and has been an unemployed father and decides to look for a new job. It seems that the whole micromachines vaccine corruption was exposed. It turned out that Aramaki's plan was the "destruction of section 9" which allowed them to get away. Motoko was never killed, it was another remote body. Batou arrived just in time to stop Togusa from making a mistake.

Motoko sought out Aoi and talked with him for a bit, and confirmed he did have cyber brain sclerosis and apparently he only stumbled upon that blackmail by chance. Aramaki also went to recruit Aoi, but he denied.