Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Difference between revisions

** "Captivated" prominently features a Russian character who has no accent whatsoever.

* [[Anime First]]: A manga series based on the anime wouldn't be released until 8 years after the anime had first aired in Japan.

** Several among the [[Monster of the Week|"villains of the week".]]

* [[Arc Words]]: "I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes", most obviously in the Laughing Man's logo.

* [[Battle Discretion Shot]]: In ''ANNIHILATION'', a group of Umibozu mooks sneak up on Borma right after he says goodbye to Paz. We only hear see the ensuing fight.

* [[Batman Gambit]]: The Chief's plan at the end of Season 1, definitely. He was counting on {{spoiler|his team surviving the purge and still trusting him afterwards.}}

* [[Beat the Curse Out of Him]]: Or in Borma's case, getting the curse beat out of him just ''before'' it can take over his mind. In ''SELECON'', {{spoiler|Borma is going through some essay files while doing research on the Individual Eleven with Ishikawa and Aramaki. He tries to move all the essays into a folder, but moving the last one on the list in with the others triggered a nasty virus that almost shut down his brain.}} Ishikawa had to step in and knock him out with a solid right hook.

* [[Being Watched]]: The Major and Batou can intuit when they are being spied on.

** In ''SELECON'', Batou's combat knife provides a perfect mirror reflection of his face while he's commenting on taking an alternative option for bringing Kuze into custody: by bringing back his head.

{{quote| '''Motoko:''' ''"How sadistic..."''}}

** In ''EQUINOX'', the CEO of Serano Genomics and the Laughing Man {{spoiler|or the Major impersonating him}} meet in "Starchild Coffee".

** The ninth episode of "2nd Gig" features an advertisement for "Tucky Strike".

* [[Boom Headshot]]: This is standard operating procedure when fighting cyborgs, as aiming for the center of mass is not a guaranteed kill - only destroying the brain case is.

* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: Rarely for the show, played straight in one episode when a [[Psycho for Hire|deranged mook]] sprays a hallway with gunfire, pinning down Togusa until he can return fire.

* [[Brain Uploading]]: The practice of "ghost dubbing," which is highly illegal in the Ghost in the Shell universe due to the effects of said dubbing on the original, who suffers severe brain damage and eventually dies.

* [[Brick Joke]]: In the first episode, we learn that Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs {{spoiler|likes to swap his brain into robot geishas}} when he's out having a good time, which causes him to {{spoiler|be kidnapped via his brain being put in a box while his body is stolen.}} Much later in the beginning of 2nd Gig, Section 9 sees him at the party for "people of particular tastes" they're staking out, and comment that he hasn't changed much. We also get a closeup of him while the Tachikomas discuss whether the partygoers should be called "perverts" or "eccentric."

* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]: A few scenes, such as the training exercise from episode 15.

* [[Designated Girl Fight]]: Rarely for the series. The Major enters a hotel room in pursuit of Marcelo Jarti and has to fight his two android [[Bodyguard Babes]], whom he left behind to delay her while he escapes.

* [[Die Hard On an X]]: Die Hard in a... wine bank. Interestingly played in that it was a ''double'' hostage situation, with the ex-mob bank robbers holding Aramaki and his friend, and the mob-bribed police ready to swoop in and kill them all. Aramaki plays the John McClane role hilariously as he starts ordering the would-be hostage-takers around so that they can all get out alive.

* [[Digital Avatar]]: See [[Cyberspace]] example above. Actually called attention to by the Tachikomas in one episode. While they use full avatars, most of the team use a generic "labeled triangle in circle" to identify themselves.

* [[Do Androids Dream]]: A main general theme of the GITS franchise. Not only do the Tachikomas do this, but the humans themselves do as well, though in the opposite fashion: at what point does a human ''stop'' being a human, if there is such a point?

* [[Does Not Know His Own Strength]]: The Major had difficulty controlling her prosthetics when she first became a cyborg. The opening sequence of the first season show her crushing a doll due to being unable to control her hand properly. Incidentally, full-prosthetic cyborgs have a theoretically limitless amount of strength (all comes down to technology,) so there are laws put in place preventing citizens from using their bodies to jump around as a faster form of transportation in order to cut down on property damage. There are many instances in the series where Motoko, Batou, or the Tachikomas survive free-falls from heights that would easily kill them, but they land with very minimal (if any) damage to themselves or the surroundings.

