I'm pretty sure there's some legal/safety reasons why it's a secret from his wife. I believe all the Section 9 members have covers.

I think this was part of it. He's makes intuitive leaps from information he discovers that the others probably wouldn't make. I don't think it's because they're cyberized, but more because that's how he is (like some people are better at solving puzzles than others.)

I still really love the idea of Togusa and Batou opening a sort of film-noir-ish detective agency together after leaving Section 9. Maybe with the Tachikomas for "leg-work" ('cause I'd do just about anything to keep the Tachikomas around. Can you imagine one of the answering the phone?)

You'd love the movie Ghost in the Shell 2, then. Or... you already have. :p

I think Togusa's more like Kyle Rayner in Section 9, surrounded by cybernetic Batmen. Better than thinking of him as the official team mascot/pet.

I hated this episode. Sleazy lawyers, govt corruption, yada yada yada. Been there done that a million times before. Watching Togusa be a complete idiot just bored me.

2nd Gig was revamped as an OAV focusing more on the Individual Eleven. Just released in Japan.

Is there a decent episode guide for the second series? I've looked with no luck.

Is that the one where Batou has the dog that he obssesses over giving it real meat? (just like the first GitS:SAC season where he gives the Tachikomas non-synthetic oil.)

A'yup.

Does anyone else use YTMND when they're bored?:

A funny scene from the first season.

My Laughing Man tribute.

Big ol' spoiler for the end of the first season.

Small tribute to the Individual Eleven.

I agree, but I do think there would be a fan-wonk reason for there to be a mostly biological human on the team. A lot of how we react to things is based on biochemical processe, enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, etc. Replace those with electrochemical processes and there has to be a difference.

Basicall what I'm saying is would a full-prosthetic still have a gut reaction when the gut is electronic?

Missed Saturdays ep. Thanks for the info all.

Maybe an individual's 'ghost' provides the gut reaction for cyborgs/full-prosthetics?

WTH?! I missed the last episode due to [as] scheduleing, but how did that happen?! And how did she survive to exist in this season? Wait, don't tell me. I'll see eventually, either in reruns or on DVD.

The term used a few times in the movie/first season is having your ghost "whisper" to you.

Soo, the Major was that little girl? This episode's mood was pretty sad, in a good way. It was nice to see the Major off duty, though. She looked surprising normal, given what she wears when she goes to work :o)

I knew the Major was going to make a crane out of that wrapping, but the ending was still very sweet and wistful without being too much so.

My only (only) complaint is that that external memory store MADE NO SENSE. Otherwise very sweet and illuminating.

But you just know the kid is gonna turn out to be Kuze.

Ick. That's going to give me nightmares.

Yeah, that external store was strange. I can sort of accept the Major taking some sort of internal mind trip, or some trip on the internet maybe, but her physical body has to be somewhere.

At least we now have an official explanation of how/why/when the Major originally got a prosthetic body.

Oh, and the last scene took place in the same room where Batou got his come-on slapped back in his face in the first season. At least he had better luck this time. And sheesh, the Major's fuck buddy is always ready to go, ain't she?

The Major wandered into Paradigm City.

Are we sure the Major was that little girl?

She has no fashion sense at all. Magenta heels, low riders and a crop top?

I'm sure there stories where almost the same. The fact that she did a crane, leads me to supect it was her old body. Maybe it explains the reason why the major is so good cyber hacking, and really it was a hack of her 'ghost'.

Is anyone else waiting for batou's story about being the little boy in the plane crash now? I mean he did get shipped off in the last war.

I still think it's gonna be Kuze, but if it turns out to be Batou, I will squeal and never stop squealing. The poor schmuck needs all the help he can get with the Major.

I had also flirted with the idea of the boy being Batou, but I that just seems a little too tame for GitS...so I was wondering if, maybe, the Major was actually the BOY (she she was making the cranes.)

That doesn't fit with the fact that the boy was supposedly the person who preserved the child-bodies (which, if the Major had been the boy, she would have known about.) But, yeah, her fashion sense sometimes does remind me of how a guy would dress a "hot babe" body...not a practical or esthetic bone in her body.

That would make her comment about the girl trying to find the first boy she ever loved a bit strange.

An episode where the story pretty much made sense.

I wonder where that store was or if it was holographically shielded or something. The Major is good, but I don't want to believe that she could loose Batou so easily. It was like she just went poof.


I'm in the group who believes that the little girl was the Major. From the small glimpses we've been given about the Major before, we know that she got her first prostetic body quite young.

This is just from Japanese packaging, but it could be construed as a spoiler, soo... In the final Japanese DVD cover, it has the Major looking wistfully at a paper crane in her hand. I think that pretty much clinches the theory that the Major was the little girl.

I just read about Tachikoma Days. Would SD Gundam's Zako Zako Hour be an apt comparison? Because that's exactly what I wanted with the Tachikomas, given that they're practically 100% of the show's humor quotient.

It is. If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now: the DVDs are worth it if you like the show. Not only do you get Tachikomatic Days, but you get to rewatch particularly dense episodes whenever you want.

No, I really think the Major was the girl (otherwise, why even tell the story?), but I thought it would be interesting to consider whether she could have been the boy instead. Above all, it would make one heck of a plot twist for the series.

I also think that we've met the man the boy became if only because why even have this episode if it didn't fit in with the others. It's probably someone introduced this season (therefore couldn't be anyone in Section 9, including, *sniff*, Batou.)

The child-Major looked a little like the adult-Major, even though she didn't need to, so I'm thinking that the boy as a child resembles the man the boy became. Does anyone remember what Goda looked like before his disfigurement? I thought I remembered them flashing a picture of it a while back...of course if Goda is a full-prosthetic, Section 9 would know it, and why give himself a body with such a disfigurement? OK, scratch Goda.

