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

* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: A rather unusual example in which the manga expands upon the anime episodes. Both volumes of the manga are faithful retellings of the first two episodes, but pad out the story a bit more by creating new scenes. For example, in ''"Testation"'', certain scenes are extended to give more backstory to Takeshi Kago and his parents.

* [[Adult Fear]]: The project of the Puppeteer in ''Solid State Society'' involves taking children (of parents classified as abusive) and wiping the parents memories so they never knew they existed.

* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]: Various androids and programs show their fare share of faults, including the sniper assisting program that tried to compensate Saito's own natural skills, but the Uchikomas count in particular. Enough to actually become an in-universe [[The Scrappy|Scrappy]].

* [[Air Vent Passageway]]: When Batou is snooping around in Zaitsev's office, he hides in the ducts when Zaitsev returns unexpectedly.

** The commander of the Umibozu also wears a trenchcoat which is left open at all times.

* [[Badass Mustache]]: The Umibozu captain has one to go with his [[Sinister Shades]].

* [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: Section 9 pretends to be from the sanitation department ''and'' a maintenance crew ... in the same episode.

* [[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.

* [[Book Ends]]: The first season begins and ends with Major standing on a rooftop, and Batou appearing in a helicopter rising past it.

** The second season's first and last episodes involve Major Kusanagi shooting a villain in the head, causing it to explode rather violently. This is also a callback to the prologue in the manga and [[The Movie]].

* [[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-Computer Interface]]: Most cyborgs have jacks in their necks which can be used to plug into computers or even another person's brain.

* [[Conspiracy Theorist]]: Episode 9 revolves a group of them who gather in a chatroom to discuss the Laughing Man.

* [[Contemplate Our Navels]]: In-universe, The Tachikomas' tendency to do this does more than bug Motoko, making her worry about their efficiency as fighting machines, and also that they might somehow become too intelligent.

** She saves Vice-Minister Jin from Tsujisaki Yu's assassination attempt this way as well.

* [[Cool Code of Source]]: When Ishikawa is hacking, lines of code tend to scroll down the screen far faster than any human could possibly read them. As a cyborg, it's likely he has no problem, though.

* [[Cool People Rebel Against Authority]]: The reason why the Laughing Man is so popular.

* [[Corrupt Politician]]: The Yakushima administration in the first season, as well as a few cabinet leaders in the 2nd season.

** Kanzaki from the episode ''CAPTIVATED'', although he's more dishonest than corrupt (he later makes a [[Heel Face Turn]]).

* [[Creator Cameo]]: Kenji Kamiyama's name appears on the rim the cybernetic eye in the first episode of the first series. In Second Gig, he is seen on a security camera system driving a car.

* [[Criminal Mind Games]]: The Laughing Man seems to enjoy toying with authority figures a lot as they struggle to figure out his true identity.

* [[Dissonant Serenity]]

* [[Distress Ball]]: Despite an overwhelming amount of experience and knowledge about political and domestic affairs, Aramaki falls victim to this when he hears his brother was arrested under (falsified) drug trafficking charges. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that he was previously shown to be upset over his dedication to keeping his personal and professional actions separate, to the point of refusing to help the daughter of his former best friend. His guilt over this contributes to his resolve cracking and decision to personally investigate his brother, according to the dialog at the end.

* [[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.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: In ''¥€$'', watch when the Major gets knocked into a pile of garbage by the criminal's android. Although it's only on screen for a second, an [[Gag Penis|enormous cannon]] can be seen unfolding from the android's crotch.

* [[Laser Sight]]: Used to the hilt - and often. There's even a scene where a runaway tank produces its own lasers to baffle other laser targeting systems.

* [[Let Off By the Detective]]: The medical students in ''MISSING HEARTS'' (see [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]).

* [[Life Imitates Art]]: ''Ghost in the Shell'' has directly inspired Japanese scientists to develop actual "thermoptic camouflage" cloaking technology (that works by bending light around the wearer) and a functioning Tachikoma prototype (a 4 wheel vehicle with a segmented body that gives a visual feed to the driver through cameras.) Advances in prosthetic limb technology has also advanced significantly over the last few decades.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: The ''Stand Alone Complex'' series, while still fairly dark, is noticeably less grim than the [[Ghost in The Shell (Manga)|manga]] and the [[Ghost in The Shell (Anime)|movies]]. ''Usually.''

* [[Mundane Utility]]: It's well-established that thermoptic camouflage is foiled by water. So how does the Major deal with the cloaked Umibozu troops? {{spoiler|She turns on the fire sprinklers.}}

* [[Musical Spoiler]]: In the episode ''TRIAL'', the instrumental intro of ''I Can't be Cool'' is played over a speech by Togusa. ''I Can't be Cool'' is usually played when {{spoiler|The Major is hacking. Later in the episode it's revealed that she hacked Togusa's brain to deliver that speech.}}

* [[Mythology Gag]]: Almost every scene is recreated or referenced from start to finish from the original manga across the series. ''Solid State Society'' almost entirely recreates scene for scene the "Human-Error Processor" manga. The tank/Armor Suit battles are perhaps the most obvious.

** Much of the Etorofu episode in ''2nd Gig'' was largely lifted from the manga, including the cyborg Koil, the geofront and the visit to Sagawa Electronics.

* [[No Transhumanism Allowed]]: The Human Liberation Front is one of several groups opposed to cyberization.

* [[Noisy Guns]]: Averted for the majority of the series, but played straight in some episodes of the 2nd season.

