Pluto

StandAlone Complex

End of the series....
Well, at least I feel relieved to see 草薙 alive.
Though atcually I also feel somewhat sympathy to those soldiers who fought section 9. Although they did it unrightously, they did it under proper orders for them.

This episode begins with ドクサ's monologue and ends with conversation of 草薙 and 笑い男. This arrangement quite interestingly (or ironically) illustrates the concepts 孤 and 個. The most isolated character, ドクサ, can preserve his unique personality, but is confined to his own solitude, being deprived of his access to information (情報）. On the other hand, 草薙 and 笑い男 could represent those who are immersed in the virtual world and those who encounter the danger of losing one's own identity through 並列化, (likeタチコマ). To connect to the outer world means the probability of being influenced and changed. Changing isn't bad for evolution, but changing toward the same direction (並列化) in fact is potential threat to the survival of a species, since the purpose of 並列化 is to have equal quantity of information and thus to become the same. And that's what 笑い男 really cares about: individuality and existence.

To his(in fact, her) question, 草薙 gives one probable solution: imagination. Though she doesn't elaborate on how imaginaton would/could free human beings from the prison of information, this is quite epiphanical. And yet, I am not as optimistic as them. Through the net and ghost hack, every thought, fantasy, or imagination would spread as a kind of information (remember the director?) as soon as possible. Though information could serve as inspiration sometimes, burying oneself in the sea of information, it would be difficult for an individual to develop his/her own imagination. What's more, as 笑い男 said, even 草薙 became one fake of 笑い男 during the process of prosecuting 薬島. In fact, ドクサ also imitated 笑い男 in the desperate state of mind (fortunately stopped by バトー　at the last moment) and he definitely is the one with the most individuality in Section 9, without much cyborg operation and with much human thinking. Being forced or not, loss of individuality seems inevitable.