Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig

The Ghost in the Shell franchise began with Masamune Shirow’s original manga in 1989. There were two follow-up volumes. The Ghost in the Shell movie was released in 1995. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence followed in 2004. Both were directed by Mamoru Oshii.

The Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series first aired in 2002. The second season (or 2nd Gig) began its run in 2004. The film Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society served as a finale for the TV series in 2006. There have since been other entries in this spectacularly successful franchise.

What’s interesting is that Masamune Shirow’s manga series, the Mamoru Oshii feature films and the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series are all slightly different takes on the same basic premise. The TV series does not take place in exactly the same timeline as the manga or the two feature films. It takes place in the same fictional universe, almost. It’s like three variations on the same basic theme, and each variation has its own appeal. In their own ways they’re all equally worthwhile.

All the different variations deal with Public Security Section 9, a shadowy fictional counter-intelligence, counter-terrorist cybersecurity agency run by the eccentric but brilliant maverick Aramaki. The commander of the field operations task force is Major Motoki Kusanagi. She is a cyborg. Her body is wholly synthetic (although it’s very female and she is in practice a perfectly functional woman) but she still has a human brain and human emotions and she still has her human memories. She was once a fully human little girl.

In this second season Section 9 will be up against a mysterious group known as the Individual Eleven.

The main cast members are substantially unchanged in the 2nd Gig. Aramaki still pulls the strings. Major Motoki Kusanagi is still the field commander. Batou is still her second-in-command and the one person in the world she really trusts. 

And happily the tachikomas, the combat robots used by Section 9, return to the series after a brief absence. The tachikomas are controlled by AI but whether it’s a collective AI or whether each tachikoma has some degree of individuality is uncertain. As is the question of just how far they are capable of operating autonomously. The tachikomas provide comic relief in what is other a very serious very dark series but it works - the writers rather cleverly use the tachikomas to reflect in a humorous way one of the main themes of the second season, the conflict between individuality and collectivity.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex deals inevitably with political conflicts. The series is more interested in the nature of ideological conflicts than with pushing a particular ideology. It’s not really interested in taking sides politically. And it accurately reflects the confused and contradictory nature of 21st century ideological conflicts. The Individual Eleven see themselves as radical individualists but they behave like a kind of hive mind. They also appear to believe in revolution for its own sake. Their goals seem somewhat mystical.

The series also deals with political infighting in government and law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Political leaders are mere puppets. Powerful shadowy forces are pulling the strings. Every law enforcement and intelligence agency is obsessed with ensuring its own survival. They don’t trust each other, for good reason. Aramaki is a clever operator but even he finds himself being manipulated by forces he doesn’t entirely understand.

There’s an ongoing story arc here, as there was in the first season. What’s interesting is that what appears to be happening on the surface is not what’s going on at all. The story arc deals with unrest in a refugee community in Japan, with tensions between the locals and the refugees which could lead to civil war, and government efforts to resolve the crisis. What is really happening is that a series of complex interlocking power games are being played out and none of the players have any interest in the refugee crisis. And I don’t think series director and chief writer Kenji Kamiyama is all that interested in that particular political issue. He’s more interested in the way political power games are played.

There are also ideological drivers but my impression is that Kamiyama is not interested in particular ideologies but rather in the way that political ideologies work. And, more to the point, the way ideologies are likely to work in an information age of total interconnectedness. They may work like viruses.

There are multiple players in the power game - several different intelligence agencies (including Section 9), the military, the bureaucracy, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, mega-corporations, the media and shadowy informal networks. They all have their own agendas. They are all concerned with protecting their own interests. They will all cheerfully sell each other out. They all manipulate each other. None of them care about Japan or about ordinary people. None of them has any genuine commitment to any principles. Winning is all that matters because that means power.

They all see themselves as puppet masters but often they are merely puppets. Mostly they have no idea who is really pulling the strings. The Prime Minister for example has no idea that she is a mere figurehead, a puppet who will be discarded when she is no longer useful.

Aramaki has more insight and he’s a wily old bird but even he finds himself manipulated. He does at least have the advantage of being a skilful player. Motoko is learning to be a skilful player. She’s learning to analyse problems on multiple levels.

The refugees are simply pawns who are being used by several different groups with contradictory agendas.

There are bad guys but some of the good guys might turn out to be bad guys and some of the bad guys might not be straightforward villains.

Other TV series have tried to engage with such issues but this is the first series to do so in a sophisticated and complex way in the context of the age of digital information sharing. And it’s hard to think of another TV series (or movie) that has taken such a brutally cynical approach.

The cynicism level rises as the series progresses. Most of Section 9’s assignments are not what they seem to be.

Mention has to be made of Yoko Kanno’s superb music. It’s very pop but very cyberpunk.

There’s both a DVD and a Blu-Ray boxed set containing both seasons of this series. Thankfully it includes the original Japanese language version with English subtitles as well as the English dub. I have a particular aversion to English dubbed versions of anime. Hearing the characters speaking with American accents just feels totally wrong. I like anime because it’s Japanese. I also really like Atsuko Tanaka’s voice acting as Motoko - her voice just sounds right. And Akio Ôtsuka sounds like Batou.

This is very much cyberpunk but with even more paranoia than usual. Science fiction TV doesn’t get much better than Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Very highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed the original manga, the TV series Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex, 1st Gig and the first movie, Ghost in the Shell (1995).

Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990)

Cyber City Oedo 808 is a 1990 Japanese anime OVA (original video animation). These were a bit like mini-series but intended for direct-to-video or later direct-to-DVD release. Cyber City Oedo 808 comprised three 45-minute episodes.

It was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, one of the great anime directors who was responsible for such crucial anime movies as Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Cyber City Oedo 808 deals with three cyber cops in the year 2808. At the start of the first episode they are criminals, serving 300-year sentences in an orbital prison. A very unpleasant place to be. They are offered a way out, of a sort. If they change sides and join the Cyber Police they can gradually get their sentences reduced. There are a few catches. The big one is that they will be fitted with explosive collars. If they disobey orders their heads will be blown off.

It’s not an overly enticing prospect but it’s better than rotting in an orbital prison. Sengoku, Goggles, and Benten agree to the terms.

This is very much in the cyberpunk mould. As you would accept for an anime made in 1990 there are obvious influences from William Gibson’s Sprawl novels and the movie Blade Runner.

The setting is a vast city controlled entirely by computers. The nerve centre of the city is the Space Scraper. It’s like a skyscraper but it’s so tall the upper stories are almost outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

There’s a healthy dose of cyberpunk paranoia. The Cyber Police might be the good guys but their chief Hasegawa is a somewhat nasty piece of work who relies on manipulation and fear. He isn’t interested in winning the loyalty of the trio. They do what they’re told or he’ll kill them. But he’s still one of the good guys - good guys don’t have to be nice guys. I think that’s a nice touch.

The military is not to be trusted. Government is to be regarded with a degree of cynicism.

Some of the themes hinted at here, such as the absolute dependence on technology and the effects of technology on our humanity, would surface in later cyberpunk animes like Ghost in the Shell (1995) and the excellent 2002 TV series Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex.

Cyber City Oedo 808 was made at a time when anime dealing with dark grown-up subjects was still a fairly new thing and Yoshiaki Kawajiri was one of the pioneers of this more ambitious approach. It was also a time when anime was just starting to gain a major following in English-speaking markets.

There’s plenty of action and with only 45 minutes to tell each story the pacing is pleasingly brisk. There are almost none of the erotic elements that you find in Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s later films. There is however some moderately graphic violence.

The visuals are very impressive (as they are in all of Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s work).

Interestingly there are hints of the paranormal and even perhaps the supernatural.

Each story focuses on one of the three main characters. They’re all criminals and outsiders and misfits but they are rather different. Sengoku is more of a classic rebel. Goggles is the tough guy but he has emotional depths. Benten is more of a dreamy mystical romantic although he can be pretty dangerous as well. He does cute things with piano wire.

Since the three characters are quite different each of the three segments has a different flavour. The three segments were originally released separately on video in Japan. English-speaking audiences got to see them with crude English dubs that had almost no connection with the original dialogue and which removed all the essential atmosphere of mystery and tragedy. If you’ve only seen Cyber City Oedo 808 in the English-dubbed version then you haven’t seen it at all.

Memories of the Past

The first episode is Memories of the Past (AKA Virtual Death AKA Time Bomb). In this story the focus is on Sengoku. A hacker has taken control of all the Space Scraper’s security systems and he has fifteen hostages trapped in an external elevator. The hacker’s identity is unknown but he is clearly after revenge. The three reluctant cyber cops have to stop him before he kills the hostages and destroys the Space Scraper, and without the Space Scraper the city cannot survive.

Sengoku manages to find a way into the Space Scraper but he soon finds himself unsure of the identity of the real villain. There may be more than one.

This episode has a decent plot with the sorts of twists that you want to see in a cyberpunk story. 

This is a straight-out action story.

The Decoy Program

The Decoy Program (AKA Psychic Trooper AKA The Decoy) begins with separate cases being investigated by the individual members of the team but there seems to be a common link and it points to the involvement of Special Forces.

Goggles becomes the central character in this segment. He finds himself pitted against a secret weapon intended to be the ultimate killing machine. Lots of mayhem and spectacular fight scenes in this instalment but there’s paranoia and betrayal as well, and possibly forgiveness. Maybe even a hint of love. There’s certainly a theme of lost love and being haunted by the past.

This is by far the most violent segment. It’s a real grudge fight to the death. And when Goggles gets mad he gets real mad.

Crimson Media

Crimson Media (AKA Blood Lust AKA The Vampire) centres on Benten. He’s had an encounter with an entrancing and mysterious woman.

A series of murders has been blamed by the media on vampires. The corpses were drained of blood. Perhaps there are vampires, of a sort. And perhaps the worst vampires do more than feast on blood.

The murder victims were carrying out illegal research.

Again the past figures in the story. This story actually began three hundred years earlier.

Science fictional treatments of vampirism have been attempted a number of times although in 1990 it was still a fairly fresh idea. This is a story about vampires but it also becomes a kind of love story. This segment has much more of an atmosphere of mystery, weirdness and melancholy. It’s my favourite of the three.

Final Thoughts

It’s worth pointing out that Japanese OVAs were not low-budget schlock. They were less expensive to make than feature films but much more expensive than TV series. They were ideal for telling stories that might be too risky as feature films but were much too grown-up and edgy for TV. There was nothing cheap and nasty about them and directors like Yoshiaki Kawajiri did not see them as lesser productions.

Cyber City Oedo 808 offers plenty of style and plenty of action. The first episode is OK, the second and third are excellent. Overall this is top-tier cyberpunk. Highly recommended.

Happily the Blu-Ray (which looks terrific) includes the Japanese-language version with English subtitles which is the only way to see this release.