Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Season 1

Opening Screen:
It is a time when, even if nets were to guide all consciousness that had been converted to photons and electrons toward coalescing, standalone individuals have not yet been converted into data to the extent that they can form unique components of a larger complex.

Perp:
[after being chased down by the Major] You people are cops?! Now I know there's no hope for justice in the system!

Major:
If you've got a problem with the world, change yourself. If that's a problem, close your eyes, shut your mouth, and live like a hermit. And if that's a problem… [cocks gun and presses it against his head]

Batou:
Borma, I'm almost at your location!

Borma:
Don't run out into traffic, okay?

Batou:
I'll look before crossing, Mom. [he runs into traffic and is almost hit by Pazu and Borma's car]

Batou:
He's got guts, burning out his own memories like that. He did it, even though he knew it might cause brain damage.

Major:
[To Togusa] If you've got time to be depressed, why not grace us with your special talents?

Major:
This next footage is of the Minister and a geisha going into the bathroom.

Aramaki:
With a geisha?

Major:
Apparently, he sometimes likes to swap bodies with geishas when he gets drunk.

Aramaki:
At section 9, we aim to please.

Aramaki:
Major!

Motoko:
Almost there!

Aramaki:
The military's itching to jump in. Watch your back!

Motoko:
Thanks for the concern.

Batou:
But Major! What if the robot geishas demand a pay raise?

Togusa:
Knock it off.

Motoko:
All personnel in position! Standing by!

Aramaki:
Right. You're on.

Motoko:
Go!

Major:
Togusa, meet up with the Chief at Kenbishi. Find out what caused the tank to go haywire. Batou and I will herd the runaway tank with the six Tachikomas.

Batou:
Gee, you get all the action…

Togusa:
Don't come crying to me if that tank blows you to hell.

Tachikoma:
[upon seeing the larger tank] Wow.

Major:
Don't get so googly-eyed that you wander into its field of fire! Let's go!

[while following behind the large tank inside the Tachikomas]

Batou:
I know we don't stand a chance against it, but being totally ignored like this ticks me off.

Major:
Care to head around in front of it, then?

Batou:
I'm kidding.

Tachikoma 1:
He's so lucky! He broke down!

Tachikoma 2:
Maybe they'll do a structural analysis on him!

Kago:
When my body dies, I'll be free of my religion.

Batou:
Son of a bitch. He hated his parents that much?

Major:
No. It was just for a split second, but I felt something when I burned out Kago's brain. "Well, Mom? What do you think of me in my steel body?" It was a strange sensation. It wasn't pride… Or vengeance.

Batou:
Forget about it. It was just a hallucination.

Major:
I hope so. There's no way we'll ever know for sure now.

Batou:
Hey, we don't even know its capabilities and we're going in with Tachikomas.

Motoko:
[chuckles] Don't be too quick to underestimate them.

Tachikoma 1:
That's right!

Tachikoma 2:
You tell 'em, Major!

Tachikoma 3:
Bring it on!

Batou:
You get all the fun jobs, don't ya?

Togusa:
Don't come crying to me if you get blown away.

Tachikoma 1:
Harima Research Academy is the place where our neurochips were made.

Tachikoma 2:
A triumphant return to our birthplace.

Tachikoma 3:
The Major gets mad when we chatter.

SWAT Officer 1:
First time I've seen them work.

SWAT Officer 2:
I didn't think Section 9 really existed.

Batou:
You ok?

Destroyed Tachikoma:
I'm fine!

Motoko:
Wait there for assistance.

Destroyed Tachikoma:
Sure thing...since I can't move.

Chroma/Major:
[entering the chatroom] So I've heard that this is a place where one can find out more about the Laughing Man.

Chat Moderator:
You betcha!

The Laughing Man:
[In the virtual library] ...

Chroma/Major:
...?

Tachikoma 1:
Wow, it sure is damp. Our optical camouflage visibility index is definitely going to shoot up.

Tachikoma 2:
Our gaskets won't corrode, will they?

Boma:
Quit your whining. Just be thankful you don't have a sense of smell.

Tachikoma 1:
Is there an unpleasant odor? We can analyze it with our sensors.

Tachikoma 2:
Bouma's discomfort index is at 68%.

Boma:
Ah, shut up.

Kanazuki:
What do you think?

Major:
I have to admit, for a movie it wasn't bad- but diversionary entertainment is transitory, it just comes and goes at the viewers whim. It's the way it should be, but a film with no beginning or end that hooks an audience and won't let go of them is harmful no matter how wonderful you may have believed it was.

Kanazuki:
Ohh, you're a tough critic. Are you saying that we members of the audience have a reality to which we should return?

Major:
Yes I am.

Kanazuki:
For some who sit and watch the film, misery will be waiting for them the instant they go back to reality. You're willing to accept responsibility for depriving these people of their dreams?

Major:
No, I'm not. But dreams are meaningful when you work toward them in the real world. If you merely live within the dreams of other people it's no different from being dead.

Kanazuki:
You're a realist.

Major:
If a romantic escapes from reality, then yes.

Kanazuki:
A strong girl you are. If the reality you believe in ever comes about, you give me a call. When it happens, that's the time we'll leave this theatre.

Tachikoma:
[shoots the guards down a flight of stairs] How do you like that?

Saito:
Moron! Have you forgotten that you've got somebody inside your pod?

Tachikoma:
[wines] Ohh/Aww! But I wanna fight some more!

Tachikoma 1:
I've got a better idea of the internal design, but it looks like this thing's not equipped with any autonomous functions to output its condition to the outside.

Tachikoma 2:
You mean it can't even talk? It's a sub-Turing machine!

[The Tachikomas circle behind the Operator]

Operator:
Huh?

Tachikoma 1:
Keep up the good work.

Tachikoma 2:
It's nice to see a robot enthusiastic about her duties.

Operator:
Ah, what are you up to? I'm responsible for this prototype until the debriefing is over. Don't you Tachikomas even come near it.

Tachikoma 3:
We won't do anything.

Operator:
Please stop wasting my time with your blatant lies.

Tachikoma 2:
You're right. I only tell lies. I never, ever say anything that's true.

Operator:
Eh?

Tachikoma 1:
A curious dilemma. Because if what it said is true, that means it wasn't lying. And if what it said is false, that would mean that it does tell the truth. How do you resolve this perplexing contradicton?

Operator:
Uh. Um, well.

All Three Tachikomas:
Well, come on, don't you know, figure it out.

[The Operator malfunctions. Tachikoma 1 takes the prototype, and all the Tachikomas leave the Operator behind.]

Tachikoma 1:
Folks who can't handle a self-reference paradox are real suckers.

Tachikoma:
So, will we be sent back to lab too?

Batou:
Wha...? Who's been telling you that?

Tachikoma:
Well, it's just that the way the Major's been looking at us lately is kinda scary.

Batou:
Oh, is that all? The major's always scary, remember? I think you guys are doing a fine job.

Tachikoma:
You really think so?

Batou:
What, you're still worried about that?

Tachikoma:
Yeah... It just seems like the Major is angry about what we've acquired recently.

Batou:
"Acquired"? Acquired what?

Tachikoma:
Well, it's ... Individuality.

Batou:
Individuality?

Tachikoma:
Yeah! And you know that "existence of God" thing that I had trouble understanding before? I think I am starting to understand it now. Maybe, just maybe, it's a concept that's similar to a zero in mathematics. In other words, it's a symbol that denies the absence of meaning, the meaning that's necessitated by the delineation of one system from another. In analog, that's God. In digital, it's zero. what do you think? Also, our basic construction is digital, right? So for the time being, no matter how much data we accumulate, we'll never have a Ghost. But analog-based people like you, Batou-san, no matter how many digital components you add through cyberization or prosthetics, your Ghost will never be damaged. Plus, you can even die 'cause you've got a Ghost. You're so lucky. Tell me, what's it feel like to have a Ghost?

Batou:
How's it feel...? No, I take back what I said earlier. You're pretty messed up, all right.

Pavlo Zaitsev:
Now I understand it, it was the same as back then, I'm the one with the blind spot, in my heart.

Tsujisaki:
It's been a long time, Aramaki.

Aramaki:
It can't be! What's the meaning of this?

Tsujisaki:
At first I had no intention of doing anything, I only wanted to tell me the truth. A truth I thought posterity should know. The thing I needed to tell me, was that I overwrote my memories into my cyberbrain. I never suspected the potential danger of it. That it would turn me into an assassin.

Aramaki:
What have you hidden in there? What's in your data library?

Tsujisaki:
The truth about Okinawa. I only wanted to hand it down to future generations, but when I learned this truth, I discovered the truth behind mom's death. All I wanted after that was revenge. It was a miscalculation on my part. I had no intention of carrying out an assassination, but I am unable to stop the thirst for revenge that festers in my heart.

The Laughing Man:
A basic rule of thumb about hackers is that we live to peek at things that others have hidden, it's our nature. But, the depth of darkness in the hotbed of corruption that I had tried to challenge defeated me, and all I could do was become a deaf-mute, and avert my eyes from it all. Just as you've done these past six years. The Laughing Man, hmm, that was a catchy name they came up with. And here I've been thinking that if I was unsuccessful in persuading you, I'd simply follow Holden's quote and disappear. They went with the Salinger angle, too, good grief.

