Story

It's a short time in the future, (between the time of the original Ghost in the Shell manga (and movie) and the second, upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie) and humanity is growing and reaching for the stars. However, crime and corruption still exist.

Section 9 was set up to combat government corruption and high level crime.

"Above ground" the world is a fairly prosperous near future democratic nation (Japan). Most of the actual action happens "underground," where corruption and media manipulation still exist. More often than not a combination of clever hacking and extreme violence is necessary to stop the rich, powerful and technically sophisticated criminals.

Improvements / Differences with the original movie

Unlike the feature film format, the series of 26 TV episodes (of 25-30 minutes in length each) has more time to explore the concepts and ideas found in the original manga. Due to this, it is generally considered that the artists have managed to achieve a higher quality of storytelling than they had achieved in the movie.

Animation techniques have also advanced significantly since the first Ghost in the Shell movie, and as a result the animation in Stand Alone Complex has become more refined.

Technology

Stand Alone Complex tries to depict the near future convincingly, extending trends from the current day into the future. Often a viewer can even speculate which current-day factory or design firm would be responsible for the future machines and buildings.

The use of fast armored robots called fuchikoma (or tachikoma) which sadly had to be left out of the GitS movie by time constraints come to their full right in Stand Alone Complex. One entire episode is dedicated entirely to the exploits of one of the tachikomas. Tachikoma are 6 legged light tanks equipped with machine guns, a howitzer-style grenade launcher and a very advanced AI. Somewhere along the way, the tachikoma AIs become self-aware, and the robots are decommissioned.

The original movie and the manga both feature section 9 using a tiltrotor aircraft. In Stand Alone Complex, reality has caught up with fiction, and the American-designed V-22 Osprey is depicted in its place.

The echelon system also makes an appearance.

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