Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. - 2nd Gig (Complete Collection) [DVD]

Amazon.com Major Kusanagi and the rest of Public Security Section 9 hit the ground running as the second season of Stand Alone Complex (2004) begins: Their new adventure centers on a complex mystery even more dangerous than the case of the Laughing Man. Terrorist incidents linked to the mistreatment of Asian refugees after World War IV threaten to ignite a powder keg in Japan. Kusanagi, Batou, and even Chief Aramaki chafe when they're drafted to protect Prime Minister Kayabuki from would-be assassins. But the threats to the government are linked to the Individual Eleven, a cell that recalls the May 15th Incident. (On May 15, 1932, a group of junior naval officers and army cadets assassinated Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi, ensuring that power would remain in the hands of the militarists.) The members of the Individual Eleven--except for Hideo Kuze, their charismatic leader--commit mass suicide in a bloody spectacle that recalls the theatrical death in 1970 of Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. Kuze's campaign to win political freedom for the refugees grows increasingly violent, involving suicide bombers, Russian mobsters selling stolen plutonium, and strained relations between Japan and an Imperial America that is trying to reassert its military dominance in the face of economic weakness. And what role does the devious, hideously scarred intelligence officer Kazundo Gohda play in these actions? The Tachikoma robots speculate that as they are abandoning collective consciousness and developing individuality, a dependence on the Net is leading humans in the opposite direction. That trend makes people more vulnerable to cyber-viruses involved in the plot--unless Section 9 acts in time. Most of the adventures take place in bleak, gray and brown settings, which contrast effectively with the bright, colorful cyberworld the Major and the Tachikomas visit. S.A.C.--2nd Gig continues the tight plotting, dynamic action sequences, and interesting character relationships that made the series a hit. (Rated 13 and older: violence, violence against women, brief nudity, alcohol, drug, and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon