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"What happens when technology subdues humanity? When humanity is no longer defined by being human?"
— Tagline from Stand Alone Complex's [adult swim] promo in early 2000s.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a TV anime series and adaptation of Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell manga. It tells the story of Public Security Section 9, a covert counter-terrorist task force working for the Japanese government in a Post-Cyberpunk future. Led by Major Motoko Kusanagi (a no-nonsense female cyborg), Section 9 specializes in the rising threat of cybercrime facilitated by the ubiquity of cybernetic bodies/implants in the future.

Stand Alone Complex features digital cel animation produced in full widescreen and a soundtrack by Yoko Kanno. Although the plot leans action-heavy and contains loads of political intrigue, it also features a strong focus on philosophical discussions of dehumanization through technology and synthetic life.

The world of Stand Alone Complex differs from the worlds of the two Ghost in the Shell feature films and the original manga: The feature films and the manga focus on Motoko Kusanagi and her evolution into something beyond human after her encounter with the Puppetmaster. Stand-Alone Complex, though, is more of a Police Procedural: it doesn't have the Puppetmaster show up in any form and Section 9 (including Kusanagi) exists as a fully functional team throughout.

Stand Alone Complex has two twenty-six episode seasons, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C: 2nd GIG. Fans often abbreviate both seasons (for obvious reasons) as "GITS:SAC" (pronounced "Git-Sack" by the uncouth) and "2nd Gig". Like The X-Files and many other Speculative Fiction TV series, Stand Alone Complex features episodes dedicated to an ongoing Story Arc alternating with self-contained episodes which follow a single case and focus on character development or worldbuilding. The series identifies these various episodes by two letter code in their titles as being "Stand Alone" or "Complex" in season 1 and "Individual", "Dividual", or "Dual" in 2nd Gig. The first season's "Complex" story arc focuses on the Laughing Man incident, a highly publicized kidnapping by a master hacker who can hack cyberbrains in real time, and a government coverup that led to the original event. The second season's "Individual" story arc focuses on a terrorist cell known as the Individual Eleven, led by the mysterious Hideo Kuze, as well as a "Dual" story arc that focuses on Section 9's conflict with Kazundo Gouda's Cabinet Intelligence Service. GITS:SAC and 2nd Gig are available on disc either as full series, or as single discs edited down to focus on the main story. The edited versions last about two and a half hours each.

The 2006 Made-for-TV Movie, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society, takes place two years after the end of 2nd Gig; the story follows Section 9 as it struggles to deal with both Motoko's departure and a volatile refugee situation triggered by the actions of an entity known as the Puppeteer.

As noted above, the Ghost in the Shell franchise has four separate but equally legitimate continuities: 1) the original manga, 2) Mamoru Oshii's films (which themselves recreate and compress specific parts of the manga), 3) Stand Alone Complex and 4) Ghost in the Shell: Arise, a Continuity Reboot and an origin story for Section 9. None of the individual continuities have any direct relation to one another aside from variants on the setting and characters, although both movies and Stand Alone Complex make references to/offer recreations of specific scenes from the manga.

In 2011, Kodansha Comics released a Stand Alone Complex manga written by Yu Kinutani. Volume One is a shot-for-shot manga interpretation of the first episode, and Volume Two is a retelling of the second episode, "TESTATION". Volume Three is a retelling of the 7th episode: "IDOLATOR". Volume Four covers episode 14: "¥€$", and Volume Five is "NOT EQUAL".

Game developer Nexon had developed an online First-Person Shooter based on the series. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: First Assault Online launched in December 2015, and was available through Nexon's website and Steam, but came to a close on December 6th, 2017.

You can watch the series on Hulu (only in the U.S.) and on Adult Swim. Due to providing funding for the series, [adult swim] holds permanent broadcasting rights. It is part of Toonami's "Regular Rotation" of shows they permanently own the airing rights to.

The series has also made an appearance in various Japanese Pachislot gaming machines, usually seen in pachinko parlors in cities. Tie-in games were made based on the SAC universe, one for the Playstation 2 and the Playstation Portable.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, the third and fourth seasons that take place after Solid State Society, can be found on Netflix.


Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex contains examples of the following tropes:

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    0-C 
  • 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Most vehicles throughout the series are rendered as 3D models, including the Tachikomas. Production I.G. was a very early adopter of Cel Shading, incorporating what was a new form of lighting technology that gives them a cel-shaded look that makes them appear 2D. The Tachikomas in particular look great, but certain vehicles and military helicopters still like fairly obvious that they're 3D.
  • Abandoned Warehouse: A chase scene is set in one in the eighth episode.
  • Abnormal Ammo:
  • Absurdly-Spacious Sewer:
    • Section 9 hunts down Marco in the sewers beneath Niihama.
    • In "ANNIHILATION", they use the sewers beneath headquarters to escape from the Umibozu, but their commander anticipates their move and orders his troops to seal them off.
  • Action Duo: Batou and Togusa to a certain extent.
  • Action Girl: Motoko is one of the most badass female characters in all of anime.
  • Actually, That's My Assistant: While visiting the facilities of Meditech, Kusanagi and Togusa are greeted by a human and a clanky robot who introduce themselves as Prof. Iwasaki and his assistant. In fact Iwasaki has downloaded himself in the robot, while the other is his android helper.
  • Adaptation Expansion: An inversion occurs in which the manga expands upon the anime episodes. The few volumes of the manga are faithful retellings of the episode each volume represents, 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. "NOT EQUAL" gives out more details on how Eka Tokura's daughter seized control of the New World Brigade. "¥€$" expands on the backstory of Fem and provides a Freudian Excuse as her motive for wanting to kill Yokose.
  • Advance Notice Crime: "CASH EYE" begins with Motoko breaking into the corporate office of a CEO for the purpose of leaving a Calling Card. When Section 9 is brought in to investigate and provide security, Chief Aramaki interprets this as her message that her Cash Eye thief persona was going to return and break into the CEO's vault.
  • Advantage Ball: Section 9 usually holds it with their combined skills and information gathering/manipulation. It's only when they are outnumbered that they lose it.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
    • Various androids and programs show their fair 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 become an in-universe Scrappy.
    • Subverted with the Tachikomas, though. Motoko gets frightened by the pace of their AIs' development about two thirds of the way through the first series and orders them decommissioned, but after Section 9 goes on the run, three surviving Tachikomas make a Heroic Sacrifice to save Batou and she realizes she made a mistake: the Tachkomas had instead developed into Benevolent A.I. with the capacity for self-sacrifice. She has them recommissioned in 2nd Gig's premiere and even adjusts their synchronization process so they can retain individuality.
  • Air-Vent Passageway
    • Like the opening of season 1, the opening of season 2 is all about showing off the awesome skills of Section 9 while providing a reason for the unit's reactivation. The regular SWAT unit attempts an assault on the Chinese embassy through the air vents, but spectacularly fails with one officer dead and another being added to the terrorists' hostages. Seeing these poor results, his superiors immediately give Aramaki the green light to send in his team and get the job done.
    • When Batou is snooping around in Zaitsev's office, he hides in the ducts when Zaitsev returns unexpectedly.
    • 2nd Gig episode "AMBIVALENCE". Major Kusanagi physically breaks into the Cabinet Intelligence Agency's building to cyberhack into its Hecatoncheir server. After the Big Bad Gohda discovers the breach and alerts security, she escapes the building by entering the air system via a opening in the ceiling.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: The runaway HAW-206 tank from "TESTATION" is played for empathy because it has the brain of its recently deceased designer controlling it inside.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: The Major doesn't seem to reciprocate Batou's fairly obvious feelings for her, at least, not in any fairly obvious ways. If she doesn't want you to see it, you won't... unless you look very carefully at how she treats Batou compared to everyone else. They are definitely closer with each other than with the others, at the very least on a platonic level.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In "ANNIHILATION", the Umibozu storm Section 9 headquarters.
  • Alien Blood: Most of the androids have white "blood" inside them, which is presumably some kind of coolant fluid. Some cyborgs have transparent fluid, and the Tachikomas bleed oil.
  • Amalgamated Individual: The Laughing Man turns out to be such a case, with only the first cyber-crime being committed by the original hacker and the others by copy-cats, a case of the titular Stand Alone Complex.
  • Ambiguous Ending: In the first season finale, the final shot of Earnest Serano is of him opening his car door. As he pulls the handle, it makes an odd noise and we see his surprised face. What happens to him after that is never revealed, though the implication an implication is that he was assassinated, possibly through a car-bomb.
  • Ambiguously Human: Some of the cyborgs are closer to robots than full-body replacement shells.
  • An Arm and a Leg:
    • Cruzkowa loses her cybernetic arm when fighting Togusa. It contains a bomb.
    • The Major loses her left arm when fighting Gayle.
  • And I Must Scream:
    • In the episode "MAKE UP", the villain took a woman's brain out of her cybernetic body, and dumped it in the trash. Apparently, she was quite alive at the time, but without a body, it's not like she can call for help.
    • This happens to the Major when she's Strapped to an Operating Table and finds out too late that the doctor is an assassin. She starts by immobilizing the Major's body, then her voice, then shuts down the vision of her eyes.
  • Anime Accent Absence: Justified. Given the use of cybernetics, it isn't hard to imagine downloading a language or vocal processors.
    • The dub attempts to give a British soldier a proper accent in "Poker Face", and in the first season, there's a British secretary woman who doesn't seem to know how to properly pronounce "Aramaki".
    • Played straight in "Angel's Share", where almost none of the ostensibly British characters have British accents.
    • "Captivated" prominently features a Russian character who has no accent whatsoever.
    • Thoroughly averted by the CEO character in the Jameson-type body, who has an extremely strong Texan accent in the dub. Kusanagi even comments on "That lame Texan accent" although they should be technically speaking Japanese, not English.note 
  • Anti-Climax: The first season ends this way. The Major is dead and the remainder of Section 9 is being held in prison for high treason, except for Togusa, who plans on assassinating Yakushima all by himself...until he's stopped by Batou, who reveals that the Major and Section 9 are just fine, and then they find the original Laughing Man. They ask him to join them, and he turns down their offer. Then the Major stands on top of a tall building before jumping off. End season.
  • Anti-Escapism Aesop: in episode "Runaway Tachikoma", Motoko ends up brain diving into a cyberbrain that a Tachikoma found. Inside the cyberbrain was a whole audience of people who were watching a movie, along with the director who created it. The movie was so good, that the people willingly chose to stay there, as they never get bored of it. Motoko sees the movie for herself and admits that it is a good movie, but harmful, as it is not real and therefore not meaningful.
  • Anti-Hero: Section 9 is very dedicated in their mission to protect the population and fight injustice. However, doing their job according to the law seems to be an even lesser priority to them than for most of their enemies.
  • Anti-Interference Lock Up: In a non-villainous example, Aramaki arranges for Togusa to get sidelined in a jail cell for the majority of the last arc as Section 9 is falsely demolished. This is because Togusa is both a family man and the member of the team with the least cybernetic upgrades and stood a real chance of getting killed in the ensuing purge. Of course this nearly backfired when Togusa, freed from jail after the faked deaths of his friends, decided to avenge them by taking down those he believed are responsible. Fortunately Togusa is not quite as alone as he thought himself to be...
  • Anti-Villain: The Laughing Man in the first season, and Kuze in 2nd Gig. Both arguably become Anti-Heroes by the end of the series, with the secret Man Behind the Man in both seasons being the real bad guys.
  • Arc Symbol: the Laughing Man logo.
  • 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.
    • "Reset the world" in "NIGHT CRUISE".
  • Arm Cannon:
    Batou: Man, this old lady has a lot of tricks up her sleeve.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Gouda delivers one to Section 9 after they find out that they were used as a decoy to recover stolen plutonium. Motoko has to admit that he had a point: No matter how good the members of Section 9 are, they would easily be wiped out in a fight against an enemy who has numbers on their side.
    Batou: Just who do you think we are, pal?
    Gouda: The real question is who do you think YOU are? An elite squad of the hand-picked chosen few?
  • Arrested for Heroism: The first season climaxes with Section 9 trying to avoid this. Played straight when Togusa is arrested for using his gun while technically being off-duty when he tried to save a distressed civilian.
  • Arrow Cam: Used when Saito is sniping a target, such as when he's shooting at the rogue Spider Tank in the second episode.
  • Artificial Limbs: Everything from a single arm and artificial eye (like Saito) to full-body prostheses (like the Major and Batou). Also, nearly everyone has their brain cyberized.
  • Artistic License – Military: Motoko is called "Shosa", which is the Japanese version of major....in the Imperial Japanese army. In the Japanese Self-defense force, it would be "Sansa".
  • Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: While it's never confirmed, there is some implication that Kuze might have done this by successfully uploading his consciousness to the net. At the end of the first season, Motoko seems to have spent a good month or so wandering around the net without a body, if her dialogue with Aoi is any indication.
  • Asians Eat Pets: In the episode "Runaway Tachikoma - ESCAPE FROM", the Tachikoma comes across a girl named Miki, who is searching for her dog Rocky. Tachikoma decides to help her search for her dog, and the two explore Niihama together. Miki gets hungry and wants to get a meat kabob from a vendor, but Tachikoma says she should probably reconsider after reading the sign that the vendor was cooking dog meat.
  • As You Know: Frequently when Section 9 are discussing details of a case with Aramaki.
  • Augmented Reality: Cyberized people can see windows open up in their electronic field of vision.
  • Ave Machina: One CEO willingly uploads his consciousness into a robot because he loves technology so much. His wife and child aren't so amused.
  • Badass Bureaucrat: Despite Section 9's small size, Aramaki is the king of the Japanese intelligence, military and police old boy's club.
  • Badass Crew: All of Section 9, to the point that the page quote could have been written about them, but the Major deserves extra points in this regard as their leader.
  • Badass Longcoat:
    • The commander of the Umibozu also wears a trenchcoat which is left open at all times.
  • Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: The British police.
  • Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: Subverted twice, where-in both cases the victim reacted like they were actually shot before the reveal.
    • At the end of "Jungle Cruise", Marco excitedly begs Batou to shoot him just as Togusa rounds the corner and yells for Batou to stop, but Batou unleashes into the wall next to Marco's head.
    • During "Night Cruise", a pimp holds a gun to Gino's head and yells "BANG!"
  • Balkanize Me: As in other works by Shirow, there are three different countries occupying what was the United States: a vastly reduced United States of America, the Russo-American Alliance (or Ameri-Soviet Union in stories written before the end of the Cold War), and the American Empire. Out of these, the American Empire has the most geopolitical sway, at least within Japan, and their actions in trying to incorporate Mexico and other Latin American nations has stained their reputation on the global stage.
  • Banana Republic: Marcello Jarti hails from the People's Democracy of Jenoma in South America.
  • Barrier-Busting Blow: Several.
  • Batman Gambit: The Chief's plan at the end of Season 1, definitely. He was counting on his team surviving the purge and still trusting him afterwards.
  • Battle Discretion Shot: In "ANNIHILATION", a group of Umibozu mooks sneak up on Borma right after he says goodbye to Paz. We only hear the ensuing fight.
  • Battle Trophy: In the second season, Kuze keeps Batou's knife after beating him in a fight. He reclaims it in the final episode, when Kuze surrenders.
  • Bavarian Fire Drill: Section 9 pretends to be from the sanitation department and a maintenance crew ... in the same episode.
  • 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", 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.
  • BFG: A number of weapons. Saito usually gets the armor-piercing anti-tank sniper rifles, Batou is fond of heavy machine guns and rocket launchers (when available) and one episode has Ishikawa armed with a Big Frigging Glue Gun.
  • Bilingual Bonus:
    • One for Japanese viewers. A lot of Japanese people don't speak English, so the foreshadowing about the Laughing Man's identity comes under here. The Laughing Man's logo features the quote "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes" from The Catcher in the Rye. He's been hiding out as a deaf-mute at a facility that treats patients with a form of cybernetic autism.
    • For non-Japanese viewers, it would have to be the episode "CHAT! CHAT! CHAT!" There's an individual chat room for each of the people speaking, and the whole time the rooms are being updated (the break is lampshaded with a deletion of the cache on the server). In some posts, it would look unconventional to see a few posts as Shift-JIS art and some Squeeing in another post. In fact, there are also viewers on those chatrooms who are quite attentive.
    Out of curiousity, how many times has J.D. mentioned the word "source" while in this room?
    #68: That would be 38 times.
    • Another case: Each episode has a Japanese title and an English title. They don't often mean the same thing.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • In the first season, Secretary-General Yakushima is arrested and brought to justice for his crimes, and Section 9 was able to reunite and continue their work, but we see that some never-explained event happened to Serano prior to being able to testify in court regarding the scandal, and the Tachikomas are all gone. They do come back though.
    • In the second season, the refugee island of Dejima is spared from being nuked, and Gouda eventually gets his comeuppance, but Kuze is murdered in the process, and the Tachikomas have (again) sacrificed themselves to stop the worst-case scenario from happening. Though, in this case, Section 9 tried using Uchikomas instead, since they were suppose to be a superior model. They were less than pleased with how they performed.
  • Black-and-Gray Morality: Crosses over with Good Is Not Nice. Section Nine may be the good guys, but they regularly hack private databases, engage in blackmail, are familiar with torture, kill people, and generally break the laws that would have applied if they weren't above them. It's referenced repeatedly that the only reason they get away with these actions is though Aramaki's brilliant diplomacy.
  • Black Box: Cyberbrains. It's never shown what they look like on the inside, only the outer casing. The interior is implied to be organic, though.
  • Black Helicopter: The Umibozu use them.
  • Black-Tie Infiltration:
    • In one episode a teenage assassin tries targets a dignitary who's attending a ceremony at some war graves where his countrymen are buried. At first he appears to be planning to use a rifle to snipe him but at the last minute they find that he's stolen the uniform of one of the students who are presenting the target with bouquets and he's planning a suicidal assassination using a knife (with a bomb for backup).
    • In "CASH EYE", the team do one of these layered in another. Their host thinks they're undercover to prevent his money being stolen by a mysterious Classy Cat-Burglar, but they're actually staging the theft (with Motoko playing the thief) in order to gain access to his safe and check it for laundered money.
  • Blade Reflection:
    • In Kuze's introductory scene, he slowly draws out his katana in front of him, reflecting his eyes in the blade as he pulls it away from the hilt to the tip.
    • 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.
    Motoko: "How sadistic..."
  • Bland-Name Product: All over the place.
    • Batou has a couple of packages that come in "ConEx"-branded boxes.
    • In "¥€$", the guard Robot Dog units are manufactured by "Tonda".
    • In "EQUINOX", the CEO of Serano Genomics and the Laughing Man or the Major impersonating him meet in "Starchild Coffee".
    • The ninth episode of "2nd Gig" features an advertisement for "Tucky Strike".
  • Blood from the Mouth: Frequently when people are killed. Togusa has some rather prominently in the first season after taking a beating from a hugely strong combat cyborg.
  • Bluff the Eavesdropper: At one point, the Major realizes that the Tachikomas are observing her meeting with Batou. She and Batou proceed to hold two conversations simultaneously: they speak audibly to mislead the Tachikomas, while using their neural implants to message each other wirelessly and say what they really mean.
  • Blush Sticker: A Tachikoma, in one of the closing omake animations.
  • Bodyguard Babes: Marcello Jarti has two female android bodyguards protecting him. They don't last very long against Motoko.
  • Bondage Is Bad: Marco Amoretti's MO is to tie up his female victims before skinning them alive.
  • Bookends:
    • 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.
    • Both the end of the first episode of the first season and the end of the last episode of the second series deal with stopping the defection of a high ranking official to another country.
    • Season 1, Episode 7;
    Inspector: "...I conclude that this person is Marcelo Jarti."
  • Book Snap: In the episode "IDOLATOR", a bystander reading a book does this after he spots plain clothes officers approaching a suite where a Yakuza is having a meeting with Jarti (a revolutionary who Section 9 are following more subtly). He's a combat android they'd left as a guard, the shootout he starts up alerts the meeting.
  • 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 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.
  • Brain Transplant: Seemingly trivial once you have a cyberbrain, in the first episode an MP tried to swap out with a waitress gynoid in a men's bathroom.
  • 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 likes to swap his brain into robot geishas when he's out having a good time, which causes him to 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."
  • Bridge Bunnies: Section 9 employs numerous Operator androids to cover various tasks around headquarters.
  • Bring News Back: Togusa and the head of the Sunflower Society argue over which of them should leave with the file containing the list of cyberbrain sclerosis victims when the offices are stormed by corrupt NSS officers.
  • Broken Pedestal: Batou looked up to Zaitsev as an idol. It seriously angered him to find out he was a spy.
  • Brown Note: Several interesting takes on this in regards to the Individual 11 virus which turns people into fanatical terrorists, though it only works on people with a tendency towards fanaticism in the first place. Other people get far less dramatic reactions: a journalist from the Sunflower Society from the first season assumes more radical views and later becomes suicidal, while a professor of sociology just becomes convinced that he's studying a text that does not in fact exist.
  • Bulletproof Human Shield: The terrorists from "NOT EQUAL" use their dead as shields during a firefight.
  • Bulletproof Vest: Not that they really need it, given that most of Section Nine are cyborgs of some sort, but they prefer to wear body armor and combat bodysuits when they're expecting trouble.
  • Call-Back:
    • "NOT EQUAL" has a call back to "MISSING HEARTS" when a Tachikoma lifts itself into a narrow tunnel saying "I hope I don't get stuck again".
    • "CASH EYE" shows the former Foreign Affairs minister show up to an exclusive party with a Geisha android sex bot, his first appearance in the first episode also concerned him getting into trouble that started with some Geisha androids.
    • "EXCAVATION" refers back to "ESCAPE FROM" when a Tachikoma connects to a discarded cyberbrain and dejectedly notes that the last time was probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
    • During 2nd Gig, Aramaki has the Laughing Man's library checked for a copy of an important text they can't seem to find anywhere, figuring if they can't find it there, they're not going to find it at all. The library doesn't have it. Because it doesn't exist.
  • Camera Abuse: Particularly noticeable during the bombardment of Dejima towards the end of 2nd Gig.
  • Camera Spoofing: Taken to extremes, including hacking people's eyes.
  • Canis Latinicus: The refrain "nalyubuites', aeria gloris" from the theme song "Inner Universe". While nalyubuites' is correct Russian (meaning "watch in awe"), aeria gloris (Heaven's glory) is not grammatical in Latin.
  • Car Chase: Several, including one in "ANNIHILATION" where Togusa gets to show off some Car Fu.
  • Cast from Money: A cyborg assasin uses coins for her shotgun-style Arm Cannon. She does this because she hates rich people and capitalism and loves the Irony of killing them with money.
  • Cel Shading: The lighting technology applied to 3D models in the animation such as the Tachikomas gave them a 2D appearance without making them look too obvious.
  • Chain-Link Fence: Big, heavy Tachikoma climbs over a flimsy chain link fence at the top of a high-rise building.
  • Chair Reveal: When Batou and Togusa burst into what they think is Nanao's apartment, they discover he's not there and his chair is occupied by a sex doll.
  • Chalk Outline: These show up in a few episodes, such as "JUNGLE CRUISE" and "MAKE-UP"
  • Chekhov's Gun: Batou gives his favorite Tachikoma some natural lubricant in Episode 2, which allows it to self-activate in Episode 12, thus sparking a chain of events that eventually leads to all of the Tachikoma being disbanded... and developing individual ghosts.
  • Chekhov's Skill: The punch that Zaitsev uses to knock out Batou when they spar for the first time. At the end of the episode, Batou challenges Zaitsev to a fight when arresting him and says he'll let him go if he can punch him out again. Subverted in that Batou blocks it - he let Zaitsev win the first time.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: In "Not Equal", Eka Tokura, a girl who was kidnapped by a terrorist group called the New World Brigade, reappears as the leader of the group 16 years later. Except she's not really Eka, she's her daughter. The real Eka? The old woman no one noticed.
  • The City Narrows: The abandoned docks by the port.
  • City of Adventure: Niihama is where most of the series takes place.
  • Citywide Evacuation: In "Abandoned City: REVERSAL PROCESS", the entire city of Fukuoka is evacuated after a nuclear device is discovered. While Borma handles the defusing process, Batou takes some time to have a lengthy chat with Ghoda on the rooftop of the building the bomb is located in.
  • *Click* Hello:
    • CAPTIVATED has Batou doing this to Cruzkowa immediately after she and Motoko engage in a Mexican Standoff with each other.
    • the man who kills Nanao sneaks up behind him and does this.
  • Cloning Body Parts: A company in the first season grows cloned organs in genetically engineered pigs for its clients as a combined insurance policy (since you can have the organs implanted in you if there's an accident) and investment (since you can opt to sell your unused cloned organs). This was borrowed from the second manga volume.
  • Coins for the Dead: In one episode, after it is discovered that a mathematician died months ago but his programs continued making money without him, Togusa offers the man's body two coins as a gesture of respect. He is secretly rewarded when the money-making program invests stocks into Serano Genomics for him.
  • Colon Cancer: Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd GIG, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society.
  • Colony Drop: A rare positive example at the climax of 2nd Gig: The Tachikomas deorbit the satellite housing their server to intercept a submarine-launched ballistic missile aimed at Dejima, Taking the Bullet for everyone there.
  • Competence Porn: Section 9 is at their best in this show, as where they are depicted a cautious and talented team of counter-terrorists who often out-think, out-hack, and out-politic the antagonists. Even at their most dire, the members always make sure they put up a fight to the last.
  • Compilation Movie: The Laughing Man and Individual Eleven cover the main story arcs of the first and second seasons, respectively.
  • Computerized Judicial System: In "TRIAL", Togusa gets put on trial for using his weapon while off-duty. During his trial, the judge is aided with an odd number of computer A.I.s to help her make decisions and move the trial along.
  • Computers Speak Binary: Scrolling binary code is shown at times when password cracking is in progress.
  • Concealment Equals Cover:
    • In "CAPTIVATED", Batou dodges gunfire by ducking behind an I-beam.
    • Averted in "RE-VIEW" when Togusa hides behind a desk to evade a group of gunmen and gets hit anyway by a stray bullet.
    • Averted whenever one of the Tachikomas is equipped with a minigun, which tends to obliterate whatever happens to be in the line of fire unless it's extremely durable (like thick steel plating).
  • Connected All Along: Although it's hinted part way through 2nd Gig, the big twist of the season is that Kuze and Motoko are survivors of the same plane crash incident in their childhoods, with Kuze having been Motoko's first crush as well as inspired by her to gain a prosthetic body in the first place.
  • Conspicuous in the Crowd: Near the end of the first season, Ishikawa can be seen walking away while a crowd of people are running from his pachinko parlour, which he just bombed to ambush the soldiers who were hunting him. Played with in that this makes him stand out and get captured.
  • 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 makes Motoko worry about their efficiency as fighting machines and that they might become too intelligent.
    • Batou has a rather lengthy inquisitive conversation with Gouda when the two meet up at the site of the Individual Eleven's (minus Kuze) cluster suicide. They ping-pong a discussion about dreams of power; what would drive a person to such extremes, and how they could possibly succeed with their wild-eyed intentions. They agree it's all factored on desire, knowledge, and an "X factor," pure luck. However, Batou was actually prodding at Gouda to see if he could get him to admit to following any of these dogmatic ideals himself- since Section 9 correctly suspects Gouda is quietly brewing ominous plans in secrecy. But, he's effectively caught on, kept all his bases covered, and behaved so passively and resigned thus far, he's shown not a shred of nervousness at any given time, which would help give him away as "guilty." By the time they finish speaking, you could cut the tension in the air with a knife. In the end, Batou manages to insult Gouda's pride just enough that Gouda reveals something that only the creator of the Individual 11 virus could know, and he challenges Section 9 to try and stop his plan.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • In the 3rd volume of the Stand Alone Complex manga, Section 9 is watching a news report discussing famous South American war hero Marcello Jarti supposedly returning to Japan. The scrolling news ticker at the bottom of the screen mentions that Kenbishi Industries' stock jumped significantly after the debut of their latest tank, a nod to the second episode, "TESTATION".
    • Aramaki's missing brother, Yosuke, from season 1 makes cameo appearance in 2nd Gig so Kuze has someone to explain his plans to.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Discussed by the Tachikomas in episode 51, "THIS SIDE OF JUSTICE". They discover that an American Empire submarine is preparing to fire a nuke high into the stratosphere so that nobody can trace it back to them. One Tachikoma suggests sending visual news feeds to everyone, but another dismisses the idea, saying that nobody would believe an unknown source just showing up out of nowhere.
    Tachikoma: What if we sent visual feed all over the world?
    Tachikoma: There's no point. Pictures don't prove anything anymore. An image from an unknown source showing up at a very convenient time? No one would take it seriously.
  • Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind:
    • Batou rescues Motoko a few times this way, such as her Mexican Standoff with Cruzkova.
    • She saves Vice-Minister Jin from Tsujisaki Yu's assassination attempt this way as well.
  • Cool Car:
    • The animators must have a fetish for Lamborghini's as it's not uncommon to see Murcielagos (their top of the line model when the series was made) driving around town in both SAC and 2nd Gig. Also, during ¥€$, Batou stumbles upon a garage filled mostly with Lamborghini Countaches.
    • Many of the cars featured puttering about in Stand Alone Complex are actual concept cars from the 2001 Tokyo Motor Show. Honda's Dualnote hybrid sports car concept, then one of the firm's proposals for a replacement for their NSX supercar, makes quite a few appearances. The then-new Mazda RX-8 also shows up a few times.
    • Batou drives a Lancia Stratos, a very rare 1970s racing coupe.
  • 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:
    • "CHAT! CHAT! CHAT!" actually discussed this trope, citing it as the very reason why the Laughing Man is so popular.
    • In 2nd Gig, the Individual Eleven assassinate a popular cyber-rapper named Densetsu, who's music inspired many youths to fight against the system. His death inconveniences Kuze later on, when one of his followers threatens to blow both of them up because of it.
  • Cool Plane: The Tiltrotor that Section 9 uses, the helicopters the Umibozu use, and the wasp-like Jigabachi helicopters from the second season all qualify.
  • Cop Killer: A plainclothes officer named Yamaguchi working the Laughing Man case is killed in what appears to be a car accident. Until Section 9 learns that the accident was engineered by the bad guys in the first season in order to prevent another investigation of the case.
  • Cop Show: With Cyberpunk!
  • Corrupt Politician:
    • The Yakushima administration in the first season. The Laughing Man's whole goal was to expose them as the perpetrators of the corporate sabotage that fueled his hatred in the first place.
    • Kanzaki from the episode "CAPTIVATED" is more dishonest than corrupt, but he later makes a Heel–Face Turn near the end of the episode once he realizes what he's gotten himself into.
    • Many of the cabinet leaders in 2nd Gig intended to use Prime Minister Kayabuki as a scapegoat while they steered the country in the direction they wanted to take it. Her being a woman is one of the reasons why they did it in the first place.
  • Covered in Gunge: The Major, of all people, wound up getting hit with this trope after a combat android threw her out a window and into a pile of garbage. She wasn't hurt, but she was very unhappy. Batou thought it was hilarious.
  • Cranial Processing Unit: Braincases, which allows robots to be killed instantly with headshots (as seen in the first episode).
  • Creator Cameo: Kenji Kamiyama's name appears on the rim of 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 Doppelgänger: Pazu gets one in the second season. Motoko has one in the PS2 game.
  • Criminal Mind Games: The Laughing Man seems to enjoy toying with authority figures a lot as they struggle to figure out his true identity.
  • Crucial Cross: In the final episode 2nd Gig, Motoko and Kuze find themselves trapped under some rubble after a missile barrage. Desperate to dig her out by any means, Batou grabs a cross-shaped I-beam to start bashing away at the concrete and lift it apart, shouting her name into the sky in despair.
  • Cut the Juice: Ishikawa's emergency anti-hacking measure is an electrical main and a fire axe in the computer room, which he uses to foil a hacking attempt that he can't stop electronically.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Discussed, although the general consensus is that they don't and cyborgs are just as human as anyone else. Certain religions and factions, such as the Human Liberation Front, believe this completely, which is why they refuse to even let themselves be cyberized. There are some major religions that have changed their views in favor of cyberization, and benefited from it as well.
  • Cyberpunk / Post-Cyberpunk: Ghost in the Shell has been classified by some commentators as Neo-Cyberpunk or Post-Cyberpunk rather than classic 1980s Cyberpunk, in that the protagonists of GITS work for the government and hunt down terrorists instead of being urban guerrillas and streetpunks fighting against governments and mega-corps. Most noticeably, while GITS shows a global community still suffering from the aftereffects of a third and fourth World War, the society in those nations that we get to see has not utterly collapsed and segregated into corporate wage-slaves living in gated communities ("arcologies") on the one hand and the rest of the population living in dismal slums outside the system. The Japan of GITS, while being something of a police state with government and intelligence service controlling the propaganda permeating the media, still has an urban middle class, nature resorts and traditional society. Even the poor and the refugees in their ghetto are not "invisible" and "falling through the cracks" (except in a social sense). Instead, cyberbrain interconnectedness is widespread and surveillance by public cameras, spy satellites and the Net is all-pervasive.
  • Cyber Punk Is Techno: Played straight and subverted with the soundtrack, which also includes Jazz, Punk Rock, Folk, Easy Listening, Hip-Hop, and Funk, among other genres.
  • Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: A couple of scenes, but otherwise subverted.
  • Cyberspace: Specifically of The Metaverse variety (see the episode where Major Kusanagi visits a chat room, for an example), though not the central theme.

