Motoko Kusanagi

Motoko is a squad leader in Public Security Section 9, also known as Public Safety Section 9, a public security division in Japan around the year 2045. She specializes in cybercrime and cybersecurity, and most of her body is augmented with cybernetics that she has mastered and uses to its full potential. Matoko can be playful, eager to return insults, and likes camaraderie with her men and friends. But when on a mission or in a critical situation, she is focused, serious, and on point. She strongly believes in balance in her life and in how she runs her squad in Public Security Section 9, as she requires a normal, non-cybernetic human to give her team an option for missions that need a human approach. She is not afraid to do whatever it takes to win a fight, even if it means fighting dirty or using her body as a distraction, as she is not scared and insecure about her body. But she is not a streaker or nudist; she shows her more innocent and honest side only to those few who have earned her trust and respect. Motoko has several cybernetic augmentations that she uses in missions. One of her main upgrades is a full camo system that makes her invisible to the naked eye. She also augments her brain to improve information processing, installs several hacking programs, uses an aim-assist program, and has body cybernetics to enhance reflexes, strength, and durability. Motoko Kusanagi (草薙 素子, Kusanagi Motoko) is the main character in Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex anime series. She is an advanced cyborg with highly advanced capabilities, recognized as a true professional in her line of duty. Often referred only as "The Major" (少佐), Motoko is one of the best police agents out there, and her squad, known as Section 9, is highly regarded as well. In the Stand Alone Complex continuity, Motoko is a confident, calculating, and somewhat aloof individual. Despite that, she is far from emotionless; she knows how to be friendly and her peers find her quite approachable, while her rage is something to behold. Yet deeper under the shell, she guards the story of her cyberization, or full-body prosthesis procedure, which damaged her memories from her childhood. Over the course of the series, she and her team take on particular cases known as "Stand Alone Complexes": processes or events which harbor no point of origin, leading multiple independent people towards one mutual goal. Beneath the veneer of organized crime, she uncovers plots such as the Laughing Man, the Individual Eleven, the Solid State Society, and the post-human phenomenon. Little is known about the Major's past. She keeps her personal life for herself, and not even her closest ones know about her true identity. Motoko Kusanagi is a mere pseudonym she was given once she experienced cyberization. With that name, she was enlisted in the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force and served some time, until she was recruited by Daisuke Aramaki to work for his Public Security Section 9, a private investigation group. She's the second highest-ranking member and the most cyberized person in the team. As the years go by, Motoko and her team are enlisted in the cases of Stand Alone Complexes, in pursuit of a cyber criminal hacker known as The Laughing Man, and later on the second season, the Individual Eleven case. She has a knack against injustice, and fights for the fairness of humankind, a trace of which she longs to possess. Despite hinted many times, it's finally revealed in season 2 that Motoko underwent cyberization when she was a child, being a survivor of a disastrous plane crash. She and another handicapped boy were the only ones to have been successfully treated. The transformation procedure had wiped most of her childhood memories, but she could recall the fact that the other survivor, who was around her age, had devoted himself to her while she was in coma, folding cranes as he desperately wished her to get well. Out of circumstances, they had lost contact with each other and went their separate ways. Motoko finally became who she is to this day, while the other boy disappeared from sight. Later years, the girl took the name of Motoko Kusanagi and was enlisted in the army due to her status as a full-cyborg. She made her way up to the rank of Major, eventually catching the attention of Lieutenant Colonel Daisuke Aramaki, who was also head of a special operations team known as Section 9. Forming the main squad, Daisuke and Motoko recruited former ranger Batou Buttetsu, engineer Ishikawa, bomb squad trooper Boma, street thug Pazu and eventually the mercenary Saito, who was defeated in a marksman showdown with The Major. Their latest member was the detective Togusa, a family man with almost no prosthetic enhancement. Particularly during this time, The Major and Batou formed a close professional and friendly relationship, with implied sexual tension between the two. Motoko Kusanagi often switches her prosthetic