Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex

In the not so distant future, mankind has advanced to a state where complete body transplants from flesh to machine is possible. This allows for great increases in both physical and cybernetic prowess and blurring the lines between the two worlds. However, criminals can also make full use of such technology, leading to new and sometimes, very dangerous crimes. In response to such innovative new methods, the Japanese Government has established Section 9, an independently operating police unit which deals with such highly sensitive crimes.

Led by Daisuke Aramaki and Motoko Kusanagi, Section 9 deals with such crimes over the entire social spectrum, usually with success. However, when faced with a new A level hacker nicknamed "The Laughing Man," the team is thrown into a dangerous cat and mouse game, following the hacker's trail as it leaves its mark on Japan.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Winner of the Excellence Award on the 6th Japan Media Arts Festival.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex, Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex, Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man
Alternative setting:	Koukaku Kidoutai
Sequel:	Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG
Spin-off:	Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex - Tachikoma na Hibi
Summary:	Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man
Side story:	Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex - Tachikoma na Hibi - Interval

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Kusanagi, Motoko

Main

Tanaka, Atsuko
Japanese

Batou

Main

Ootsuka, Akio
Japanese

Togusa

Main

Yamadera, Kouichi
Japanese

Aramaki, Daisuke

Main

Saka, Osamu
Japanese

Tachikoma

Supporting

Tamagawa, Sakiko
Japanese

The Laughing Man

Supporting

Saito

Supporting

Ookawa, Tooru
Japanese

Ishikawa

Supporting

Nakano, Yutaka
Japanese

Aoi

Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi
Japanese

Pazu

Supporting

Onozuka, Takashi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Maseba, Yutaka

Producer

Kamiyama, Kenji

Director, Script, Storyboard, Series Composition, Series Production Director

Wakabayashi, Kazuhiro

Sound Director

Nakamura, Ryuutarou

Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

	1: "Inner Universe" by Origa
	2: "GET9" by Jillmax (Japanese Terrestrial Broadcast)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Lithium Flower" by Scott Matthew
	2: "I Do" by Ilaria Graziano (Japanese Terrestrial Broadcast)

Reviews

Mar 29, 2024

Zanryu1337

Recommended

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a classic, and for good reasons. It blends the serializes "Stand Alone" episodes with the story focused "Complex" episodes very well together. And even tho they can be classifies as serial episodes, they contribute to the world and story in meaningful ways; either through tone or details that the complex episodes revisit.

Story: 9
Animation: 9
Sound: 10
Characters: 8
Enjoyment: 10

Total: 9

...

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Mar 20, 2023

bergars

Mixed Feelings

This is a very... diverse series, I'd say.

I had an introduction with the "Ghost in the Shell" with the very first film. A masterpiece in philosophical future thought. Since the story was perfect as a 1-hour and 20-minute film; a series with 26 episodes was a tough ask from me. It didn't deliver as much, but maybe I can't really compare.

These are two very different stories, tackling a different world, and another message. One is that of the mental questions of how can the world work with these sci-fi concepts, and this series worries itself more on how people deal with those concepts, with a ... bit of fun.

The story becomes a cop show, crime of the week, with an overarching narrative that slowly becomes the focus. I really wish I could've just experienced that story instead of the entire thing, since many episodes feel useless. However, everything matters in the long-run. You can't skip anything, since it all comes back in the end to move the plot forwards, and it angers me that wasting my time, worked for the story. I hated those tangents that made me lose interest all the time. It manages to drive the point on how societal problems are that of stand-alone elements, eventually becoming a complex web of points that become a whole.

As a story, it worked surprisingly well, but it's not one I liked that much. If anything, I loved those chapters where people just talked about something they deemed interesting about their world. Be it the conspiracy talk, the existential (and surprisingly casual) talk from the robots. Those moments manage to make this series so much more than just a normal detective sci-fi show. Sadly, it should've been shortened to a more effective narrative of only the big plot. It had a terrible pacing for me; as well as so many episodes I couldn't care less about.

I'd say the animation managed to pull me constantly to keep watching. Amazing visuals, actions scenes, environments, details to movement. On the other hand, the characters are something that needed a little more work on the beginning. We don't get anybody that pulls us towards the series, to learn more. I wish there wasn't that very slow development over many chapters that matter so little. It's just the smallest bits that don't create something interesting in the end.

Overall, I just think this is wasted potential. An excessive series that goes to places that don't give much to the story, but are necessary. If the audience has to sit through something slightly important, it's better to put both separate in its own place. I wish I could've skipped so much of the "Filler" to be honest.

6.5/10. It needed to be truncated.

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May 19, 2010

no_forehead

Not Recommended

There are several things I don't appreciate in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Spoilers included by necessity:

I found it really disappointig that the final solutions to the main mysteries didn't actually have anything to do with the technology of GITS's world like would have expected. Why not explore the chance that, for example, the EXACT replicability of things electronic input/output to brain allows could result in different minds processing the raw thoughts to a same conclusion as the results of human minds being at some level identical? Instead the "copies without original" were explained through memetics, despite the fact that the concept of memes ... doesn't have much to do with random people deciding to do the same thing randomly after witnessing some event.

This reminds me much about the reasons why I don't like Paranoia Agent - making a work that involves psychological and sociological dynamics, but then exaggerating the phenomenon to totally unplausible levels causes it to not deliver any real message, or illustrate the workings of these theories in educational sense. Some may find it brilliancy, but I find it as a lacking sense of reality and/or poor grasp of the concepts it is all about. It's even more frustrating when it's offered as a solution to a mystery the whole series is based upon.

Also, what's up with the Major's outfit? Nobody wears clothes like that, that's pure fanservice. It's up to you to decide whether or not this cheapens the work (GITS is not a character-driven show to begin with after all), as long as you aren't a hypocrite and think that in the case of Code Geass it does but in the case of Ghost in the Shell doesn't.

Some praise the difficulty of the plot to follow, such as mentioning a important, relating case in one episode in the beginning when one has not a clue of the whole picture of what the series is about, and then casually referring to it later on. I can't see how this is a positive thing and somehow adding 'depth' into it and not different from just bad storytelling.

My strong opinion is, mindfuck for the sake of it is never good, it should be used only as a tool to serve a purpose, to deliver the message of the work if it cannot be effectively delivered any other way (such as in Paprika, in which it is fun to guess whether what's happening is a dream or real event, or to a lesser extent in Serial Experiments Lain, which uses uncertainty and inconsistency as a metaphor for the layman's defective understanding of the nature of modern technology and detachedness from the world's clockwork functions).

Overall, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex is pretty average and unrealistic cyberpunk that has nothing that is actually worth a honest thought of 'what if this happened in reality' and you haven't seen somewhere else already. And by this I mean most of the Stand Alone episodes are based onto recycled cyberpunk ideas.

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Poll: Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex Episode 26 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) OranSolus - Jul 17, 2008	153 replies	by MineFord_gurme »» Apr 5, 7:53 AM
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Poll: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 ) aero - Sep 8, 2008	50 replies	by MajedM1999 »» Feb 17, 5:32 AM
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Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex

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