Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man
8.187%7.7
The year is 2030 and six years have passed since a criminal known only as "The Laughing Man" swept through top medical nanotechnology firms committing acts of cyber-terrorism, kidnapping, and espionage leaving no known suspects. New information is revealed, as Section 9 enters the hunt for a suspect capable of unfathomable actions in this compilation of Stand Alone Complex content.
Richard reviewed
October 26, 2025•
Set in 2030, a streamlined retelling of the series’ most iconic arc, with all the cyberpunk paranoia intact.
This feature length compilation condenses the first season of Stand Alone Complex into a focused narrative centered on the elusive hacker known as the Laughing Man.
Major Motoko Kusanagi and Section 9 unravel a conspiracy involving corporate corruption, medical ethics and the blurred line between man and machine.
The good? It’s tight, coherent and still packed with the philosophical weight that defines the franchise.
The animation holds up, the voice cast (Atsuko Tanaka, Akio Otsuka, Koichi Yamadera) delivers with gravitas and the themes, surveillance, identity and digital rebellion, feel more relevant than ever.
The trade off? Like Individual Eleven, the compression trims some of the nuance and character development from the episodic format.
It’s best appreciated if you’ve seen the full series, but still works as a standalone dive into the world of Section 9.
A smart, stylish remix of one of anime’s most compelling cybercrime sagas. Less sprawling, more surgical and still full of ghosts in the machine.