Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, Volume 04 (Episodes 13-16)

Product Description Chasing Phantoms While on the trail of Kuze, Section 9 tracks down the person who made his one-of-a-kind prosthetic face. There?s only one problem?the designer is dead. And the person who killed him is Paz, or someone who looks exactly like him! And Section 9 has some downtime, which they put to good use. During a friendly poker game, Saito recounts his first encounter with the Major, when they were both looking down the barrel of each other?s guns. But there?s still a lot of work left to be done, as everyone tries to unravel the mystery of the Individual Eleven and discover the whereabouts of Kuze. Amazon.com Stand Alone Complex (2nd Gig) continues to grow more pointedly political as it progresses. The agents of Public Security Section 9 discover that the cases they're investigating are linked to the troubled relations between Japan and Imperial America: The latter is attempting to reassert its global military dominance while grappling with its economic weakness. But the prime minister and her cabinet face those problems. Batou, the Major, and the rest of the Section have to deal with unrest among the refugees, suicide bombers, and the Individualists. The members of the Individual Eleven--except for Kuze, their leader--commit mass suicide in a bloody spectacle that recalls the theatrical death of the great Japanese writer Yukio Mishima in 1970. The Tachikoma robots speculate that as they are abandoning collective consciousness and developing individuality, a dependence on the Net is leading humans in the opposite direction. That trend makes people more vulnerable to the micro-machines and cyber-viruses of the Individualist plot--unless Section 9 can thwart it in time. (Rated 13 and older: violence, violence against women, brief nudity, alcohol, drug and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon