Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex
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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- So what exactly went on in there? When Major went in the room their were bullet holes in a statue rather than in a cyborg. The also said they couldn't find the paintings. Hmm... |
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| Was the 'leader' the Laughing Man? Gah... |
| just watched this for a second time and I think the leader was the laughing man over wise the episode would not have made any sense at all |
Shameless plug signature The Shorts Club  |
| I really liked the atmosphere of this episode. Many details reminded me of the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (the haircut of the lady who manages this hospital, the tall guy that was mute,..). It does seem that the laughing man could be this young boy Aoi : the laughing man motto and the reference to Salinger 'the catcher in the rye" were written with the same bluue oil paint. Plus the fact that Salinger also wrote a book named the laughing man. th logo that Togusa drew instead of the boy head.. It's really interesting to see all those details fit together. But maybe it's only a decoy and this boy is just used by the real laugnhing man? |
| Pretty interesting episode, and can we assume that boy "Aoi" is the laughing man or is there more? |
| it seems to me that the laughing man was hiding out as the kid and by hacking into people's minds he changed his appearance to that of a kid and even forged that whole fight togasa had. what i really liked was all the references to "the catcher in the rye", i had to read that once, it was weird but interesting |
the only way to stop a gamer from playing is either: beat them, or wait until they get bored (though 2% percent suffer seizures  |
| no doubt he's the laughing man. As the other boy stated "he just came last week" and last week was also the time when the ministry of health was hacked. The laughing man does the hacking via that institution. |
| Oh so Warai Otoko was there??? dunno... But really this sole episode is definite and enough to conclude that indeed Warai Otoko was over there.... I'm not so sure it's this tall guy named Aoi... He indeed looks young, but heck he had a deep voice... besides that we actually know that Warai Otoko can hack the minds of anyone, so then Aoi could easily be one of the Terminals Warai Otoko uses all over Japan... I was going to say all over the World... But in my honest opinion that's too much... in fact we haven't seen yet the full scale of Warai Otoko's power.... He has much more power... I'm sure of that And it's logical to conclude that the Warai Otoko was there because the place was fit for everything to happen... I mean... cracking boys and girls... autistic... self-shut... Obsessed... Bad Woman in front... and a weird Cyborg that someway resembles Batou.... Warai Otoko was there!!! WTF!!! Poor Togusa hehehe... Signs, Green |
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| HOLY MIND FUCK BATMAN. I guess "the chief" is some personality who is using the body of that kid in the wheelchair... seems the personality is the Laughing Man (or at least being used by the laughing man) and was manipulating the autistic kids for their 1337 haxing skillz. |
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| Its all starting to come together. Enjoyed this episode very much. |
| That's some bizarre shit... when Togusa show the portrait he drew... I was left stunned. I did not expect the Laughing Man to be involved at all... |
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| So, this happened before the events in the previous episodes, right? Because the mayor did not recognise the Laughing Man's logo... |
| The episode is stated as "Complex Episode", so it is about the laughing man |
| Even when I was in crowd, I was always alone |
| God, I love this episode more each time I watch it. This twist at the end with the message on the glove is freaking awesome. |
| "Yes, I have been deprived of emotion. But not completely. Whoever did it, botched the job." - Geralt of Rivia |
| Pretty dumb that Togusa, nor the rest of Section Nine, didn't notice all the hints toward Aoi being the Laughing Man, or at least the 'original,' given that they're supposed to be conducting an investigation on him and all. It's been mentioned or implied several times that he can(and always does) over-write memories of his own face and achieve various other hacking feats at top speed and without leaving evidence. Apparently Togusa has never read relevant passages from Catcher in the Rye, either, even though the quote on the goddamn logo comes from that book. Otherwise, good creepy and theoretical-future episode, with a number of autistic kids having to be isolated from networks for safety reasons, then getting exploited. |
| Wow. This definitely is an episode worth re-watching. Very well executed, yet another interesting episode. |
| Definitely one of the better episodes this season! |
| Such junk... |
| My mind = blown. |
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| wtf just happened?? could it be that this kid is The Laughing Man???? man i thought this so called chief would be somehow a more older one but a wheel chair boy??? and what happened to the whole fight?? the girl and the cyborg and all??? not to mention the whole creating powerful barriers thing is actually genius. could it be that the Laughing Man communicating via that "Aoi" boy is using those barriers to cover his trails and so on??? damn what a mindfuck episode this is. if that boy was indeed "The Laughing Man" they were sooo close on catching him. now it's back to square one :\ damn love this episode. it keeps getting better as we move on. love the series :) |
| Hidden meaning?? This episode was crazzeee, but I loved it. So, was he having hallucinations or being hypnotized by the kid in the wheel chair? Man I need some enlightening to this episode, I do know the kids were responsible for it, but that's not much! |
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| Honestly, I've seen this episode no telling how many times and I still am not sure what to make of it. My guess is that LM hacked into Togusa's cyber brain at some point and caused him to somehow hallucinate the attacks. Clearly, this episode was intended to be a mind fuck and it did it's job splendidly. Definitely one of my fave episodes. |
| "Yes, I have been deprived of emotion. But not completely. Whoever did it, botched the job." - Geralt of Rivia |
rapi321 said: no doubt he's the laughing man. As the other boy stated "he just came last week" and last week was also the time when the ministry of health was hacked. The laughing man does the hacking via that institution. OHHH. AOI LOOKS/SOUNDS LIKE THE LAUGHING MAN FROM THE VIDEO. AHHH. MINDBLOWN!! And he shot a statue!! Ahh!! LOVE this episode. |