    D-I 
  • Dark Action Girl: Fem from ("¥€$") and Cruzkowa from ("CAPTIVATED") both qualify. They're one shot villains, but are trained to hold their own.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: In 'Jungle Cruise' we can get a little insight in Batou's background. It is not pretty.
  • The Darkness Before Death: In the final episode of 2nd Gig, Hideo Kuze is taken into custody by the government, thrown into the back of a van, and unceremoniously injected with nanomachines that will shut down his body and brain functions. As his vision begins to go blurry, he comments that he's going on ahead, implying that he achieved his ultimate goal of successfully uploading his consciousness onto the net.
  • David Versus Goliath: In the Stand Alone Complex manga's Tachikomatic Days bonus chapter, the Tachikomas are sent to a construction site to earn more experience and learn. They decide to challenge a gigantic Power Loader commonly found in strip mining pits in protest to doing menial labor. The boss shows up in a smaller version commonly found in construction sites, and proceeds to instantly beat them all. Played for laughs of course.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Several episodes focus heavily on Tachikomas. Pazu and Saito each get one in 2nd Gig. Batou and Togusa both get a few over the series, although they are the Deuteragonist and Titagonist characters of the series, so it is to be expected that a few episodes focus on them alone.
    • Notably in the first season, Batou has one in the second to last episode, and Togusa has one in the last episode.
  • Deadly Doctor: Sano in the episode "SCANDAL".
  • Dead Man Writing: The clues Yamaguchi leaves to Togusa in the Interceptor case.
  • Dead Unicorn Trope: The series' subtitle is the in-universe name for it. A "stand alone complex" refers to copycat activities (criminal or otherwise, but in the context of the show mostly criminal or terrorist) which mimic a supposed original that doesn't exist.
  • Death Glare:
    Sano: "My, what rebellious eyes. That won't do." (cuts out her vision as well)
    • Aramaki gives a particularly epic one to the wine bank robber in Angel's Share while tied up and with a gun to his forehead. It's enough to get the robber to back down.
  • Death Means Humanity: Played with and discussed with the Tachikomas. Throughout the series, they discuss amongst themselves whether or not they have "ghosts". In one conversation, three Tachikomas note how lucky a recently disassembled Tachikoma was because through death it could find out the answer to their question. At the end of season 1, some of the Tachikomas decide to sacrifice themselves in order to protect Batou, indicating that they'd developed an emotional attachment that supersedes their AI programs and may have developed ghosts of their own. At the end of 2nd Gig, the Tachikomas feel no regret for sacrificing the satellite that contains their artificial intelligence in order to prevent a nuclear strike. Fortunately, they are eventually restored.
  • Decoy Convoy: In Pu239, Ghoda tasks Section 9 with escorting a case of plutonium through a refugee zone, acting as security in case the refugees try to get their hands on it. At the end of the episode, Ghoda reveals that there was no plutonium inside the case, and the Japanese Self-Defense Army relocated the actual plutonium without incident.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: While "Friendship" can be debated given the personalities involved, in Saito's flashback in "POKER FACE", the Major's first words to him after their duel are:
    Japanese dub: You're pretty good. I want you to join my team.
    English dub: From now on, you're mine!
  • Deliberately Monochrome: A few scenes, such as the training exercise from episode 15.
  • Demolitions Expert: 2nd Gig gives Borma a little bit of character development by revealing that analyzing and disarming explosives are his specialty.
  • 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.
  • Design Student's Orgasm: Some depictions of cyberspace, such as the beginning of the first season finale when the Major exists online in an incorporeal state. See Extreme Graphical Representation.
  • Did They or Didn't They?: The Major may or may not have slept with Batou during episode 25 of the first season. It's another shot you might miss if you look away, as the two of them (wearing their undershirts and having had the prerequisite discussion of mnemonic devices as related to personal identity) walk off together with Batou's arm around the Major's waist.
  • "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. 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. Togusa makes a comment that suggests that avatars have some semblance of weight on the net, and would slow down their investigations.
  • Dirty Communists: Fem, the radical leftist villain from "¥€$", starts the episode by quoting the Communist's Manifesto. Nanao has joined some leftist terrorists when he was in university.
  • 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 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.
  • Divided States of America: The United States has been split up into the United States of America, the Russo-American Alliance, and Imperial Americana. The 50 states are almost evenly divided up between the three, though Imperial Americana takes up the largest portion of the country. They also play a major part of the storyline in 2nd Gig.
    • The United States of America now consists of the states of Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Utah, New Mexico, and Wisconsin.
    • The Russo-American Alliance— formed from a peaceful resolution of the Cold War in 1988— consists of: Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and the entire New England region.
      • In Cold War-era publications, this was called the Ameri-Soviet Union.
    • The American Empire (Imperial Americana) makes up the largest part of the country, consisting of: Nebraska, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansaw, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, and the District of Columbia.
  • 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.
  • 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 enormous cannon can be seen unfolding from the android's crotch.
    • TESTATION has Kago's parents against doctors attempting to treat his health by using cyberization due to their religious beliefs. Jehovah's Witness anyone?
  • Do Not Adjust Your Set: When the Laughing Man hacks an official's cyberbrain as Daido'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.
    • Done over the the top in "JUNGLE CRUISE" with Batou breaching a door in the sewers. He scans the (empty) area pointing his gun at walls and his every move is accompanied by a reloading sound.
  • Dressed in Layers: A mysterious inversion happens in "CASH EYE". Motoko attends Chairman Katakura's party dressed in just a sexy evening gown. After she puts Katakura to sleep so she can continue the mission, she slips out of the dress to reveal a Spy Catsuit that leaves nothing exposed.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: The Major steals a CO19 trooper's uniform to rescue Aramaki in "ANGELS' SHARE" using nothing but her sex appeal.
  • Driven to Suicide: Bureau Chief Nimi attempts to commit "cyberbrain suicide" over the scandal over cyberbrain sclerosis coming to light. He does enough damage to his speech and memory centers to make his testimony legally inadmissible.
  • Droste Image: In a couple of scenes, characters are found to infected with Interceptors, nanomachines that record what the person sees. This is revealed by someone displaying the signal from the Interceptors, which is the view the infected person is seeing. When they look at the screen displaying their own perspective, a Droste image is created.
  • Due to the Dead: Aramaki tells Togusa to put some flowers on Yamaguchi's grave in gratitude for discovering the Laughing Man's return.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: The Tachikomas using the satellite holding their memories as an interceptor missile to stop a nuclear strike.
  • Eagleland: The American Empire was established in other Masamune Shirow works to specifically be Type 2, leaving the United States of America and Russo-American Alliance as Type 1. They are the main the cause of trouble for Section 9 in the series, either manipulating them for their own ends, or by being racist, incompetent military leaders who are trying to find a way to stabilize their own economy through foreign affairs.
  • Electronic Telepathy: Section 9 can use their cyberbrains to communicate silently.
  • Elite Mooks: The Umibozu, an "unofficial" military squadron, assault Section 9 HQ in "ANNIHILATION" with over six Armed Suits. They go in all guns blazing.
    • Armed Suit users in general tend to fall into this category, as Section 9 always has trouble dealing with them. They severely injure the Major and later Batou, both of whom would have died without the last second interventions of Saito and the Tachikomas, respectively.
  • Empathic Environment: Mentioned by the Major after the Laughing Man returns and the sunset tints everything the same colour.
  • Enemy Mine: When Aramaki is held hostage by ex-mobsters in episode 16, he convinces them to work with him to escape when the police show up.
  • Enhance Button: Used in "INTERCEPTORS" as part of a Shout-Out to Blade Runner; the terminology used by the voice-activated photo-enhancement program is even identical, with Togusa saying lines like "Enhance 32 to 50" while studying a set of photos a friend from the police force died trying to get to him.
    • Best part: the enhancing does almost bupkis for the investigation. Togusa's "Eureka!" Moment comes after hours of pointless enhancing when he comes to a picture of a mirror that doesn't reflect a camera. This is when he realizes that the pictures were taken with the (minimally-enhanced) subject's eyes. Someone lo-jacked the subject with Nanomachines!. The only time it helps is when he zooms in on a woman's eye to see a reflection of the person she's looking at to confirm the previous hypothesis
  • Epic Fail: The credits sequence for the second season of Tachikomatic Days plays out like a scene from Dig Dug, with a Tachikoma using the air pump to inflate a Jamison-type robot. The Tachikoma somehow manages to inflate itself instead.
  • Epic Rocking: The full version of the 2nd Gig theme "Rise" runs for a good six minutes.
  • Escort Distraction: In the episode "Jungle Cruise", Section 9 is trying to break into the CIA's online archives regarding an American Imperial Navy op in South America during World War III known as "Project Sunset". The problem is that a CIA liaison officer was present in their net dive room, so the Major gets him out of the room by informing him that Niihama Prefectural Police were able to find evidence of a murder and they need to watch it. This gives Ishikawa enough time to break into the CIA archives and determine if Project Sunset is connected to Batou's time as a JGSDF Ranger.
  • Ethereal Choir: In the soundtrack, although not as much as the movie had (eg. the song "Stamina Rose").
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Batou and the Major are able to capture the Western Terrorists Angel Feathers in Berlin after Batou inadvertently discovers Angel Feathers' daughter and catches him at their meeting place.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: Some cars blow up extremely easily, such as Yamaguchi's in the crash where he dies.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Major Kusanagi is almost always simply referred to as "The Major" Of course, she doesn't introduce herself as just "The Major" to people, and close friends are exempt. In fact, she hates it when anyone calls her by her name while she's on duty.
  • Everyone's Baby Sister: Togusa for Section 9. Partly because he's the team's only non-Cyborg member and partly because he has a family. This can be seen best in the episode "TRIAL", where trying to drag Togusa's name through the mud leads a Domestic Abuser and his lawyer to suffer an unfortunate car accident.
  • 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. The episode ultimately takes it to the point of an Overly Long Gag when a decrepit old man walks up to a random beat cop outside and asks him with a completely straight face if this is where the police commissioner is supposed to be assassinated.
  • Evil Luddite: Most of all of humanity has embraced technological integration. Even a basic cyberization implant to the base of the neck can be affordable to low-income citizens, and having instant access to the internet has changed how society functions on a fundamental level. A terrorist organization known as the Human Liberation Front believes that humans should remain 100% biological, using the fears of Cybernetics Eat Your Soul as their core philosophy.
  • Evil Plan: Gouda in the second season. He's the one controlling Kuze.
  • Expanded Universe: The light novels, Playstation 2, and PSP video games are all written by the storywriters for the series itself, and are considered Stand Alone Episodes.
  • Expendable Clone: It's possible, though very, very illegal and expensive, to copy a person wholesale, right down to the essence of what could be called their soul. The "illegal" part mostly comes from the fact that "ghost dubbing", as it's called, requires the subject to be so thoroughly analyzed that it's taken apart, a process few individuals can survive more than a few times. With all that said, however, it is possible to create lots of copies of the same guy, and one episode deals with a South American revolutionary leader who seemingly has an endless supply of body-doubles...
  • Extreme Graphical Representation: Cyberspace is full of flashy lights and colors as well as being fully 3D. It resembles an elaborate VR simulation more than present-day Internet browsing.
  • Extreme Mêlée Revenge: The Armed Suit who fights Batou in "BARRAGE" taunts him by tossing his body around like a rag doll, in revenge for his comrades that he killed.
  • Eyepatch of Power:
    • Saito has his Hawkeye program hidden behind his eyepatch.
    • Cruzkowa provides a rare female example, but hers doesn't particularly do anything.
  • Eye Scream:
    • If Saito's flashback in episode 14 of 2nd Gig is to be believed, he lost his left eye when Motoko sniped over his nose just as he was retreating back behind a wall for cover.
    • The one who died in the knife fight at the end of "MAKE UP".
  • The Faceless: The Laughing Man superimposes his logo over his own face and that of people he controls.
  • Faking the Dead: Part of Section 9's plan while evacuating their headquarters is to leave several prosthetic bodies laying around in the hopes that they'll be confused with those of the actual members. It doesn't work because the commander chasing them has the bodies checked to see if they've ever been used, which Section 9 anticipates but still figures will buy them some time.
  • Fallen Hero: Zaitsev is a former boxer and Paralympics silver-medalist who had more than enough skill and fortitude to take the gold. Because he threw that fight, he had lost his way and resorted to spying on the country just to make some cash. Batou is understandably a little more than pissed off when he finds his idol had sunk so low.
  • False Flag Operation: Aramaki has considered the threat to Superintendent-General Daido in a press conference live on TV a false flag op launched by the rank and file of the Metropolitan Police Department. Turns out that it eventually leads to a faction in the government under Yakushima.
  • Fan Disservice: In one episode where we're introduced to a Hospital Hottie doctor via a Male Gaze close-up of her high-heels and bouncing breasts, who then proceeds to carry out an intimate examination of the Major's body whilst making overt Les Yay comments. Things quickly turn here when we realise she's a corrupt narcotics officer out to kill the Major once she's been immobilized.
  • Fantastic Slur: One of the Tachikomas mentions that "cyborg" is considered a slur by some people.
  • Fantastic Terrorists: There's a few examples, alongside many more mundane terrorists.
    • The main arc of the first season is about a terrorist called The Laughing Man who's able to manipulate data to the point he can literally edit himself out of people's sight by hacking their cyberbrains. The main twist being that no such terrorist actually exists; the entire movement was caused by people imitating the idea of such a terrorist. The nearest thing to an actual Laughing Man was just a very skilled hacker who only wanted to expose a medical malpractice scandal and created the general idea in the process (but the "motive" of the movement took on a life of its own).
    • The Human Liberation Front is a terrorist organisation consisting of anti-cyborg extremists (who're noted to be pretty dangerous in a fight despite their lack of any cyberware).
    • The second season's Individual Eleven arc seems to be a fairly mundane plot involving attempts to fight for the rights of refugees. Until it turns out their movement was initially faked by infecting people with a virus in an attempt to create an artificial Stand Alone Complex.
  • Fetish: In-canon
    • In "CASH EYE", the leader of a bank corporation admits he has a fetish for having sex with women who have fully-prosthetic bodies. He'd rather do it while said bodies are running, but the women inside are inactive.
    • 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.
  • Fictional Disability:
    • Cyberbrain Sclerosis is a disease that may result when a person's cyberbrain casing doesn't fully integrate the human brain inside it, causing parts to harden, and leading to dementia-like symptoms. It can ultimately be fatal. Togusa mentions in a report that it's basically the new incurable disease of the 21st century, just the same has Tuberculosis, AIDS, and cancer proved to be in the 19th and 20th centuries. A solid part of the first season's plot involves uncovering a conspiracy of a viable cure being suppressed by the government for financial manipulation.
    • Cyberbrain Closed Shell Syndrome is something akin to severe online addiction, in which cyberbrain users simply refuse to interact with meatspace unless they're forced to. This means that Togusa's investigation into a facility that treats patients in "PORTRAITZ" has the added wrinkle that the entire grounds are blocked off to help limit the patients' access.
  • Fire Alarm Distraction: It's well-established that thermoptic camouflage is foiled by water. So how does the Major deal with the cloaked Umibozu troops? She turns on the fire sprinklers.
  • Firing in the Air a Lot: Batou empties the clip of his assault rifle into the air out of anger after realizing the Laughing Man hacked his eyes and walked away right in front of him at the end of "ERASER". A rare instance of Reckless Gun Usage from him.
  • Firing One-Handed:
    • Togusa does it with an assault rifle in "NOT EQUAL", although it isn't shown that he hits anything either.
