What is it?
The 2005 Japanese anime (animated) feature-length OVA Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex – The Laughing Man.
What is it about?
This is how Fandom describes this OVA:
“The Laughing Man Incident” started off with a kidnap of Ernest Serano, the CEO of Serano Genomics in 2024, followed by blackmails targeting manufacturers of micromachines and medical equipment.
It was just the first of a series of terrorist incidents aimed at corporations, and it’s been speculated that the number of corporations targeted was the highest in the post-war period.
Several conjectures circulated regarding the final purpose of the criminal: terrorism against cyber and prosthetics technology, a corporate conspiracy, or simply a blackmailing scheme for money.
But the reality was that nothing was identified concerning the incident: nothing about the criminal’s nationality, sex, age, or even whether there was an accomplice or objective.
The only clear fact was that the Laughing Man was a top-notch hacker.
One day, Police Investigator Yamaguchi, who was tracking the Laughing Man Incident, calls Togusa in Section 9.
Yamaguchi dies mysteriously immediately afterwards.
A few days later, the Laughing Man hijacks the broadcast of a police news conference to express regrets about the incident.
Section 9 is dispatched to investigate the intentions of the invisible hacker known as “Laughing Man,” who finally broke his silence.
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