* [[No New Fashions in The Future]]: Unless there is a sudden trend for going pantless underneath a leather jacket.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: At various points in the series, the novels, and the Playstation 2 video game, the Nemuro Landing Operation is mentioned. The game mentions it the most, but it's never explained what this operation was, beyond an [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|amphibious landing at Nemuro]], Hokkaido. It is mentioned that Motoko, Batou, and the Umibozu were all involved in it though. The PSP game goes into the most detail, but still doesn't explain exactly what it is.

* [[Omake]]: "Tachikomatic Days"

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]: ''[[Crowning Music of Awesome|Torukia]]'', featured in the [[Mexican Standoff]] between the Major and {{spoiler|Saito}} at the climax of ''POKER FACE''.

* [[Organ Theft]]: Several episodes revolve around it, such as the medical students from episode 8.

* [[Our Souls Are Different]]: "Ghosts", the sum of a person's consciousness, are referred to constantly. They are explicitly stated to be impossible to reproduce. Whether machines can have them or not is a topic of debate in-universe.

* [[Rapid Aging]]: Eka Turkuro. It's implied to be caused by the stress of her long captivity, although it's never really explained how it happened.

* [[Recruiting the Criminal]]: Motoko and Aramaki try, albeit unsuccessfully, to recruit The Laughing Man in the finale of Season 1.

* [[Remote Body]]: Major Kusanagi (and presumably other characters) can remotely control robot bodies. At the end of the first season she uses this ability to avoid being killed.

* [[Replaced the Theme Tune]]: "GET9" was used as the theme song in some rebroadcasts instead of "Inner Universe" in the first season. "CHRisTmas in the SiLent ForeSt" replaced "Rise" in the 2nd. The ending themes were changed as well.

** At the beginning of ''ERASER'', the Major does it when she and Aramaki burst into the operating room to see {{spoiler|Togusa, who's been shot}}.

* [[Scary Shiny Glasses]]: Sano has them.

* [[Scope Snipe]]: {{spoiler|The Major does this to Saito in a flashback}} in ''POKER FACE''. Unlike most of the examples of this trope, he survives. He also ''predicted'' this would happen to him when he ran through the scenario in his head.

* [[The Scrappy]]: In-universe, in ''Solid State Society'', Section 9 acknowledges that while the Uchikomas are suppose to be technologically superior {{spoiler|to the Tachikomas they replaced}}, their AI's weren't capable of advanced development. They just acted like robots with a flat monotone voice, much to the expressed dislike by the members of Section 9. They were eventually.. well, scrapped. {{spoiler|With a little help from the Major, The Tachikomas are brought back and reinstated.}} The SSS [[Omake]] even expresses how the Uchikomas just want to be loved, but are incapable of experiencing it.

* [[Shown Their Work]]: All the time. When the series ''is'' inaccurate with regard to physics or technology, it's more a matter of [[Rule of Cool]] than [[Did Not Do the Research]].

* [[Show Some Leg]]: Not used often, which is surprising given the Major's [[Stripperiffic]] outfit (she prefers to hack her way past the guards). An exception occurs in London when the Major (dressed in a trenchcoat, but with [[Vapor Wear|nothing underneath]]) lures a police Special Weapons officer into an alley so she can knock him out and [[Dressing As the Enemy|steal his uniform]]. In ''2nd Gig'', Aramaki brings the Major along to infiltrate a meeting of [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]-types showing off their [[Sex Bot|sexbots]]. The team are eager to see what the Major will be wearing, and she doesn't disappoint with her [[Sexy Backless Outfit]] [[Absolute Cleavage]] dress.

* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: The Laughing Man.

* [[Sigil Spam]]: The Laughing Man's logo, which he plasters all over the place.

** 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.

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

* [[Tomato Surprise]]: Played for humor in "C: The Man Who Dwells in the Shadows of the Net – CHAT! CHAT! CHAT!" is both a sort of recap episode, and actually advances the plot. It consists largely of Motoko, as her avatar, discussing the case in an online chatroom that consists of fully 3D environments with user characters, spectators, and is more like a cyberspace talk-show than IRC. The ending reveals that Motoko, in reality, has been ''driving a car'' for the duration of the episode, much to Batou's horror when he realizes, as he's been sitting in the passenger seat of said car.

* [[Vomiting Cop]]: Togusa is so disgusted by the recording of Marco Amoretti torturing and flaying a woman that he has to leave his car and throw up over the side of a bridge.

* [[Watching the Sunset]]: The Major does it quite a bit.

* [[We Will Not Use Photoshop in The Future]]: Averted. The Tachikomas point out that because it's so easy to falsify data and memories, that not even '''live broadcasting''' over television or the net can be taken as the truth.

** The Laughing Man does this in live action by hacking into the cyberbrains of anyone who witnesses anything he does and makes them see the infamous logo or otherwise erases himself out of the viewer's eyesight, such as what he did to Batou.

*** And {{spoiler|the Major gives Kuze an apple}}. Way to mix your Biblical metaphors, guys.

** 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 Don't You Just Shoot Him?]]: Averted. {{spoiler|The Major gibs Gohda in the last episode, but they needed government approval first.}}

* [[Will They or Won't They?]]: Batou and Motoko, to the point that even their voice actors are well aware of it and poke fun when they speak at conventions. No real resolution is ever reached, aside from a very faint [[Maybe Ever After]] in the end of Solid State Society. {{spoiler|Batou puts him arm around her and she doesn't throw him into the pool.}} Yes, that's the closest their romantic and sexual tension ever comes to going anywhere.