Discussion Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG

Episode 15 was good. Kind of a Tachikoma focus again. They were getting maintenance and also dug into information relating to the Individual 11 and putting some urgency on a vaccine being created. Batou's Tachikoma lied about being done with maintenance to tag along with Batou and Togusa.

Another terrorist attack seemed to be in action and the culprit seemed familiar to the Tachikoma, but they weren't sure who it was. More specifically, they couldn't access the memory so one of the Tachikoma's tried to locate the AI unit of another only to discover it was "missing".

Motoko revealed that the person that created the neuro chip for the Tachikoma's AI Dr Asuda was the suspect. Dr Asuda intended on leaving the country and take his work with him. Section 9 managed to intercept him and detained him. They requested he remove his memories from the Tachikoma and he's likely to end up in jail, although Batou seemed intent on taking his Tachikoma to visit him. Also turns out, their Ai running off a satellite.

 

Episode 16 was good. There's fears of a general refugee uprising with the current circumstances. As usual with bureaucratises, each individual section tries blaming the other about the terrorists not being so quickly taken care of before their acts. The Prime Minister is tired of dealing with it.

We also got some backstory of Hide Kuze, also known as Roh. As part of a mechanised unit, he was shipped off into another country where some war was still ongoing with the People's Army. They stumbled onto a refugee camp which the soldiers of the People's Army were basically just being bandits. The 30 troop lead by Kuze went up against 120, but it was quick for Kuze's platoon.

The soldiers to cope with PTSD had them turn to drugs and alcohol to cope. At one point, Kuze spoke with a reporter trash talking them, and swapped his weapon for the camera, and took some photos with it. This ended up with Kuze bonding with the elderly, making paper airplanes for the kids, and other engage with the other men and women. The people's army then surrendered and Kuze vanished before he was meant to return.

Wherever Kuze went, people seemed to easily become friendly with him. The backstory seems to fit with the boy from Motoko's backstory, so I wonder if they are indeed the same person.

 

Episode 17 was good. Motoko went overseas to Taiwan in search of more information on Kuze/Roh. He was involved in a deal between the refugees and Yakuza, but it ended up with them smuggling contraband and having altercations with the Yakuza. She was pointed to digging into Mainland China after her flight was delayed a bit.

During her expedition she encountered a adolescent boy Chai being held up by three older men with intent on harming him and it was obviously an altercation about drugs. After being saved, she was pestered a bit by Chai and he even showed her their figurines made of cocaine they dealt with. He did know Roh and the reason for Chai's involvement is in crime is to be able to get a full prosthetic body to be like Roh and carry out a similar mission.

Motoko took him back to a hotel and cared for him a bit as well as teased him. When they parted, he slipped a locker key to her from a bathhouse. She redirected the taxi there and got the drugs from the locker, then managed to again save Chai after he was in danger of dying due to the Yakuza which the people from the prior incident were involved with.

Motoko ended up making a deal with them for Chai's survival in exchange for the drugs, which was granted. She left him with words of making a better future for himself.

 

Episode 18 was good, but a bit sad. Motoko and Batou were in Berlin after a terrorist's identity was uncovered by a doctor when undergoing a full body swap procedure. The terrorist's name is Angelica known as Angel's Feathers with the highest death toll from a single bombing. They had been difficult to track due to the constant changing of prosthetic bodies. However, it was tracked that every time two days prior to the bombings, he would return to Berlin before departing to the target city.

Poor Batou just has dogs barking at him despite the optical camouflage. Batou noticed that he seemingly was noticed by young girl in a wheelchair Theresa, so tailed her back to the church where she prays to see her father. When Batou snooped into Theresa's journal, he discovered that she is the daughter of Angelica and she would receive presents at varying intervals from her father, which is why he would return prior to the bombings.

Batou went back to the church at night and confronted Angelica before detaining him. He begged Batou to give Theresa the gift. Batou being sympathetic toward his child agreed, which is when he made a move on Batou. Luckily Motoko had come by and they dealt with him. At the end, Theresa came by and mistook Batou for her father. Turns out she is blind. I assume Batou gave her the correct secret code her and her father would use to confirm their identity.