* [[Do Not Adjust Your Set]]: When the Laughing Man hacks the Superintendent-General's brain as he's giving a speech on live TV.

* [[Dramatic Gun Cock]]: It seems to be a rule that nobody can load a weapon in this show (or even point it at someone else) without noisily chambering a round.

* [[Ethereal Choir]]: In the soundtrack, although not as much as the movie had (eg. the song "Stamina Rose").

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: The Laughing Man: the real one, rather than the many impersonators that cropped up over the years - gets fed up with the latest police corruption scandal and gives a dire (if vague) warning to the police commissioner to come clean during his next speech, ''or else.'' Because of the sensationalism of the literal [[Memetic Mutation]] of the Laughing Man, people from all walks of life come out to try assassinating the commissioner, each claiming to be the real Laughing Man. The police conspirators even had their own fake set up but were totally unprepared for sheer numbers who showed up to take a shot at the commissioner. The kicker is that apparently the real Laughing Man didn't even do a thing other than issue a threat; the imitators did all the work without even being mind-controlled.

* [[Every Car Is a Pinto]]: Some cars blow up extremely easily, such as Yamaguchi's in the crash where he dies.

* [[Evil Plan]]: Ghoda in the second season. He's the one controlling Kuze.

** The first episode of the first season has an elderly minister who likes swapping his brain into that of a sexy geisha whenever he gets drunk. Unfortunately this sets him up as a prime candidate for a [[Grand Theft Me]] when his brain's exposed.

* [[Firing in The Air A Lot]]: Batou empties the clip of his assault rifle into the air at the end of ''ERASER'', a rare instance of [[Reckless Gun Usage]] from him.

** In ''RE-VIEW'', Gayle (the head of the DEA squad that storms the Sunflower Society's offices) also does it, although in this case it's a hint that {{spoiler|he's actually a full-body cyborg, and Togusa is no match for him}}.

** In ''ERASER'', Kusanagi fires Saito's anti-tank rifle at Gayle one-handed, in revenge for him {{spoiler|almost crushing her skull beneath the foot of his [[Powered Armor]]. Of course, two-handed wasn't exactly an option at the time; she only had the one arm left from the battle.}}

* [[Gatling Good]]: Batou uses a minigun at one point, and the Tachikomas can have their grenade launchers switched out with rotary cannons when needed.

* [[Genre Roulette]]: The Tachikomatic Days short from episode 16 goes from a ''[[Star Wars]]'' parody to ... a romance series?

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: ''SCANDAL'' has a lot of fairly blatant [[Les Yay]] in the scene where the Major goes to get her body replaced, such as Kurutan enthusing over how great the Major's body is and wondering what she could do with it. Since the Major's canonical orientation is [[Bi the Way|bisexual]] (there are a few blink-or-you'll-miss it scenes of her in bed with another woman) this lends a very different subtext to the scene.

* [[Gonk]]: The Minister of the Interior.

* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: Not at all. The methods used by the heroes are really not much different than those of the villains. Their aims are.

* [[Good Old Ways]]: Inverted in the Season 1 finale. {{spoiler|It's Aramaki who's calling old-fashioned paper books obsolete, and the young Laughing Man who's defending them.}}

* [[Gorn]]: The scene where {{spoiler|the Major blows off Gouda's head at close range}}, as well as Marco Amoretti's murders in the episode ''JUNGLE CRUISE''.

* [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: When Nanao is killed by a gunshot to the head. Only a few specks of blood can be seen onscreen.

* [[Hand Signals]]: Multiple examples in both series. One notable examples is Motoko and Batou using this when they infiltrate a youth reform facility for fear of having their comms intercepted/destroyed/hacked after losing contact with Togusa.

* [[Harmless Villain]]: More than a few.

* [[Heart Drive]]: Anyone with a cyberized brain has the capability of transferring it over into a new body as long as it remains safe and undamaged.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Several, sometimes literally.

** Togusa almost snaps from being out of the loop for three months at the end of the first season. Luckily Batou stops him before he can do anything rash.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|The Tachikomas. In ''both'' seasons}} also counts as [[Tear Jerker]] and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

* [[Hold Me]]: Done wordlessly between {{spoiler|Kuze}} and The Major in the last episode, as they embrace in the face of {{spoiler|a nuclear strike}}. Even though {{spoiler|the strike is averted in the end}}, it's still one hell of a [[Tear Jerker]].

* [[Hollywood Hacking]]: Skilled hackers like Ishikawa are able to whip up cyber-vaccines in a matter of minutes. Notably, the Laughing Man is said to be able to hack into computer networks and replace other people's faces with his logo ''in real time''.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Aramaki makes one at the end of ''ANGEL'S SHARE'': "the truth is in the wine." <ref> The episode revolves around a hostage situation in a wine cellar and is set in Britain, so he was alluding to the British proverb "the proof is in the pudding.</ref>

** See [[Arm Cannon]] for another one by Batou.

* [[Informal Eulogy]]: Batou does a visual version where he places a lit cigarette in a bottle and prays over it like a stick of incense for the {{spoiler|Individual Eleven}} as part of his attempt to {{spoiler|[[Hannibal Lecture]] Gohda}}.

* [[Information Wants to Be Free]]: The micro-machine industry muzzled the discovery of the cure for cyberbrain sclerosis. Laughing Man wants to expose them.

* [[Infrared X Ray Camera]]: Section 9 uses something like this to spy on suspects through walls, eg. when Batou is staking out Nanao's apartment.

* [[Innocuously Important Episode]]: The [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking]] episode ''Affection'' in 2ng Gig seems to be just a standalone episode made to shed some light on The Major's tragic past. Turns out it {{spoiler|explains a lot of ''Kuze's'' past too, and shows how he and The Major met when they were much younger}}. This does not become explicitly apparent until the end of the season.

* [[Inside a Computer System]]

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Whenever [[Great Offscreen War|World War IV]] is referred to, it's always done so as "World War IV, the unofficial Second Vietnam War" or "Non-Nuclear World War IV".

* [[Instant Death Bullet]]: At times.

* [[Intentional Engrish for Funny]]: The ending theme of the first season ("Lithium Flower") sounds like a [[Blind Idiot Translation]], but it was actually written by an American, Tim Jensen.

** When Aramaki visits Tsujisaki's grave in ''LOST HERITAGE'', it's also raining.

* [[It Got Worse]]: Especially towards the end.

* [[Just a Machine]]: Motoko thinks this about the Tachikomas, who manage to literally evolve out of this trope. {{spoiler|All of Section 9 thinks this about [[The Scrappy|the Uchikomas... who do not.]]}}

* [[Just Between You and Me]]: Nanao delivers a [[Motive Rant]] to his killer right before he dies.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: The Umibozu, a JMSDF special forces squad named after a deadly Japanese Sea Spirit. They live up to their name in spades at the end of Stand Alone Complex, especially when they were infamous for retaking Nemuro from invading armies.

** Kusanagi is the name of a legendary sword made by a God from [[Japanese Mythology]], which means she has an [[Awesome McCoolname]].

* [[Nanomachines]]: It's mentioned that nanotechnology is used for medical purposes in the world of the show. {{spoiler|They're an ineffective treatment for cyberbrain sclerosis, though.}}

* [[Neural Implanting]]: At one point in ''POKER FACE", Saito theorizes that {{spoiler|Motoko}} was downloading fire-control software for the gun in the middle of the shoot-out.

* [[Passive Rescue]]: {{spoiler|The Laughing Man}} gives the Major one near the end of the first season by {{spoiler|giving her control of her body again}}. To be fair, it's unlikely he'd have been able to take out the assassin more directly.

* [[People Jars]]: When Motoko and Batou discover the cache of replacement bodies that Marcelo has stored in a warehouse.

* [[Pin Pulling Teeth]]: Batou does this a couple of times during the shootout in Kusanagi's mansion, though as a full-body cyborg his teeth might be a lot tougher than those of an ordinary person.

** He also does it in ''NOT EQUAL'' when fighting the Human Liberation Front.

* [[Ridiculously Human Robot]]: Well, cyborgs, anyway; a full-body cyborg can look just like any human and even has skin and all the senses a human would have.

** This trope is hilariously inverted with the Jameson-type cyborgs; they're literally just a small box with four little legs and a single telescoping arm on top; they're technically human but their bodies are as inhuman as you get.

* [[Robo Cam]]: Batou's vision through his cybereyes. Also, the Tachikomas.

* [[Robosexual]]: Humans who prefer to have sex with robots are not unusual in the series at all (eg. the minister from the first episode who has a fetish for swapping bodies with robot maids).

* [[Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence]]: The Tachikoma are Human-level. The humanoid Operators superficially appear to be Human-level, but malfunction and shut down when presented with a [[Logic Bomb|logical paradox]] by the Tachikoma.

* [[Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb]]: We find out that Borma specializes in bomb analysis and defusing in ''2nd Gig''. His talents are called in later into the season when an entire city is evacuated when a supposed nuclear bomb is discovered in a skyscraper.

** Batou / Bateau (the former is the correct spelling, though the later would be more correct if spoken by a French speaker.)

** Bouma / Borma (pronounced as the former, but written as the latter.)

* [[Techno Babble]]

* [[Terrorists Without a Cause]]: The Individual Eleven's ideology makes ''absolutely no sense''. {{spoiler|Picking up on this is what allows Kuze to escape the group's programming in time.}}

** This is lampshaded in the 'Tachikomatic Days' omake to 2nd Gig ep. 24 - NUCLAR POWER, which features the Tachikoma superhero Tachikoman, who's theme song is, needless to say, "Run Rabbit Junk."

** When the Major regains control of her body and overpowers Sano in ''SCANDAL'' (with a little help from the Laughing Man), "Flashback Memory Stick", a remix of "Inner Universe" plays.

* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: Justified in that due to prosthetics, people can sometimes withstand ''a lot'' of firepower. Tragically averted in several cases where someone was able to cause a final act of killing because they weren't shot enough to actually kill them.

* [[Throw Away Guns]]: Batou seems to do this a lot, such as in ''ANNIHILATION'' when he exhausts all the ammo in his minigun and simply abandons it.

* [[Tokyo Is the Center of The Universe]]: Averted in that Niihama isn't actually Tokyo, but the trope is played straight otherwise.

** The scene in ''BARRAGE'' (episode 25 of season 1) where the Tachikomas hear the Major's voice encouraging them and the audience is shown a close-up of the Kannon statue on her estate. Conveniently for Western viewers, it could also be seen as a statue of the Virgin Mary.

* [[Why Am I Ticking]]: A security guard at the wine bank in ''ANGELS' SHARE'' has a bomb strapped to him while he's unconscious which is discovered by the police when they break in. Thankfully, it's not real, but just a ploy to confuse them.

* [[Word Salad Lyrics]]: Many songs in the soundtrack combine multiple languages, such as English, Russian, and Latin in "Inner Universe" or Italian and English in "Velveteen".

* [[World Half Empty]]: The political atmosphere in Japan is fairly nasty, between season 1's corporate corruption and season 2's refugee crisis. Other places in the world aren't faring much better. It's not a [[Crapsack World]] by a long shot, but the heroes don't always win.

* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: In general, people are not afraid to hit Motoko. Not that it does them any good, but they try.

* [[Would Not Shoot a Good Guy]]: [[Averted Trope|Yes, they would]]. Whether or not the guys gunning for them are actually "good" is debatable, since they're Black Ops types who specialize in erasing people, but they are definitely working for their government and Section 9 doesn't hesitate to defend themselves lethally against them.

* [[Yoko Kanno]]: This series' soundtrack is usually regarded as the best, if not one of the best soundtracks she has ever composed.

* [[You Keep Using That Word]]: "Vaccine" is consistently used to refer to a ''cure'' for a cyber-virus, never as a preventative measure.