Classics of Anime - GitS: Stand Alone Complex

Written by A. H. on 14 Jun 2009

As anime movies go, Ghost in the Shell requires no introduction, planting itself quite comfortably alongside the seminal Akira as an absolute giant of Japanese animation, a series which has doubtless attracted tens if not hundreds of thousands (myself included) to the world of anime with its fantastic animation and classic, thought-provoking cyberpunk storyline.

However, a great movie does not always a good television series make, and with that in mind the TV spin-off using the movie's characters, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex was never guaranteed to be either a critical or fan success.  This is especially true of Stand Alone Complex, which chose to shift sideways out of the both continuity provided by the first (and later second) Ghost in the Shell movies as well as Masamune Shirow's manga, instead occupying its own timeline where Major Motoko Kusanagi never met the Puppet Master (as per the original movie) and despite holding some vague links to incidents contained within those offerings.

Having said that, this isn't to say that Stand Alone Complex is completely distant from the rest of the Ghost in the Shell franchise - Aside from the obvious usage of the same set of characters as the original movie and the presence of Production I.G. in actually producing the series, the creation of Stand Alone Complex was overseen by director Kenji Kamiyama, a man who had previously worked with Ghost in the Shell's creator Mamoru Oshii on MiniPato, a Patlabor parody spin-off and was himself part of Production I.G.'s so-called "Oshii Team".

In a further risky manoeuvre, the series writers and producers eschewed simply following a single, major storyline for its twenty-six episode duration in both the initial Stand Alone Complex series and its follow-on, 2nd Gig, with the series title referring to the blend of individual stories offered by the series blended together with a single, major ongoing investigation.  In any other series these "stand alone" episodes could easily be referred to under the more derogatory title of "filler", but this never happened in Stand Alone Complex quite simply due to the outstanding quality of most of these episodes, which frequently stood on their own two feet and at times even surpassed the "complex" half of the story contained within both series.

That isn't to say that those major stories that underpinned Stand Alone Complex were weak - Far from it, both the first and second season produced plots that were a credit to the Ghost in the Shell name, memorable in so many ways from their carefully and lovingly crafted and developed stories of anarchy and conspiracy through to some brilliantly realised action sequences which perfectly complemented the often more thoughtful, dialogue-heavy side of the series.

Stand Alone Complex also has far more to offer beyond sheer entertainment, with both its stand alone and over-arching plots frequently offering up both social and politicial commentary on contemporary Japan from its ageing population through to sexism and political corruption, while also ensuring that it doesn't neglect its cyberpunk duties in covering the philosophical and theoretical aspects of technology and its uses and effects upon human morality and behaviour.