Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Premise The series takes place in the year 2030, where many people have become cyborgs with prosthetic bodies. Primarily set in , in the fictional Japanese prefecture of , the series follows the members of Public Security Section 9, a special-operations task-force made up of former military officers and police detectives. While the group investigates various crimes, both seasons feature ongoing investigations into two incidents that embroil the group in corruption within other branches of the Japanese government. Season 1 The first season of Stand Alone Complex focuses on the Laughing Man incident, wherein a hacktivist ultimately reveals to Major Motoko Kusanagi that he had discovered that several micromachine manufacturing corporations, in association with the Japanese government, suppressed information on an inexpensive cure to a debilitating cyberization disease in order to profit from the more expensive micromachine treatment. Following this, he abducted one of the owners of the company and attempted to force him to reveal the truth on live television, resulting in the hacker live-hacking everyone's vision and cameras at the event to cover his face with the stylized laughing face logo that became synonymous with his image. At the time of the Third and the Fourth World Wars, about three million Asians became refugees and were invited into Japan as a source of cheap labor. These "invited refugees", based on the reclaimed island of Dejima, soon became unemployed in the post-war period, and their social unrest borders on outright war. Section 9's involvement in the refugee issue begins after they successfully stop a hostage crisis caused by a domestic terrorist group known as the Individual Eleven, after which newly elected Prime Minister Yoko Kayabuki officially reinstates the organization. The group seems to be modeling themselves after the May 15 Incident, where a group of naval officers assassinated the Prime Minister and then gained the support of the public, and hope to stir up the refugees' spirits by fighting for them against the Japanese government. The group also comes into contact with Kazundo Gōda, head of the Cabinet Intelligence Service, who gets assistance from the group in defusing several instances between the refugees as well as assisting him in transporting plutonium through Dejima, result in several failures and refugee deaths, further straining relations. Section 9 ultimately discovers that Gōda has been manipulating both events behind the scenes, leaking the social virus that creates the Individual Eleven ideology and creating a new Stand Alone Complex, as well as the intentional failures with the refugees. However, he cannot account for the charismatic Hideo Kuze who genuinely believes in the best for the refugees and helps rally for their independence from Japan. Throughout the investigation, Kusanagi discovers she may know Kuze from her childhood. Ultimately, Gōda is found guilty of his part in the refugee incidents and killed before he can defect to the American Empire, but not before his ministrations also result in the death of Kuze. Film In the film Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society, set two years following the resolution of the Individual Eleven incident, the Major has left Section 9, and Togusa is now field commander, leading an investigation into several deaths of refugees from the Siak Republic, which results in the discovery of a government computer system coordinating the kidnappings of 20 thousand abused children who have had their cyberbrains replaced and placing them under the care of several senior citizens made comatose by another government program that takes care of all of their bodily needs. Their investigation, which brings the Major out of hiding, reveals an entity known as the Puppeteer behind the kidnappings. The Puppeteer is a rhizome formed by the collective will of the senior citizens, and the Siak Republic's intent to use the kidnapped children in their plans leads to their downfall. However, the investigation further reveals that a member of the House of Representatives is also using the children for his nationalistic purposes. Section 9 and the Major infiltrate a welfare center where the MP brainwashes the children, resulting in the Puppeteer revealing that the senior citizens wished to give the children free will in their future, with the politician interfering in that new plan. ==Production==

. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex was animated by Production I.G, and produced by Bandai Visual, Bandai Entertainment, Dentsu, Nippon Television Network, Tokuma Shoten, Victor Entertainment, and Manga Entertainment. The series was directed and written by Kenji Kamiyama, with additional screenwriters including Junichi Fujisaku, Yoshiki Sakurai, Shōtarō Suga, Dai Satō, Nobutoshi Terado, Yutaka Ōmatsu, and Yūichirō Matsuka. Masamune Shirow, author of the original Ghost in the Shell manga, provided plot for several episodes, sketches of characters and mechanical designs (including the Tachikoma), and gave his approval to the scripts before production. The series was produced with an 800 million yen investment. Kenji Kamiyama decided to make the anime television series as a "relative" to the manga and film, serving as a separate parallel