Ghost in the Shell

Episode 4

For any viewers who've found this faithful take on Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell manga a little too light and frothy, I offer to you the evidence this episode demonstrates to the contrary. While the brightly colored presentation remains, concealed beneath it is a potent overdose of pure cyberpunk nightmare fuel. Robot Rondo, the chapter adapted in this episode, is definitely one of my very favorite chapters in the entire manga, and Science SARU could not have done a better job of bringing its disturbing content to life.

Long-term Ghost in the Shell fans may recognise several major plot elements repurposed here by Mamoru Oshii in his 2006 theatrical follow-up Innocence. While that movie looks amazing, I've always been turned off by its turgid, wordy philosophizing that obscures the story's message behind endless circular conversations that lead nowhere. This is a much tighter, far more concise exploration of the way that corporations and society use technology to dehumanize and devalue both human life and synthetic approximations of it.

As the real world seemingly inexorably blunders into a dark future of rogue LLMs and mad CEOs unfettered by such basic limits as morality, the themes explored here by Ghost in the Shell, from this chapter published almost forty years ago, only become more relevant with time. Take the rampaging robots herded up by the police and stowed into cages. Only a tiny proportion comprise the “Tomliand” models Section 9 is sent to investigate. Most of these rampaging machines are obsolete sex bots and other leisure models, dumped by their former owners because newer shinier bots have replaced them. Do the robots act out because of AI errors, or because they're upset at being discarded like trash? We know human nature is to move on to the newest, shiniest, most stimulating thing. How will autonomous, embodied machines react to such callous disregard? It's perhaps only a matter of time until we learn for real.

The concept behind the Tomliand bots and their rampage is more disturbing yet. Only four episodes in, and this is the second storyline involving child trafficking and child abuse. Unlike the kids at the Sacred Citizen Relief Center, who were being forcibly educated via unethical cyberbrain brainwashing tech, with the tacit approval of government, the kids in the custody of Hanka Precision Instruments are having their ghosts (i.e., minds/souls) imperfectly copied into robots, while their own brains are fried in the attempt. It's a special kind of depravity that harvests the minds of children to make sexbots more “realistic,” and the sort of thing I'm sure certain large megacorporations would do if they thought they could get away with it. It's merely cybernetic icing on the cake that Hanka's corrupt CEO is little but a brain in a metal box, having sacrificed most of his own humanity for efficiency's sake. He's bizarrely still able to indulge his unhealthy smoking habit, though. His comeuppance, buried in sludge at the bottom of the harbor, is completely deserved.

Aramaki's old colleague Colonel Tonoda may not have been fully aware of the exact nature of Hanka's dealings, but I'm sure the massive kickbacks they paid motivated him to look the other way, especially when accepting such a “nice-smelling” droid. I certainly can't fault Kusanagi's one-fingered salute to him (hilariously censored with a digital overlay) when he mistakes her for a robot.

Kusanagi herself doesn't get a whole lot else to do this episode, as it centers the working relationship between rookie Togusa and battle-hardened ex-military ranger Batou. They come from vastly different backgrounds, and whereas Batou values the seniority system inherent in military hierarchies, Togusa had enough of that shit from when he operated as a police officer. His bucking of the supposedly seniority-based chain of command understandably gets Batou's goat, but in a society like Japan, it's common in business for older employees to be promoted based on time served rather than ability. I think Togusa's attitude here is railing against that kind of mindset, rather than Batou's perceived seniority specifically. He wants to be treated as an equal, keen to prove that he's more than just a rookie. When he freezes in the line of gunfire, seeing his wife and kids flash before his eyes, it's only Batou's quick reflexes that save his life. Despite their disagreements, they do make a good team.

I also loved the brief Fuchikoma cameo where the perky little machine apprehends the fleeing perp, greeting him with a cheery “hello there!” It's a dark as hell episode, at least conceptually, and little moments like these really help brighten the existential gloom. Batou's interrogation style is more than a little extreme. Guess he was really pissed off that the perp shot at his partner. Re-enacting what sounds like a horrendous episode of torture, though…? Brrr…

This episode replicates, and even enhances, both the charm and compelling storytelling of the original manga almost flawlessly. Compared to the first three episodes, this is much easier to follow. It's paced more deliberately, and it's far closer in content to an episode of Stand Alone Complex. I suppose that confirms how well that previous series adapted the concepts of the original manga, without replicating the individual details. If every subsequent episode manages to uphold this frankly stunning level of quality, The Ghost in the Shell will absolutely be an anime of the year candidate for me.

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The Ghost in the Shell is currently streaming on Prime Video.