 

Episode 19 was good. Gouda thinks he is in control of Kuze, and will have him follow his "best script". Things are getting heated with the refugees. Section 9 are finally on the tail of Kuze after Dejima declared itself independent.

To try and get to Kuze quickly, Motoko took over a full prosthetic female police officer Narita Akane, then jacked into a seemingly homeless refugee sitting outside their office. Motoko got right on the tail of Kuze although couldn't pin his location. When trying to dive into Kuze, he spotted Motoko and warned her about linking with his consciousness, which ended badly after she linked. Not entirely sure what she saw beyond a delusion, but she indicated she did know him, so I have to assume it's that boy.

Motoko lead Batou and the others to where she was fairly sure he would be at a harbor, only for it to be an ambush and one of their rookies Yano got killed. Batou chewed her out given it was a massive mistake she made. It turns out Kuze wasn't ever there. Kuze seemingly didn't want his group to attack section 9 either as he told them to avoid putting themselves in danger. Kuze is securing a deal with the Russian mafia for plutonium.

 

Episode 20 was good. Section 9 sent off the deceased Yano and Azuma was taken off too. Section 9 pinned down that Kuze intends to buy plutonium and then threaten the Japanese government into making Dejima an independent state. Motoko insists she is fine, although Batou isn't so sure. Kuze thinks he can bring peace by rising as a dictator. Motoko uncovered the cost as 240 million yen and pinned down the deal's location to a nuclear submarine base.

God damn, I think Kuze might be the hacker known as 4chan, truly hacker man. The way they have got the money, is he created a program to scrap the fractional amounts of yen daily, from every account and deposit it into his dummy account. It amounts to tens of thousands of yen per day. It's their war fund and has amassed almost 11 billion yen with no one being any wiser.

The deal with the Russians went off, but Section 9 made their way in before either party could verify the goods were correct so the Russian Koil Krasnov just took it as correct and fled. Despite being under attack, Kuze was able to get out too, but Batou chased him down. Now he and Batou are having a face down.

 

Episode 21 was good. Batou had his showdown with Kuze and initially seemed to have the upper hand in combat. Unfortunately Kuze was able to turn the tables, and snapped his leg, and then when Batou tried to use a metal rod from a shipping container, Kuze impaled him with it. Thankfully, he was only injured and Kuze fled.

Motoko came through soon after and helped Batou a little before being urged to continue in pursuit of Kuze. Kuze already made it to the get away boat by the time Motoko got into the area. She took out several armed refugees but ultimately wasn't able to get onto the boat, so went back to regroup.

When others of Section 9 came in to regroup, another refugee suicide bomber came up and almost killed Saito, while taking out one of the choppers. Luckily Saito came out relatively unscathed although was unconscious.

Section 9 decided to leave it to the coast guard to deal with Kuze. While Gouda is "pulling the strings" with Kuze to a degree, Kuze isn't entirely under his control. The coast guard engaged in some gun fire against Kuze's boat, but were in a position to detain them. Unfortunately, the refugees organised a blackout which seemingly has covered Kuze's escape.

 

Episode 22 was good. The news reporters are having fun reporting on the mass evacuation of 35 million people after a "discovered nuclear weapon" from the World War era, but there is speculation of it being a refugee issue. They are reporting no word from the government, so it looks like martial law with part of the city section off by the self defence force.

Kuze's ship was sunk off the coast of Dejima, but they don't have confirmation on the plutonium onboard, so Kuze got away with it. They also haven't confirmed it was the refugees behind the blackout. Support in the government for refugee expulsion is increasing and the people are upset at the government. Looks like Aramaki is aware that something is up with Motoko thanks to Batou.

Aramaki tried to ask the Prime Minister to halt movements on the refugees to prevent full scale warfare, but she seems intent on holding a press conference to announce the truth once the bomb is diffused which will likely have the self-defence force moving in on Dejima. She's operating under the assumption the plutonium has already made it to Dejima.

With her current state, Motoko asked Batou to take care of something she would usually do. I presume that was the dialogue he had with Gouda where he talked about what had been going on with the Individual Eleven and also Kuze, and at the end Gouda basically admitted to being the one that at least initially orchestrated things, and that it was in the final phase.

 

Episode 23 was good. 10kg of Plutonium remains on Dejima. It seems the Prime Minister's hands are tied and the cabinet intends to proceed with warfare and is ignoring other countries pleas to not. It really seems like to me that the Prime Minister is just a puppet for Takakura. The US contacted Takakura and basically wanted to unite to go in and not let Dejima become nuclear.

The military under Gouda hasn't found the plutonium so has ordered the manipulation of information to the media. Aramaki suggested to the Prime Minister to go to the UN for a nuclear inspection to get more time with the pending invasion. If they hand over the plutonium to the UN the situation should improve, so Aramaki has ordered section 9 to make it work and just like that, communication was cut. Takakura plans to oust the Prime Minister from office.

One refugee shot a military personnel and that just made the shit hit the fan with shooting from both sides. This seems to be according to Gouda's plan. The refugees even collapsed the bridge.

 

Episode 24 was good. Gouda is just sitting back and watching while he presumes that it'll reach his envisioned climax and ending. In another meeting, it was suggested to send in the unmanned attack helicopters.

The Prime Minister Kayabuki was detained for "treason" after she contacted the UN of her own accord and relieved of her duties as Prime Minister. Aramaki, Togusa and Proto were separated from her after they tried to help. Aramaki is also being looked at under suspicion treason.

The war is just escalating. Section 9 have flown in via helicopter to Dejima and have been attacked. Motoko ended separated due to already being outside of the helicopter during the attack, and the helicopter spiralled out of controlled and is out of commission. Things just keep getting worse.

At the end, Proto also managed to locate the Prime Minister, but might have been damaged beyond repair. He's also a prototype bio-android.

 

Episode 25 was good. The chaos continues with the military action against the refugees and vice-versa. Batou's group was closing in to intercept some military personnel while Motoko closed in on Kuze.

Proto while seemingly being kind of incapacited wasn't actually killed. Looks like communication has been restored to a degree with Dejima. Meanwhile, Togusa took out some men that were guarding the Prime Minister, so he was able to escort her back to Aramaki. Their plan is to tell the US that they've been played to hopefully stop the nuke.

Motoko finally came face to face with Kuze, and she warned him that the plan was for a nuke to be dropped and just play it off that the refugees did it trying to suicide bomb. Kuze decided to let the refugees connected know, but left the final choice with them. Motoko and Kuze ended up trapped under some collapsing rubble after some missile strikes. Kuze revealed his plan to her, to basically move people's consciousness to the web by having them fuse with it.

Batou revealing himself to the group his group were up against, the situation calmed down once they confirmed he was a former ranger. Based on their attire, I assume they are as well.

I really have to confirm that Kuze is the boy from Motoko's backstory, everything points to that.

 

Episode 26 was alright it reasonably wrapped things up although felt like it sped through quickly. Batou was desperate in asking Tachikoma for Motoko's location to help her, but ended up looking on his own. The Prime Minister did confirm that as she suspected she was just a face to win the election and contacted someone but it's not clear who. Ishikawa was transporting the plutonium out by himself when the Tachikoma gave him a goodbye.

Motoko finally brough up asking Kuze if he could fold origami cranes with only his left hand, which I feel like confirms their connection. They were able to form a connection of sorts in the rubble. The Tachikoma collectively decided to sacrifice themselves to intercept the nuke while singing a song, damn that was something. Great job from them.

Gouda seemed pretty smug thinking he got away with things, and seemed to mock the others. Chief Cabinenat of Secretary Takakura was detained for his role in things. They also detained Gouda while he seemed to be getting away with his presumable foreign aids. Gouda believed he would waltz out due to leaving a letter to police, but Togusa pulled out the Prime Ministers letter which allowed them to use lethal force if required if he was going to fall into a foreign power. Motoko eliminated Gouda. Kuze was also eliminated himself by other powers.