Thing is, I've had mixed feelings about the show. Though things did start picking up in the later part of season 1, the tone of the show is so very dry. I'm definitely enjoying it more, but I'm not exactly sure how often I'd be drawn back to the episodes. Don't get me wrong, it's intelligently written stuff, but it could be a bit more entertaining on the whole.

I agree that it's much more cerebral at times than it is visceral. But I'd hesitate to call it "dry." It just won't go for the emotional jugular like Fullmetal Alchemist. Exploding mutated toddlers is bound to get a bigger reaction than medical conspiracies.

Well, that was certainly a gory ending. And who was that guy who recognized Togusa in the stairwell? Have we seen him before?

Was I the only one who got the "George Plympton" vibe from the old professor that Togusa was talking to? He looked a little like Plympton and I think the voice actor was deliberately trying to sound like Plympton. Very cool. heh.

Damn, that was a hardcore ending!!! Looks like every died except the guy in white. He seems to be the most baddass of them. Section 9 will have a hellacious task ahead of them if they are going to take down that dude.

Yep, he'd met Togusa once or twice before this season with information.

And MAN, I love the ending to this episode. The tension and music and violence!!

Did Togusa make a quick visit to the Laughing Man's library there?

I thought it looked similar, but I think the artists were just re-using a set. Plus, it wasn't wuite messy enough.

Although I kept waiting for Togusa to go to the laughing man for information. Does he show up this season?

Well, now Section 9 has plenty of copies of The Individual Eleven. May be a bit stained though..

Yep. If you check it against when we see it in Episode 26, the library and foyer are exactly the same. The set is a little too unique to simply re-use and not have it connect with the Laughing Man. Although, there's no reason to think that Togusa went there to see the Laughing Man specifically. He might not even be a curator there anymore.

Hey, I thought the 'real' Kazu (?) was the one who received the chest wound--does that mean the fake has successfully replaced him? Or am I mistaken about which one was cut first?

Kuze has to be origami boy. Matoko, you just had to give him the will to go on, didn't you? Didn't you?

So, uh, I guess that's one way to get under Pazu's skin. The end conversation between the Major and Batou was hilarious:

"Do you think that's the real Pazu?"
"Probably." If he had eyeballs, he would have rolled them. That line was said with just enough disgust and envy.

I'm glad there was an ep centered around Pazu, because, honestly, I had no clue about the character.



What I took from the last scene is that Pazu--as Section 9 has always known him--was the victor. However, he may not be the original Pazu.

I guess the episode heavily hints that the real Pazu died. Which is... uh... weird.

Maybe I've been hanging around here too much, but I got faint HoYay! from the scene where Batou told Pazu he could tell him anything. Which only made Batou's reaction to Pazu's womanizing at the end more hilarious.

Speaking of hilarious, creepy Fatal Attraction lady rubbing up against the Pazu in her closet! UGH! Now I can't help but think Batou has a copy of the Major snuck away somewhere.

Was this the first Wendee Lee sighting on GiTS, BTW? Wow, that only took 1.5 seasons!

Haha, I thought the same thing.

So...the Major slept with Pazu?

Hee, everyone sleeps with the Major except Batou.



That's what I thought. It's probably one of those things where we have to decide whether or not he died or not. I like to think he was the one who survived, just so I can sleep at night without completely overanalyzing that scene.

I didn't get that kind of vibe, but I wouldn't be surprised if Pazu put the moves on her.

It's like the Trix Rabbit.

This whole 'Pazu as serial womanizer' thing came completely out of left field. At least to me, because he was a complete non-entity up 'til now. So some woman who was involved with him five years ago spotted him at the bar, set him up for murder, and took over the bar owner to get close enough to kill him to replace him? Eh?

Kuze is who again?

He's the guy who wears white and survived the Individual Eleven's suicide showdown.

That was the implication I got, too.

Of course, it could just be the Major tweaking Batou 'cause she seems to do that a lot.

I'm not sure how you get the implication, since all she says is that she was "scouting" Pazu. Yeah, you CAN read into it, but by itself it's fairly straightforward.

Ok so we get more information on Pazu. Until this episode I probably wasn't sure exactly which one he was. The only ones I can totally match faces to names are Batou and Togusa, plus the Major of course.


Not sure which Pazu I think survived. It was good to hear Wendie Lee. Has Steven Blum made an appearance yet? :)

A strange episode, but eventually it may fit in, make sense.

He was the man prone to laughing.

Umm, who's Wendee Lee or Stephen Blum, I assume they're voice actors? Blum sounds familiar though, was he in Cowboy Bebop?

Right now, I'm leaning toward that the 'original' Pazu is the one that died, just because I thought he's the one who got cut in the chest--at least, until I get a chance to watch that fight scene, again. But given my current opinion, I'm finding it difficult to reconcile the Major's and Batou's lackadaisical reaction to the possibility that one of their co-workers has been replaced. Wouldn't that be a massive breach of Section 9 security? Also, copy a person's face wrinkles and you copy that person's ghost? What the ?!#@?

Oh yeah, I wasn't going to touch the Major-Pazu did they didn't they thing, but what the heck. I didn't get that vibe at all, and besides, if the Major was scouting/recruiting Pazu, that would have been incredibly unprofessional--not a word I would associate with the Major.

Yes, Steve Blum was the VA for Spike and Wendee Lee was Faye.

I think the real Pazu died, too. Maybe that lady is just so obsessed with him that she'll become Pazu, hopefully not to the point that Section 9 won't notice though.

Pazu was probably just hitting on the Major when he said that to her back in the day. He probably turns on the charm when he first meets a hot lady, I guess.