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Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Season 1 Episode 20

C: Vanished Medication; RE-VIEW

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 3/27/05

Back on the Laughing Man case, Section 9 tries to find evidence of tampering in the Nanao=A case and delves more into the recent hack job at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare ("PORTRAITZ"). Using J.D. Salinger's The Cather in the Rye as a guide, Togusa checks out the MHLW and finds that something is missing: A ledger containing a list of vaccine recipients.moreless

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Another great episode and one that helps advance the season's story line.

10

By bmoshier, May 01, 2011

This is another wonderful Ghost in the Shell episode that not only advances the story line, but give us insight into the team members. I'll freely admit, like many Ghost in the Shell episodes, I didn't really grasp the many layers of meanings till viewing it for the third (or more times). It is these many layers that make the series and episodes so wonderfully delicious to devour into our minds and soul.

BTW, if you start the series at the beginning, you'll actually be further along in your appreciation of the story line, characters, and series. Unfortunately, for me, I started the series late my first time through and didn't have the necessary juices from the previous episodes to truly admire and understand the story. I only saw it as a stand alone complex and missed the clues and underlying meanings. Yet, even then the story was strong, enjoyable, and gave me desire to learn more about the series, itself.

My second time, though, was actually my first time, as it was my first time watching the episode in full context. It was then I started to realize and appreciate the episode for its charm and power.

Now on the third viewing, I'm able to listen to and pick up on even more meanings and sublimities of the writers. The threads coming together show how the writers obviously planned the entire season out in marvelously great detail. Watching the characters, themselves, perform the analysis of the story line and the layers of thereof is in itself very rewarding and thrilling.

The Ghost in the Shell writers do a wonderful job of advancing the story line, tying up threads, giving us a full body episode (e.g. character development), and advance us towards the ending season climax.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Mary Elizabeth McGlynn	Motoko Kusanagi
Crispin Freeman	Togusa
Michael McCarty	Ishikawa
Richard Epcar	Batou
William Knight	Daisuke Aramaki
Ewan Chung	Lab Tech

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Wendee Lee	Phoebe	Guest Star
Barry Stigler	Nogi	Guest Star
Paul St. Peter	Imakurusu	Recurring Role
Kim Strauss	Gayle	Recurring Role
Peter Spellos	Niimi	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (2)
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- When the DEA man shoots down his two colleagues, the second one is shot in the back of the head and blood oozes from the hole. The blood is edited out from the [AS] version. However, the sound of the blood oozing out of the head can still be heard.
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- Error:
  
  Togusa's Mateba only holds six bullets yet he fires seven at Gayle and the window.
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QUOTES (0)
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NOTES (4)
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- Japanese Title: 「消された薬」 - 「Kesareta Kusuri」
  
  The DVD translates the title as 「Deleted Medicine」
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- Original Japanese Airdate: February 11th, 2003.
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- As in "SECTION-9" and "INTERCEPTER", Togusa comes to a revelation about a case while looking in a mirror.
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- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that occurs in the Central Nervous System (CNS) which includes the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Scarring occurs at certain points in the CNS due to the loss of the myelin walls. Myelin is fatty tissue that helps the nerve centers send electrical impulses from the CNS throughout the body. When myelin is lost, due to the body's own immune system attacking the myelin, the nerve centers harden and die. Cyberbrain Sclerosis refers to the vast amounts of electrical impulses being generated by the cyberbrain that are too much for the mylein walls of the human brain to take. Over time, the walls are lost. With no buffer from these constant electrical impulses, the brain itself is left open to damage which can lead to death.
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ALLUSIONS (2)
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- "Just because people didn't know me, and because I didn't know anybody."
  
  When Togusa repeats the Laughing Man quote to himself in his bathroom, he adds the aforementioned sentence. This sentence is also taken from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and is the sentence that precedes the quote that circles the Laughing Man logo. However, due to the need of the English voice actor to fill the lip movement of a character in an anime, the line is off a bit. The actual sentence, which is correct on the DVD subtitles, is "Just so people didn't know me, and I didn't know anybody."
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- NARC Squad's Troop Carrier
  
  The NARC Squad's undercover vehicle has a picture of two costumed characters on the side of the van with the title Mahboh to Sono Tuma. These two characters were last seen being worn by two people in the Akihabara (Electronics District) on the scrubber facility in "NOT EQUAL".
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