    • 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 he's 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 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.
  • Fish-Eye Lens: Used in episode 2 at various points, specifically when showing Motoko or Batou from the camera view from inside their Tachikomas. It doesn't show up again anywhere else in the series.
  • Flawless Token: The team are all specialists who are world-class in their field. Except for Motoko Kusanagi, the only female, who is usually better than anybody at everything. If she's not better, she'll just change the rules of engagement.
  • Forced to Watch:
    • Serial killer Marco Amoretti links with his victims' brains so they can view themselves being tortured and murdered from his perspective.
    • The SST team who plugged into Eka Tokuro's brain were apparently horrified by what they saw.
  • Foreign Language Theme: Opening themes "inner universe" (SAC), "rise" (2nd Gig), and "player" (SSS), and ending theme "date of rebirth" (SSS) are in Russian (with some English and Latin thrown in). Opening themes "GET9" (SAC terrestrial TV) and "CHRisTmas in the SiLenT ForeSt" (2nd Gig terrestrial) and ending themes "lithium flower" (SAC), "i do" (SAC terrestrial), "living inside the shell" (2nd GIG), and "From the Rooftops ~ Somewhere in the Silence (Sniper's Theme)" (2nd Gig terrestrial)note  are in English.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Listen closely to the conversation between Aramaki and Gouda in episode four of 2nd Gig. That seemingly unimportant line: "...And of course, the occasional manipulation of public opinion" during Gouda's description of CIS duties becomes very important later on.
    • During the last episode of 2nd Gig; blink and you'll miss it when the Tachikomas transfer themselves off their satellite, setting up their return in Solid State Society.
  • Found the Killer, Lost the Murderer: The anime had this happen repeatedly during the Laughing Man case.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Each episode's title card includes a multi-paragraph description of the opening scene which doesn't appear onscreen long enough to read in full.
  • Friendly Enemy: Zaitsev becomes friends with Batou, unaware the whole time that Batou is tailing him on suspicion of espionage.
  • Frustrated Overhead Scribble: The manga adaptation of the first episode shows a scribble over Motoko's head when Batou jokes about the Geishas demanding a pay raise before the infiltration of the geisha house.
  • Gambit Pileup: The end of 2nd Gig sees Gouda's, Kuze's, and Section 9's plans all collide together.
  • Gas Mask Mooks:
    • The SWAT team that occasionally helps out Section 9. And by help, read "form a shield wall and look scary".
    • The DEA hit squad that storms the Sunflower Society's offices in "RE-VIEW" also have them.
  • 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?
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Used at various points, but the most notable example by Batou to Motoko when she experiences a Heroic BSoD from getting too close to Kuze's consciousness.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: The team that plugged into Eka Turkuro's brain are so traumatized by their findings that Batou has literally grab ahold of one to get him to talk about it.
  • 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 News, Bad News: The Major delivers some to Aramaki when he's in the hospital at the end of "SCANDAL". One is about the case, the other is about his brother.
  • Good Old Ways: Inverted in the Season 1 finale. It's Aramaki who's calling old-fashioned paper books obsolete, and the young Laughing Man who's defending them.
  • Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Whenever Section 9 smokes, it's of the Smoking Is Cool variety (eg. Ishikawa really shouldn't be smoking while working on his computer; Batou doesn't need to smoke because he's a cyborg, etc.).
  • Gorn: The scene where 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.
  • Government Agency of Fiction: Several, most notably Section 9 itself. The other Sections all have their own territories and obligations, and many take on the roles equivalent to many real life agencies.
    • Section 1 deals with criminal investigations within the territory of Japan. Think FBI.
    • Section 2 is controlled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. They police any and all matters regarding any illegal testing or experimentation of new biomedical technology or drugs. They would be the ones in charge of the Laughing Man incident if not for the fact that they're backed up by the use of micro-machine technology and therefore can't get involved. (Have to let a neutral, unbiased 3rd party take care of that.)
    • Section 3 deals with drug-related crimes. Trafficking, smuggling, etc. Basically equivalent of the Drug Enforcement Agency.
    • Section 4, seen at the end of 2nd Gig, is a squad of Rangers from the Japan Ground Self Defense Force. Think Green Berets or Navy SEALs.
    • Section 6 deals with intelligence gathering on international crime and terrorism. They have the authority to carry out hits on members of other Sections if they find sufficient evidence to support a crime linked to that person. Think CIA.
    • Section 9 is a cyber-warfare counter-terrorism unit. The blurring of technology and humanity usually means that some form of cyber technology (no matter how small) will be involved in almost any crime committed within Japan.
  • Government Conspiracy: Part of the Cyberpunk theme of the series.
  • Grand Theft Me: The first episode involves a government official with a fetish for swapping out his brain into a sexy female robot body, and this leaves him open for attack by a spy who swaps his own brain into the official's body. Fortunately they were able to recover the real minister's braincase.
  • Gratuitous English: Dramatic reveal moments are made somewhat narmful by Japanese voice actors saying things like "Stando Arone Conpureksu". In the Major's conversation with the Laughing Man at the end of the first season, where he replies to her questions with the English "yes" and "no", because its his native language (see Bilingual Bonus, above).
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Downplayed, but still present. The American Empire in 2nd Gig. They establish their existence in "JUNGLE CRUISE" with the CIA operatives who are chasing after Marco Amoretti, but various news reports in 2nd Gig tell of their aggressive foreign policies and pressuring of Japan into signing a treaty that would almost entirely benefit them. They're also the ones who launched the nuclear missile at Dejima, though Gouda managed to trick them into thinking the refugees presented a legitimate threat to them.
  • Great Offscreen War: World War III and IV, AKA the Second Vietnam War, but also a covert operation in Central America that Batou served in as part of a conflict between America and Japan.
  • Groin Attack:
    • During the shootout in Kusanagi's mansion, Batou gets his crotch stomped on by a pissed-off mook in Powered Armor. Even though Batou's a full-body cyborg he doesn't find it a pleasant experience. However, the mook wasn't so much stomping on his groin, but rather the entire midsection of Batou's body.
    • Motoko escapes from one mook who has her in a headlock this way.
  • Guile Hero: Aramaki. Without his skill at politicking, Section 9 would not be able to operate. Especially evident at the end of the first season. The Major, Batou and Saitou also have elements of this, using mind games to gain the advantage in a fight.
  • Guns Akimbo: The Major wields twin pistols when fighting Gayle in "ERASER".
  • 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.
  • Hates Rich People: Fem is a communist assassin who loathes rich people and capitalism so much that she ironically kills them with a shotgun that fires coins. The manga version justifies her motives with a backstory of her father being betrayed by a business partner, who took his entire company and drove her family into bankruptcy, and her mother taking her own life due to poverty.
  • Have You Told Anyone Else?: Aramaki presents the prime minister with evidence of the cyberbrain-sclerosis cure scandal that indicts a lot of people in power, including the vice-minister. The PM asks how many other people know. You can guess what happens next.
  • 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. They're usually built extra-sturdy for this possibility.
  • Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: In Saito's flashback in "POKER FACE" initially Kusanagi, Batou and Ishikawa are all wearing the white UN Peacekeeper helmets until he starts sniping them, at which point they remove them. It's justified because the stark white of the helmets is actually endangering them by making them easier to see, the former two are full-body cyborgs, and they find out firsthand that the helmets might as well be tissue paper when faced with a high-velocity round when Saito takes out several of their helmeted comrades.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • 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.
    • Motoko suffers one after coming into contact with Kuze's consciousness and makes a rash decision that gets one of the rookie members killed. She's able to snap out of it soon enough though.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: The Tachikomas, twice. In the penultimate episode of season one, a trio of decommissioned Tachikomas missing most of their armament break out of where they've been sent to rescue Batou from the GSDA, sacrificing themselves to destroy a mecha. In the series finale, the other Tachikomas deorbit the satellite that houses their server and use it to intercept a short-range ballistic missile launched against the refugee district in Nagasaki.
  • Hero Killer: The Umibozu. They don't actually kill any members of Section 9 ( except the Major, and even then she had no intention of actually dying), but when they go after them it's the first time Section 9 is so thoroughly defeated.
  • He Knows Too Much: Whenever Section 9 discovers the identity of a potential key witness who is not already in custody, they'll inevitably arrive at a police cordon around the murder scene or find that they can't contact the person after the first meeting.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Episode 10 revolves around this and until the last minute it seems Batou will fall prey to this.
  • "Hey, You!" Haymaker: Batou delivers one to the Giant Mook android in "¥€$".
  • Hidden Weapons:
    • Fem has a shotgun inside her left arm.
    • Cruzkowa has blades hidden in her cybernetic arms which she uses as melee weapons.
  • Holding Out for a Hero: Lampshaded by Gouda, who sets out to create such a hero as part of his plan.
  • 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.
  • Hollywood Healing: Togusa gets mortally wounded in "REVIEW", but is well enough to drive just a few episodes later. This is possibly justified by better medical technology in the future, but he's still not a cyborg who can simply swap bodies like the Major can (and does).
  • Hollywood Police Driving Academy: The Car Chase in "ANNIHILATION" shows the police being terrible drivers in general, including crashing into other cars, although they catch up with Togusa and Aramaki eventually.
  • Homage: The opening titles for 2nd Gig homage The Matrix, with Section 9 looking badass in trenchcoats, a green tint on some shots, and a scene of Motoko and Kuze that happens nowhere in the actual show styled after Neo's meeting with the Architect.note 
  • Hospital Hottie: Sano from "SCANDAL" tries to be this, but it soon becomes apparent that she's really A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.
  • Hostage Situation:
    • "ANGELS' SHARE" is an entire episode about this trope as well as a subversion in that it's more about Aramaki cooperating with his captors in order to get them all out safely.
    • 2nd Gig's premiere has a hostage crisis blow up at the Chinese embassy, which Aramaki uses as leverage to get the new prime minister to sign off on reauthorizing Section 9. She tells him she'll retroactively authorize it if the unit can free the hostages without any dying. They breach and kill most of the hostage takers, with the Major shooting the last one off a hostage while falling past a window.
  • Human Traffic Jam: Happens to the Tachikomas in episode "Ag2O" when the one in front stops to speak to Batou.
  • Hypocritical Humor: When the Major arrives at a party posing as a sexbot, her team is leering at her Sexy Backless Outfit Navel-Deep Neckline dress but then get indignant when one of the guests feels her up.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: In Ag2O, Batou goes undercover against a former champion hand-to-hand fighter, whom he lets hit him in the face when taking advantage of the "prosthetic blind spot" when they spar. At the end of the episode, they fight again and this time Batou performs a Punch Catch, revealing that he'd simply let himself get hit the first time.
  • I Need to Go Iron My Dog: The Tachicomas attempt this in 2nd Gig. When they discover that they're going to be going up against anti-tank attack helicopters, they try to claim that they need to return to base because they have stomachaches. Batou isn't fooled or amused.
  • Icon of Rebellion: The Laughing Man's symbol.
  • Idiot Ball:
    • On a meta level, Motoko herself in "CAPTIVATED" when she arrests Cruzkova. In the real world, anyone with military or police training would tell you that 11 feet is the bare minimum distance you need to hold a gun up to someone, giving you enough time and distance to react if someone were to try and pull a fast one like Cruzkova did with her hidden knife. It would be safe enough to apprehend her only after Batou showed up as backup. Although it made for a more intense scene, Motoko needlessly put herself in harm's way.
    • An offscreen moment for Gouda in 2nd Gig that gets him into a lot of trouble down the line. When manufacturing your own terrorist group, it's generally a good idea to give them something remotely resembling a coherent ideology.
    • The refugee sniper who fired the first shot. Although this was thanks to the JMSDF's jamming stopping Kuze from keeping a lid on them, it ended up lighting the powder keg between the refugees and the armed forces.
  • I Know You Know I Know:
    • When Batou is tailing Zaitsev, both begin to suspect the other of being up to something suspicious. They both are - Batou is under orders to investigate him for espionage.
    • In the episode "POKER FACE", Saito thinks that the Major doesn't have control software installed for mid-range aiming, based on her shooting. It turns out that was deliberately being inefficient to mislead him, allowing her to blind him with a sort-of Scope Snipe.
  • Impairment Shot: When Aramaki is drugged in "SCANDAL" and Batou links with his brain, his vision becomes blurred and staggering.
  • Impeded Communication: In "MARTIAL LAW", Section 9 steals a military helicopter to sneak into Dejima just as the Self Defense Forces impose a complete communications blackout. Chief Aramaki tries to convey a message just as it happens, but the last part of it gets cut off.
  • Impersonation Gambit: In "EQUINOX", the Major, pretending to be the Laughing Man kidnaps the CEO of Serano Genomics in order to get some incriminating dirt on Yakushima's role in the cyberbrain sclerosis affair.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Justified, since people can download specialized aiming software to make them crack shots.
  • In a Single Bound: Cyborgs can jump much higher than unaugmented humans and Section 9 uses this to their advantage, such as when Batou jumps on the roof of a garage to avoid a pack of robotic guard dogs. There are laws in place to prevent property damage (such as Motoko's landing impact in the first opening) but despite that, jumping from location to location would sometimes be a more effective means of travel.
  • 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 Individual Eleven as part of his attempt to break Gouda by talking to him.
  • Information Wants to Be Free: The micro-machine industry muzzled the discovery of the cure for cyberbrain sclerosis. Laughing Man wants to expose them.
  • Informed Attribute: It's said multiple times that the Major uses a generic prosthetic body, but no one else is ever shown using that model. There are two times where it appears that there are other characters using it, but both are ultimately revealed to still be the Major.
  • Infrared Xray 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 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 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.
  • In-Series Nickname: The other members of S-9 have been known to call Motoko as "Queen Kong" and "Major She-Ape" when she's not around to hear it. The Tachikomas simply refer to her as "God".
  • Insistent Terminology: Whenever World War IV is referred to, the person referring to it will always - even in internal narration - go out of their way to refer to it as "World War IV, the unofficial Second Vietnam War", or "Non-Nuclear World War IV".
  • Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Numerous examples, such as the Jeri from the third episode, or even the Tachikomas.
  • Instant Death Bullet: Every now and then someone gets killed instantly when getting shot. Mostly mooks that S9 ends up fighting against or anyone who gets shot in the head.
  • Intentional Engrish for Funny: The ending theme of the first season ("Lithium Flower") sounds like a "Blind Idiot" Translation, but it was written by an American, Tim Jensen.
  • Internal Reformist: As mentioned on the page, Section 9 is Type 2 with a healthy dose of Type 1 thrown in. They are a police force who for the most part believe in doing what is right for the future of the country in order to maintain peace and order. This means exposing the very corruption within the government that allows them to exist if need be.
  • The Internet Is an Ocean: "Net Diving" is a routine function that members of Section 9 perform in order to find information.
    • The net itself is usually depicted as an empty void filled with information nodules, but Motoko's Chroma avatar's clothing floats around as if being dragged by water when she dives into network rooms.
    • The first season's ending themesong "Lithium Flower" contextually refers to how amazing Motoko is at "surfing", a reference to her being a Super-Class-A hacker and her skill at net diving.
  • Intrepid Reporter: One appears outside the Superintendent-General's home after the Laughing Man's ghost-hacking incident, which annoys him greatly.
  • Invisibility Cloak: Thermoptic camouflage.
  • Ironic Echo: In a flashback episode, Ishikawa sarcastically calls Batou a "rookie", just like Batou and the others are always referring to Togusa.
  • It Always Rains at Funerals:
    • Yamaguchi's funeral in the episode "INTERCEPTOR".
    • When Aramaki visits Tsujisaki's grave in "LOST HERITAGE", it's also raining.
  • It's Quiet… Too Quiet: When the team are storming the terrorist cell's hideout in "ESCAPE FROM".

    J-P 
  • Jailed One After Another: At the climax of the first season, Section 9's investigation of the Laughing Man case unintentionally reveals their existence to the public's eye, and they are blamed as the culprits of the Laughing Man incident. This forces Section 9 to disband and go into hiding, but they are eventually tracked down one by one and taken into custody (except for the Major, but that's because she's dead.). In Togusa's case, it was a contingency plan to keep him safe if the worst were to happen.
  • The Juggernaut: There are two downplayed examples.
    • The runaway HAW-206 multiped tank in "Testation". Due to the sensitive situation it put Section 9 in, they had to pick their battles with it. Unlike the Tachikomas, this machine was designed for warfare instead of law enforcement, and as such there is very little that can be done to stop it. It's armor is impervious to the weapons used by the Tachikomas, and it has the ability to hack satellites Saito uses to aid in his aim, keeping him from destroying it from a distance. He almost blew its leg off at its joint, but it dodged at the last second. It's only stopped when prototype anti-multiped adhesive weaponry is used to immobilize it and Motoko shorts circuits the cyber-brain installed into it.
    • The Jigabachi helicopters in the second season prove themselves to be too heavily armored for any of Section 9's own weaponry to have any effect on them. However, destroying one was never their intention, as doing so would've added fuel to the fire with the rising tension surrounding the refugee district.
  • Just a Machine: Motoko thinks this about the Tachikomas, who manage to literally evolve out of this trope. All of Section 9 thinks this about the Uchikomas... who do not.
  • Just Between You and Me: Nanao delivers a Motive Rant to his killer right before he dies.
  • Justified Criminal: In the manga, Fem is portrayed as this, having a good reason to go after and kill Yokose Kanemoto. Her father was a successful businessman, and Kanemoto managed to gain his trust when she was seven years old. Only shortly after that, Kanemoto sabotaged the corporation and set things in motion to completely take over the company and run it into the ground. After paying off the employees, Fem's father was gruesomely killed. Fem and her mother were forced to live on the streets in poverty, but her mother couldn't handle it and hung herself soon after. Fem was taken to an orphanage where she spent the rest of her life learning to become an assassin just to get her revenge.
  • Kabuki Theatre: In the second season, Kabuki theatre becomes a minor plot point. The Anti-Villain is able to realize he's being brainwashed/manipulated when none of his co-conspirators understand his comparison of revolutions to Kabuki plays (because the manifesto they thought they were following, and he thought he got that from, doesn't exist).
  • Kazoos Mean Silliness: Zig-Zagged with Big Bad Kazundo Gohda's themesong "Go da Da", which incorporates kazoos to deliberately sound cacophonic. At first it seems like an aversion, since they sound surprisingly metallic and menacing, but as the series progresses, it becomes clear that he's a Smug Snake with an inferiority complex, and he's often humiliated despite his plans coming to fruition. This leads the song to sound rather fitting for his character. Ultimately, everything he's worked for is undone by a simple order from the prime minister, and he's shot dead with a smirk on his face trying to call Section 9's bluff.
  • 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.
  • Legally Ousted Leader: Subverted. At the end of 2nd Gig, due to Gohda pulling the strings to bring the refugee situation in Dejima to a violent conflict with the JSDF army, Prime Minister Kayabuki finds herself being threatened by her primarily-right wing cabinet members and their Pro-American Empire stance. They tell her that they intended to make her take the full blame before they remove her from office with a vote of no confidence, stating that she was weaker than they first assumed because she asked the United Nations to step in and help with the investigation of the stolen plutonium relating to the refugee conflict, which in turn ruined the Cabinet's plans. It was thanks to Section 9's help that not only was a nuclear disaster averted, but the cabinet backed down after realizing that removing her from office in the aftermath would've started another political scandal.
  • Let Off by the Detective: The medical students in "MISSING HEARTS" had good intentions when stealing organs, but Motoko scared them straight and told them that getting involved with the yakuza and black markets would be throwing away the prosperity they already have..
  • Let's Split Up, Gang!: Kusanagi's plan for evacuating Section 9 headquarters and sending the team into hiding.
  • Lighter and Softer: The Stand Alone Complex series, while still fairly dark, is noticeably less grim than the manga and the movies. Usually.
    • The lighthearted "Tachikomatic Days" shorts at the end of each episode are much lighter in tone than the rest of the series and indeed the rest of the franchise. They're meant as humour to lighten the mood of the viewers after watching the episode.
  • Lightning Bruiser: The Jigabachi assault helicopters. Like real world attack helicopters, they are big, fast, armed to the teeth, and are well armored.
  • Littlest Cancer Patient: The girl from "MISSING HEARTS" who recently had a heart transplant.
  • Logic Bomb: In order to get their hands on a new device that Section 9 had tested, the Tachikomas use a variant of the liar's paradox on an Operator android who was guarding the device, which paralizes her in the attempt to work it out. They then point out that as more advanced A.I.s, they know that there isn't an answer.
    Tachikoma: Folks that can't handle a self-reference paradox are real suckers.
  • Loophole Abuse: Takeshi Kago resents his parents for forcing their religion on him for his entire life. He will die young and can't get a cyborg body that would greatly extend his life expectency because their religion prohibits it. He decides that once he's dead, their religion no longer applies to him, and he convinces a coworker to stick his brain into the new tank he was working on before his brain functions stop.
  • Lost in Translation: When the Tachikomas realize they may have to fight against the Jigabachi helicopters in Natural Enemy, they try to make up an excuse that they have stomach aches so they can back out. The reference here makes more sense in Japanese, as it's made more obvious how the spider-like Tachikomas would be fighting against the wasp-like Jigabachis. Various species of wasps and hornets have been known to prey on spiders, especially the infamous Japanese Giant Hornet.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: A variant. One of the Tachikomas brings back a mysterious cyberbrain core which seems to have trapped a number of people inside a theater in cyberspace which repeatedly shows a film so beautiful and sad that none of the viewers ever wish to leave: they only want to discuss the film. Could be considered a Shout-Out to the film from David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. The Major dives in to save them. Her assessment of the movie? She tells the rest of the team it was okay, denying that she was actually moved to tears.
  • Machine Blood: Androids have white "blood" circulating through their systems. It's never explicitly identified other than being some kind of lubricant. The first episode has Section 9 gunning down malfunctioning geisha robots, with white blood splattering all around the area when their heads get blown off. In "CASH EYE", Chairman Katakura mistakes the Major for an android, claiming to be able to smell her white blood from across the room while explaining his eccentricities.
  • Magic Floppy Disk
    • The wine thieves in "ANGEL'S SHARE" eject a floppy disc out of the computer terminal after Aramaki tells them to follow his instructions if they want to survive.
    • In the 2nd Gig episode "CHAIN REACTION", Motoko visits one of her hacker friends while investigating a lead into the stolen plutonium. While Gohda's goons already managed to fry his cyberbrain before she got there, he was was Properly Paranoid enough that she was surprised to find that all the data he had stored on "Yellow cake uranium" had been saved to a massive storage unit comprised of hundreds of floppy discs. She muses on just how ridiculous the concept was, but in this case, the outdated format was crucial to saving the data from being stolen.
  • Magnificent Bastard: In-universe, Kuze. So much so that he breaks away from Gohda's attempts to use him as an Unwitting Pawn.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: Section 9 stages a car accident to take care of the district attorney and his client after it looks like the client is going to get away with killing his girlfriend and the attorney threatened to expose Section 9 themselves.
  • Male Gaze: The Major sometimes gets shown from interesting angles, starting with a gratuitous ass shot as she's climbing out of a Tachikoma to attack the Spider Tank in the second episode. This is Played for Laughs in a 2nd Gig episode where a street kid is enthusing about the Major's body - the camera angle makes it look like he's staring at her breasts, when he's referring to her cybernetic modifications.
  • Malevolent Masked Men: The Umibozu.
  • Man in the Machine:
    • Takeshi Kago, the recently deceased scientist from the second episode who transfers his ghost into a Spider Tank.
    • Marcelo Jarti turns out to be an unconscious man on life support who directs his body doubles to do his bidding from an iron lung.
  • Masquerading As the Unseen: When the Laughing Man first appeared in public he arranged for his face to be effectively invisible so no one knows what he looks like. In the episode "EQUINOX" the Laughing Man (with his face mostly covered) meets with Ernest Serano and they talk about the conspiracy. At the end of the episode it's revealed that the Laughing Man is actually Major Kusanagi in disguise in order to trick Serano into revealing information.
  • Matrix Raining Code: Subtle usage from time to time.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In "AFFECTION", Motoko is mysteriously hacked by an unknown presence. She concludes that it is a hacking, but is drawn to a mysterious shop. The shopkeeper inside collects various objects that all have "psychic imprints" filled with sentimental stories and memories. The core of the series remains focused around the integration and interactions of humanity with technology, so this stands out as a supernatural element that just isn't explained.
  • Meaningful Name: Proto is a prototype bioroid.
  • Mega City: Niihama.
  • MegaCorp: Serano Genomics is the most prominent.
  • Memento Macguffin: The Major's watch and Batou's exercise weights, as discussed in "BARRAGE".
  • Memetics in Fiction: One of the core concepts behind the series is the use of memetics to influence a society that has integrated with technology to the point that people can be hacked and controlled by others if they're not careful. Kenji Kamiyama was ahead of the curve when the series first aired in 2002, as modern internet memes, meme culture, and influence wouldn't begin to take hold until a few years later.
    • The Laughing Man returned to public knowledge when Superintendent-General Daido tried to cover up the conspiracy about the use of interceptors. Section 9 was able to accurately plan that Daido would be attacked by someone under the influence of a virus, but 47 random citizens showed up to all try and kill Daido themselves. It would later be revealed that all 47 people had no connections to each other and did not plan the assault ahead of time, but were all radicalized on the spot because of the return of the Laughing Man and the cultural phenomenon he had become after the initial Laughing Man incident from six years prior. Section 9 would dub this phenomenon a "Stand Alone Complex", which they defined copycat activities which mimic a supposed original that doesn't exist.
    • Nanao Ei's virus was a fabricated ploy to immediately distract the public from the initial corruption charges, and it would have worked if not for Section 9's intervention.
    • The initial Laughing Man incident became such a cultural phenomenon that the initial message of trying to uncover a government conspiracy in front of a live broadcast ended up being remembered by the public more for the spectacle it created than from the message it was presenting. The Major actually has to dig through TV broadcasts to find an original recording of how the incident played out, as it had spread around the net so much that people began to only remember what they wanted to remember about it, specifically the Laughing Man logo itself, which had since been plastered over the weather charts and other parts of the broadcast in reairings. It's like the concept of Gossip Evolution, where the original message is lost and corrupted by each individuals own specific interpretation of what they were told.
    • The second season delves into the concept of using multiple Stand Alone Complexes to persuade and influence public opinion on certain subjects, such as the intentional spreading of misinformation (what would be dubbed as "Fake News" in the real world) and memetics to convince an entire population to show hostility against minority groups.
  • Memetic Mutation: The Laughing Man's very existence is a central and clear demonstration of this - both in-universe and out.
  • Memory Jar: In the episode "AFFECTION", Motoko seemingly gets hacked and finds her way to a curio shop where the store owner holds onto items full of memories from the customers who left them in her care. The psychic imprints that each object gives off allows her to tell the full story behind it. Motoko is soon reminded about the story of her and Kuze's past, and the tragic plane crash that brought them together when they were both just six years old.
  • Mental Picture Projector: All you have to do to see inside someone's cyberbrain is to hook it up to a monitor. Ishikawa monitors Motoko's progress as she brain dives into the derelict movie director's cyberbrain.
  • The Metaverse: Diving into the Net is essentially like Real Life, with fully navigable 3D environments and life-size Digital Avatars of people.
  • Mexican Standoff: Multiple times, such as the climax of "CAPTIVATED".
  • Mildly Military: Although it appears this way on the surface, it's subverted. Section Nine are True Companions, and will joke around sometimes, but there is a definite pecking order. The Major can and will pull rank whenever she feels her natural leadership abilities aren't enough. And nobody argues with Aramaki. And on the rare occasion this trope is played straight, it's justified in that Section Nine is a small black ops team and gets a lot more leeway than the regular military.
  • Miraculous Malfunction: The Tachikomas become sapient partially due to the natural oil that Batou gave to his "personal" Tachikoma.
  • Money Mauling: The communist assassin Fem prefers to get the job done with the shotgun built into her arm that is specifically designed to fire rolls of coins.
  • Money to Burn: In ¥€$, the assassin buys rolls of coins to use as shotgun ammunition to take out the richest man in the world with, as she is trying to make a point about capitalism. Too bad he died a few months ago, survived by his money-making program.
  • Mood Whiplash: The rather cheerful "Tachikomatic Days" omake sometimes cause this. For example, the episode "BARRAGE" ends with Section 9 disbanded and most of the main characters arrested. This is followed by a tongue-in-cheek segment describing "The Life Cycle Of The Tachikoma".
  • More Dakka:
    • Batou loves this trope. It's his job as a the heavy arms specialist.
    • Some of the gunfights can go in this direction, especially if Powered Armor or gunships are involved.
    • The Tachikomas have miniguns which can spray ridiculous amounts of dakka at targets.
  • Multilingual Song: The series features more songs than any other soundtrack that Yoko Kanno has worked on that feature at least two languages.
    • "Inner Universe" combines Russian, English, and Latin.
    • "Rise" switches between Russian and English.
    • "Velveteen" switches between English and Italian.
    • "Player" is mostly sung in Russian, but features a full rap verse in English.
  • Mugged for Disguise:
    • A member of the British SWAT team in "ANGELS' SHARE". See Dressing as the Enemy.
    • In "¥€$", an assassin murders two bank couriers, using the clothes of the female courier to infiltrate the Big Fancy House of a wealthy recluse.
    • In "LOST HERITAGE", the teenage assassin ties up a schoolboy and steals his uniform as part of his plan to kill a visiting Chinese politician.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The armed suits used by the Narcotics Suppression Squad and later the Umibozu have two sets of arms; one large pair used to manipulate weapons and large/heavy objects, and the pilot's own smaller arms for more precision interactions.
  • Mundane Utility: It's well-established that thermoptic camouflage is foiled by water, so the Major deals with the cloaked Umibozu troops by turning 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 The Major is hacking. Later in the episode it's revealed that she hacked Togusa's brain to deliver that speech.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Section 9's purpose for existence is to protect the country from terrorism and uphold the law. This means that if need be, they will uproot the government's own administration if they are found guilty of committing a form of terrorism against the people of Japan.
  • Named After Somebody Famous:
    • Section 9 is named after real-life German counter-terrorism unit GSG9 (Border Guard, Unit 9).
    • It's likely that Prime Minister Kayabuki's surname is a reference to Margaret Thatcher - the kanji used translates as 'reed thatch'.
    • A suspect in one case is named Marshall McLaclan, which evokes the name of famous media theorist Marshall McLuhan, both of whom are Canadian.
  • 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.
  • Nanomachines: It's mentioned that nanotechnology is used for medical purposes in the world of the show. They're an ineffective treatment for cyberbrain sclerosis, though.
  • Neural Implanting: At one point in "POKER FACE", Saito theorizes that Motoko was downloading fire-control software for the gun in the middle of the shoot-out.
  • Never Found the Body: Double Subverted. Section 9 takes extra care to leave fake corpses to be found, but the commander of the Umibozu isn't fooled since the fakes have blank cyberbrains which is revealed with just a cursory check.
