Yesterday, the 8th episode of the new animated Ghost in the Shell series released on Prime Video. The new animated series is produced by Science SARU, based on Masamune Shirow’s 1989 manga series. The series began airing on 7th July on a simultaneous global release schedule, with weekly episode drops, giving the worldwide community the chance to discuss the series episode by episode.

In the mid-season episodes, the series had moved away from the Puppet Master arc introduced early on, and we got a string of self-contained episodes, featuring rampant cyborgs, corrupt government officials, and international terrorists.

Episode 7 brought us back to the Puppet Master story arc, and episode 8 deals with some of the fallout. We start by watching a team of computer scientists carrying out tests on an artificial intelligence program, which seems to be exceeding their expectations. Then we hear Nakamura’s familiar voice, and it is revealed we are seeing the development of Project 2501, which we know as The Puppet Master.

The entity has been designed as an agent, but the developers soon become concerned that it has developed into something far more advanced than they feel comfortable with. The program is very inquisitive, showing signs of curiosity and self-awareness. Project 2501 is developing a personality, drawing attention to itself, which is not a good trait in a spy agent. A patch is designed to strip it of this personality, and The Puppet Master, realising it will effectively have its memory and personality wiped, fights to break free, which results in the version we saw in the last episode. In the act of breaking free, The Puppet Master showed the very human trait of self-preservation, the singularity alluded to in the previous episode – the programme achieved a true level of sentience and self-awareness.

Then we catch up with The Major, suffering the effects of the deep dive into the mind of The Puppet Master. Section 9 manage to get The Major back in operating order, and then it is business as usual. Or so they think. Section 9 take in the head of Project 2501, Nakamura. Meanwhile, The Major is showing signs that she has been affected by her experience with The Puppet Master.

Batou is talking to a member of Section 6, and questions him about some stolen firearms. This ultimately leads the team to a criminal group hiding out on a boat. The plan is to take one of them in for questioning, and then follow them to see who they are working with. The Major, however, her mind clearly still distracted by her experience, and sensing the presence of The Puppet Master, kills the lead member of the group, bringing the investigation to a dead end.

As suspected after the last episode, we were given some backstory on the nature of the AI program that became The Puppet Master, and saw some of the effect the brain dive had on The Major. Having had her mind opened up by the entity, she is seemingly not able to shake off the thoughts that there is something more, something higher, making it difficult to focus on the mundanity of her day to day tasks. Just how much of an effect it will have remains to be seen, and with only two episodes left of the season, we will very soon find out. The situation, though, will be complicated by the media interest in Section 9 that is revealed at the end of the episode… 

What did you think of episode eight? How do you think they’ll wrap up the series, with a definitive ending for The Puppet Master, or will we get a cliffhanger? Let us know in the comments.

You can watch the new Ghost in the Shell series on Prime Video with a valid subscription, and episodes will be released every Tuesday. You can enjoy the show’s opening sequence below –

---

Cyberstopia now has a Discord server! Please join us and build a community for cyberpunk and dystopia discussion. We have sections for all the latest news, channels for discussion of The Ghost in the Shell series, as well as upcoming shows like Edgrerunners 2, Blade Runner 2099, and Neuromancer, as well as an author section with a number of cyberpunk authors talking about their work, giving updates on your current projects, etc… It’s a great place to hang out.
https://discord.gg/ETgkwzHQ5