Perfect Anime

I've waited a long time for this one.

You don’t have to look any further than any of the episodes of “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig” which is the best animation on the east side.

The futuristic drama of cyborgs and cyberpunk reality folds into a very tight story with some excellent narration. Not to mention that you get a heap load of historical background of the two World Wars, between the turn of the century to 2032, that has been lightly touched on in the first season.

Mind you, the anime is just great stuff here. There’s none of the goofy drawings with little girls with yapping mouths or eyes bigger than a Pacific ocean. No, the taunt animation is more serious here… with people looking very realistic. This anime is the cream of the crop.

But what makes this season stand out is the number of familiar old faces coming back like friends at a party. You welcome their presence. And you learn more about the supporting characters to help the Major and Batou track down the political agenda of the Individual Eleven, a terrorist group looking to secede in their own country away from the imperialistic Japan.

You get to learn more about minor characters such as Togusa in a couple of his own storylines including a great court trial story for shooting a criminal while not on duty. He gets a little hotheaded with some devastating results. You also find out why he likes using an old fashioned revolver rather than an automatic. “It never jams,” Togusa says.

But this season is special. There is a collection of stories, intertwined with a storyline, that allows for the audience to learn more about characters not known before. It’s always fantastic to see more of the minor characters because they are a very likable group.

There are other smaller characters such as sniper expert Saito who you don’t learn much about before. But here there is a nice flashback story called “Poker Face” which allows him to tell a background tale of how he first meets with the Major. And you can’t tell whether he is telling the truth or making it up as he goes along. You also get to find out how the Major and Batou first meets in here.

It’s a standout episode. There are many other ones.

What more is you have another standout episode deftly entitled “Red Data” which accounts a day in the life of the Major, a typical day that is fueled with guns, bullets and plenty of acrobats. The Major is every man’s dream come true. She is powerful, slender, a perfection of autonomy… a beautiful woman who remains a deadly opponent if you are not on her side. She moves like a ghost. Her form lifts like the wind, always a step ahead of you.

“Red Data” tells a little bit of the Major as she tries to loosen up for the day after finding out that she can’t leave the airport on the designated time. So instead she follows a lead on the show’s nemesis Kuze for the moment. Befriending a kid who is in trouble for stealing cocaine from a Yakuza group. So the Major becomes caught in the middle of the gang warfare with some interesting results. While spending a night at a hotel room, the audience finds out about the Major’s sex organs as the kid asks if they still work despite being a cyborg. “You want to find out?” the Major says.

Not exactly family entertainment.

The episode pokes some humorous fun at the characters and the situation in itself. And gives an opportune moment for the Major to resume a motherhood role, reluctantly taking care of the child under her constant watch. Does any of it matter at the end? The kid does pursue a promising life rather than getting into the gang war. The Major is voiced by a very lovely Japanese actress Atsuko Tanaka who remains shy in her interviews on the bonus tracks.

The overall story arc concerns the number of refugees who are trying to create their own peaceful living by tearing themselves away from the mother country. The refugees are led by the very heroic Kuze who is a perfection of beauty himself. And a cyborg with some modifications. Almost a male counterpart to the Major. There is a very tense fight between Kuze and Batou in one of the later episodes that makes for some great sequences.

At the very end of the spectrum, opposite of Kuze, is the darker aspect of the individual: the head of the Cabinet intelligence is a brooding shadow, a malevolent force of politics… Kazundo Gouda tries to create his game play while shifting all the blame to the police elite group led by the Major called Section 9. And they find themselves becoming steeped in the mired pit of power strategy.

But, when time runs out, Major and the rest of the group find themselves cornered by the possibility of war on one side and the lost of their own in a stifling shuffle. It is a bold path of stories that move with a pace throughout the entire duration of the twenty-six episodes.

There are not only the stand alone episodes to get the one-off stories. But the overall arc which eventually takes everything into a startling whole. And you find out, towards the end, who is truly the good guy and who is the bad guy. And what about everything in between that is the gray area?

Ghost in the Shell in its second gig is well worth seeing. Its number of interesting supporting characters helps with the longevity of the series. It’s a colorful world. With some interesting adversaries this time around. This is intelligent science fiction at work.

In some ways, there is a family sense in the group that haven’t been seen before. And you get the idea that they really do watch each other’s backs no matter what.

And watch out for Major’s right hook. It’s a mean one.