world from both. In an interview, Oshii described his role in 2nd Gig as supervising the entire series and writing the plots for each episode. Dai Sato stated that they were initially going to concentrate on how Japan was going to participate in war after 9/11 as intended to portray a fictional future. But by the time they were working on the episodes, the Iraq War had already started and Japan's Self-Defense Force was sent to Iraq. During this time Japan also had an election. Sato continued to state that he created the "Individual Eleven" episodes to express irresponsibility of the Japanese people when they voted for the politicians that planned to send Japanese troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. Music composed the music for the Stand Alone Complex series. The soundtrack for the series was composed by Yoko Kanno and produced by Victor Entertainment. The first season's opening theme is "Inner Universe" performed by Origa (written by Origa and Shanti Snyder). The lyrics are in Russian, English, and Latin. The first season's ending theme is "Lithium Flower" performed by Scott Matthew (written by Tim Jensen). When the series was later re-broadcast on terrestrial television in Japan, "Inner Universe" was replaced with "GET9", performed by jillmax (written by Tim Jensen), while "Lithium Flower" was replaced with "I Do", written and performed by Ilaria Graziano. The opening theme for S.A.C. 2nd Gig is "Rise" performed by Origa (written by Tim Jensen), while the ending theme is "Living Inside the Shell" performed by Steve Conte (written by Shanti Snyder). 2nd Gig also used alternate opening and closing themes when it was re-broadcast on terrestrial television, with "Rise" was replaced by "CHRisTmas in the SiLenT ForeSt" performed by Ilaria Graziano (written by Shanti Snyder), and "Living Inside the Shell" was replaced by "Snyper", performed by Ilaria Graziano (written by Tim Jensen). ==Broadcast==

The pay-per-view distribution of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex started on SKY PerfecTV!'s on 1 October 2002. It ran for 26 episodes until 1 October 2003. The series was later aired on the terrestrial Nippon TV from January to June 2004. A series of associated short comic animations, titled , aired immediately after each episode of the series. These shorts star the Tachikoma "think-tanks" from the main series, and typically relate directly to the story of the preceding Stand Alone Complex episode. The production of a second season was immediately decided after the first season's TV airing. In October 2003, Production I.G officially announced a second season of 26 for the series, which would air at a rate of 2 episodes per month. The second season of Stand Alone Complex, titled Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd Gig, aired on Animax from 1 January 2004 to 8 January 2005. It later aired on Nippon TV from April to September 2005. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex was subsequently licensed by Bandai Visual and Manga Entertainment in North America, and Madman Entertainment in Australia. It was broadcast in the United States on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, in Canada by YTV and in the United Kingdom by AnimeCentral. On 18 March 2015 it was announced that Stand Alone Complex would receive a full weekly rebroadcasting in Japan on BS11, starting on 1 April 2015. On 25 April 2017, Starz announced that they would be offering episodes of the series for their video on demand service starting 1 May 2017. ==Related media==

OVAs A feature-length OVA titled Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – The Laughing Man was released in Japan on 23 September 2005, and in North America on 2 October 2007. The OVA retells the first season of the anime television series with minor alterations to the storyline to accommodate an abbreviated take on the Laughing Man affair. Some additional animation and voice work was also added. Although the Japanese-language version retained the voice cast from the anime series, the English version has a new cast of voice actors. The dialogue recording for the English version was produced by Ocean Productions. Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd Gig – Individual Eleven is a feature-length OVA which retells the events of S.A.C. 2nd Gig, altered to focus on both the Individual Eleven investigation and the relationship between Hideo Kuze and Motoko Kusanagi. Newly animated scenes and a remixed soundtrack are also included. Television film A television film sequel titled Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society was released in 2006. Video games Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex has received two console game spinoffs, both of which were published by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan and Bandai in North America and Europe. The first is Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for the PlayStation 2 and was developed by Cavia. It was released on 4 March 2004 in Japan and 8 November 2004 in North America. The second—a sequel to the first—is a PlayStation Portable title, developed by G-Artists, and is also titled Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It was released in Japan on 15 September 2005 and in North America on 25 October 2005. Several mobile phone games have