Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2003)

The year is 2030. Public Security Section 9 is a counter terrorist branch of the Japanese government, a group of ass-kicking professionals that get the job done no matter what. The world is overly dependent on cybernetic bodies; the web has become the medium of choice for terrorists and as a result there exists a large potential for cyber-crime and hacks. Section 9 specialise in that area. Led by Major Motoko Kusanagi the team deal with corporate terrorism, kidnapping, human trafficking, Ghost hacks (a technique in which the victim's memory is replaced with false memories) and a host of other internal and external problems. They're the people that keep the rest of us safe, often without us even knowing they exist.

GitS: SAC is based on the manga by Masamune Shirow. It isn't a direct sequel to the Mamoru Oshii film, but rather a reimagining of the original idea, almost parallel to it. And while not a part of the continuity it nevertheless owes a large debt to Oshii. Its length gives it the opportunity to explore things the film couldn't.

The show succeeds for a number of reasons: character identities are well-defined, with the human element never far from the surface; the action is explosive; the scripts are clever; the animation is fantastic (no one does movement quite as fluid as Production I.G); and the music by Yoko Kanno is a perfect fit. Put simply, it's the finest and most intelligently scripted anime TV series that I've ever seen.

It's the only anime I would recommend choosing the dub over the sub. The English voices fit the characters much better than the Japanese ones and the delivery is a lot more satisfying and naturalistic sounding than the subtitles give - although when the script requires a lot of exposition it can sound like the characters are reading from a manual; that's not just in the dub, but in both.

The episodes are divided into two types:

• The Stand Alone episodes have a story that wraps up in a single episode.
• The Complex episodes are a story arc (The Laughing Man) that need to be viewed in the correct order. They're the exposition heavy ones. The episodes are: 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.

26 episodes, approx 25 minutes each. Make sure and stick around for the short Tachikomatic Days after the credits roll on each one!

5 chattering tanks out of 5