Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Rewatch)

Ep 10. is strange. It was such a dark a grizzly episode except most of it took place in some realy sunny and bright times for such horrible things we normaly think are dureing night.

There has been operations made to scare the enemy. On boths ides. In world war 2 with the americans and the japanese in pacific was a demonstration of how porpaganda on both sides created monsters out of both sides.

The japanese were told that the enemy were monsters and that death would be better. So that is why the japanese did some very scuicidal and strange things that echoed amongst the americans that the japanese were monsters.

So the americans did some awfull things and the japanese did because they thought they other person would do worse.

The guy went after the women and children. This was a tactic used in the Boar war witht he british. While the males were away to fight. The british came by and created concenstration camps for the women and children. So unless the men joined them the entire tribe would be wiped out.

Custers last stand. He tried a similer tactic chase off the braves while he captures the women and children. Except the braves knew the land better and stopped him.

Vietnam. was a terrible one. Might be because it was more documented. There is the famouse story of a vietnamese women being beaten and raped befor being shot and burned alive. The thing is there is brutal pictures documenting the act. The journalist felt powerless to stop so he took the pictures and distrubuted them. While the Americans soldiers were in a frenzy after two days of straight fighting. And Dehumananising of the Veitnamese.


Thats what happens for such attrocitates to be commited. Is the dehumanising of the enemy. Allows for such brutal acts to be commited.



Epsiode 11

Was a very good episode. Reminds me of the opening story to the manga down to the same character design of the military secruity cyborg.

Some stories for Gits just feel too large for the time allotted. I just feel there could have been 15 minutes more. As it feels like Togusa got there and two minutes later was snooping in the office and caught.


With such hacking going on. How do we know much of it even went on?
 
EP12

A lovely episode. I have a huge soft spot for the Tachikomas and their innocence. Its interesting the major (in what looked like a teen body) could have stopped it but obviously was interested in seeing what the Tachikoma did and how it acted.
The Tachikomas display of creativity and tenderness I found touching. Having kept pets its hard not to feel some emotion for the girl too over the loss of a dog.

The second part with the cyber brain was interesting mainly due to the emotional effect on the major.

Though another stand alone ep and one with little plot, the emotional development of the Tachikoma’s is important later in the series.
 
As much as i'd like to continue this re-watch myself. The only time i found to actually watch it was when me and Maxon watched eps 1-2, now i don't have much time at all to watch much, if anything really. I will eventually get the chance mind you, i just need to actually get this dissertation out of the god damned way. SO yeah, i will get back to it, probably when you are all on ep 10 of season 2, but hey.
 
Hokum said:
Though another stand alone ep and one with little plot, the emotional development of the Tachikoma’s is important later in the series.
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I wouldn't say this was an episode that needed a great abundance of plotting - so much of it is about setting up a story seed with the Tachikomas that gets followed up on later. And I think it's quite unusual and refreshing to see two apparently disparate story threads in one episode.

Yoko Kanno's score adds a whole lot to this episode, too. There's a certain musical palette being used in episode 12 that isn't present elsewhere in the series.

And I'm not ashamed to admit that, even at the age of almost 34, as a semi-muscular grown man, the story about the lost dog and the little girl does bring a lump to my throat.
 
Ep 12. Its more so a combo or two eps in one. Two amazeing great ideas that couldnt be fleshed out longer they had to be or else the two eps would lose the meaning and become terrible.

With the Tachikoma is braught up the thoughts that experiance isnt just the only thing that makes people or AI's diffrent. Its small things like the hardware.

brings up the thoughts with Terminator Sarah Conner chrononicles. A super AI that could be Skynet. That when some cables are destroyed and need to be replaced they are. The AI is now diffrent. As it now has different components. If you were given an arm transplant then you will never feel the same way about your arm as you once did.
So people can develop alien hand syndrome from this.

Unlike a a human a computer would have not a remote limb changed but an important part of its processing. So its brain is rewired slightly. We all know how that changes things greatly for a human.


The Theater story. Its bring home what the human brain is. The human brain is a very large storage device with an Operating System. Except A Cyberbrain is the same with an electronic OS and such.

Except the Cyber brain the organic brain enhanced. The problem is even so your ghost is what is you. This seperation of body and the overall program. This theater is a box that peoples ghosts are held in....except at their own will. So the people bodies have died and yet the person still lives on and possibly forever.

They dont have a brain they are just a "ghost". Are they just a copy? or are they the real thing?

E.g with my xbox i can transfer the data from my HDD to another HDD except it dosnt move the data. It copies the data and formats the old data. So i have a copy on one and a formatted drive.

Could the same be possible if the human mind? We have ghost dubbing in GITS and cloneing. Both are illegal and probably due to the to the copying aspect. You have just created the same person except they arnt. Aswell as they arnt considered a new person.

So ghost moveing could just be copying the ghost and deleting the old one.
 
EP13
Hmm interesting covert op episode. As a vet raven shield and arma player I like this type of thing. The big action set piece was pretty well done too. A stand alone episode but an interesting one.
 
Got the first series boxset sat on a shelf in the bedroom, I find it tough going, always have with Ghost in the Shell. I use to movies to cure insomnia.
 
Yup, episode 13 has my favourite use of Run Rabbit Junk in the whole season. I almost wept with joy when Kanno used the riff in the penultimate episode of the 2nd GIG!

I also like episode 13's use of the Tachikomas. The little fellas KICK ASS in that one! I especially like the exuberant cry of 'Roger!' followed by one of the little guys spitting out THE BIGGEST BULLET SHELL YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE!