  • New Neo City: Niihama. Its name loosely translates to "new port".
  • Night-Vision Goggles: Batou can do this with his Electronic Eyes.
  • Ninja Maid: The android maids at the mansion in "¥€$" also serve as security. They have hidden weapons built into their arms and are programmed to respond to threats.
  • Nintendo Hard: The Stand Alone Complex video game is subject to this. Particularly because, like the anime, it assumes that Viewers Are Geniuses and subjects the player to some serious Trial-and-Error Gameplay (such as the first level, where the only real way to gauge if a distance is short enough to not get sniped is to attempt it), a control scheme comparable to Halo with no in-game learning curve (the tutorial is off of the main menu, and the first level assumes you've completely memorized and mastered every single aspect), frequent checkpoints but very infrequent save points, and all while other characters will talk at the bottom of the screen about very important things in the level and plot that won't be repeated if you happened to miss it because you were busy trying not to die. It doesn't help that the dialogue itself assumes not only once again that Viewers Are Geniuses, but that their full attention is dedicated to listening.
    • It should also be noted that many of the PlayStation 2 game's conventions of gameplay and interface were lifted almost directly from Oni, a game published several years before. However, Oni itself was inspired almost entirely by Ghost in the Shell, bringing the inspiration full-circle.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Eka Tokura (a girl kidnapped by a terrorist group who becomes a member of it) is clearly based on the infamous case of Patty Hearst. There is even a shot of her holding a gun which is similar to a famous photo of Hearst.
  • No Communities Were Harmed: Niihama is visually based on Hong Kong, although viewers may mistake it for Tokyo as well.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The Major absolutely flips out on Gayle. Considering that he blew off her arm, tried to crush her head in, and nearly killed Togusa, it's hardly surprising.
  • Noisy Guns: Averted for the majority of the series, but played straight in some episodes of the second season.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: Most of the leaders of the different groups Section 9 goes after are corrupt politicians or otherwise not trained fighters- they have people to carry out such tasks for them. Kuze is one of the major exceptions.
  • No New Fashions in the Future: Unless there is a sudden trend for going pantless underneath a leather jacket.
  • Nonstandard Character Design: Koil Krasnov and the unnamed informant in "FABRICATE FOG" stand out compared to everyone else. Koil Krasnov is a gigantic guy with a noticeably longer right arm, weirdly short legs, an exaggerated square jaw, and red eyeliner. The informant is extremely short and has a huge forehead, dot-shaped eyebrows, Hot Blooded Sideburns, and blue shadows under his eyes. They both look almost exactly as they appeared from the original manga.
  • 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 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.
  • No Such Agency: Officially, Public Security Section 9 doesn't exist... publicly anyway. Localized police forces and other military units know of them, but they're not suppose to talk about them (not that S9 ever gets involved in such a way that they would need to). As mentioned in other tropes on the page, loopholes in the system allows them to exist off the record. When S9's identity did go public near the end of the first season, Aramaki had to make sure that they were "officially" wiped from existence, even though he was fighting against military forces who were literally trying to wipe them from existence.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: In the English dub of "Angel's Share", all of the British characters have American accents.
  • No Transhumanism Allowed: The Human Liberation Front is one of several groups opposed to cyberization.
  • Nuclear Nullifier: Japan has developed micromachines that can clean up nuclear fallout. This technology put Japan back onto the world stage in the aftermath of World War 3 and Non-Nuclear World War 4, but also lead to Kazundo Ghoda's inferiority complex because the Japanese government wouldn't credit him as the creator of the technology for being the director of the committee of engineers and scientists who ultimately developed it.
  • The Numbered Things: The Individual Eleven, a random group of 11 Japanese citizens infected by a virus who carried out various acts of crime and terrorism in the hopes of riling up the refugees, who were being treated as second class citizens just because they had nowhere else to go after the last war.
  • Obfuscating Disability: the Laughing Man went into hiding by hacking the computers of a mental hospital for children and youths and creating a fake identity of being a patient suffering from severe mental disabilities and being almost unresponsive to other people. Which is particularly ironic as his Calling Card was an image that included the quote from The Catcher in the Rye: "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes." The context of the quote is more telling still; it's taken from a passage where the narrator decides in a flight of fancy that he'd run away and live a life of seclusion, far from the falseness and ugliness of society.
  • Oddly Overtrained Security: An episode has Togusa go undercover to investigate a facility for youths suffering from "cyberbrain addiction". The first sign something's up is the presence of an 8 foot tall cyborg covered in solid metal armor.
  • Oh, Crap!: When Ishikawa finally decodes the faces of the last three members of the narc squad, he realizes they're the two friendly-looking "hobos" talking to the chief in the refugee district. Another one from the viewer when it's revealed the third is the doctor performing the body-swap on the Major.
  • Oktoberfest: One episode takes place in Berlin. While the episode mostly manages to stay clear of this trope, the street on which Batou is waiting in the front of a shop would fit much better into an old and traditional Bavarian village and looks nothing like downtown Berlin. Even the neighborhood and home that Theresa lives in looks like it was built during the post-war rebuilding period in the mid-20th century.
  • Older Than They Look: The Russian spy Cruzkowa is over 70 years old, but looks to be in her mid-20's because of her fully prosthetic body.
  • Omake: "Tachikomatic Days"
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: "Torukia", featured in the Mexican Standoff between the Major and Saito at the climax of "POKER FACE".
  • One-Way Visor: Motoko uses one in "CASH EYE".
  • Organ Theft: Several episodes revolve around it, such as the medical students from episode 8.
  • Our Clones Are Different: The ethics of cloning is brought up with a highly illegal process known as "Ghost Dubbing". A "ghost" is a person's soul converted into digital data thanks to the cyberization process. Due to mass-production of full-prosthetic bodies, it's possible to build clones (even incubate biological clones and replace with prosthetics as needed) and copy & paste the original inhabitant's soul into the clone bodies, but this kills the original in the process. In the episode "Idolator", Section 9 investigates the repeated appearances of Marcello Jarti, an infamous South American revolutionary who's wanted in numerous countries for drug trafficking. Section 9 is curious why it's always the same person who shows up every time, despite a track record of each one being arrested or killed. Each time a new one shows up, a professional determines that it is indeed the real Marcello Jarti. By the end of the episode, it's revealed that he's been building dozens of clones of himself for countless years, and each one has a perfect copy of his soul, memories, personality, and ideologies up to the point of release, at which point they become individuals with whatever path they take in life.
  • 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.
  • Over-the-Shoulder Murder Shot: This occurs in episode where Batou recognizes the tactics of a serial killer from a CIA black op during a war. During the flash back they come upon a whole village brutally flayed alive and left to die. The killer in the flash back demonstrates this trope as Batou reaches out to touch him.
  • Paranormal Episode: There are no fantasy aspects except for the 2nd Gig episode "AFFECTION". Major Kusunagi finds herself cut off from outside contact and seemingly alone in an empty city. She finds The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: a store that somehow has stored memories and cyberbodies from her own past. The owner who tells her a story very similar to what happened to her when she was a child.
  • Parking Garage:
    • Part of the shootout in episode 6 takes place in one.
    • Aramaki gets bothered by an Intrepid Reporter in his car in episode 23, although he does get a photo of his long-lost brother from him.
  • Passive Rescue: The Laughing Man gives the Major one near the end of the first season by giving her control of her body again.
  • Penny Shaving: In season 2, Kuze raises money for his revolution by stealing sub-yen amounts from a large number of bank accounts.
  • People Jars: Motoko and Batou discover a cache of replacement bodies that Marcelo has stored in a warehouse.
  • Perception Filter: The Laughing Man's signature move is hacking people's eyes so they see a laughing face logo surrounded by a scrolling J.D. Salinger quote instead of his face. When he wants to be seen at all that is.
  • Perp Sweating: Attempted with the Laughing Man suspects, but it doesn't work because they're either fanatically devoted to his cause or have Laser-Guided Amnesia.
  • Phantom Limb Pain: "Idolator" begins with an investigator monitoring the appearance of Marcello Jarti and identifying key character tics to confirm if he's the real person or an impersonator. Jarti's unconscious habit of scratching at his prosthetic arm is identified as a symptom of Phantom Limb Syndrome.
  • Piecemeal Funds Transfer: Kuze funds his terrorist campaign by using a computer program that siphons fractional values off electronic transactions and deposits them into various shell accounts he owns. As he explains it, nobody notices the differences when there sums that go missing are less than a yen each.
  • Pinned to the Wall: Towards the end of the second season, Kuze defeats Batou by driving a large metal pipe through his leg and into the concrete (they're both full body cyborgs, so this isn't fatal; it just holds him in place). The former claims Batou's combat knife as a trophy before leaving.
  • 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 are probably a lot tougher than those of an ordinary person.
    • He also does it in "NOT EQUAL" when fighting the Human Liberation Front.
  • Place Worse Than Death: Batou mentions that Berlin, Germany has the "dubious honor" of getting bombed out in all four world wars, though it always rebuilds.
  • Plot Tailored to the Party: Nobody's ever totally useless, but some episodes manage to make use of everyone of note in Section 9. In "TESTATION", for example: The Major and Batou follow an out of control automated tank on the freeway, supported by Tachikomas; Togusa uses his police skills to politely interview, then interrogate, the person most likely to have sabotaged the tank; Aramaki puts the pressure upon the tank's production company's corporate heads to get them to cough up its secret weaknesses; Saito tries snipes the tank with a mounted anti-tank rifle, but is foiled by its defenses, and Ishikawa gets to deliver the coup de grâce with a corporate-supplied glue-bazooka. (Pazu and Borma are still third-stringers, unfortunately, but they get their fair share of action as well.)
  • Plug 'n' Play Prosthetics:
    • During Section 9's investigation into Kuze's location, Motoko looks for a prosthetic user that she can temporarily hack into, and finds a police woman who is complaining to her coworker that you shouldn't override the control software in your body just because you got a new body part. She was having difficulty adjusting to a new arm because it came with software that was conflicting with other software programs her cyberbrain was already using.
    • Batou ends up losing a fight against Kuze. Kuze takes a metal pole and jams it into Batou's shoulder, pinning him to the ground, and ultimately allowing him to escape. A later scene shows Batou fidgeting with his left arm. He comments that even though it started working as soon as he had it replaced, it takes a few days to get used to it.
  • Post-Cyberpunk: This series has a significantly more positive view of 21st century Japan than previous outings of the franchise. Life can still be difficult and there's still a lot of political and corporate corruption, but Japan is portrayed as a lot less of a technologically advanced Crapsack World and with a lot more people in high places committed to doing right by people, up to and including the second season's Prime Minister. Motoko is also closer to her characterization in the original manga, introspective but also more fun-loving and more engaged with her team.
  • Powered Armour:
    • Called "Armed Suits" in-universe, the Umibozu use these to go after the Major, and later Batou. Other varieties make appearances later on.
    • Togusa fights a cyborg who is an armored suit in "PORTRAITZ".
  • Power Fist: Both the Major and Togusa use a concealed weapon called a Stun Glove. It's a taser designed to send 10,000 volts of electricity into cyborgs to shut them down.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: The manga alters some of the scenes and expands upon them.
    • In Volume 3, which covers the 7th episode "IDOLATOR", the well recognized scene where Motoko fights off two female android bodyguards is altered with Marcelo Jarti pulling out a grenade, pulling the pin and leaving the room, forcing Motoko to jump back out of the building and have Batou's Tachikoma catch her with a wire. Later on when the team starts searching for Jarti in the warehouse, Batou's encounter with Kanekichi Gondo in the men's bathroom plays out differently. Togusa also ends up saving Motoko by shooting one of the Jarti clones in the head just as he gets Motoko in a sleeper hold.
    • "¥€$" plays out differently from the episode as well, specifically by having Fem get the jump on Motoko, resulting in a drawn out fight between them after Motoko's left arm gets nicked by one of Fem's shotgun coins. The fight doesn't end until Batou finally steps in and grabs Fem, just before she's about to drive a spike through Motoko's eye. Fem is also given an extensive backstory to justify her desire to assassinate Yokose Kanemoto.
    • "NOT EQUAL" explains what happened to Eka Tokura after she was abducted, and uses Rape as Backstory to explain how her Rapid Aging happened. It also Hand Waves the fact of how her daughter looks almost exactly like her by chalking it up to pure luck with genetics. She doesn't know which of the numerous men could be her father.
  • Predatory Big Pharma: In the main plot of the first season, the investigation of the Laughing Man incident uncovers a massive conspiracy by the Serano Genomics corporation. To start, Serano is suppressing all knowledge of the Murai vaccine (a cure for the otherwise uncurable disease cyberbrain sclerosis) so they can instead sell costly, long-term nanomachine-based treatments. Worse, some of these nanomachines are actually experimental espionage and military applications, not treatments for cyberbrain sclerosis at all. Serano is, of course, bribing enough politicians to let them get away with using the Japanese public as guinea pigs, and hires assassins to kill anyone who gets too close to the truth.
  • Prefers the Illusion: In "ESCAPE FROM", Section 9 acquires an computer programmed with a simulation created by a Mad Artist. The simulation is just a movie theater playing the artist's final film on a constant loop. Everyone who enters the simulation becomes so engrossed with the film that they don't want to leave—the audience never sees any of the film, but it's apparently just that good. Even the normally-stoic Major Kusanagi is moved to tears by the film, but ultimately has enough willpower to stop watching and shut the simulation down.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: The Major likes to announce her presence after sneaking up on people with thermoptic camouflage. Before blowing their heads off.
  • Private Eye Monologue: Motoko delivers one at times, as do some of the other members of Section 9.
  • Projectile Webbing: The Tachikomas, while not capable of producing actual silk, have an ability reminiscent of this in the form of web-like guidewires that they can shoot from their pods to swing around as a form of mobility. As shown in episode 2 "TESTATION", they can attach the wires to other moving objects such as the HAW-206 tank in an effort to slow it down with their own body weight.
  • Pronouncing My Name for You: Kazundo Gouda gives Chief Aramaki his business card when they first meet. The chief misreads the kanji and mispronounces his name as "Hitori", to which Gouda tells him is a pretty common mistake, but most people remember his name once they associate it with his quite memorable face.
  • Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Kaori Kawashima, a woman who held a vendetta against Pazu just because he slept with her twice despite saying that he never sleeps with the same woman twice. She fell in love with him and wanted to become him after that. Fuse their love together into one being and all that. She was not able to kill Pazu in her fight against him. The real Pazu won in the end.
  • Psycho for Hire: Gayle. In the raid on the Sunflower Society, he casually kills his own men to make it look like his squad was acting in self-defense.
  • Psycho Lesbian: Sano, the Narcotics squad member, has elements of this. She is blatantly flirtatious towards the Major while trying to kill her during her body-swap operation.
  • Punch Catch: When Batou is ordered to investigate Zaitsev, a former silver-medalist boxer and his idol, he starts off by sparring against him in a match. He intentionally lets Zaitsev knock him out with a move known as the prosthetic blind spot. When he later discovers that Zaitsev is a spy, he confronts him and challenges him to another boxing match to settle things once and for all. Zaitsev confidently tries to use the prosthetic blind spot on Batou, but his punch is caught in Batou's hand. Batou counters with a right hook and knocks Zaitsev out.
  • Putting the Band Back Together: The first half of the season 1 finale.

