Koukaku Kidoutai: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man

Six years after the kidnapping of Serano Genomics president Ernest Serano, the hacker known as the Laughing Man remains a ghost. The case once shook Japan's micromachine industry, yet no one has been able to explain who the Laughing Man was or why so many powerful institutions seemed eager to let the truth disappear.

When a detective investigating the old case contacts Togusa and then dies in a suspicious accident, Section 9 begins pulling at the buried threads. The Laughing Man soon reappears in spectacular fashion, forcing Motoko Kusanagi and her team into a maze of corporate corruption, police interference, manipulated memories, and digital identities. Solving the case means determining whether the legendary hacker is one person at all, or an idea that has already escaped anyone's control.