(Episode 13 is followed by my favourite Tachikomatic Days as well.)
 
Episode 12 (Late)

An interesting episode, but in my opinion a weaker episode. The first half of this episode was very sad indeed but- I suppose I can't recall the significance of this, so am missing 'something' here. It was an emotional story, but not one that I felt dealt with the 'usual' issues Ghost in the Shell tackles.

The second half of this episode however I felt far better. The point that stood out to me was Motoko comparing the movie to "living in your dreams". I found this left me with a question; "Would I rather live in my dreams, or would I rather live in the 'real world' in which I strive towards my dreams"


Note: I'll edit in episodes 13 and 14 as I get them watched. I'm currently catching up :) Did anyone actually watch 14 today?
 
Fell behind again, albeit this time due to mounting college work rather than 'interesting social weekend', but I'm confident I can still catch up.

Having just watched episode 8 though, I'm surprised that there hasn't been more love for CEO Jameson.

snapshot_dvd_0551_20110220_233326.png


He's like the cyborg equivalent of

rich-texan.JPG


Also quite liked the little nod to the film when Togusa shot a tracer into the perps' getaway car.
 
Episode 13 (Late)

I can't honestly say I can see much depth in this episode - but it is by far one of the coolest Ghost in the Shell episodes. Gotta agree with HdE on the use of Run Rabbit Junk in this one - When that explosion goes off and the chord kicks in - it's a moment of beauty. Really enjoyed this episode. I do believe we just have a lot of Stand Alone episode to rip through now before we get back into the Complex episodes.

I'm off to watch 14 and 15 now ;)

Episode 14 (Late)

A good episode - but I felt Fem needed some more development. She seemed like a great character who could have had a lot of depth - but alas, it wasn't to be. Can someone explain what happened at the end of this episode after Togusa and his Wife left the room?
 
Professor Irony said:
Fell behind again, albeit this time due to mounting college work rather than 'interesting social weekend', but I'm confident I can still catch up.

Having just watched episode 8 though, I'm surprised that there hasn't been more love for CEO Jameson.

snapshot_dvd_0551_20110220_233326.png
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I remember the jameson type when i was playing GITS SAC game. Had to climb about for the little bastard. I also Remember i had to drive him around at one point.


Episode 14.

The assasin was a cool character. i was expecting somthing of an explination for the coins as ammo. It was a great episode to get a charater out of togusa. While everyone else is more miltary. This shows Togusa as a inspector/investigation cop. aswell as more to his family. Everyone else sticks to themselfs and section 9 is their family.

The thing at the end i beleave is the money maker program helping and giving a little push. Probably because it saw togusa's kindess. Which raises the the ever more paranoia. Did the guy die due to natural causes? or did he die since he put his ghost into the net and make money?


Episode 15.

Starts off very scarey the advancment of technology. With a sniper aid that almost takes over saito. Aswell as the very possible High velocity sniper rifle.

Except it kind of bothers me. Is the use of the android to be purely shot at. Which the entire episode about realy.

The Tachikomas should be destroyed for there intlligence.....except their use as a milatary wepon is very sketchy. They basicly have high developed infants as wepons. Which lead to such problems as episode 12 the tachikoma running away. The Tachikoma talking back and almost ignoreing order. Picking up stuff and diving into unknown items.

Section 9 is almost a miltary op and without each others cooperationin watching each others backs. One person can soon be left on their own in a grave situation.

You can understand Batou's unhappyness for loseing the Tachikomas. I like how the major and Batou had the same conversation on aduible and on net. Except with a few little words changed. As the "HAL" Tachikoma lip reads.

The Tachikomas came up with the point a i was makeing about befor. Change a part of the mechnasim and the AI changes too. along those lines.

The Tachikomas were on verge of an uprising.
 
The ending of episode 14 has never sat well with me. One friend I watched it with last year was of the opinion that it was the dead guy's spirit returning a kindness to Togusa, but that doesn't jive with me.

I like the idea that the dead guy's consciousness is out ther ein cyberspace, repaying Togusa for his compassionate deed more directly.

Episode 15 was a rarity - an episode that my old man actually deigned to watch over dinner!

And unfortunately, it's put him off GITS: SAC for life. Those squeaky voiced little Tachikomas are certainly the definition of 'love it or loathe it'.

Still - it's a great episode. I like the 'in your faceness' of it. The episode says 'look, these little blue guys are here as part of the story universe, so deal with it. And to help you, here'an almost solid episode with them interacting with each other.'

There's a lot in there. Some humour, some quite muscular sci-fi consiets to wrap your head around, and also a little poignancy. Thos epoor little Tachikomas have no idea they're about to be retired...
 
Episode 15 (Late)

A really great episode. I really enjoyed this, although it is a shame Batou's having his Tachikoma's put into retirement. I loved many of the Philosophical issues this one raised - the difference between man and machine etc. There's really a lot of depth - and if anyone is up for really discussing the deeper elements in this show - I think it could be a really good discussion.

Onto 16-17 when I get a time slot later :)

Just to clarify, today (23/02/2011) is Ep 17. Hence me putting late up on these.
 
Episode 16 is one of those little slices of the show that would stand up remarkably well to comparison with a live action TV show.

Batou's brilliant in this episode. Seeing him boil over and fling the booze and the unused natural oil into the waste bin at the end of the show is really powerful. It shows us what kind of man he is.

I also like how he's really awful to Togusa, just blanking him when he's sincerely concerned. But we can forgive Batou, because he's so obviously frustrated and angry. It's really well done.

A really excellent episode for developing Batou's character.
 
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