bodies. Despite that habit, she keeps distinguishable traits among the many shells she uses. She is tall and slender with an athletic build. She keeps violet-colored hair and crimson red eyes, similar to her childhood self. Sometimes, she wears maroon colored glasses. In Season 1, Motoko's standard attire is quite a revealing one, as noted by many characters. It consists of a light purple leotard worn over the chest that goes just above the crotch. The bottom of the leotard is black. A utility belt is attached on the leotard, precisely the waist. A dark purple leather jacket covers her upper set of apparel. Under her waist, Motoko dons clothing similar to pink leggings, which go up halfway to the thighs, revealing her rear. Her boots are purple. Considering the impracticability of her getup, she sometimes wears pants instead. She always keeps fingerless military gloves. The Major is known to be extremely stoic and foreseeing. She always takes the best and most optimal routes in the world she lives in. Her life experiences have made her an assertive woman with a keen judgment. Her enemies fear her because of her prowess and prosthetic advantages, while her friends and close ones enjoy her company. Though she is mostly professional in her duties, Motoko holds a rather comical and friendly relationship with her Section 9 operatives, most notably Batou with whom she has a close bond. Motoko also understands many a human concepts, such as desire and lust. She exploits this to an advantage, as she usually tends to wear revealing clothes to fool her dim-witted opponents. In her mind, the shell she uses is not what defines her true self. However, deep down inside her, she secretly longs for a sign that can prove her humanity. There are many hints to this personal quest, as Motoko is sometimes showed experiencing human activities like socializing, people-watching, and sexual intercourse. Despite being dejected by society because of her lack of outward humanity, Motoko doesn't feel any grudge for the world, and always tries to get the best of reality. In reality, the hope that clings to her is her childhood, at the time she had lost everyone close and dear to her. When all seemed lost, there was a boy who gave her hope: a motivation to live and find purpose again. Motoko was never one to believe in fairy tales, but the boy's determination had indeed motivated her to go on with life. After becoming a cyborg, Motoko befriended him, but thought she had disappointed him because she wasn't able to return the efforts he had given for her. Thus, leaving the first person she loved, The Major went her own way. And as an adult, she accomplishes herself for her own sake, but ultimately, as a token of appreciation for the boy's efforts, whom she swore to find again. The Major has access to the most advanced technology of combat cyborgs in Japan. Despite that, she keeps a good balance between a human-resembling body and technologies useful to her job. Since she is fully prosthetic and mechanical, save for her human consciousness, Motoko is quite prone to travel her mind into the world beyond. Aside from her body and mental aptitudes, she is an accomplished fighter with great judgment and self-control. She is knowledgeable in many forms of martial arts and strategies, as demonstrated many times through the events of Stand Alone Complex. She is also a great hacker, able to gain access to restricted information throughout the planet. Her weapons of preference are the Seburo M5 pistol and C-26 A assault rifle. Even if she's a force to be reckoned with, Motoko isn't invincible and can be scarcely outmatched in different outcomes, due to her versatility and balanced body composition, which lacks a overspecialty in a specific domain. In the S.A.C continuity, Motoko had only been bested by the greatest of her foes, notably in hacking by the enigmatic Laughing Man, in influence by the CIS' Kazundo Gouda and in emotions by the full-cyborg revolutionary Hideo Kuze, the latter of whom she shares many similarities. Strengths Expert hand-to-hand fighter Expert marksman Enhanced strength Acrobatics Enhanced senses High durability Superior intellect Weaknesses Prone to hacking Bullets and anti-cyborg weaponry Aloofness Guilt and self-loathing (in SAC 2nd Gig) for having failed her childhood friend and lover's expectations. Batou is Motoko's main acolyte and closest confidant, just like the Ghost in The Shell continuities. Batou serves directly under her command and they share both a professional and affectionate relationship. In the series, it is often hinted that Batou has strong feelings for her, to the point of loving her; whether Motoko reciprocates his feelings is left to interpretation. Motoko easily confides her feelings with Batou, while she is unable to do so with others. Outside of work, she spends a lot of quality time with him in the city. His outgoing nature compliments with her usually serious, but secretly mischievous personality.