Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex #2 Bandai 100 minutes English/Japanese English Subtitles Released: 09/28/2004 Reviewed: 01/24/2006

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Being back on the beaten path of anime I enjoy is a weird feeling. Two weeks in a row of nothing but cartoons that I find palatable is something else entirely. But I knew yesterday that I was going to have to wake up at 5:00 AM and baby-sit contractors all day. Since the majority of my Saturday employment was going to be spent alone in the office, I figured there could be nothing wiser than spending that time with cartoons that were so near and dear to me. And since it was already Friday night and I had not spent one whit of the week watching anything animated I knew I needed to get off my duff! There's nothing that rouses me from a coma faster than that animated girl with the giant bo-donka-donk that most people know as "The Major". Back on the case, the crew of Section 9 work their days trying to catch the notorious cyber terrorist known as the "Laughing Man" and fill in the free hours with attempts to crack down on pseudo-Latin revolutionaries and college students who decide to play at organlegging.

Basically it's the best show ever made. Characters use nonsense jargon about hacking into people's brains, computer viruses that get released and cause everyone in the general vicinity to go crazy and act in an assassination attempt on a government official, there's even some sweet moves where you can divert all highway traffic just by hacking into their cars. That'd probably be about the worst toy you could give me in a world like Ghost in the Shell's. The second I'm having a bad day at the office I'm so going out into the street and just booting cars out of my way left and right. Then I'm not a cop anymore and instead I'm in jail for cyberterrorism and I'm not very happy. No, no thank you. I'll guess I'll have to be content existing as one of those braindead drone civilians.

It's too bad, really, because the cops all have some sweet-ass gigs over at Section 9. They get to play with funky eye doodads that let you scan for cybernetic parts and use giant blue robot tanks that shoot out goo and machine-gun bullets. It all sounds like a really good deal... though, I'm not sure how the cyborg slumber parties fit into the equation. Then again, I don't run a paramilitary government organization. So what do I know about letting the troops have a little R&R? I guess as long as they film their "practice kisses" then the chief, logically, should have nothing to complain about... As you might've guessed, fan-service still tends to be the order of the day. For the record I'll go on stating that I prefer the major's ultra classy dress uniform or super cool commando uniform (LOL!) to her semi-slutty normal attire (though I do love that butt). I understand the whole idea that she's a cyborg girl now and she's slowly loosing attachment with the feelings of modesty that a normal human woman would have. That's somewhat plausible hypothesis, but I think I have a better one. They talked about how they really really really wanted to show some booty... and then they did. I've got a feeling that's what was banging around in their little heads. And lordy lordy, for once I almost agree. I said it last time, but that is some seriously fine booty. Keep it coming!

Normally I would be raising hell about such things, but Stand Alone Complex is so darned good it's just impossible to get mad at. It's not good in the exciting, dizzying way stuff like Paranoia Agent and Voices of a Distant Star are. It's genuine, excellent, popcorn type TV and that'll get me every time. When there's a crazy-ass fight scene between the major and some awesome latex witches that do stuff like cock their fingers and go "Bang!" -- which, as we all know is, without exception, the sexiest thing a women in latex can do before the start of a fistfight -- That was about all I needed, but excellent music over action and the ability to take another 'O snap!' picture (repeated for emphasis) sealed the deal. At one point the major runs horizontally across a wall, flips off in a perfect spiral and lands on the floor to put a 9 milly through some chump's skull (pictured right). That was about 900% more than what I needed to get my fanboy juices flowing, the aforementioned awesome "music over action" playing in the background (Run Rabbit Junk) was just plain gravy. I think it should be intimately obvious to you, dear reader, that I can't concentrate while thinking about it. Look how many parentheses I've used! That is the worst constructed paragraph in the relatively short history OF the paragraph. It should be no secret that I am quite endeared with the idea of future time cop drama -- I sort of write a webcomic on the subject, though the world Skabs and I have cooked up is a little less technologically inclined -- and Ghost in the Shell's second DVD doesn't fail me even a little bitty bitty. Keep those half-naked purple haired bitties coming, I won't complain!