The Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex DVD Review is now available in
the reviews section and here. Even though I’ve seen my fare share of anime along the years I’ve found that police-related anime can never quite hold a candle to the live action cop dramas we have on TV. There is no technical reason holding anime studios back from making a great series in this genre so I can only assume that gifted scriptwriters in this field are a scarce commodity. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex demonstrated that pretty well – the production studio hired more than six script writers who worked for more than half a year just to write the basic plot for the series. If not for the fact that Ghost in the Shell was guaranteed to sale no matter what I doubt Production I.G would have gone to such lengths just to create a quality series in this particular genre.

Since GITS:SAC has many interesting facts surrounding it here’s a nice Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex trivia section!

• The line of text written around the Laughting Man logo is a line Holden says in J.R. Salinger’s book The Catcher in the Rye.
• In episode 11 (Escape From) a poster with the words GoSeeBananafish ca be seen. Banana Fish is a manga by Akimi Yoshida which was inspired by A Perfect Day for Banana Fish – another story by J.R. Salinger.
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex coined the term Stand Alone Complex. According to the Urban Dictionary Stand Alone Complex is a “Phenomenon where in behavior by unconnected individuals creates a seemingly concentrated effort. This behavior is copied from a previous source without an original.” Stand Alone Complex is a type of Simulacrum. The hacker group Anonymous is considered by some to be a Stand Alone Complex.
• While Mamoru Oshii did not take part in the production of GITS:SAC the production team have consulted him at least once during the production process. This was done in order to make sure the series preserves some visual cues from the movie.
• A PS2 game, also called Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex, was released in Japan and the U.S. in 2004. This game is considered to be one of the most impressive anime-inspired video games available for PS2. It has an entirely new plot set in the Stand Alone Complex timeline and both Major Kusanagi and Batou are playable characters.
• The phrase “aeria gloris” can be heard several times during the opening theme for the series. This phrase was in fact made up for the song. The words aeria gloris hold no meaning in Russian and Latin.