    Q-Z 
  • Quality over Quantity: A dilemma that Section 9 has to deal with. The Big Bad of the second season points out that no matter how good the members of Section 9 are, they would still lose if they were out-numbered. Batou later has to decide whether he should decrease the difficulty for new recruits to join S9, knowing that doing so would reduce the overall quality and potential each member has. Ultimately, in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society, Section 9 has expanded its ranks.
  • Ramming Always Works: In "BARRAGE", the Tachikomas try to take out the Armed Suit threatening Batou by slamming into it with their bodies. It works when the one with an explosive shell does it.
  • Rape as Backstory: In the manga version of "NOT EQUAL", it's stated that Eka Tokura was raped numerous times by the members of the New World Brigade. This is what caused her Rapid Aging, but it also drove her to put her child through a Training from Hell to turn her into the perfect soldier.
  • Rapid Aging: Eka Tokura. In the anime, it's implied to be caused by the stress of her long captivity, although it's never really explained how it happened. In the manga, being raped over and over again after being abducted caused her body to rapidly age.
  • Recruiting the Criminal: Motoko and Aramaki try, albeit unsuccessfully, to recruit The Laughing Man in the finale of Season 1.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning:
    • The security cyborg from "PORTRAITZ" who nearly throttles Togusa.
    • Subverted by the Major: her prosthetic body has red eyes because she chose its basic details like hair and eye color when she received her first prosthetic body as a child and children are naturally attracted to bright colors.
  • Red Herring: In "LOST HERITAGE", the members of Section 9 are operating on the assumption that the assassin they are looking for is going to use a sniper rifle to try and assassinate a foreign politician. Then Togusa finds a half-naked schoolboy Bound and Gagged in a bathroom stall, and Batou realizes that the sniper plot was just a ruse. In reality, the assassin's plan was to steal a teenager's uniform so he could get close enough to the politician to stab him to death.
  • Regional Redecoration: The world is still scarred with craters from World War III as well as a meteor storm that hit much of the northern hemisphere. A map in the final episode of the series shows that Beijing is now the Inner Sea of China.
  • 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: When Stand Alone Complex and 2nd Gig were rebroadcast on Japanese terrestrial television, the theme songs and opening sequences were completely changed. "GET9" replaced "inner universe", "i do" replaced "lithium flower", "CHRisTmas in the SiLent ForeSt" replaced "rise", and "snyper" replaced "living inside the shell".
  • Restraining Bolt: The Northern Territories mafia uses electronic Slave Collars on their abductees.
  • The Reveal: At the end of "EQUINOX", the Laughing Man is shown to be Major Kusanagi in disguise. Not the real one, though.
    • An earlier one is done in "RE-VIEW" where The initial plot of the Laughing Man was trying to expose a cover-up of a legitimate vaccination cure for Cyberbrain Scloerosis to sell a All-Natural Snake Oil micromachine cure which didn't work. This is made worse by the revelation the government held "trials" which allowed officials and corporate executives to take the vaccine instead.
  • Riddle for the Ages: A small yet at the same time large one posed at the end of MAKE UP. A woman Paz slept with in the past became obsessed with him to the point of creating a perfect physical replica of his body and apparently his ghost. They get into a knife fight, both sustain identical wounds, and one ends up with a knife in the eye. At the end the Major casually mentions it is possible the real Paz was killed and the imposter decided to take over his life. The episode ends with Batou saying "Maybe."
  • 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 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.
  • Ripped from the Headlines: The episode about kidnappings by the Northern Territories Mafia which is being denied by a prominent politician probably takes from the story of kidnappings by North Korea that were being denied by a prominent politician.
  • 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 geishas).
  • Robot Buddy: The Tachikomas, cute and bubbly killer robots.
  • Robot Girl: The various female cyborgs and androids, such as the Operators at Section 9 or the maids in "¥€$".
  • Robot Hair: The Operator androids in all have synthetic hair to help them closer resemble humans. People who opt to switch over to prosthetic bodies also have bio-synthetic hair, even though they're now cyborgs instead of being complete robots. In the later category, The Major is unusual for selecting an unnatural colour for her hair.
  • Robot Maid: In "¥€$", android maids patrol the mansion of Kanemoto Yokose, serving as both service and security. They continue to carry out their programming of keeping the mansion tidy, completely unaware that their owner has long since passed away in his own bed.
  • Robotic Reveal: Towards the end of 2nd Gig, Proto is revealed to be a prototype bioroid when he coughs up white blood after being injured.
  • Rogue Drone: Subverted. The HAW-206 tank that escapes in the second episode is no rogue, but a scientist who uploaded himself into it so he could, after his natural body had died, either kill his parents in revenge or show them how much better his new body is. It's ultimately left ambiguous if the latter was his true motivation or not.
  • Roofhopping: Section 9 does it from time to time (check out the opening credits).
  • Rooftop Confrontation: The Individual Eleven practice a ritualized Mutual Kill on top of a rooftop; it ends with a sword-fight when one of them changes his mind. All of this is aired live by a news helicopter.
  • Rule of Symbolism: The final episode of 2nd Gig is filled with many references to Christianity.
    • Kuze asks Motoko if she ever found anyone she could open up to. She says that she has. Cue Batou bearing a large metal cross over his shoulder as he tries to rescue her, a reference to Jesus.
    • The Major gives Kuze an apple, which he eats before he dies. A reference to Adam and Eve.
    • Kuze's superstructure is analogous to Heaven, where people will be able to retain their ghosts (souls) and individualities without a physical body.
  • Sapient Tank: Tachikoma tankettes.
  • Save Sat: In the final episode, the Tachikomas ram the satellite containing their A.I.s into a nuclear missile to save the lives of Section 9 as well as 40,000 refugees and soldiers, all while singing a happy children's song that celebrates the importance of life, showing that they understood the concept of death, and weren't afraid to die for a good cause.
  • Say My Name:
    • Batou, after the Major is shot in the head: "MOTOKOOOOOOO!". When she gets better, the other Section 9 operatives mock him for it.
    • Batou, again, during the climax of the second season, while he's trying to dig up the Major from under a pile of rubble.
    • During the climax of the PS2 game, the Major is fighting hand-to-hand with another cyborg who has a body identical to hers. Batou comes across the battle, and has to figure out which one of them is the real Major. He calls her name to get their attention, then shoots the one who turns to look at him.
    • At the beginning of "ERASER", the Major does it when she and Aramaki burst into the operating room to see Togusa, who's been shot.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Sano has them for a few scenes. She starts off innocent enough (though they first do the shine pretty much as soon as she walks in the room), but then they turn scary when she reveals what her intentions are with Motoko.
  • Schizo Tech: Sort of. Despite all the futuristic technology, anachronisms like floppy disks, CD-R disks and 2G cell phones still appear (although those were the standard at the time the show was created, and Japan as a nation tends to keep lower-tech stuff around anyway). Floppy disks in particular are used as a plot point as an outdated storage unit that modern hackers wouldn't be able to obtain without physically stealing the disk readers themselves.
  • Scope Snipe: 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.
  • Security Cling: Done wordlessly between Kuze and The Major in the last episode, as they embrace in the face of a nuclear strike.
  • Serial Killer: Marco Amoretti from "JUNGLE CRUISE".
  • Seriously Scruffy: Usually shows up when the team are burning the midnight oil (along with many empty or half empty boxes of pizza and cigarette stubs). Mainly Ishikawa (and whoever ends up helping him), since he does most of the research related work. Togusa also falls into this when he's investigating the death of a former colleague in "Interceptor".
  • Sexbot: The 2nd Gig episode "CASH EYE" has a bunch of corrupt politicians holding a party to show off their sexbots, which the Major infiltrates by posing as her own boss' sexbot.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: "NIGHT CRUISE" follows a one-shot character for 90% of the episode and features the Major and Batou in what could easily be cameo appearances. It has no overall relation to the storyline other than to foreshadow and highlight the treatment of post-war refugees, which would become more prominent as the season goes on.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: According to head script writer Dai Sato, Marco Amoretti from "JUNGLE CRUISE" and Gino from "NIGHT CRUISE" both suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and it shows. Marco is convinced that he's still fighting his war, unable to let go of what he experienced and adapt to reality, and Gino lets himself get lost to his own delusions of grandeur in order to forget all he's gone through and cope with how disgusting reality has become.
  • Shipped in Shackles: Cruzkowa's hostages in "CAPTIVATED".
  • Shoo Out the Clowns: In the first season, the Major decides to send the Tachikomas to the lab for analysis just as the truth behind the Laughing Man case starts to become apparent.
  • Shoot Him, He Has a Wallet!: In PU 239, Gouda spends most of the episode provoking the paranoia of a soldier that Section 9 is working with, then when they're stopped on the road shouts that a nearby refugee is carrying a pistol, causing the soldier to immediately open fire and resulting in all the refugees being gunned down. The refugee was just carrying a small piece of bent pipe. Gouda knew this and was deliberately trying to provoke an incident in order to antagonize both sides for the terrorist organization his virus had created.
  • Showing Up Chauvinists: Batou suggests that the Major (the only female member in Section 9) should switch out her female chassis to a male body instead, reasoning that she'll be physically stronger and that the others would respect her authority more. Motoko asserts her position as the leader by smiling at Batou, hacking his cyberbrain and making him punch himself out. She tells Batou that as long as she has no problem literally make others do what she wants, her current body suits her just fine.
  • 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.
  • 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 nothing underneath) lures a police Special Weapons officer into an alley so she can knock him out and steal his uniform. In 2nd Gig, Aramaki brings the Major along to infiltrate a meeting of Corrupt Corporate Executive-types showing off their sexbots. The team are eager to see what the Major will be wearing, and she doesn't disappoint with her Sexy Backless Outfit Navel-Deep Neckline dress.
  • Shrouded in Myth:
    • Just who or what The Laughing Man is gets discussed to some good length in "CHAT! CHAT! CHAT!". If only those people knew that the real Laughing Man was there in the chatroom discussing it with them.
    • To the general public, Section 9 is this. In the second episode, a SWAT officer remarks to one of his colleagues that he didn't even think that Section 9 actually existed after meeting the Major.
  • Sigil Spam: The Laughing Man's logo, which he plasters all over the place.
  • Skyward Scream: Batou, at the end of "BARRAGE"; he's mocked for it by Ishikawa in the finale.
  • Sliding Scale of Continuity:
    • The first season falls in as a Type 4: Arc-based Episodic continuity- which explicitly identifies each episode as either "Stand Alone" (episodic) or "Complex" (part of the series arc). The episodic ones rarely contain any reference to other episodes.
    • 2nd Gig takes a Type 3 approach- Subtle Continuity. Episodes are split up into Individual, Dividual, and Dual types. While many of the Individual and Dividual episodes may seem like Stand Alone episodes, every episode focuses on at least some minor detail that plays a larger part later on as the entire story builds up. Individual episodes focus on the story in regards to the rising tensions with the refugees in the country and the Individual Eleven. Dual episodes focus on the government's (and more specifically, Gouda's) involvement in the story. Dividual episodes focus more on the members of Section 9 and how they get involved in the whole story.
  • 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 logical paradox by the Tachikoma.
  • Slow Electricity: At the end of the "EMBARRASSMENT", the crew of a Coast Guard ship sees the lights of Nagasaki going out in sections after the city's power is cut.
  • Smells of Death: In "CHAIN REACTION", Saito and Batou chase after a Russian cyborg named Koil. When they finally capture him, Saito notes that he can smell rotting flesh, figuring that Koil must've been dead for some time but was being remotely animated through someone hacking his body.
  • Smuggling with Dolls: "RED DATA" features Motoko unintentionally getting involved with a kid in Taiwan who shows her that he's making toy animal figurines out of pressure-molded cocaine. As long as they paint the figurines correctly, they can pass off for the official toys.
  • Sniper Duel: In "POKER FACE", Saito reveals some of his Backstory, which involved him getting in a satellite-assisted Sniper Duel with the Major in Mexico in the aftermath of World War IV. Kusanagi shot out his left eye, then recruited him into her unit exchange for sparing his life.
  • Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb:
    • The second season reveals that Borma specializes in bomb analysis and defusing. 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.
    • Cruzkowa seemingly lets Togusa pull off one of her arms. It turns out to be rigged to explode.
  • Spider-Man Send-Up: One of the Tachikomatic Days shorts shows off a new superhero named "Tachiko-Man", a red and blue Tachikoma who s wings around while singing a parody of the "Spider-Man" theme song. Since the Tachikomas are adorable Spider Tanks who can swing around by using guide wires that shoot out like webfluid, the joke just takes it to its logical conclusion.
    Tachiko-Man, Tachiko-Man, doin' the things a Tachikoma can...
  • Spider Tank: The Tachikomas, all other tanks shown in the series, though they're closer to "Crab Tanks" since they have arms that can grasp things. One model resembles a scorpion.
  • Split-Personality Takeover: Colonel Tsujisaki uploaded his ghost into his son Yu's brain when he died. When his sister notices he is Not Himself, it's because their father is taking over Yu's body and forcing him to kill the Chinese minister.
  • Spot the Imposter:
    • A duel between two Pazus. It's never made clear, but close examination, showing "ripped flesh" and no blood, reveals that the real Pazu won. The real Pazu is rarely ever seen without a cigarette. The imposter didn't smoke.
    • In the Playstation 2 game, Motoko yells at Batou early on in the game because she hates it when he calls her by her name (instead of Major) while they're on duty as members of Section 9. At the end of the game, while Motoko is engaged in melee combat with a Criminal Doppelgänger of herself, Batou figures out which one is the real Motoko when the fake responds to him calling out her name, and shoots her accordingly. He knew the real Motoko isn't that easily distracted.
  • Spy Cam: The first season involved Interceptors: hardware modifications that turn a cyborg's own eyes into somebody else's spy camera.
  • Spy Satellites: An entire network of them over Japan, which Ishikawa and Borma hack into in one episode. Yes, all of them.
  • Spy Speak: Zaitsev talks to his handlers this way (eg. using "brewing coffee" as code for "sending data").
  • Staged Populist Uprising: 2nd Gig revolves around Gouda's plan to use Kuze to incite a revolution among the refugees.
  • Stamp of Rejection: Implied; Dr. Hisashi Imakurusu oversaw a panel that reviewed the Murai vaccine as a treatment for Cyberbrain Sclerosis. Despite the vaccine's efficacy (and the lack of any alternative treatment), due to Murai's inability to offer an explanation of why it worked and Imakurusu's jealousy due to his own failed work at treating Cyberbrain Sclerosis, Imakurusu and his panel had a stamp custom-made that read "Approval Denied" to reject the vaccine. Ironically, by the time of the series Imakarusu had himself developed Cyberbrain Sclerosis and kept himself alive using the vaccine he personally oversaw the rejection of. While the stamp itself is never seen, the existence of such a custom-made stamp is used to suggest the truth of personal motive for rejecting the vaccine.
  • State Sec: Public Security Section Nine. Well armed with military equipment and staffed with ex-military operatives, they conducted intelligence ops and law enforcement. Operating with great autonomy and great leeway, they only answer to the Prime Minister or the Minister of Home Affairs. They are also one of the few heroic examples of this trope.
  • Stop Hitting Yourself: Motoko once hacks Batou's body to make him punch himself out when he teases her that male cyborg bodies are physically superior to female ones.
  • Storming the Castle: Multiple examples, such as the raid on the restaurant in the series opening.
  • Strictly Professional Relationship: Batou and Kusanagi, although Everyone Can See It. The other members of Section 9 rib him for it in "STAND ALONE COMPLEX" (specifically, his overreaction to her apparently dying in the previous episode).
  • Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Marco Amoretti dares Batou to kill him when he's finally cornered. He almost does, but refuses because he's a cop and has a sense of honour.
  • Suicide by Cop: How the Americans plan to bump off Marco Amoretti: by setting up Batou to murder him.
  • Suicide by Sea: The opening of the third episode features one of the "Jeri" androids which have began committing suicide doing so by walking into a pool (and short circuiting instead of drowning, but it's played out the same way).
  • Super Cop: All of Section 9, but especially Motoko and Batou.
  • Super Window Jump: Batou bursts through the window of a hotel room to rescue Imakurusu from the DEA. He gets assassinated at the end of the episode though.
  • SWAT Team: Several appear, mostly Riot and SWAT cops from Niihama PD, with Section Nine occasionally called in to resolve situations they can't handle. There's also the Narcotics Suppression Squad, a SWAT Team made up of Dirty Cops run by the Ministry of Health, and at one point Batou and Saito rescue a Coast Guard SST operator.
  • Swords to Plowshares: Some Tachikoma are repurposed into civilian roles after Section 9 is "disbanded". One works in a care home, and another is used in high altitude construction sites, etc. The one in the care home is "gifted" an explosive shell from a Shell-Shocked Veteran and sets off to rescue Bateau in the finale.
