After making the Minister punch himself at the end of last week’s episode, you would expect there to be some fallout for Mokoto and her squad. Well, not exactly. Aramaki shows up at a bar where Mokoto is sloshed, and delivers his spiel — something about forming an even bigger, badder unit under the guise of “rescuing” people. In any case, I find it funny that they had to meet face-to-face like this. Couldn’t this have just been a call? Surely, we have the technology for that. After Aramaki leaves, Ishikawa mentions how the “orphanage gone rogue” thing was a ruse as well. Everything last week was a test?
The team must’ve agreed to whatever Aramaki proposed, because three months later, Batou is deep in the jungle in full camo, doing a stakeout. Surely, they could send a drone to do all this surveillance? Ah well, Aramaki is here as well, so at least he’s more than willing to get his hands dirty along with his squad.
Well, we get our first mention of the Puppet Master. I vaguely recall this individual from the first film. This anime adaptation has to end with the Puppet Master and Mokoto doing that thing, right? I’m deliberately trying to be vague to avoid spoiling it. Point is, I hope this show does well enough to adapt later volumes of the manga, but I dunno… it doesn’t seem like there’s a ton of hype for the show. It could be like the Final Fantasy VII remake where the old heads are excited, but most of the younger generations don’t really care.
There’s an urgent mission coming up, so Aramaki has Batou reach out to Mokoto, who’s on leave. Yo, Science SARU took some liberties with the following scene unless, of course, my copy is incomplete. I’m cross-referencing it right now, and I don’t see any of this tongue-kissing, moaning, or even this pose. As you might expect, all this “fun” takes place in a virtual space — probably feels more intense there or whatever. In the real world, everyone’s just lying around. From my perspective, it seems kinda sad to substitute the real thing with a simulation… but what do I know? I’m a normie trapped in my flesh prison.
Aramaki simply told Batou to inform Mokoto that her leave has been canceled, right? So I dunno why Batou couldn’t just “ring” Mokoto or simply leave a message. How come he has to always dive into her mind, see what she sees, and feel what she feels? Probably just to show the audience what Mokoto is up to in her free time, but eh… feels a lil’ gratuitous. Meanwhile, with all this technology at their fingertips, these two old men are still having this discussion face-to-face. I just think the contrast is interesting. Personally, I’d rather have real sex and virtual meetings over virtual sex and actual meetings.
Next, we see a government official who has had a virus implanted into her brain. It sounds like the team is now racing against the clock to find the culprit before Aramaki’s people have to disconnect her and remove the virus. We soon meet these poor sanitation workers. They have to make it to the next traffic light or else they’re late. It sounds ludicrous, but don’t give Amazon ideas. Anyway, one of them appears to have been paid to do a little nasty work on the side. We see him tape something to a terminal, which then starts doing… something. I assume it’s hacking into the poor woman’s brain. It’s always hacking, right? What’s the garbage guy getting out of it? Oh, just some marital troubles…
Mokoto thinks the whole situation is fishy. The speculation itself isn’t all that interesting. Rather, it’s her follow-up: “It blows my mind that your simplistic thinking doesn’t seem to bother you.” Again, Togusa doesn’t have cybernetic enhancements, so even his reasoning is subpar. So why bring the newbie onto the squad? I hope the adaptation has time to delve into the side characters. The movie certainly didn’t have the running time to do so. Mokoto also adds, “I wonder if your Ghost will ever start whispering in your ear.” That, I have no clue what she’s talking about — at the moment, anyway. I suspect his lack of enhancements means he should have good ol’ human intuition, but we’ll have to wait and see if something so “analog” can still have its uses in this futuristic setting.
Once they realize that Mokoto’s squad are after them, the suspicious garbage guy starts racing to try and warn his “friend.” Damn, garbage guy just wants to warn his “friend,” but the true culprit immediately opens fire. That’s a huge explosion, too. Don’t tell me the garbage guys survives that. In the manga, some poor mom and her baby get caught in the chaos. They leave that out of the adaptation. I guess it doesn’t bother me. I don’t exactly wanna see innocents die, and this isn’t exactly a super gritty adaptation. Unfortunately, this is where the episode ends. It kinda feels like we had just gotten started, too. So much of this week’s episode was setting the stage. Ah well.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Oof, the newbie has a wife and child. I don’t remember what his fate was in the movie or previous series. Hope this isn’t a death flag sort of thing.
— I guess this counts as a “home-cooked meal.” To be fair, we later see her stirring a pot. Still, call me a snob, but I don’t exactly want anything out of a microwave.
— I love how this show takes place in 2029, but the fashion is 80’s as hell.
— Mokoto is about to say something about how much it takes to even produce a single glass of clean water, but she gets cut off. I think this might be a subtle follow up to the mission involving the orphanage — something about how the kids are producing water filters, so the operation is too valuable to shut down. I don’t think the anime mentioned it. Something had to end up on the cutting room floor.
— I can’t tell if the subs are good or bad, but I have the first volume of the manga next to me as I’m watching this episode. I won’t read ahead of the anime adaptation, but it does help sometimes when the dialogue isn’t entirely clear to me. So far, the adaptation has been pretty damn faithful.
— Recent JRPGs have added the ability to pause the game and look up certain terms. This way, you can understand the lore and world-building of the setting. I so wish certain anime could have that feature. Who the hell is the Gavel Republic?
— Guess Mokoto still has that ghost device they confiscated. Wonder how many times she’ll use it to prank her team throughout the series.
— How did Mokoto’s squad even come together anyway? How did she meet these guys? Maybe Stand Alone Complex went into this? Ugh, I’m getting old, so my memory isn’t what it used to be.
— I guess I’m getting details about the Gavel Republic now. Still, a general glossary for the show’s most important names, places, and terms would be a huge boon. I wish every science fiction story had such a thing.
— I wish I knew what the text in the bottom right corner says. Probably more detail on the virus.
— When Togusa exclaims that he’s not a robot who can simply bury his feelings, I think he’s referring to the fact that he is fully human. Everyone else has some percentage of cybernetic enhancements.
— All crows and no rats, huh?
— Ugh, I don’t wanna know what disease you could possibly get from these syringes. I’ve been reading up on prions lately. Not fun.
— The mission just started, but they’re outta gas already? Mokoto’s squad doesn’t seem like they’re super prepared for their jobs.
— Togusa’s never going to shed his rookie status at this rate.
— The eyecatch this week comes from the illustrator who worked on Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. Yeah, I haven’t seen that one. I think it was critically panned.
