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How are these three series not connected?

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DRCEQ Since: Oct, 2009
#1: Jun 4th 2022 at 1:31:33 PM

This is a hill I am going to die on, as I have been fighting this for over a decade on this site. Let me rant.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Real Drive, and Appleseed XIII all take place in The 'Verse.

All three animes are adaptations of Shirow Masamune's works, and all were done by Production I.G. As such, there is some overlap behind the production teams of all three.

Stand Alone Complex, specifically its second season "2nd Gig", provides a bit more focus on the greater geopolitical landscape of the world in the series.

  • The American Empire serves as a Greater-Scope Villain who make their presence to the world known with extremely aggressive foreign policies, including signing treaties with countries like Japan that ultimately only benefits them. They show up again in even bigger importance in the 3rd and 4th seasons.
  • The Big Bad of the season is a bureaucrat who suffers from an inferiority complex because he was the director overseeing the committee of scientists who developed a nanotechnology that removes the radiation and fallout that occurs after a nuclear detonation. This technology put Japan back onto the world stage because of how many lives it ultimately saved after the last nuclear world war. However, he is angry because it wasn't him who got the credit for developing the technology.
  • Section 9 employs a new technician named Proto, who near the end of the season suffers a near-fatal injury that reveals that he is a prototype Bioroid, a type of Artificial Human that the Appleseed series world heavily involves. This reveal is not taken lightly.
  • Prime Minister Kayabuki mentions the existence of the Russo-American Alliance along with the American Empire in her speech in the final episode. There's also a world map in the final episode that shows the two countries independent of the United States of America.
  • Season one of SAC has an episode where Section 9 goes up against an anti-technology organization known as the Human Liberation Front. The HLF shows up in Appleseed XIII as well, still holding the same ideologies by terrorizing bioroids.

Both the Russo-American Alliance and American Empire were first established in Appleseed. The AE serves as much of an antagonist in that series as they do in Stand Alone Complex.

Appleseed takes place in over 100 years down the timeline, but the establishment for a connection in SAC is there.

Real Drive has a bit of a different tone, but there are connections. Stand Alone Complex establishes a very specific theme and aesthetic for its presentation on technology. Technical terms like "Prosthetic Bodies, Cyberbrains, Operator Androids". Established materials for SAC explore the difficulties that a human who hasn't been cyberized has with keeping up with the rest of society. You need a cyberbrain to learn and process information at the same rate as people who have them. This is something that is better explored in Real Drive, as one of the main characters isn't cyberized and has trouble keeping up in society.

The series uses the EXACT SAME TECHNOLOGY in aesthetics and terminology for prosthetic bodies, cyberization implants installed at the base of the neck, mass-produced fanservice-y Operator Androids whose purpose is to act as the middle management worker bees for data collection and similar operations. The show isn't even being subtle about it. It's not a Shout-Out, it's literally the very same technology and themes of humanity integrating with technology. Remember that radiation scrubber nanotechnology from 2nd Gig? Real Drive uses that technology as the frame work to develop new nanotechnology for environmental purposes that can stabilize a region's weather and such. This is a literal plot connection that they mention was derived from the "Japanese nanotech" from 2nd Gig.

So why isn't Real Drive part of Stand Alone Complex's extended universe? Because the director said so. He originally wanted it to be connected, but changed his mind at the last minute in development despite using the exact same technology, terminology, and an actual story plot connection. Just because he says it isn't?

I know I'm arguing semantics here and just... really want the series to be connected as part of my headcanon, but there are too many overlapping connections with a greater established world-building for each series to just be what they are. Everytime I try to connect the three series together, someone comes along and says "nope, Word of God says otherwise" or "This series takes place too far down the timeline".

At this point I'm not trying to so much prove myself correct, but as a troper, I'm just trying to figure out how I can write on each page that there's too many coincidences and intentional references for them to not be connected despite a Word of God and a couple "Wink Wink Nudge Nudge's".

Edited by DRCEQ on Jun 4th 2022 at 3:32:42 AM

MacronNotes (she/her) (Captain) Relationship Status: Less than three
(she/her)
#2: Jun 4th 2022 at 2:08:24 PM

This doesn't belong in the media subforum because the thread wasn't made with a specific work in mind so I moved it to Yack Fest.

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