Togusa:
We've been through this, like I've told you over and over, that's not true.

Questioner:
Then why was a member of Section 9 in contact with Mr. Serano while impersonating the Laughing Man

Togusa:
Look, that was only to...

Questioner:
To what?

Togusa:
Hey! Section 9 didn't even exist six years ago, did it? How the hell could it be involved with the Laughing Man incident?! Huh?!

Questioner:
Word has it that data falsification is a specialty with you guys, that true?

Togusa:
Huh? Ah... gimme a break, would ya? Six years ago I was a police investigator, same as you.

Questioner:
All right, let's take this again... from the top.

Batou:
Hell, this is my own life. How I decide to waste it is my own damn business.

Yellow tachikoma:
Once a problem child always a problem child, know what I'm sayin'?

Soldier:
Finally done putting up a fight? Damn... I killed him!

Batou:
What's wrong? I forgot, I look dead to you don't I? Well, don't believe it.

Soldier:
Uh??!

Batou:
I'm sorry, but I had to hack your eyes pal.

Blue tachikoma:
Oh God...we're weak and powerless...My fellow tachikomas and I.

Mokoto:
That's not true. What you and the others have gained makes you far from powerless.

Blue tachikoma:
Goodbye.... Mr Batou! [Before both tachikomas sacrifice themselves for Batou]

Batou:
By the way, I have something that almost didn't make it here. [Batou pulls out a wrist watch]

Mokoto:
I knew it.

Batou:
No matter how many prosthetic bodies you've went through this was the one thing that was always ticking away, keeping the same time as you. Nowadays thats far to fleeting, people entrust their memories to external devices because they want to set down solid psyical proof that can distinguish them as unique individuals. That watch is all you have though, isn't it? Your only external mnemonic device that identifies the person you've been up to this minute.

Mokoto:
Those are pretty serious words, where'd you get them from I'd like to know. A watch and weight training gear, both of us have clung to useless scraps of memory, haven't we?

Togusa:
It's not like I had aspirations to be a hero or anything. However, I'm positive we followed a code of justice that all of believed in without condition or compromise. Laughing Man, you were the one who first tried to shed some light on the black abyss of this case and bring it to the world's attention. Is it possible that at this moment, you're feeling the same as I am? Nah, you wouldn't. Your not the type to go in for that stuff. You must've had a revelation of something and you're watching this with eyes that see the big picture. Isn't that right? I could tell. Major...

Laughing Man:
Welcome. You took longer than I expected.

Motoko:
Don't give me that. You didn't even send me an invitation.

Laughing Man:
"If you stay right where you are, then people will eventually come to you."

Motoko:
I believe it was Doisneau who said that?

Laughing Man:
Yes.

Laughing Man:
I'll tell you. It was a simple piece of mail I stumbled across on the net that began the whole thing. What I'd found was a blackmail document that had probably been sent to Serano Genomics. It was armed with a thesis that was a comparative of the inadequacy of Serano micromachines versus the effectiveness of the Murai vaccine.

Motoko:
Then the original Laughing Man was the person who authored it?

Laughing Man:
You could put it like that, I suppose. "I am the machine that reveals the world to you as only I alone am able to see it"

Motoko:
Dziga Vertov. He was a Russian filmmaker, wasn't he?

Laughing Man:
Yes. I was kidding myself by thinking it was my personal mission to prove and circulate that information, vital data I alone had happened upon.

Motoko:
Failing spectacularly. The pure innocent mediator grew dejected at the base nature of the social system and he turned mute.

Fukami:
You have to adapt in order to survive. Bend your morals, or you'll break eventually.

Laughing Man:
Who knew that copies could still be produced despite the absence of the original? If you had to give a name to this phenomenon, what would you label it?

Motoko:
It would be "Stand Alone Complex"

Laughing Man:
Yes, it's the stand alone complex. From the start the very nature of our current social system has contained the mechanisms to trigger such an amazing occurrence. Personally however, I feel this marks the beginning of a new era of despair. What's your opinion?

Motoko:
I don't know, it's impossible for me to say. Although I have found one thing that is capable of restoring your individuality after all your information has been syncronised.

Laughing Man:
Oh really, and what's that?

Motoko:
Everyday human curiosity.

Laughing Man's Speech:

C:
Inside the Forest of the Sub-Imagoes; Portraitz: Writing, in blue oil-based paint, on the inside of the door to the cable box: "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. Or should I?"

C:
Inside the Forest of the Sub-Imagoes; Portraitz: Writing, in blue oil-based paint, on lefty's catcher's mitt: "You know what I'd like to be? I mean if I had my goddamn choice, I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all."

Motoko:
The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.