Monday, January 24, 2011

Characters: Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex

Characters: Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex

A character sheet for the cyberpunk anime Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex.
The crew of Section 9 is a group of extremely competent and skilled operatives:

Major Motoko Kusanagi

Usually called "The Major", she is ostensibly the protagonist, although the series gives much more time to her squadmates than the feature films and manga do. She is a full-conversion cyborg, having been fully inorganic except her brain and part of her spinal column since about age six. Her skills are exceptional, and while her body is a standard cyborg model it's modified extensively with top of the line custom military cybernetics. A brilliant hacker, able to invade even the connected human mind. She has a cold demeanor and a strict devotion to her job, somewhat bordering on sociopathy.
Her last name, "Kusanagi" (literally "Grass-Cutter") is the name of the Sword which is part of the Japanese Imperial Regalia, along with the Jewel and the Mirror. As the manga explicitly points out, the name is "an obvious pseudonym", roughly equivalent to a westerner going by the name "Jane Excalibur".
Voiced by Atsuko Tanaka in the Japanese and Mary Elizabeth Mcglynn in the dub.

  • Action Girl
  • Badass
  • Bi The Way: Unclear; she doesn't have a boyfriend in this continuity, but she also doesn't have explicit lesbian VR-sex either (she's just seen talking philosophy with a Kurtan in bed while Ran comes out of the shower).
    • Kurtan later accompanies her to hospital, checks out her new cyborg body and comments on how excited it makes her to think of what she could do with all the illegal modifications her new body has.
    • In the manga, Motoko does have boyfriend. Sugi makes a brief appearance in FAKE FOOD, even asking if Batou and Togusa knows her. However, this is not enough evidence to suggest he is her boyfriend in this continuity.
  • Boobs Of Steel: Almost literally. It's actually synthetic flesh and muscle overlapping a titanium alloy and high-tech ceramic skeletal frame, but who's counting?
  • The Captain: She's Section 9's field leader.
  • Genius Bruiser: Every member of Section 9 has a speciality. Her speciality is to out-class everybody for everything, except maybe bomb defusion (Borma) and sharp-shooting (Saito, even if she could have defeated him).
  • Heroic BSOD: Undergoes ones after diving into Kuze's cyberbrain She gets better after a short while.
  • Heroic RROD - Subverted. In the second episode of the series, there's a shout-out to the original movie, but she doesn't RROD; she's just not strong enough, and nothing happens.
  • Hot Amazon - Though she's more cultured that you might think.
  • Kind Red Eyes: Motoko'S eyes are red... She's not exactly a kind person in most situations, but she's certainly not evil.
  • Lady Of War - Her career even started in the military.
  • Lawful Neutral: With a remarkably low respect for law, at times - by the Solid State Society she's working completely outside the system, solving incidents that the legislation can't touch.
  • Major Badass
  • Ms Fanservice
  • Pre Mortem One Liner: Season 2, Episode 1.
  • Sinister Surveillance: For her enemies, at least.
  • The Stoic - The Major never laughs, involuntarily cries only once, and it takes a hell of a lot to make her angry. If you do ever manage to piss her off, be very, very afraid.
  • Stripperiffic - The Major's clothes are too hot for espionage, and that's what she wears in civvies. (Some fans call it the Battle Teddy.) However, in more formal public functions, she wears a standard military uniform instead.
    • She gets slightly better civvies during the 2nd Gig - still Stripperific by conventional standards, but at least includes pants. She also gets a fairly modest, and very stylish black business dress for formal occasions where military garb is unsuitable.
    • This is played for laughs in one SAC episode, where a raid goes wrong and the Major's normal outfit gets trashed. At the debriefing, she's wearing a much more revealing outfit (basically workout clothes) and is visibly uncomfortable.
      • More uncomfortable about the humiliation she just went through (thrown to a garbage heap by run-off-the-mill combat android) than her clothing, though AramakiLampshades it anyway.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Episode 21 displays this very well.
  • You Gotta Have Purple Hair: The Major stands out in a cast of fairly realistic hair colours. Justified as she is a full cyborg and probably could get any colour hair she wants without much trouble.