been released exclusively to Japan. The first is titled and was developed by GREE and released on 14 February 2011. The second shares the name of the anime, was developed by Mobage, and released on 16 November 2011. The game focuses on an unnamed new detective who works for Section 9. The third is a social game also developed by Mobage, titled , and released on 29 March 2012. On 13 December 2012, Nexon stated it had obtained the rights of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for the purpose of the creation of a massively multiplayer online game. The game was formally announced on 17 September 2015, under the title of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – First Assault Online. The game was a squad-based first-person shooter for Microsoft Windows, developed by Neople and featuring voice performances by the original anime cast. First Assault Online entered early access on Steam on 14 December 2015, but was discontinued in all territories by the end of 2017, due to low player uptake, poor reception, lack of differentation from other games in the genre, and the developers' own dissatisfaction with the quality of the game. Novels A three-volume novel series based on the anime television series and collecting self-contained stories was written by staff writer Junichi Fujisaku and illustrated by Kazuto Nakazawa. The novels were published by Tokuma Shoten and distributed by Dark Horse Comics in the United States. The first volume, titled Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – The Lost Memory, was released on 21 January 2004 in Japan and on 24 May 2006 in the US. The second volume, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Revenge of the Cold Machines, was released on 8 July 2004 in Japan and on 26 September 2006 in the US. The third volume, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – White Maze was released on 4 February 2005 in Japan and on 2 January 2007 in the US. Manga Two manga series based on Stand Alone Complex have been published by Kodansha. The first series, , is based on the associated Tachikomatic Days shorts. The manga was written by Yoshiki Sakurai and illustrated by Mayasuki Yamamoto, and published in Monthly Young Magazine from 9 December 2009 to 9 October 2013 and finished on the Manga Box online platform in January 2014. Eight volumes were released. The manga is an adaptation of the first season of the anime series. Five tankōbon volumes were released. The first volume subtitled "Episode 1: Section9" was released on 6 April 2010 in Japan and on 24 May 2011 in North America. The second volume subtitiled "Episode 2: Testation" was released on 5 November 2010 in Japan and on 29 November 2011 in North America. The third volume subtitled "Episode 3: Idolater" was released on 5 August 2011 in Japan. Another guidebook titled was published by Tokuma Shoten and released on 31 March 2007. Another guidebook titled ''Tachikoma's All Memory'' was published by Ginga Shuppan and released on 22 October 2008. Numerous figurines have been released for Stand Alone Complex versions of the characters with Motoko and Tachikoma being a central focus. Various figures have been produced from CM Corporation, and Kaitendo. Tachikoma figures have been produced by various companies, including one by the Good Smile Company in cooperation with Nendoron. A 1/24-scale plastic model kit of the Tachikoma was produced by Wave in December 2005. Other merchandise includes clothing, key chains, notebooks, patches, bags, posters and body pillows. ==Reception==

Season 1 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the series' high quality of animation and the musical score by Yoko Kanno. In particular, reviewers reacted positively to the world of high-technology that Stand Alone Complex presents, described as "believably futuristic". and "engaging". a Notable Entry Award at the 2003 Tokyo International Anime Fair, and was featured in June 2004 by Newtype USA, with a "double scoop" cover story. The Japan Media Arts Festival provided a brief summary of Stand Alone Complex, calling it a "completely original television series...entertaining and easy to understand". Mark Thomas of Mania also gave it an overall score of A, stating: "It has plenty of good action and thought provoking plot points." Andy Patricio of IGN rated the first DVD volume 9/10 praised the animation, stating: "Artwork is richer; this is easily the best-looking anime Production I.G. has ever produced. CG is richer and more widely used. Animation is more complex and fluid, although it's still a little jerky, which is common in TV shows." Joe Luscik of Animefringe ranked the series 4.5 out of 5 praising the animation stating it "is just awesome". Adam Arseneau of DVD Verdict praised the direction of the 2nd season compared to the first stating, "The tongue-in-cheek humor that made the show clever and endearing is still present, but the atmosphere feels more violent, more urban and dystopic, as if no longer afraid to address the social problems of the future." The third DVD volume of the series was one of top-selling series in North America in 2006. It was also nominated for the Best Animated TV DVD honor category in the TV DVD Awards. In the American Anime Awards from 2007, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn earned the award of "Best Actress". ==Notes==