If you watch a whole hell of a lot of Ghost in the Shell, and the various movies, and browse through at least some of the manga sequels (Man-Machine Interface) it makes a little more sense.

RD just skips all the terrorism and police work and goes directly for the existentialist elements that are much more pronounced in the three films and the Tachikoma character development parts of the two series.

Let's see if I can work this out, since it only made any sense to me after about 90% of the episode.

- Humanity developed the Meta Real Network system. A networking "society" as the description states, but more of a super high level internet. This allows nearly everyone, especially those equipped with cyberbrains to connect all the time and interact. Not too different from the networks of GiTS, but somehow deeper than that.

- Problems develop, sometimes manifesting themselves in the real world, sometimes flooding people with an overload of information, as we saw in the opening sequence and at the end with the hospital.

- To discover these problems, they send cyber divers, since exploring a system like this, quite poetically a "sea of information" much like the Internet today, they first began employing real world divers, like Maru. His was more of a prototyping procedure, to see if "diving" into the Metal would be similar to diving in the sea, and tracking how this procedure would work by recording brainwaves. In the 50 years since, it has advanced significantly, and androids or cyberbrain enhanced humans can do it easily.

- Maru was crippled by the incident where the problems in the Metal manifested themselves physically. The incident left him comatose for 50 years, and he's now paralyzed as well. Since awakening, he has used the android Holon to dive and record for him, looking for answers to this problem, hoping that recreating this dive would let him get evidence of the phenomenon to determine it's origin. This is not unlike some of Motoko's actions in Man-Machine interface if you've seen that, or Motoko going into the "Solid State Society" (if you know who was controlling it, being vague to not spoil that movie).

- Minamo, a girl with a great deal of "intuition," finally gives Haru the encouragement he needed after waking up paralyzed. There's really no difference in his condition if he really thinks about it. As long as he still has the will to figure this whole mess out, he will be able to overcome any of his physical shortcomings.

- At this point, where the system is going haywire, Haru remembers her words and it clicks in his mind. He can access the system anywhere, as proof of the pain the phenomenon is causing in his head due to the cyberbrain, and because "diving" into the system is a mental and metaphysical thing, he is not limited in any way. His brain is still fresh, his mind sharp, and his will do figure it all out is once again burning bright instead of smoldering thanks to Minamo. He dives into the system feeling as he once was, and the episode ends there.

...Well that certainly cleared things up for me. If you were as confused as I was until I wrote it all out, maybe this will help you too.


Definitely watching this one. Ayako Kawasumi is always good, I remember Katsuji Mori (Haru) from some of the series he's been in, and the way the actress playing Minamo really brightens the series in a pleasant way. Love her haircut too.

What was with the Secretary-General? Lazing on a couch thrusting her large "assets" around? I highly doubt that is the way business should be conducted, but this is a Masamune series, that might not even be real. When they said she was calling, I was expecting a Kayabuki (GiTS SAC 2nd Gig Prime Minister) not a Tsunade (Naruto).