Batou

Another full cyborg (whose name is more properly spelled in the French style as Bateau). Built as a 6'1" tall muscle-man, with eyes that resemble classy shades. He's all about brute force and strength. Likes big guns. Very friendly and jocular, and harbors a deep attraction to the Major, which he hides pretty poorly. She just ignores it, except for a few key points in the series. Regardless of this, the Major considers him her best friend and Confidant. Something of the jerkass, but still a pretty nice guy who's had his share of Pet The Dog.
Voiced by Akio Ohtsuka in the Japanese and Richard Epcar in the dub.

Togusa

A regular joe Japanese beat cop with very few cybernetics. Brought into the team to balance out the skill set, basically. He's an old-fashioned guy, with a young wife and two kids (one boy and one girl). Carries an old Mateba semiautomatic revolver - almost as much of an anachronism as his teammates consider him to be, though both seem to get the job done when need be.
Voiced by Koichi Yamadera in the Japanese and Crispin Freeman in the dub.

Aramaki Daisuke

Da Chief. He's the old man that does all the back door politics that need, um, politicking. Has connections at every level of the government. Trusts his people implicitly.
Voiced by William Knight in the dub.

Ishikawa

Exceptional info-gatherer. Specializes in traditional hacking, as opposed to cyberbrain invasion. Turns any computer into a Magical Database. In a subversion of the type, he is actually a fairly old guy, being one of the oldest members of Section 9.

Saito

Team sniper (the name is pronounced in Japanese the same as "Sight"). Has a single cybernetic eye and cybernetic wrist. May or may not have had an... interesting first meeting with the Major.
Voiced by Dave Wittenberg in the dub.

Borma

Sumo-esque backup guy. His specialty is explosives, and he often acts as transportation (pilot, driver), but he is so minor that his talents are mentioned only once in first season, and used once in 2nd Gig.
  • The Generic Guy: Is easily the least developed character in Section 9, and is arguably the only member of section 9 devoid of doing anything that's really cool. All we have to go on is that he's the explosives specialist of Section 9.

Paz

Another backup guy. Boasts that he "never sleeps with the same woman twice".
  • The Casanova - Paz claims that he never sleeps with the same woman twice. This comes back to haunt him in 2nd Gig.
  • Spot The Imposter: We never quite find out if it was the real Paz that was killed or his Psycho Ex Girlfriend who had decided to duplicate his body and transfer her brain into it. It's never brought up again either.

The Tachikomas

A.I. Think-Tanks (literally) and the Stand Alone Complex incarnation of the manga's "Fuchikoma", that have personalities like children and resemble blue, four-legged mechanical spiders. There are about 12 of them. Subject to regular memory synchronization, they are all supposed to be identical and interchangeable. As the most advanced A.I.s on the planet (probably), they are quite philosophical about their place in the world, to the point of surprising Section 9 at times.
  • Or, more succinctly: If you mushed together a puppy, a philosopher, and a machine gun, you'd get a Tachikoma. (One of this troper's favorite descriptions of them, from...somewhere or other.)
    • Add in the curiosity of a 5 year old child, and the zeal for destruction of a barbarian, and you get closer.
  • Badass Adorable
  • Badass Automatons
  • Cute Bruiser: While not humanoid, their voices and personalities are adorable enough to make them the cutest characters of the series. However, they are still advanced combat robots, and they WILL completely mess you up, ESPECIALLY if you hurt Mr. Batou.
  • Cute Machines
  • Do Androids Dream
  • Gatling Good : Occasionally have their grenade launchers replaced with one.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of both seasons no less
    • And minor ones in some episodes, like the fight between the Major's Tachikoma and a crazy helicopter. He Got Better, and even talks of it with his fellows.
  • Spider Tanks
  • Spanner In The Works: Their unpredictability is a huge factor in stopping Gouda's plan.
  • Tear Jerker: In the climax of the first season, when they sacrifice themselves to save Batou, using the very few weapons they have. His personal Tachikoma is the last to go, and it looks to Batou, says, "Goodbye, Mr. Batou..." and cries a single tear of organic oil. That had this troper crying, especially because of the symbolism of humanity that Batou literally installed by giving the Tachikomas organic oil to begin with. They get better, but the fact that robotic armaments being scrapped can cause real world tears... Wow.
  • Took A Level In Badass : In the second season, they become very efficient hackers.
  • The Woobie - The Tachikomas in the English dub are arguably this, but only sometimes. When they're only talking, they become The Woobie because of their adorable voices, but when they're fighting the Woobieism changes and they become both an Iron Woobie and Badass Adorable at the same time.