  • Taking You with Me: The Tachikomas who blow themselves up to stop an armed suit from killing Batou.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Exploited in "¥€$". Fem thinks that she's all alone in the bedroom of the man she had been hired to kill, and decides to monologue out loud about the problems of capitalism before she kills him. Motoko takes this time to sneak up and arrest her.
    Motoko: "A smarter hitman would have shot first."
  • Tap on the Head: Whenever people are knocked out, they seem to recover with no ill effects. Justified in that a titanium brain case provides much more trauma protection than a skull would. A straight example happens to Togusa in "PORTRAITZ". He gets hit hard enough upside the head with a guitar to draw blood, but he's shown without any bandages in the next scene.
  • Team Power Walk: The "Rise" opening from 2nd Gig finishes with Section 9 walking side by side towards the camera, before it zooms in on Motoko's red eye and fades out.
  • Techno Babble: Par for the course with the franchise, but it's not as bad as the movies. It does use much more use of philisophical babble instead though.
  • Terrorists Without a Cause: The Individual Eleven's ideology makes absolutely no sense. Picking up on this is what allows Kuze to escape the group's programming in time.
  • Theme Music Power-Up:
    • In the first season, if "Run Rabbit Junk" is playing, Section Nine is either doing something awesome, or is about to.
      • This is lampshaded in the Tachikomatic Days omake to the 2nd Gig episode "NUCLEAR 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. Averted in several cases where someone was able to cause a final act of killing because they weren't shot enough to kill them.
    • This is played up in TRIAL where Togusa is accused of having used excessive force in stopping a case of domestic abuse he stumbled upon while off-duty and using his handgun on the cyborg criminal.
  • They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: The reason why Paz doesn't want the teams help to clear his name in "MAKE UP".
  • Through the Ceiling, Stealthily: In 2nd GIG: In the episode "Cash Eye": A hacker and thief called "Cash Eye" slips a female "android" from the roof, through a ventilation shaft that passes through the ceiling, into a millionaire's residence to deceive the security system. The "android" leaves a Calling Card and makes a dramatic escape. Consequently, Public Section 9 is involved to protect a safe during an upcoming secret sex party which many influential guests attend. The "android" in fact turns out to have been cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi of Section 9, in a ploy to expose corruption in the upper strata.
  • Throwaway 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. Motoko does this with her pistol when Gayle chases her in his armed suit in "ERASER". No point in hanging onto an empty pistol if the bullets don't even affect it.
  • Title Drop:
    • In "TESTATION," when arriving on the scene with six Tachikomas, the Major introduces themselves as the Mobile Armored Riot Police, which is the name of the franchise in Japanese.
    • The phrase "Stand Alone Complex" is coined and used a few times in the first season, and early on in the second. It is meant to mean a situation where multiple individuals act in a similar way such that it appears there was some sort of coordination between them, referring to the Laughing Man's many impersonators who in turn further his original plans and an early theory on the Individual Eleven until the truth behind the manifesto is discovered.
    • Some of the individual titles in the first season like "JUNGLE CRUISE" and "INTERCEPTER" are also heard.
    • The final episode of Season 1's English subtitle is "STAND ALONE COMPLEX"
  • Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Averted in that Niihama isn't Tokyo, but the trope is played straight otherwise. Most of the series takes place in Niihama. Togusa has to investigate a case in the ruins of what remains of Tokyo in the second season.
  • Tomato Surprise: Played for humor in "CHAT! CHAT! CHAT!" It's an In-Universe recap of the infamous Laughing Man incident that started it all, and also 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.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Imakurusu. He's repeatedly told to avoid contacting the DEA but does so anyway. This not only get him killed, it almost gets the Major and Batou killed by the narc squad as well.
  • Transhuman: One of the key themes of the franchise itself, just about everyone in the series has an artificial body to some extent.
  • Translation Convention: The Tachikomas talking to each other. Lampshaded in one of the Tachikomatic Days Omakes.
  • Trashcan Bonfire: Used as a meeting place by Zaitsev in Ag2O.
  • Tropical Epilogue: "CASH EYE" ends with Motoko and the gang lounging on a beach basking in the sun and reflecting on their successfully completed caper. Then Aramaki walks in, turns off the hologram, and orders them to get back to work.
  • Try Not to Die: Aramaki says this to the Section 9 crew in season 1 after finding out that Section 9 is to be shut down by force.
  • 20 Minutes into the Future: The series takes place between 2029 and 2032, but technology is not that far out of reach of modern science to invent. In fact, this series has served as inspiration for modern science to go out and make such futuristic technologies.
  • Two Shots from Behind the Bar: "¥€$" begins with Section 9 infiltrating a bar where some mafioso are conducting illegal business. After the team takes out the combat cyborg, the bartender attempts a last ditch effort with a shotgun from behind the bar. Batou shoots the gun out of his hands before he can fire, commenting that the intel was correct with that little popgun being all the establishment had.
  • Übermensch: Hideo Kuze, with his plan of trying to emigrate his followers onto the web to create a new society, and his charisma. Gouda probably falls under the last man type.
  • Uncanny Valley: The tachikomas invoked a discussion about this in "MACHINES DÉSIRANTES". When they learn that a computing device designed to assist Saito in sniping was not going to be put into use, they begin to address the issues of robotic A.I.s and androids looking and acting human, noting that the Operator androids seem to blend in just fine because they were designed to carry out simple tasks, but didn't have A.I.s that could question their own programming. The conversation drifts towards the genetic structure in humans and their offspring, which itself eventually leads to the them questioning the concept of death, and what would happen if they were to be scrapped. One tachikoma seems to think that the Major doesn't care too much for them, and think that by acting more "robotic", specifically speaking in monotone voices, she might be more comfortable in accepting them. It was too hard of an act for them to continue pulling off after she left the room.
  • Undercover Cop Reveal: At the end of "EQUINOX", we discover that the Laughing Man who met with Serano in the coffee shop was Motoko Kusanagi in disguise.
  • The Unreveal:
    • In "ESCAPE FROM", Motoko goes into a Lotus-Eater Machine and sees a movie so beautiful that people never want to leave. We, however, only ever get to see her watching it.
    • It's never revealed what happened with the car door at the end of "STAND ALONE COMPLEX".
  • Unstoppable Rage: The Major, usually quite level-headed, totally flips out on Gayle after he blows her arm off. It's not often that you see a mech pilot begging for mercy from someone on foot.
  • Unusual User Interface: Most characters have the standard back-of-the-neck network jacks. Printed media contains mostly barcode-type data that can be translated by a cyberbrain. It allows the media to put far more words on a page than normal.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Kuze to Gouda, and Gouda to Kuze.
  • Used Future: The world is recovering from two world wars. Society in Japan seems fairly normal, though it has its fair share of problems relating to the rest of the world. Not every machine or building is in pristine condition. In fact, the Refugee Districts are buildings built upon other buildings, just adding on more and more on top of the decay.
  • V-Formation Team Shot: The opening for 2nd Gig subverts this by puting a unique spin on it. It shows Section 9 against a white background with Motoko in the center and the other members on either side, but everyone is lined up and spaced apart instead of standing in a proper V formation. Pixiv even has a special tag for artworks that parody the 2nd Gig opening called "攻殻立ち" (Strike).
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: Tons of philosophy and literary references tossed about. And they rarely repeat themselves. They won't spell out many things (like the locked car door at the end of the first season, which has been interpreted as a cyber-brain hack, a bomb, and simply indicating that the guy's car was broken into) as they assume the audience memorized everything in the Complex episodes beforehand.
    • In-universe, this is justified by widespread cybernetics. How deep and cool could you sound if you had high-speed internet in your head? They even Lampshade it:
      Aramaki: "I've been listening in for a while, but without an external memory device, I can't follow your conversation at all."
  • Villain with Good Publicity: The Laughing Man, who has become a Memetic Mutation in-universe. His popularity, or at least his widespread social influence, is reflected when him merely making a threat against the Police Chief's life leads dozens of others, with no other prompting, to try murdering him. The South American revolutionary hero detailed in an earlier first-season episode might also qualify, though we only have Section 9's word to go on.
  • Visible Invisibility: Transitions between total invisibility and translucent distortion invisibility. There's at least one instance where the Major seems able to see a cloaked mech suit even when it is using its optical camouflage, and the narc squad in the same episode is explicitly stated as using cloaking technology that isn't perfect, so it seems that both types are viable. The protagonists usually don't employ their invisibility for long periods of time, presumably because it drains the batteries quickly.
  • Voices Are Mental: The cyber-telepathic "voices" of the characters sound just like their speaking voices with an electronic reverb added.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: "NIGHT CRUISE" shows Gino throwing up on screen. In a later episode, a soldier suffering from PTSD is seen throwing up after seeing nasty stuff during combat.
  • 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.
  • Wall Jump: The Major does this while she's doing a training exercise with some rookies at the start of "AFFECTION", who have been tasked to track her down. She dashes out of the window of a women's bathroom and jumps out, jumping off the building across the street, then rebounding off the building she emerged from to land upon the rooftop of the first building.
  • War Memorial: Section 9 is assigned to stop an assassination attempt on a foreign vice-minister who is paying his respects to the Kagoshima War Dead Memorial from Non-Nuclear World War IV.
  • Watching the Sunset: The Major does it quite a bit.
  • Wax On, Wax Off: The Tachikomas in the Stand Alone Complex manga are sent to a construction site to earn more experience points by observing and learning more about the environment. They get tasked with shoveling dirt, which they protest because they're far more advanced and capable of doing more advanced tasks. They decide to challenge a power loader to prove they're worthy of stronger tasks, but all become overconfident and are easily beaten by the site foreman. They go back to shoveling dirt with a new appreciation for the task they're doing.
  • Wedding Ring Defense: Chief Aramaki assumes the friend he meets in London is married, she's actually using this trope to keep men at bay.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Takeshi Kago from "TESTATION" was always physically frail. Prosthetics could have given him a healthy life, but his family's religion forbade cybernetic enhancements. He went against his family's wishes and upgraded to a cyberbrain right before his body finally failed. He had his best friend plant his cyberbrain into an experimental Spider Tank and broke out of the research facility and right up to his parent's house. It took a combination of anti-tank glue ammo and Motoko to hack into and fry his cyberbrain to finally stop it. While Section 9 assumed that he wanted revenge for his family, Motoko thinks she felt his final message, a simple question for acknowledgement. A song called "Beauty Within Us" plays during the episode, with lyrics contextually relating to the singer hating his mother for not accepting who he was.
    Batou: The bastard harbored that much hatred in himself for his own parents?
    Major: No. For just a split second, there was something I felt. When I burned out his brain, I sensed " “Well, Mom? What do you think of my steel body?” It was... very strange. A feel of neither pride, nor vengeance.
  • We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future:
    • Averted when 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 is such an expert hacker that he does this in real time 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.
      • Batou himself does almost exactly the same thing afterwards; hacking a mech pilot's eyes to show his (Batou's) decapitated body where the pilot was expecting it to be. In the future, Adobe is clearly the world's most powerful corporation.
  • Wham Line:
    • In "NOT EQUAL", the Major and Togusa realized that something was wrong after they rescued Eka Tokura in Okinawa.
    Old Lady: You got... the wrong girl.
    • When the Major asks Kuze if he can fold origami cranes left handed, revealing to him that she was the little girl who became his childhood friend after they both survived a plane crash. Doubles as an Armor-Piercing Question in "THIS SIDE OF JUSTICE" and "ENDLESS∞GIG".
    Motoko: Kuze, do you know how to fold origami cranes?
    Kuze: Cranes?
    —>Motoko: That's right, and only using your left hand?
    Kuze: Can you do that? Fold left handed?
    Motoko: Now I can.
  • What the Hell Are You?: Motoko asks this of the Puppeteer. She doesn't like the answer.
  • 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, just a fake made using the old analog clock to buy them some time.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Averted. The Major gibs Gouda in the last episode, but they needed government approval first.
  • Wig, Dress, Accent: The three surviving narcs go undercover to take down Section 9 this way; two pose as friendly hobos and the third poses as a body-swapping doctor. They don't put too much effort into their disguises than wigs and different dress, but that's enough to fool the squad.
  • 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.
  • World War III: According to a series co-writer World War III erupted in 1996, and Non-Nuclear World War IV erupted in 2020. It's never made totally clear which countries fought which, though it can be discerned from context that the USA fought China during WWIII. Batou once monologues about how Berlin was destroyed in both wars.
  • World War Whatever: Non-Nuclear World War IV.
  • 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: Yes, they would. Whether or not the guys gunning for them are "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.
    • What the Hell, Hero?: Batou straight up executes one of them, even after hacking the guy's eyes so that he thinks that Batou is dead.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math: Kuze explains that he gathered the money for funding an immigrant uprising by hacking into banks and stealing fractions of yen from a huge number of accounts, which would not be noticed in normal day-to-day business. He says this adds up to tens of thousands of yen every day. Then the very next thing he says is that the dummy account where all this is transferred currently holds over ten billion yen. Let's say he gains an average of fifty thousand yen per day like this. Accumulating ten billion would then require two hundred thousand days, or roughly 547 years.
  • Yandere: Pazu's claims that he never sleeps with the same woman twice. So when he does sleep with the same woman a second time, she becomes obsessed with him, going to the point of having an exact body duplicate made of him so that she can frame him for murder and attempt to replace him.
  • You Killed My Father: Yu's motive for assassinating the Vice-Minister of China is that he's responsible for his mother's death. And that of his wife, since he and his father share the same cyberbrain.
  • Younger Than They Look: An old woman found in "NOT EQUAL" - she's a young girl who was kidnapped 16 years ago, and has been rapidly aged by her experiences as a hostage. Togusa is visibly shocked to learn she's younger than he is.
  • You Owe Me: In "CAPTIVATED", Section 9 rescues the kidnapped daughter of a corrupt politician, and Aramaki says it doesn't do them any harm to have him owe Section 9 a favor. Sure enough the politician provides help when Aramaki gets in political trouble towards the end of the season.
  • Your Head Asplode: Boy, does it ever. The animation crew seems to have a liking for these; there's a head that explodes in some form or fashion in the first/last episodes of both anime seasons. Up to and including the Major herself. This is a Justified Trope, as living in a world where you can have your brain put in a cyborg body, only a devastating head-shot is a confirmed kill. (The Major escaped this fate by sending a remote controlled body in her stead).
  • You Wouldn't Shoot Me:
    • Nanao believes this of his assassin. Unfortunately for him, it's untrue.
    • Serano also says this to the Laughing Man when he holds him at gunpoint.
    • Aramaki isn't fazed at all when he's captured and held hostage, even though he's threatened with a gun to his forehead multiple times.
    • There's a third-person variant in 2nd Gig, when the CIA agent doesn't believe that the Prime Minister would really tell Section 9 to shoot Gouda to prevent him from defecting.
    The Major: "You think so, do you? Well you're dead wrong."
  • Zerg Rush: The main tactic of the New World Brigade after Section 9 raids their scrubber plant hideout. It's effective to the point of driving them to a corner until Ishikawa arrives with backup.

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. ... Or should I?

 
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Alternative Title(s): Ghost In The Shell SA C2nd Gig, Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex The Laughing Man, Ghost In The Shell SA C2nd Gig Individual Eleven, Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex The Lost Memory, Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex Revenge Of The Cold Machines, Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex White Maze

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Anti-Material Rifle

Erica takes out a Peace Monitoring Group combat drone after it goes down by standing on top of it and firing her Barrett M95 at the turret. This scene is similar to how the Major disables the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces Type 303 Armed Suit after Saito shoots it first by firing the Seburo AMR at close range in front of its cockpit hatch.

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