[S7E8] Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd Gig, eps. 20–26

In order to save this podcast from going for 4 hours, Connor and Niamh had to crash the satellite that our old Audacity files are stored on into a nuke, but it’s okay, we don’t need them anymore anyway.

Before our heroic, fiery death in the sky, we talk about things like Kuze (and not Elon Musk) as a great man of history; the incoherence and failure of the narrative structure of 2nd Gig as demonstrated by its complete disinterest in exploring what a bioroid even is; how 2nd Gig does try to explore some of the themes of the death around the Puppetmaster but as an inversion, and how this draws on the themes of ashura Noh; how 2nd Gig fumbles a lot of these themes, especially around the character of the Major; the concept of virginity as it is clumsily deployed in the show; the conclusion of the political aspects of 2nd Gig; the imagery of the cherry blossoms used in the final scenes; our plans to eventually cover all of Ghost in the Shell; a digression into NANA; and some final thoughts on how political theory and ideology is handled in the show.

By the way, if you are interested in NANA, Niamh will be back next week with a bonus episode featuring Em of Abnormal Mapping where we dig into the manga! You can also check out their guest appearance on Ornate Stairwells mentioned in the post-ED section here: https://ornate-stairwells.pinecast.co/episode/317edfc9/cure

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Works Cited in this Discussion

“The Major’s Body (10): Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig” by Claire Napier (full series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Brief discussion of COVID

Death & suicide

Sex, sexuality, virginity, and rape

Misogyny and sexism

Alcohol & food

Find out more at https://ghost-divers.pinecast.co