Motoko Kusanagi

Motoko Kusanagi

Media Ghost in the Shell Rank Major Affiliation Public Security Section 9, Japan Self-Defense Forces (formerly), United Nations Peacekeeper (formerly) Other names "The Major", "Chroma" (online handle), "Fire Starter" (hacker alias), Date of Birth unknown Classification Cyborg (Full Body Prosthesis) Functional status Data Entity Merged with Project 2501 (Ghost in the Shell manga and 1995 anime, Ghost In The Shell 2 Man/Machine Interface, Innocence), Alive (Stand Alone Complex, Arise, Ghost in the Shell live-action adaptation)

Motoko Kusanagi, AKA The Major is the central protagonist of the Ghost in the Shell manga and it's animated adaptations. A full-body combat-rated cyborg, she is employed by Public Security Section 9, a governmental agency operating under a post-World War III and IV Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs. Although many details about her personality, origins and motivations change from series-to-series, some constant and consistent elements of her character are that she is a skilled combatant, expert marksman, a near-peerless hacker and has a close working relationship with her partner, Batou.

Background

Across all adaptations, Motoko has been shown to have a mysterious past. Although she is frequently called "The Major" in many adaptations, nobody is sure if this is her real rank, and her wartime records are inaccessible. Towards the end of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex's second season, she hints that "Motoko Kusanagi" might not even be her real name, and that if it isn't, even she can't recall what her real name was. However, some adaptations do provide windows into her backstory.

In Stand Alone Complex's second season, it is revealed that she was the sole survivor of a plane crash when she was a young girl, and her brain was placed in a cybernetic body at a young age. This caused her to feel ostracized and apart from humanity at large, and she struggled with adjusting to her new body, only learning to adapt through her kinship with fellow crash survivor and full body cyborg, Hideo Kuze. Ghost in the Shell: Arise establishes an even earlier time for her cyberization, having been transferred to a cybernetic body not long after she was born after her parents were killed in a terrorist chemical weapon attack. Arise also goes into greater detail in regards to her military background, showing her as an active duty member of the Japan Self-Defense Forces at the start of the series and establishes that Major is her actual rank in the JSDF. The live action adaptation establishes that she was a teenager who was captured and experimented on by Hanka Robotics, with her brain placed in a cybernetic body.

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