The Laughing Man

A super hacker who kidnapped the C.E.O of Serano Genomics 6 years prior to the start of the series. This incident would make him a hero in the eyes of some and the entity "The Laughing Man" become a sort of cultural phenomenon.
Voiced by Koichi Yamadera in the Japanese and Steven Blum in the dub.

  • Visual Pun: While pretending to be a vegetable, Aoi carries around a left handed catcher's mit; slang for something which is though to exist but doesn't.
  • Memetic Mutation: An In Universe example Aoi, the original Laughing Man, only carried out the kidnapping of Ernest Serano prior to the start of the series. However, this spawned multiple imitators who carried out crimes under the name of "The Laughing Man".
    • Even in real life some people, most notably the Anonymous, use his logo to make a similar statement
  • Man Behind The Man: An accidental example, since he never intended to spawn imitators.
  • Playful Hacker
  • Techno Wizard
  • The Dog Was The Mastermind: Watch out for that deaf, dumb mute kid in the wheelchair, Togusa.
  • Title Drop: The aformentioned copycat behaviour is what forms the titular "Stand Alone Complex".
  • Well Intentioned Extremist

Hideo Kuze

Member of the Individual Eleven terrorist group, Kuze's first major action upon his introduction into the series is an attempt at the Prime Minsters life. He later becomes the lone survivor of the mass suicide the Individual Eleven partake in, and then goes on to start a revolution among the refugees in an attempt to give them independence.
Voiced by Rikiya Koyama in the Japanese and Kirk Thornton in the dub.

Kazundo Gouda

Head of data manipulation within the Cabinet Intelligence Service. An extremely shady character who quickly draws the suspicion and dislike of Section 9
  • Always Someone Better: it's outright stated that most of his actions are the result of an inferiority complex. And Batou (using the Major's external memories) even implies that his entire scheme throughout 2nd Gig was an attempt to one-up the Laughing Man. He also implies that said attempts have failed.
  • Big Bad: Of the 2nd season
  • Cutting The Knot: How he's undone at the end of the second season. The Prime Minister simply asserts her authority and gives Section 9 what more or less amounts to permission to kill him unless he surrenders (since he's convinced he's more or less untouchable by the law thanks to his scheming but that particular bit of legislation was the equivlent of the USA Patriot Act). Which they do.
  • Complete Monster: He was completely willing to let Dejima blow up and let millions of refugees go with it just to serve his own ends. And he sees Section 9 as little more than a minor inconvenience in his plan, making Motoko's last line to him of "you're dead wrong" very satisfying to the viewer.
  • Lawful Evil
  • Good Scars Evil Scars: Half the side of his face is horribly scarred. Despite having the technology to repair it, Gouda chose to keep it the way it is because it allows him to give off more of an impression. Also, he seems to believe that the scarring of his face also caused a change to his Ghost, turning him from a boring bureaucrat dreaming of greatness into a bona fide Magnificent Bastard.
  • The Chessmaster: He's the one responsible for the emergence of the Individual Eleven in the first place and is the mastermind behind the entire conflict between Japan and the refugees.
    • Well, not entirely. He simply exploits trends that are already in place. He just does it extremely well.
  • Obviously Evil
  • Red Right Hand: Gohda's got a mangled face and a bizarrely egg-shaped head. A man of his position, in this world of powerful surgical and prosthetic technology, could have easily repaired his face to look normal, but he chose not to, just because he liked the unsettling appearance he now had. A rare case where the Red Right Hand is entirely voluntary, which alone speaks volumes about his character.
  • Smug Snake: Incarnate. Makes his death all the more satisfying.
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