Episode 1 – Public Peace, Section 9

Original Air Date: October 10th, 2002 (Japan)

Spoiler Free Summary:
Major Kusanagi and Section 9 are called in to resolve a hostage crisis at a Geisha house staffed by android geisha. While the crisis is averted, the military thinks there might be more to it…and of course there is.

Synopsis:
After a short action-packed introductory sequence, Major Kusanagi and the rest of Section 9 are called in to resolve a hostage crisis at a Geisha house involving several government officials and a foreign dignitary from the United States. Kusanagi, Batou, and Togusa raid the building, eliminating a trio of android Geishas under the control of a remote operator several blocks away. Batou, Paz, and Borma are able to corner the cybernetically-enhanced suspect (followed closely by a regretful Tachikoma unit), but not before he shorts out his own memory using a device plugged into his neural interface.

The following day, Section Head Aramaki is asked by a military friend to look into the matter ; it seems that one of the victims of the previous night’s crime was an undercover military agent investigating a government Minister for his connection to a secret document called the Ichinose Report which contains tactical information sensitive to the government. While Aramaki and Kusanagi are unable to turn up anything from the security recorder data, Togusa (after being dressed down for his choice of firearms at the Geisha house) discovers that the Minister has been ‘brain-switched’ (his cybernetic brain-core has been removed and replaced by a hijacker). The false Minister, whose body has been taken over by a foreign agent in an effort to smuggle out sensitive information, including the Ichinose Report, is apprehended at the airport by Aramaki.

Notes:
This is a decent re-introduction to Ghost in the Shell, and sets up the series nicely. It is apparent from the get-go that this will be a far different experience than the feature film, which was somewhat divergent from Masamune Shirow’s manga. The ending is a bit of a letdown (the arrest of the false Minister goes down with nary a hitch), but the first 15 minutes are filled with enough action and intrigue to make up for it.

In Detail:

  • The date is firmly established as April 14th, 2030 based on Aramaki’s desk-clock and the surveillance video.
  • The man shot by Kusanagi at the beginning of the episode is clearly a cyborg. Though the wound is seemingly quite bloody, if you pause the video you’ll see that both his ankle and broken finger reveal gears and wiring, not bones and blood.
  • It’s also interesting to note that the medallion he wears is a ‘Laughing Man’ icon, its’ first appearance in the episode.
  • One feature I liked about the geisha house was that it was a small, secluded grove of trees situated in the middle of a busy downtown area – to give the patrons the illusion of a more serene atmosphere, no doubt.
  • Togusa is still attached to his Mateba handgun, which Kusanagi considers to be a relic. Likewise, Togusa still refuses to accept a cybernetic body.
  • The computer displays are quite consistent with those shown in the GitS film.
  • The license plate on Aramaki’s car (or is it Ishikawa’s car…after all, Ishikawa’s driving it) is NH-a 1468