TV: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Masamune Shirow's manga "Ghost in the Shell" has been adapted into a lot of different media, but none are as fit for mass consumption as "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex," a TV series that first aired in 2002. The basic precepts of SAC are the same as all the other editions of GitS: brain/computer interfaces, cybernetically enhanced cops, and runaway artifical intelligences.

What differentiates GitS:SAC is the 24 minute time limit. The half-hour episodic nature of the series helps to contain the often-sprawling and obtuse storylines of the manga (read GitS: Man/Machine Interface for an especially painful example). The producers even helpfully cue the viewer; the opening title card of each episode indicates whether it's "stand alone" (independent) or "complex" (related to the overarching Laughing Man storyline). As always, it's Major Kusanagi and her crack team of Section 9 counterterrorists versus some new threat.

GitS:SAC also exhibits sumptuous production values, typical of Production I.G. The real highlight for most fans will be the transcendant soundtrack by Yoko Kanno, one of anime's most famous composers. Here's "Inner Universe," the opening theme, featuring Origa: