Kôkaku kidôtai: Stand Alone Complex (2002)

Actors: Derek Stephen Prince (actor), Daran Norris (actor), Michael Forest (actor), Simon Prescott (actor), Steve Kramer (actor), Kirk Baily (actor), Lex Lang (actor), Robert Axelrod (actor), Steve Blum (actor), Beau Billingslea (actor), Johnny Yong Bosch (actor), Stephen Apostolina (actor), Doug Erholtz (actor), Fumihiko Tachiki (actor), Steve Staley (actor),

Plot: The second season of Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex begins with Section 9 being called back to work after a hostage situation of concern to the Ruling Party renders the Police useless. The entire team returns to the front lines: Kusanagi, Batoh, Togusa, Ishikawa, Saito, Paz & Borma, with four of the original Tachikomas restored after the firefight of Episode 26. The hostage situation announced the rising of a new terrorist cell, which takes much after another one in the headlines of today's papers. The Individual Eleven, whose members are neither individuals, or total up to eleven are a new threat to Public Security. How does a specialized public security group face an enemy more faceless than the "laughing man" during a time of political unrest? Among the broad changes from the first show involve the new ruling party, headed by the new Prime Minister Kabayuki after the prior ousting in GITS: SAC, the Japanese Residents caught in the middle of the affairs and paying the taxes for jobs they're going to lose in a time of recession, and the downtrodden "invited" Asian Immigrants of the Second Vietnamese War who were brought to Japan as a half-hearted humanitarian act from the government who was really just seeking cheap labor. And just who is the man called "Gohda", a mysterious new 'supervisor' (don't worry, Aramaki still runs the group) who appears to be calling the shots for Section 9 during certain missions? He calls out orders as if he was in charge of the group, yet has no apparent loyalty or respect to the government, military or Section 9.

Keywords: 2030s, 21st-century, anime, artificial-intelligence, based-on-comic, based-on-manga, biotechnology, computer, counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism
Genres: Action, Animation, Animation, Crime, Sci-Fi, Thriller,
Taglines: A New Beginning, A New Threat...

Quotes:

Major Motoko Kusanagi: Look at the bright side, if this doesn't work, we can all go drown our sorrows at a nudie bar.

Daisuke Aramaki: There has never been reported stomach aches or related medical trauma that takes place after swallowing your pride.

[about the terrorist,Hideo Kuze]::Batou: What the hell kind of delusions does this guy have?::Major. Motoko Kusanagi: Frankly speaking, I guess you could call it world domination.::Batou: Say what?::Ishikawa: Got himself a serious case of megalomania, huh? Its not like you to let something like that get to you.::Batou: Geez, you look like some teenager who's just met the man of her dreams.::Major. Motoko Kusanagi: Right. But we know one thing for sure now. And that is although he has manifested symptoms of the Individual Eleven virus, his current actions are driven by the personal qualities and idiologies that he had before he was infected. His delusion might be a cliche, but the reason I can't laugh it off is that he genuinely believes he can bring peace to the world by becoming a dictator. Thats the sense I got from him. Plus, his adrenaline secretion levels were high enough to kill an ordinary man. I think we can assume he is already out of touch.::Batou: What do you mean, out of touch?::Major. Motoko Kusanagi: I'm sayin that he's becoming obsessed. Looking back on history, men like him have weilded unbelievable power. For instance, Che Guevara, Malcom X, and Cassius Clay are text book examples.::Batou: You teling me that he's not the same as Hitler?::Major. Motoko Kusanagi: He's the same in a certain sense, but ideologically, he's closer to Ghandi or Martin Luther King.

Major Motoko Kusanagi: [Section 9 is disbanding after being attacked by Government forces] Public Security Section 9 is hereby disbanded. That is all.