With Section 9 now looking into the Laughing Man it’s
time to delve into some routes untraveled in the case. While Motoko enters a chat room dedicated to
the popular subject and gets more than just web gossip, the others find their
own mysteries to contend with. Togusa volunteers to go undercover at a medical
facility for children with Cyberbrain Closed Shell Syndrome to investigate a
hack into the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
A runaway Tachikoma enjoys a day in the sun helping a girl find something
special that’s lost. And Batou deals with
a dark terror from his past that has found it’s way to his city. Between the Laughing Man and some unexpected
cases, there’s no rest for Section 9.
Going into it’s third week here on Anime Corner, Stand
Alone Complex delivers a half and half serving.
Two stories were exceptionally well done while the other two left more
to be desired despite some interesting moments.
First the strong stuff.
When I first heard about a chat room themed episode for the series, my
curiosity was peeked instantly. And man
was it amazing to see the chat room of the future in Ghost in the Shell. It was arguably the strongest of my two
favorite episodes this week as we got to see an audience look in on a round
table like discussion about the Laughing Man between five avatars and a sexy
digitized Motoko. The group that made up
the chatroom is a perfect representation of the chats of today: the moderator,
the super serious, the fan who knows everything, the one who mocks the former and
the one who may be holding back more than he seems. Egos and information clash and mesh and you
feel like you learn a lot about the Laughing Man and the phenomena his
appearance has sprouted…but also not learning much at all since no ones
information seems to be concrete. All
the while, Motoko listens in and maybe even has a surprise run in with the
topic of discussion…but who knows what she saw.
The other big episode for me this week was centered
around a very angry Batou dealing with an incident from his past with the
Rangers. His quest to bring down the
mentally broken guerilla/psychological warfare specialist Marco was tense and
not just because we’ve never seen Batou this upset. Episode 10 is definitely the most gruesome
and violent of the episodes thus far (to my knowledge it is the only episode of
the series that has aired on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim with an extra
advisory about it’s content). The
episode does not skip on the horrific acts performed on the women Marco targets,
especially when you hear them in agony.
At one point Togusa has to leave and vomit, which is pretty much what
anyone would do reviewing evidence like that.
While I do like Batou’s final solution to the problem at the end, one
thing that holds the story down are the two smug CIA operatives assigned to
assist Section 9 with the case. Their
arrogance and stupid “We know more than you and we know it and are just going
to keep smiling smugly” attitudes were a bit much and it’s a surprise Motoko or
Batou didn’t beat the tar out of them sooner.
They were begging for it.
We did get one more surprise Laughing Man episode in this set as Togusa was sent into an
undercover operation to uncover the reason behind a hack of the Ministry of
Health and Welfare. I feel this episode went by a bit too quickly. By the time it seemed like it was getting
somewhere, it was over. But I suppose it
was more about the big build up to the revelation that someone Togusa saw in
the Social Welfare Center was the Laughing Man himself. Odds are it was the Aoi kid he was tasked
with watching throughout the episode.
But who knows. At least Togusa
got to show that his antique pistol can still come in handy even against a
heavily armored cyborg.
Lastly, we got a very oddly split and somewhat uneven
episode featuring two separate yet interlocked plots for a stand alone
story. The Tachikoma centered first half
was fascinating. Seeing this heavily
powered and weaponized tank with and evolving mind and the voice of a child
wander the city with a young girl was a very nice and unexpected use of a
Tachikoma plotline. Hearing the girl
reveal that her search for her “lost dog” was a sham but something she hadn’t
fully accepted yet was heartbreaking but more so was the Tachikoma’s reaction
to just getting fixed when broken. It
does call into question cheating death in the cyberized age of Ghost in the
Shell but it’s still something to be said when a child puts life and death into
perspective.
The episode heads into strange territory afterwards as
Motoko and the team investigate a cyberbrain found by the Tachikoma. Now here is where it got a bit confusing for
me and I wonder if the episode benefited or suffered from not expanding the
Tachikoma’s day out into a full episode.
While seeing a purgatory like digital state and Motoko see a film that
brings her to tears (she can feel GASP!!!) I don’t think it meshed well or
matched the beginning of the episode.
Maybe these two should have been separate episodes but this isn’t the
first time shorter stories have made the mold of a single episode. Maybe I just need to watch it again but the
Tachikoma half was definitely the stronger of the two halves.
So the chatroom of the future, a deluded menace, the
Laughing Man revealed (?) and a Tachikoma gets to enjoy the sun a little bit,
not a bad set of episodes here. And the
animation was back up to par with the first episodes of the series. Will we be getting any more Laughing Man
teases or will we actually see who or what Laughing Man is soon? Time will tell.
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