Ishikawa
Seiyuu: Hiroshi Nakano
Ishikawa is the oldest member of the tactical arm of Section 9 – which means only Aramaki is older. Whereas in the manga he does a lot of fieldwork, both the films and the series relegate him to spending most of his hours in the dark confines of a computer lab, forever jacked into the Net or probing computer files. He’s the chosen man for that taste, because he’s a consummate hacker. He is the information retrieval specialist.
He is probably on the low end of the cybernetic implant spectrum of Section9 when compared to the Major, Batou, Borma, or Paz, but he is not all natural like Togusa--if he were, he probably would not have been included in the final op of Section 9 at the end of the 1st Gig. Still, when he is injured in a suicide bomb attack on Section 9's Tiltorotor, he was hospitalized, and spend the rest of his scenes bandaged and in pain. In spite of his own injuries, when he starts his end of the dangerous operation to outwit Gouda, one of his first questions is to ask if Togusa is with Kusanagi and the others on the infiltration of Dejima Island; he is clearly relieved that Togusa is with Aramaki. This apparent weakness and his usual non-combative position on the team is a good reminder that he's not a young as the other operative.
Ishikawa also has the habits of a man from an older more grizzledgeneration--the contrast to Togusa being the strongest. Ishikawa is bearded with shaggy unkept hair. He wears a crusty looking leather jacket and occasionally a baseball cap. He likes the occasional drink -- Chivas Regal -- and he smokes cigars and cigarettes. He also makes fun of Batou for weight-lifting although he's a cyborg, and calls both Aramaki and Kusanagi apes.
He is also a fan of American superhero comic books.
His cyberbrain is probably the most sophisicated on the team after Kusanagi's.
Ishikawa rolled up his sleeves and readied the neuro-exploration device. The Red Suits returned to the forensics room; the rest would be left to Ishikawa.
“Let’s see here.”
Ishikawa connected the exploration device to the QRS plug in the back of his own neck. This would enable him to observe a physical representation of the persona housed in the brain’s memory in his visual field.
He switched the device on.
The brain reacted.
A blurred human figure appeared in Ishikawa’s visual field.
Ishikawa addressed the brain. “Are you Mr. Masumoto?”
During the war, he worked as a civilian contractor for the military, where he learned of Aramaki and his war buddies, Kubota and Tsujisaki. He apparently served with Kusanagi and Batou in South America when they were with the Ground Self-Defense Forces in the Japanese UN contingent.
He owns a pachinko parlor called Parlor Ishikawa and, as the need demands, uses the cyberbrains of his customers for data gathering.
Ishikawa: “Time for Big Brother to do his thing. This will let us tap all communications in Japan in real time! …We’re online.”
Borma: “This much data isn’t just gonna knock out every terminal in this building, it’s gonna crash everything inside a one-kilometer radius?”
Ishikawa: “Maybe I should ask the old-timers to act as secondary back-ups.”
When the female robot staff starts crashing, Ishikawa isn’t worried, he’s has back ups online. He has a virtual gambling den called Parlour Ishikawa, where old people are linked to his terminals. He borrows their cyberbrains as backup and allows them to win for their unwitting aid.
Borma: “You’re twisted, you know that?”
Ishikawa: “Hook ‘em up in parallel and even geezers like them can give you some serious power.”
He often works alone, but Borma assists him most of the time with computer hacking and file searching, outside of the Tachikomas and the robot staff.
Ishikawa: “It took two hours for the army to find them, but if we use the AI to search, it’ll just take two minutes.”
He is not fond of the police, the military, the government, or the media.
Ishikawa: “This is suspicious. The net could be the best way to destroy media control. These people love to gloat over other people’s misfortunes. Despicable morons.”
Or foreign agencies –
Ishikawa: “I got to hand it to the CIA. Their walls are tough, but there were a few records left in their Photo Plug. There sure area lot of psychoanalyst reports on Marco in the CIA’s files. …What’s this file? Project Sunset? …Major, I just found something you’re not gonna like in the comm log between those guys and CIA headquarters. They never had any intention of retrieving Marco. Their orders are to eliminate the suspect…”
Kusanagi: “This was a set up?”
Aramaki: “You bastards…you used us. Your plan all along was to have Batou eliminate Marco.”
Watanabe: “I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re getting at. Your illegal access into the CIA, however, that is a serious subversive act.”
When out in the field, he most often works with Togusa, a potent research and investigative team, pairing cagey experience and a hacker’s wisdom with an ex-cop’s determination, passion, and intelligence. But you do get the feeling that Ishikawa is at times unsure of Togusa’s youth and emotionalism.
“You called us all here just for that?” Kusanagi demanded.
“…Huh?”
Batou, a huge cyborg with lenses for eyes, chuckled at Togusa’s mystified reaction. “Our boss here wrote the book on the rough stuff. People conspire to kill him all the time. We’ve got our hands full as it is with all the refugee terror attacks—we can’t go calling meetings over every little plot against the chief’s life. This sort of thing is the reason we still call you ‘Rookie,’ you know.”
“You’re the only one who calls me that.”
“I assume you tracked down the source of the information these smugglers have on the chief?” Kusanagi said.
“Er, not yet…” Togusa faltered.
“Wrong answer. The fact that someone’s got dirt on the chief’s movements is more critical than the fact that someone wants to kill him.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t waste time being sorry. Do something about it.”
Someone thumped Togusa’s shoulder. When he turned his head he found himself staring into Ishikawa’s bearded face.
“Young people dig holes and old people fill them up. I went ahead and tracked down the source.”
“Not bad! I’m glad you’ve got some wisdom to show for your old age!” Batou teased.
Saito (ID # 0907)
Seiyuu: Toru Okawa
Saito: "I’ve neutralized the image curtains, but all those trees down there are limiting my field of fire."
Saito is the ex-military man with the cool, highly professional demeanor. His specialty is long-range weapons and combat tactics. He is often called on to “secure the evac route.”
Saito: “The bastards are using their buddies’ corpses as shields! …HV ammo, huh? They’re bringing some nasty toys to the party.”
Batou: “Damn these guys are a pain in the ass. They’ve got no cyborg parts, but they aren’t scared of dying.”
He is the Section 9’s sharpshooter. He is also a heavy weapons expert on missiles, tanks, etc. However, he favors his .50 caliber sniper rifle.
With the cybernetic magnification scope in his left eye, he can uplink with a GPS satellite for increased accuracy: "The Hawkeye was the satellite link system hidden by the patch he wore over his left eye. It was configured to retrieve data from weather, communications, and various other satellites, and to convert that data into a format optimized for sharp-shooting purposes, instantaneously displaying it in a visual format. Normal human beings have approximately two hundred thousand photoreceptor cells. The Hawkeye had 1.5 million—eight times the visual strength of the naked eye. It didn’t just magnify objects like when using a telescope, it allowed objects to be viewed with absolute clarity. Once he used the Hawkeye to gauge a shot, all Saito had to do was use his cybernetic left arm to shoot his mounted rifle."
His Hawkeye can be hacked however, which pretty much takes Saito out of the operation because he cannot switch to an autistic mode without severing his satellite uplink.
During The Time of the Machines episode, Saito tests a prototype AI targeting device. Although the target is acquired and eliminated, for him the test did not go well. Despite the excellent numbers, such as his targeting error being less than 0.2 percent, Saito found that the prototype was overcorrecting and affecting with his ability to use the sniper rifle.
Batou’s Tachikoma: “Hey, Saito-san! What did you think of the helicopter with the built-in sniper control system? Will Section 9 finally adapt them, too?”
Saito: “No, probably not. When I start sniping, I get some kind of interference. For humans like me with a low prosthetics percentage, it actually makes it harder to control, not easier.”
Saito’s cybernetics are tailored to his profession as sniper. His left eye and arm, and their connective tissues, were artificial. In order to preserve the minute sensory perceptions that couldn’t be reproduced by prosthetic technology, Saito’s other organs, including his right eye and arm, were flesh and blood. More than anything else, Saito’s greatest assets as a sniper are his absolute cool under pressure, his intuition, and his patience gleaned from years of experience.
Although he does not always exhibit that patience with his teammates.
"I can count the white hairs on the old bastard’s head,” Batou remarked to Saito, who was set up next to him, peering through the scope of his rifle.
“If you can confirm his identity by counting his white hairs, knock yourself out.”
The response was icy, but it was definitely typical of Saito’s personality.
When Section 9 listens to the memories of Togusa getting shot, Kusanagi turns to Saito and Paz to assist her in the fieldwork, leaving, Batou behind. Saito may have felt bad for Togusa, but he did not let it pierce his cool professionalism. Because of this and his tactical combat knowledge, he is the number three field commander behind Kusanagi and Batou.
Tachikoma is having fun firing at the political fanatics.
Saito: “You idiot! Are you forgetting that you’ve got somebody inside your pod?”
Tachikoma: “Aw, but I wanna fight some more!”
Saito: “Anti-tank missiles?”
Borma [from the helicopter]: “Don’t let him shoot!”
Saito: “Leave him to me.”
But sometimes, he does lose it – a bit.
The car was approaching the bridge that led into the Refugee Zone. Inside, Saito was working to ascertain the sniper's position. He called up a map of the Refugee Zone on the monitor in the car's cockpit. Meterological information and other date was superimposed over the geographical data.
Batou (from driver's seat): "Shit, that's impressive."
Saito: "Watch the road, fool. I just layered the information with my Hawkeye."
Saito is not a big supporter of the government or the military. In the 2nd Gig when, Gouda uses Section 9 to stop a rogue AI-driven helicopter from continuing its war games in the refugee area and refuses to give them credit, Batou gets angry, but Saito says he’s used to the games that the government and the army play with those who do the grunt work.
His usual style of dress, when he's not in his Section 9 gear, is a black shirt unbuttoned to expose a large expanse of chest, adorned with a heavy gold necklace.
In Revenge of the Cold Machines, Saito is noted as having a cold "scary" face. "He noted that the cab driver glanced at his SOS button when he saw Saito climb into the back seat. If he hit the button, the electric sign on the roof would change to read SOS, alerting the outside world that the driver was experiencing trouble. It was the same every time Saito boarded a taxi. Saito knew he had a scary face. But compared to some of Section 9's members, like Batou, Paz, and Borma, he looked fairly innocuous.
Saito is noted for his cool demeanor and his poker face. He is the card shark of the team, rarely losing a hand, in spite of the cards he may draw in a high-stakes game of poker. In a game played with lower operatives, he reveals a key piece of his past – how he lost his eye and how he came to be the consummate card player he is.
Saito: “It doesn’t matter how many times we play, compared to when I used to gamble with my life, this is just child’s play.”
Operative: “You really like to boast, don’t you? I admit you’re the best card player, but your past has nothing to do with it.”
Saito: “Once I used a gun to gamble with my life… After that time, I knew that as long as I could see my opponent, I would be able to see through him to what he’s thinking.”
In 2020, twelve years before the current time, Saito was in South America, an ordinary soldier with aspirations of rising higher than his lot.
Saito: “I had lost everything in that war. I was always waiting for my chance.”
His chance came when he was alone in a high position of an abandoned church and the enemy tried to pass through the ruins of a city. He ambushed them. Little did he know that three of the people who would be working with in Section 9, where in that enemy company.
Kusanagi is the leader of her section of the Allied army. Ishikawa and Batou are her support, although Batou doesn’t know her very well. It is in this war that she picked up the name of major, not because of her rank it seems, but because of the tactical combat knowledge.
In the end to thwart the ambush, Kusanagi confronted the gunman in the church; she with her semi-automatic weapon and Saito with his sniper rifle. When he faced the major back then, he was afraid.
Saito: “That was the conclusion I came to during the ambush, I will be killed, watching her hold on to her gun, not blinking. I understood then that she was a full cyborg and that the gun in her had was also apart of her.”
That day, she took his left eye and stabbed his right arm, but she told him that he was good at what he did and told him to become one of her subordinates.
Borma
Seiyuu: Taro Yamaguchi
Borma is often called on to analyze computer viruses and to work with Ishikawa on searching computer files and the Net. In one scene from the 2nd Gig, Borma and Ishikawa worked all hours of the day and night to hack into hard to access files. The next time they are shown, Borma has fallen asleep at his terminal and Ishikawa sits dazed before his terminal, only Kusanagi's query gets them back into action.
He also does a good bit of work in the field, teamed mostly with Paz and sometimes with the tachikomas.
In the sewers.
Tachikoma: “Our optical camouflage’s visibility index is sure gonna shoot up.”
Tachikoma: “Our gaskets won’t corrode, will they?”
Borma: “Quite whining. Just be thankful you can’t smell it.”
Tachikoma: “We can analyze it with our sensors. Is it unpleasant?”
Tachikoma: “Borma’s discomfort index is at 68 percent.”
Borma: “Oh, shut up.”
Like most of his comrades-at-arms, he is noted as being ex-military. He is more than capable at wielding a weapon as he is with diving into the Net.
But he can be called on to do an Ishikawa and put together an antidote to a computer virus in no time.
Borma: “I finished the vaccine, but just like you thought, it looks like it only infects the security detail’s encryption conversion key. It doesn’t look like the virus is what’s causing this situation.”
Of all the members of Section 9, he probably stands out the most. He’s the tallest and the widest – and not in that Batou muscular sense, but roundly-shaped about the middle. He’s bald with computer access patches all over his head. Like Batou, he has cybernetic eyes only with brown covers. He is heavily cybernetically altered, but as his body shows, he is not a full-body cyborg. Despite his unlovely shape, he has cybernetically-enhanced strength.
He spends his off-hours eating pizza and playing billiards with Paz.
He gets a major part upgrade in GitS:SAC, for in the manga and the film, he’s little more that a big brute with a gun.
A virus protecting digital files on the Individual 11 attack Borma’s cyberbrain. Ishikawa hits him and knocks him from his chair, snatching out the uplink plugs. Ishikawa sends the Tachikomas deeper into the computer to stop the virus. The later learn that the virus forces the person who wanted to read the Individual 11 files to claim allegiance to the cause and to commit suicide.
Ishikawa, Borma, and Togusa dive into the net along with the tachikomas. Togusa is much slower and the Tachikomas comment on it. Togusa says he’s just not as good as people like Batou or Paz who have comic book hero status with the Tachikomas. Togusa must stop at level 4 in the net securities, while the other two go on.
Borma download the information into his own cyberbrain. Togusa doesn’t want him to, but he and Ishikawa laughed off his concerns.
Togusa: “Isn’t that highly dangerous.”
One of the most surprising facets of this quiet, chunkily-built, nondescript man is that he is quite capable at handling covert ops and wet work. In the 2nd Gig episode, Trial, Togusa is on trial for shooting, but not killing a murderer. Of course by now forces under the 2nd Gig Big Bad are out to get Section 9 and he is nearly sent to prison. Kusanagi gets him out of it, but Togusa is left asking what happened to justice and punishment for crimes? Basically, who will weep for the victim? But Aramaki says to leave the punishment to heaven. And in the next scene, we see Borma driving back to Section 9 facilities in a sweet car and tossing the keys to a woman attendant. He tells her to get rid of the car. In the background, a reporter on the TV announces the latest breakimg news, that the murderer from Togusa's trial has been hospitalized. Who knew Borma had that in him?
Paz
Seiyuu: Takashi Onoduka
Paz is the scowling, lean Section 9 operative in the dark brown suit and white shirt, who is almost always smoking a cigarette. He is the gumshoe of the group, that’s why he’s not wearing a tie. He acts as both an investigator for Section 9 and a strong-arm man, who usually is paired up with Borma in the field, but he also works with Saito, usually when Borma is doing his thing on the computer.
Paz has a reputation as a ladies’ man, which in this world is far from a good thing, because he has made a person fall in love with him. She commits crimes to draw his attention and when he faces her, she says she doesn’t need him anymore, because she has become him.
When Ishikawa learns that Paz is in trouble, his comment is, “Then a woman must be involved.”
Paz: “Why do you want to become me?”
Kaori: “Because I don’t know why you wanted to leave me. You didn’t have a new girlfriend and you didn’t hate me. I would have followed your every whim. Why did you leave me? …You should 
have felt the same way, you horrible man. I hate the pain you have caused me…”
Paz: “…Then what have you learned?”
Kaori: “…You and I don’t live in the same world. You left so that I would not be dragged into it.”
Paz [draws out a cigarette and lights it]: “You think too highly of me.”
Kaori: “…I already have your soul inside of me, that’s why I don’t need the real you anymore.”
Kusanagi’s conclusion is that the whole situation is sad.
Kusanagi: “I never confirmed it, but when I was looking for him to join the team, he already had the reputation of not sleeping with the same woman twice.”
Despite that, she trusts him with her lives and the lives of her crew. When Nanao=A is suspected of being the Laughing Man, she leave Batou and Togusa on stake out and tells Chief Aramaki that she's taking herself, Paz, and Saito of the case, because she has a hunch that Superintendent-General Daido will need protection.
Let it not be said that only Batou, who moons over her, or Togusa, who has that human sentimentality thing going for him, care about the major's well being. When Kusanagi has to fight off a slew of crazies to get Daido to safety, they come running to help.
Big cyborg: “Eliminate!”
Kusanagi blocks his strike, which drives her into the ground. Tachikoma comes to her assistance.
A guy in a car: “Daido! Say your prayers!”
He tries to ram the ambulance, where Daido is strapped to a gurney inside. Kusanagi blocks the car with an armored police van. A motorcyclist caught by Tachikoma.
Kusanagi: “Shit! How many of these guys are there?”
Paz and Saito join Kusanagi in the lower level of the inside parking lot. The ambulance has just left.
Paz: “Major, are you okay?”
Kusanagi [irritated]: “I’m fine, so start getting data to find out what the hell just happened!”
Paz and Saito: “Yes, ma’am!” They Look at each other and walk away.
GitS:SAC is filled with the technology of the near future, extending current day trends into a believable world, where two 21st Century wars have decimated familiar cities and left thousands of refugees to live their lives in a fenced, army-patrolled area, where high rises dominate the skyline, where the heights of technology leads most toward the seven deadly sins rather than to enlightenment or the evolved societies of most American science fiction TV shows.
Post Cyberpunk is similar to its predecessor in that the genre depicts a more realistic near future – rather than say a sky-is-always-blue, every-child-is-above average Star Trek future – and focuses on technological advancement and its affect on society. Cyberpunk, however, is considered to be mainly about people who have been or feel alienated from society. Post Cyberpunk characters are engaged in society and either act to defend the existing social order or to create a better society. Cyberpunk emphasizes the emergence of new tech as part of the reason for that alienation and ultimately the impetus for civilization’s decay.
In GitS: SAC 1st Gig, Section 9’s chief adversary seems to be the Laughing Man in the 1st Gig, but it proves to be the usual cyberpunk villains, avaricious politicians and, to a lesser extent, the mega corporations. The way we come to know the truth isn’t through hacking the system or diving into the net, but through normal investigative means.
In the first film, the setting seemed incidental, but in SAC the setting is a character, which allows the differences between the life of the citizenry and the existence of the refugees to feel true and to have a resonance in our time. Wars have ravaged civilization since it came into being, so we are familiar with its devastation and with the idea of a transient refugee population in search of permanence. SAC deals with all the historical issues of citizen versus refugee, the government’s position straddling the fence, and the possibility of economic hardship on both populations.
Togusa, who is sympathetic to the plight of the refugees, tries to talk a boy suicide bomber out of blowing up a section of the subway. But the police bomb squad moves forward and frighten the kid.
That strictness of principle is supported by his oft-used phrase: “I can’t act solely based on personal feelings.” Or “I can’t use the authority of my office for personal matters.”
It’s easy to say that Kusanagi is his favorite of the people under him, if not for her superior abilities, then for the way she dresses as in Full-Auto Capitalism.