| Truly great episode. I think Togusa's cyberbrain got hacked when you saw that long zoom-in on his face, the same thing that happened to him in GitS 2: Innocence. |
| Hmm, this episode has so many messed up stuff going on and I love it. It seems Togusa and Aoi were the only people to go into that room. The cyborg and lady that hit him were all fake. Aoi saw that he was hacking into the system and he was frightened. Not sure if he knocked him out or what, but Aoi saw that it was section 9. Got me wondering though, it was that lady that hooked up to him while he was unconscious. That doesn't make sense though since Togusa was already knocked out. So why was it her that hooked up to him when there was no one else in the room to fool? Obviously, she was never there to begin with since Batou and the major were on the scene so fast and she was no where to be seen. What I'm getting at is that we as viewers were also fooled by the laughing man! Even though we saw his face, we as viewers can no longer trust what our eyes' saw! Great thing they did here for this episode and getting the viewers involved, we were all mind fucked!!! |
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| Quite an interesting take on autism, I enjoyed this episode a bit more than usually. So far I haven't been that impressed with the series. Maybe I've been expecting too much as people call it a philosophical masterpiece, but it seems this is another example of a series that takes almost half a season to get going. Particularly the Stand Alone episodes have been disappointing. Maybe as an anime series this was unique but so far most episodes have been comparable to American police dramas. Even if there's a mystery that shows every little thing in previous episodes was necessary, that doesn't make up for the fact that on their own I found the episodes neither entertaining nor particularly deep. |
| Man, I guess that was the laughing man? This is hilarious! |
 "I like to expose what people hide. I'm an intellectual rapist." - Furudo Erika |
| Interesting episode.... |
| Boring episode imo, interesting concept of this all but not good put in motion! |
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| So that guy in the wheel chair was the Laughing man? This is starting to get complicated. |
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| >Watched the English dub version >Hears Izzy's voice from Digimon Adventures S1 Anyways, nice episode and Togusa sure is the mysterious figure this time around. Dat drawing. |
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| Also thing worth noting is that the boy with the parted hair is the moderator from the chatroom episode. |
| That hit to Togusa's head ouch. His memories where altered. And it looks like the fight with the robo dude wasn't real. This was a total mind fuck episode. I should try re watching this one with English dub. |
Always-HungryMay 29, 2013 5:14 AM
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| the funny man :O |
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| 5/5 A good episode, which leaves many doubts, if the guy is not really LM, because they disguise their faces? And when did the hacking of mind of Togusa? I stretch out on the scene at this point where the director shows him that strange room! Except for the CG else is great, poor AI is sacrificed for reasons of state! XD |
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| As someone who read and spent 2 months analyzing Catcher, all I can say is... Holeeee Shit. This series has proven itself to me as a masterpiece. |
 Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. |
| so Aoi was really the Laughing Man? Oh...it's quite uninteresting to reveal the antagonist that early in the show...I was hopefully expecting that Aoi might just be another decoy. |
| "If you reject me, I'll blast a hole in you!" Kanzaki H. Aria Just kidding.  |
| So maybe the kid, Aoi, was the laughing man. After all, all these kids were hacking genius. |
| «Time is passing so quickly. Right now, I feel like complaining to Einstein. Whether time is slow or fast depends on perception. Relativity theory is so romantic. And so sad.» - Kurisu Makise a.k.a. The Zombie |
| Why is this series so damn good? |
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| Episode color blue, and then returns to tread the theme "complex" of the plot. It appears, however, from a narrative episode in its own right, if it were not for the final and large capacity of somebody to manipulate the reality of which it is also Togusa victim while maintaining its cybernetic brain isolated from external factors. Who is really the raazzo, it seems that it is ...! Drawings, animations, and great OST. Poor thing the operator, because it does not even strike them every now and then? They always make the end of the mouse ... |
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andrewmkparker said: What is the song that plays at the end of the episode before the end credits scene around 22:41. Anyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DqWR4yL2dY It's at 16:30 in this video which contains a bunch of unreleased tracks from SAC, the part you heard in the show is all there is of it and it did not feature on the OSTs. There are links to download all the unreleased tracks in the description, most of the tracks are more substantial than that one, it's funny how some of the stuff not even given a title or released on the official soundtracks for SAC is better than most anime OST. |
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| I felt bored throughout but when the episode was finished I thought it was pretty awesome. Aoi's the laughing man eh? |
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| Ha. I feel for Togusa. He was mindscrewed pretty good. .-. It seems "Aoi" is the Laughing Man; whether that was actually him, whether he was hacking people's brains so that he looked different, or whether he had hacked that kid's brain, I feel semi-confidant that that's him. It's the only conclusion that makes sense. I also noticed the older boy (whom Togusa was thinking of plugging into) was the chat operator from a couple episodes back. I wonder what the significance of that is... What is the "catcher in the rye"? Why doesn't he have a choice? That was the best episode so far. |
| Now we get more of a Togusa-centric episode, sweet. The message on the baseball glove at the end lol. |
| the official MAL hall of fame/cursed comments is now open for business - you are welcome to PM me any potential quotes to include |
| Ha, the laughing man strikes again. I did not see that one coming. Great episode. |
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| The Laughing Troll strikes again eh? |
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